Kontakt 7.8.1 in Digital Performer and other DAWs crashes Mac after Sonoma 14.4 update

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Answers

  • Chrisdm1978
    Chrisdm1978 Member Posts: 4 Newcomer

    Same for me on M3 max regarding Kontakt 7.10.1. Though I did not try the beta OS, still on 14.4.1. I have been resorting to Kontakt 6, however I’m now into a MIDI heavy production with LASS 3, Virharmonic bohemian libraries that is not going well in DP 11.31 with Kontakt 6. NI never actually qualified Kontakt 6 for Sonoma, so I’m not surprised. But basically what will happen, is I if I get a CPU spike, DP will warn me. I stop the track playback. Everything seems fine until you hit play again, then it will just beach ball on and on requiring a force quit of DP. So in my more extensive testing..Kontakt 6 is not a workable solution either for libraries I work with. This really sucks. Looks like I’ll have to export this project to Logic and try in Kontakt 7 and pray it works as well as Guitar Rig 7 has been in Logic, which I have tested for lengths of time. What a PITA.

  • beautypill
    beautypill Member Posts: 1 Newcomer

    This is highly frustrating.

    It's an important tool in my work. Kontakt is an important tool in my work.

  • FranckD
    FranckD Member Posts: 8 Newcomer

    Good luck to the development team to fix this ASAP. This is beyond imagination they did not notice this crazy bug during the tests. All other softwares work perfectly fine with Sonoma 14.1 and do not suffer from updates (Cubase, Dorico, etc.). Maybe it is time for Native Intrument to redevelop a new generation of their flagship Kontakt far more stable and with a better architecture after decades of incremental updates ?

  • Jeremy_NI
    Jeremy_NI Customer Care Posts: 13,047 mod

    @FranckD If you took the time to readt this post and this other one: Kontakt 7 window across multiple screens causing Kernel panic shutoff on Mac Studio! (KT-8785) You'll see thta this only affects user with M2 or M3 Max, Pro and Ultra. It indicates there is probably an issue on Apple's side with these chips. We are investigating the issue and trying to update our reports to Apple, so please if you have the time, get in touch with support with the answers to the questions in the post.

  • ivicam
    ivicam Member Posts: 60 Member
    edited April 22

    The issue is probably on both sides. Apple definitely did something with RTKit in 14.4 (and possibly 13.6.3) that introduced the issue, but I can hardly believe that windows and graphics in Kontakt, KK and Guitar Rig must be programmed in such a low level way to interact with whatever Apple changed and cause Kernel panic. 99+% of all the audio plugins are not affected. Most of the QT apps are not affected either. It is very harmful for NI not to admit that they have extremely fragile code with a lot of technical dept. You can't do that indefinitely. Professional composers and producers will start losing money and start looking elsewhere for their precious tools.

  • FranckD
    FranckD Member Posts: 8 Newcomer
    https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/148676#Comment_148676

    Thank you for your response. As a matter of fact, I am one of the one who identified the source of the issue with external screen at the very beginning (I submitted a ticked with all the details last month) : so I am well aware about the issue. But unfortunately, Kontakt did spark a panic crash without any external screen connected. If I can reproduce systematically the crash with external screen (XDR Pro display), this panic crash on my MacBook pro without external screen is difficult to reproduce but did happen once.

    Sonoma 14.4.1

    Macbook Pro M3 Max

  • MHalloran
    MHalloran Member Posts: 35 Member
    https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/148981#Comment_148981

    Digital Performer and Reaper users have not needed external screens to reproduce this. Yes, I have them but that was all extra for me.

  • Jeremy_NI
    Jeremy_NI Customer Care Posts: 13,047 mod

    @FranckD @MHalloran Yes, we observe a few different scenarios, M3 Max and Pro Macbooks seem to crash without an external monitor.

  • MHalloran
    MHalloran Member Posts: 35 Member
    edited April 24

    macOS 14.5 beta 3 dropped a few minutes ago. I am back to no more Kontakt crashes in Digital Performer or Logic,

    The GUI window flickers on my external monitors but again, no crashes even when I change libraries.

    As long as this works and I find no other issues, I will stand pat on this beta 3 until the macOS 14.5 official release.

  • FranckD
    FranckD Member Posts: 8 Newcomer

    Promising news indeed ! Thank you for sharing

  • Jeremy_NI
    Jeremy_NI Customer Care Posts: 13,047 mod

    @MHalloran Thanks again for the good news!

  • MHalloran
    MHalloran Member Posts: 35 Member

    macOS 14.5 public beta 4 dropped today. I have a few days between deadlines so … Crossing my fingers, I installed.

    So far, so good. The flickering of the GUI window on side monitors is gone.

  • Jeremy_NI
    Jeremy_NI Customer Care Posts: 13,047 mod

    Hey all, latest update:

    We are currently working on a fix to the issue, and have an experimental build of Kontakt available. Please note that this update is in the process of being verified, and may introduce other unforeseen issues. If you’d like access to this experimental update, please get in touch with our Customer Care team here: https://bit.ly/NI_support_kontakt (we already contacted some of you that already had contacted about on the issue)


    For those who wish to continue using the released version of Kontakt, the following workarounds may reduce the frequency of crashes:

    • Avoid using an external monitor if using a MacBook
    • Try an alternate connection (e.g. displayport / thunderbolt if using HDMI, or vice versa)
    • Adjust resolution or frame rate of external monitor
    • Use a different external monitor


    Additionally, early testing indicates that the crashes are less likely to occur on macOS 14.5, which is currently in public beta. However, no timeframe for this macOS update is currently available. You can access their beta here: https://beta.apple.com/

  • MHalloran
    MHalloran Member Posts: 35 Member
    https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/152440#Comment_152440

    Yes on Public Beta 4 of macOS 14.5. All of my Kontakt issues went away when I tried it.

    Otherwise, using an external monitor on any M2 or M3 Mac has this problem. M2 Studio Ultra with a 27" Studio Display over Thunderbolt and a pair of LG 27" 4K monitors, one connected to the HDMI port and the other over USB-C to HDMI. Making any one of them the Main causes Kontakt to crash my Mac when moved to the other two screens.

    How it is connected makes no difference except that with a DisplayPort cable has its own unresolved issues.

    Changing resolution had no effect for me.

    Since I have Kontakt 7.10.1 working fine over macOS 14.5 public beta 4, I will decline the offer to update to the experimental build. Thanks anyway.

    Keep up the good work!

  • MHalloran
    MHalloran Member Posts: 35 Member

    macOS 14.5 RC (release candidate) and Kontakt 7.10.2 both dropped today. So far, all is good.

    If no major bugs are found by beta testers such as me, the RC will become the general release of macOS 14.5 in a few days, probably next Tuesday as that is Apple's normal update day.

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