Today I had problems again with Kontakt so I uninstalled it and reinstalled. What I found out was if I try to load the 64 bit ddls I get a message from PT saying not a valid VST. Not sure why since my pc is 64bit. Was able to load the 32 bit ddls into PT midi track. Chose to convert a midi track to audio track and it was successful but nothing on the audio track. I then chose to save the Kontakt midi track to a .wav file. It said it was successful. Opened the wav file and nothing, even though the file size was 52 MB's. I spend way more time with pc issues than making music - not sure if it is power tracks or what.
In order to load the 64-bit DLL in PowerTracks, you must also have jbridge installed, otherwise it will not work.
If I have some time this weekend, I'll see what happens on my machine, since I have Kontakt (albeit the full version) and Session Horns (as well as Session Horns Pro).
If you feel comfortable, Bernie, could you send me the file you are working on to eliminate something there?
My email address is in my user profile.
John
Laptop-HP Omen I7 Win11Pro 32GB 12TB SSD Desktop-ASUS-I7 Win10Pro 32GB 12TB SATA
You should not need to run the "jbridger" utility. You just need to install jbridge for PGMusic products to recognize it. "Jbridger" is a utility to bridge effects/instruments for DAWs that don't natively support jbridge.
Make sure you run the registered version of jbridge or it's not going to work. You can't just download a copy of jbridge from J's website; you need to have purchased and registered jbridge, then go to the link where you enter your email address. You will then receive jbridge via email, which you have to double extract (the first file is in 7z format and the second is in zip format - I suspect that's because some email systems don't allow compressed executable files). Once you get to the EXE file, you just run it (I would probably "run as administrator") and it should install jbridge. PowerTracks (and RealBand and BIAB) should all recognize it and you can load 64-bit effects.
If you have already done all this, then I'm not sure what is going on. I know on my machine, the programs recognized the plugins right away.
One thing to keep in mind also is that PowerTracks (and the others) only allow one or the other; so you can't load both the 32-bit and the 64-bit version at the same time. If you currently have the 32-bit version loaded, you have to remove it from the list using the options tools on the VST screen, then add the 64-bit version. Likewise for going back from 64-bit to 32-bit.
Again, send me the file and I'll be happy to take a look at it and see if I can get it to work.
John
Laptop-HP Omen I7 Win11Pro 32GB 12TB SSD Desktop-ASUS-I7 Win10Pro 32GB 12TB SATA
Interesting observation tonight - while playing my horns track with kontakt loaded I noticed some of the notes were dropping off early and some not played at all. The more times I listened to the track, these dropouts seemed to lessen until they are gone. Maybe Kontakt need a couple of iterations before rendering properly? Bernie
To me that's a sign of a resource hungry app. Apparently, after it caches it a few times (a little more each time it plays) it runs smoothly. Prior, it may be exhausting your system and simply dropping things to keep up.
'Resource hungry' is a relative thing. If an app needs X amount of free RAM to run, and you offer it W (less), then it may make sacrifices to keep up. That's my first inclination to look at. What are system specs for that computer?
/The RAM example above could also be caused by CPU, drive speed, network activity and a bunch of other things that could make this issue occur. Hard to say without deeper investigation/
I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome Make your sound your own!
Did you get jBridge from PG Music or from the jBridge website? When jBridge was first implemented with PG Music products, you had to use a specific version of jBridge and had to get jBridge from PG Music.
I believe the current version of jBrisge includes the PG Music specific enhancements but do not know that for sure. You may want to try the version provided through PG Music.
I think you're right on the money. Last might while using PT with Kontakt loaded I got a popup message from Norton that said there was a clocking issue that it fixed. I think I'm going to have to look at how I can unload as much as possible before loading PT. I have used msconfig to load as few startup items as possible. Or maybe it's just time to bite the bullet and buy a new system....
Hi Jim - I got the most recent version from the jbridge web site. My original was through pgmusic. I guess I'll go to pgmusic and download it there. I did pay for my first download.
It could also be that Norton is double-checking everything that Kontakt does. I have no experience with Norton, but I'd see if it's possible to exclude the antivirus software from checking the Kontakt related folders and the PTPA folder (and subfolders).
I run Avast! and have all the folders of my music programs excluded so that they are not being continually checked every time a I run something.
Norton alone can ruin a music system. It isn't friendly to what we do. If you are in a business environment it may have value, but it can be pretty aggressive in a DAW setting. Try disabling it for a few and see what happens in PT.
I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome Make your sound your own!
A couple of thoughts Bernie concerning the Kontakt app itself:
1. Open the app and look along the top row for the little gear icon 2. Open that and go down to the second option: Engine 3. Take a look at the section labelled: CPU Overload Protection by killing voices...mine is set for disabled 4. When you bring up Session Horns, take a look at the second line where it has "Voices" and "Max". What is "Max" set at? Mine is at 64.
Hi thanks for the advice. Cpu overload protection is off. Max was at 128, changed it to 64. Same issues - dropped notes in audio track created from midi horn track, and wav file I created is silent. Bernie
Have you been running Powertrack with ASIO or MME? For sake of getting things up and running, it would be best to have MME set up at the moment because it interfaces generally more comfortably with PG Music programs (image below).
Also, what midi channel are you running Kontakt on?
Also, the below tutorial is mentioned in the above article. This tutorial talks about DFD mode versus Sampler mode. Are you running in 'direct from disk' (DFD)? This sounds like it might be a source of potential issues.
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