Koala sampler bug
in Bug Reports
Hi all not sure if this has been mentioned but koala auv3 seems to be not play the sample until the project loops back to the beginning . From what I’ve seen it’s only on NS2
Comments
I have seen something similar with Koala - ie when NS2 is playing then I have to trigger a sample twice from my midi-clip and it will play on the 2nd trigger.
For me it is no problem as I always bounce down whatever I’m playing in Koala to a .wav and load that in to Slate (as Slate is much lighter on cpu). I only really use Koala for its time-stretching and automating its fx too. But as said I always bounce that out to wav and then remove Koala from my project completely.
Have you contacted ElfAudio & reported it with him too? I know you said it only happens in NS2 - but by the same token in NS2 it doesn’t happen with any of the other samplers I use (eg AudioLayer, Beathawk, Segments, DigiStix to name a few).
Yeah good idea I’ll contact koala too, but I remember segments wasn’t behaving too well when I first bought it. Given I didn’t test it on other DAWS. I remember having similar trigger issues. So it might not have been koala . Just though I’d mention the bug for the developers sake.
I don’t have/use Koala so I can’t try to replicate your issue. Can you try it in Garage Band to see if there is the same problem?
Bugger - I‘ve accidentally deleted my comment!
Basically - to recap - I can replicate the issue in NS2 (I had already seen it myself) but the fact that no one on the Audiobus forum has mentioned it (they love Koala on there but their preference is for sequencers other than NS2 - you know, the „audio tracks“ issue 🙄) suggests it’s only in NS2.
But I reiterate that if NS2 was really at fault we‘d have the same problem in all samplers, and out of the long list of sampler auv3‘s I have this is the 1st instance I have seen this happen - so my money is on Koala being the culprit here.
So I contacted koala devs and this was their response . Hoping the NS devs see this or should I contact them directly ?
I noticed the same in my recent experiments with NS2 and Koala. I just have my sequence start at bar 2. Hopefully it gets fixed but if not this’ll do.
I’ve also noticed that if I use more than 1 koala sampler I can’t seem to add another auv3. And even if I use 2 koalas sometimes it seems to lose the samples when I open the project again
I’ve had more than one Koala and a couple other AU’s with no problem.
Once you load samples into Koala are you saving as a song in each instance of Koala? I think that may be your problem if you’re losing samples. Once you’ve set up an instance of Koala save it as a song within Koala. Think of it as a preset. And then also save you NS2 song overall of course.
The size of the samples in Koala is a critical factor. Each sample takes up memory, and there is only so much memory that all instances of a particular AU combined are allowed. A dozen Koala instances with just a few small samples each can be fine while just a few instances with a lot of large samples can cause problems.
I had an instance of Koala loaded with 50 MB of samples (as a test) and it ran fine. NS2 audio CPU was only running around 15%. Koala would occasionally give a memory warning. The Koala song was about 150 MB. I don’t imagine I would normally be using 50 MB of samples in Koala in NS2. I think between 1 or 2 instances of Koala supplemented by Slate would work pretty well for my use.
Koala is great but I find it has its issues (eg the first note not playing when running NS2’s sequencer - which I repeat DOES NOT OCCUR WITH ANY OTHER SAMPLER THAT I USE IN NS2; or the fact there’s the issue in landscape mode where the midi notes assigned to each pad go a bit nuts and it becomes anyone’s guess what note triggers what pad).
So I have found over time that - for me - the safest use of Koala is to bounce out to audio whatever I’m doing in Koala a.s.a.p. and then load that audio in to Slate for triggering. To be fair I only really use Koala for its awesome time-stretching abilities (I wish Slate/Obsidian had this) and occasionally some of its effects for sample mangling.
I now always try to ensure that by the time I come to save the project I’m done with Koala and it’s been unloaded already. I find that also speeds up my workflow - it removes “choice paralysis” 👍😁
I now always try to ensure that by the time I come to save the project I’m done with Koala and it’s been unloaded already.
Sounds like a sound workflow to me. I try to do this with all Ext MIDI or AUv3 instances as well. I use Slate for small bits or if I like the sound enough for re-use I create Obsidian patches from samples. This sort of workflow may seem tedious, but I find in the long run it saves headaches, esp. when coming back to a project after a long time.