More re instability and crashing

remmet · Post by **remmet** » Wed Aug 01, 2012 3:03 pm

I saw Willie Myers' thread on this topic, but not wanting to hijack it for my own problems, I thought I'd post this separately.

I get "out of memory / unstable" messages frequently, usually followed by a crash. In my case, I've got a dual 2.4 GHz quad-core Mac (OS 10.6.

with 24 gigs of ram. You'd think that would be enough ram to avoid these crashes, but DP (v. 7.24) crashes on me probably 5 or more times a day.

Here's a message I'm getting when trying to load ONE patch (from Damage) into Kontakt 5:

"BACKGROUND LOADING WARNING: Your memory is getting low. Please use the purge function to free some resources. Kontakt will progressively cache only the required samples for playback and offline bounce."

What is there to purge? I had previously deleted the one instance of Kontakt in my sequence. Presently, nothing is loaded into Kontakt yet!

I checked the activity monitor and while DP is running, I get the following readings:

DP: %CPU: anywhere from 20 (when idle) - 104 (during playback) [How is 104 even possible?]

19.08 GB of ram FREE
4.9 GB USED

What is this telling me?

I frequently restart the computer to get fresh ram, but it doesn't seem to help.

I'm at my wit's end. It's getting harder and harder to get things done; DP just seems like it's performing ever more poorly.

Anyone have any thoughts about this? Thanks so much.

Richard

mikehalloran · Post by **mikehalloran** » Wed Aug 01, 2012 4:40 pm

You really need to tell us everything we might need to know - including your version of Kontact plus any other plugs you are loading.

remmet · Post by **remmet** » Wed Aug 01, 2012 4:51 pm

mikehalloran wrote:You really need to tell us everything we might need to know - including your version of Kontact plus any other plugs you are loading.

I'm using Kontakt 5.0.2, Play 3.0.32, and the latest version of Omnisphere.

Another quirky thing I've experienced is whenever I attempt to clear a patch in Omnisphere, DP crashes.

What else would be helpful to know?

Thanks!

Richard

David Polich · Post by **David Polich** » Thu Aug 02, 2012 1:57 pm

I had a day a couple of weeks back where Kontakt 5.02 was giving me
this same message, even though I had been using patches that previously
gave me no trouble. Same thing - "you are running low on memory". Finally
I just got a blank GUI after loading another patch. I decided to trash
not only DP's preferences, but Kontakt 5's preferences.

Sadly, trashing Kontakt's preferences also removed Kontakt 5's authorization.
I'd open it, and get the "Kontakt 5 is running in demo mode" box. Then I'd
open the NI Service Center and it would report "all products activated".

I re-installed Kontakt 5, and re-authorized it, and I haven't had this
trouble since then.

ccrane · Post by **ccrane** » Thu Aug 23, 2012 5:56 pm

remmet wrote: I get "out of memory / unstable" messages frequently, usually followed by a crash. In my case, I've got a dual 2.4 GHz quad-core Mac (OS 10.6. with 24 gigs of ram. You'd think that would be enough ram to avoid these crashes, but DP (v. 7.24) crashes on me probably 5 or more times a day.

From my experience, if Activity Monitor is showing that DP is using near 2.5 GBs of ram, DP will soon crash. As a 24 bit app, DP7 can only use a certain amount of ram before becoming unstable. This has been well documented on this board. When DP becomes a 64 bit app this should not be an issue, though I am still skeptical that DP will be able to successfully navigate that much ram usage and stay stable. My experience is that DP gets bogged down with large projects, but I still have high hopes for DP8.

remmet wrote:Here's a message I'm getting when trying to load ONE patch (from Damage) into Kontakt 5:

"BACKGROUND LOADING WARNING: Your memory is getting low. Please use the purge function to free some resources. Kontakt will progressively cache only the required samples for playback and offline bounce."

I bet when that happens DP is already using over 2 GBs of ram. Kontakt is one of the few VI's that actually senses that DP is getting low in memory and gives you a warning. Kontakt's Memory Server could be helpful to you, if you aren't already using it.

remmet wrote:I checked the activity monitor and while DP is running, I get the following readings:

DP: %CPU: anywhere from 20 (when idle) - 104 (during playback) [How is 104 even possible?]

19.08 GB of ram FREE
4.9 GB USED

What is this telling me?

Activity Monitor considers each core to contribute 100%, with your computer being a quad core your max CPU usage would be 400%. FWIW, if you are hitting the 24bit ram limit, you may want to keep a close eye on Activity Monitor while your working, just be sure to select the "Real Memory" tab, and the biggest ram user, most likely DP, will be at the top of the list. Relaunching DP usually will get you a little bit of ram back. Occasionally a restart is needed. Still the ram usage will creep back up, even without adding any more VI/inserts etc. If your ram usage is exactly the same after a restart than you will need to freeze tracks to reclaim ram or look into hosting some of your VI's externally in VEPRO or Bidule which help work around DP's ram limitations.

remmet · Post by **remmet** » Thu Aug 23, 2012 6:18 pm

Thanks for all the info and suggestions. It's been very helpful and informative!

I can only hope that DP8 will provide some much needed relief. I have a feeling I'm not alone!

Richard

mikehalloran · Post by **mikehalloran** » Fri Aug 24, 2012 7:30 am

No, Richard, you aren't alone. I just added 16G RAM in anticipation of DP 8.

It helps if you add your hardware and software to your signature like most of us do. This helps when you have a problem.

kgdrum · Post by **kgdrum** » Fri Aug 24, 2012 9:17 am

FYI some people have posted various issues w/ K5 conflicts with some libraries. versions .02 & .03
OrangeTree says various issues & conflicts some users are reporting should be fixed on next update.
Greg says he's been dealing with NI about it.
1 solution apparently is try K4 if you have it,there seems to be less issues for now.

Tobor · Post by **Tobor** » Fri Aug 24, 2012 10:59 am

kgdrum wrote:FYI some people have posted various issues w/ K5 conflicts with some libraries. versions .02 & .03
OrangeTree says various issues & conflicts some users are reporting should be fixed on next update.
Greg says he's been dealing with NI about it.
1 solution apparently is try K4 if you have it,there seems to be less issues for now.

I have the same problem and messages when I'm using Session Strings Pro in Kontakt, some of the performance presets are real memory hogs. I can usually work with any given preset, but problems come when you start loading and unloading a few presets for comparison. Sometimes run into the same thing when auditioning sounds in Omnisphere.

I also seem to get a bit more performance when using Kontakt 4 as opposed to 5 (I just have the K5 Kontakt player).

You're not alone.

remmet · Post by **remmet** » Sun Sep 16, 2012 1:38 am

Thanks again for all the thoughtful responses. It's helpful to hear about various strategies for confronting these issues. And it's also reassuring to know that I'm not the only one dealing with this stuff.

On the other hand, it's good to keep some perspective on things. I've been using Performer/DP since the very first version in the 80's, and if someone had told me then what this program would be capable of in 2012, I wouldn't have believed it - or even understood it!

We live in interesting times.

Richard

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