Kontakt4 VST confusion

Cubase
1

Hi all

Have also posted this in Native Instruments Kontakt forum.

I’m a little confused with installing and running Kontakt4 as a VST in Cubase.

It works fine as stand alone.

During the install it asked for the path for my 32 bit plugin and 64 bit plugin directory which I correctly gave it.

I have the following in the 64bit VST directory

Kontakt4.dll
Kontakt4 8out.dll
Kontakt4 16.out.dll

I also have 3 dll files with the same name in the 32bit directory.

A couple of questions.

  1. In cubase,
    Kontakt 4 8 appears to work 100% fine
    Kontakt4 16 sounds like a distorted buzzy mess
    Kontakt4 is completely silent even though the meters next to the instrument track acknowledge data being sent and received.

I cant find an explanation for the difference between these three, do I need all three, if so, any ideas as to why two aren’t working properly?


2) If I’m using cubase entirely in 64bit mode, do I need the files in the 32bit directory?

Many thanks for your time

Joe

2

You shouldnt need the 32 bit files. Make sure you haven’t accidentally switched the 32 and 64 bit .dll files- and accidentally put the 32 bit into the 64 bit folder, and vice versa. If memory serves, there is no 64 bit notation in the .dll filenames so it would have been a possible error on file placement.

Also, buzzing to me indicates very high CPU. Are you killing your audio engine? If you haven’t already…try opening a completely blank session and adding the instruments. If they work, then it sounds like you need to trim some fat from your template. Also check your clocking. Hope this helps.

3

Difference is the number of vst outputs available from Kontakt back into the host.

Have they never worked? There is some default output routines that can get set within K4 that will be “per plug”–meaning the three you see would have their own routing defaults. I’ve run into scenarios where I changed the internal routing and came back to a session at a later date and was without sound until I fixed it.

The key is that you need to look at the internal Kontakt mixer…and the outputs selected in the cubase vst instruments window.

4

Many thanks for your time and help. The files are in the correct place, but its picking up the wrong versions.

Someone in the NI forum asked me to r check the Plugin information.

That found my problem, but I cant work out how to solve it :slight_smile:

I’ve right clicked on the files, selected properties and clicked the details tab, and as they should be, the 3 files in my 64bit directory (Program Files > Steinberg > Cubase 6 > VST3) correctly say their x64.

I’ve right clicked on the files in my 32 bit directory (Program Files > Steinberg > Cubase 6 > VSTPlugins) and they say IA32.

But when I look in Cubase > Devices > PlugIn Info, all my Native instruments plugins are being picked up from the 32 bit directory and not the 64.

http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/3091/plugininfo.png

The first thing I did was temporarily move the 32 bit dlls out of VSTPlugin folder, restart Cubase and hope it would pick up the 64bit version but this didn’t work, it simply didn’t find them.

As an experiment, I then temporarily moved the 64 bit version from VST3 to VSTPlugin and restarted Cubase. Now it found them in the VSTPLugin directory and all 3 of them worked 100% fine.

http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/7485/plugininfo64kontaktin32.png

What I cant work out how to do is make Cubase pick up the 64bit Kontakt (or any other NI plugins) from the 64bit directory, but as you can see from the above images, it can see the 64 bit VST3 directory fine as it’s picking up Steinberg stuff from it.

Don’t really want to move all my 64bit NI plugins to the 32bit directory as it starts making a mess of things.

many thanks for your help, if you or anyone else has any ideas as to why it wont pick the 64 bit files from the VST3 directory, all my problems will be fixed.

Cubase was a Christmas present from my lovely wife, although she did let me set it up and test it when she purchased it, so that it was ready to go Christmas day, so I’ve never tried to get this working before.

best

Joe

5

I’ve fixed (or bodged) it to work.

Proof that the Kontakt4 VST in 32 bit directory is 32 bit
http://img853.imageshack.us/img853/8566/32bitkontakt.png

Proof that the Knotakt4 VST in the 64bit directory is 64 bit
http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/9379/64bitkontakt.png

What I have noticed is that in the 32 bit directory, the 32 bit VST files all are dll

In the 64bit VST3 directory, all the Native Instrument ones that aren’t being picked up also end in .dll whereas all the Cubase VST’s that are being picked up end in .vst3

http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/305/vst64directory.png

I created a new directory called C:\VST3Plugins and moved all the Native Instrument 64 bit VST dll files to there.

I then added that directory to the end of “Devices > Plug-in Information > VST 2.x Plug-in Paths” and restarted Cubase. This didn’t work, it still only picked up the 32bit versions.

I then had a closer look at the files and noticed that while one is 64 bit and one 32 bit, they both have identical version numbers.

So I presumed that as it’s looking in the 32bit directory first, it’s not bothering to load the 64 bit version. I went back into “Devices > Plug-in Information > VST 2.x Plug-in Paths” and removed everything, then I re-added them making sure my VST3 directory was first and my VSTPlugins was second

http://img841.imageshack.us/img841/1648/path1.png

I then restarted Cubase and as you can see, it’s now finding all my Native Instrument files correctly in the c:\VST3Plugins file and is also correctly finding my Korg VST 32 bit plugin in the Cubase6\VSTPlugins directory as shown below

http://img827.imageshack.us/img827/2300/finaljm.png

I also noticed than in the “Plug-in Information > VST 2.x Plug-in Path”, it’s now also added a couple of extra directories that don’t actually exist, I tried removing them but as soon as I restart Cubase, it recreates them, so I’ve create them just in case.

http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/304/path2.png

Not sure if what I did was the correct way of doing things, but it seems to work and should I ever need to run the 32bit version of Cubase, I can simply remove the entry to c:\VST3Plugins from the Plugin Information page.

Thanks for all the advice

Joe

6

I don’t think Kontakt is VST 3.

HTH
J.L.

7

Ah, that’s where I’m getting confused then.

Not sure what convinced me 64bit were VST3, possibly (cant be certain) when I installed Kontakt and it asked me for the directories for 64 and 32bit VST’s, the default path for the 64 bit was the VST3 directory, hence I presumed they were VST3.

Or maybe I’ve been a complete idiot. Something convinced me they were VST3 lol, anyway, that explains what’s been going on.

Many thanks

Joe

8

If my memory serves me…its the installer from NI that is at fault.it places the 64 bit dlls in the wrong place during the installation process…A directory that isnt relevant to Cubase. I had the same problem, & had to move the 64 bit dlls to the proper vst 64bit directory. C:prg/stein/vst…only difference from where to install 32/64bit plugs is the (x86) extension. just dont get confused…with where cubase actually looks for storing Host & external VST3 presets.

If Im wrong, disregard all of the above! :laughing: