# Straylight overloading Kontakt & Ableton CPU on some patches with only a couple notes played



## Terbarino (Jul 6, 2022)

HI all, I am at a loss. I'm on a 2018 macbook pro i-9 with 32 gb RAM, Mojave 10.14.6, Ableton Like 11.1.6, Komplete Kontrol 2.7.2, and Kontakt 6.7.1 with samples loaded on a 4tb ssd formatted mac os journaled. When I run Straylight in kontakt, with no other instruments in an Ableton project, and load certain presets, such as "after hours", I'll play 3 or 4 notes and the voices will shoot up to around 500, the cpu in kontakt and ableton will spike (and on activity monitor too) and the sound will garble and distort. Other libraries such as 8Dio Deep sampled strings run as smooth as silk. (I have even stacked multies I've created for 8Dio deep sampled strings with full quintets, etc, and it never pops or garbles.

I've tried everything I know thus far. Wifi is off, no other apps are running, automatic graphics switching is turned off, i've tried memory server running and not running. i've tried every multicore setting from zero to all cores in kontakt. Stil, Straylight, on some few patches, is unplayable. 500 voices used with a few notes played, and processor overload.

This doesn't seem to be limited to Komplete Kontrol and Kontakt as plugins in Ableton: If I simply load Straylight and a patch like "after hours" in Komplete Kontrol standalone with Kontakt, i get the same high voices, overloading, and unplayability. Even Kontakt standalone running solo...the same -

Thoughts anyone?


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## EvilDragon (Jul 7, 2022)

Yep, Straylight can be quite CPU intensive.


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## jcrosby (Jul 7, 2022)

Terbarino said:


> HI all, I am at a loss. I'm on a 2018 macbook pro i-9 with 32 gb RAM, Mojave 10.14.6, Ableton Like 11.1.6, Komplete Kontrol 2.7.2, and Kontakt 6.7.1 with samples loaded on a 4tb ssd formatted mac os journaled. When I run Straylight in kontakt, with no other instruments in an Ableton project, and load certain presets, such as "after hours", I'll play 3 or 4 notes and the voices will shoot up to around 500, the cpu in kontakt and ableton will spike (and on activity monitor too) and the sound will garble and distort. Other libraries such as 8Dio Deep sampled strings run as smooth as silk. (I have even stacked multies I've created for 8Dio deep sampled strings with full quintets, etc, and it never pops or garbles.
> I've tried everything. Wifi is off. No other apps running. automatic graphics switching is turned off. i've tried memory server running and not running. i've tried every multicore setting in kontakt. Same thing. Straylight, on quite a few patches, is unusable. 500 voices used with a few notes played, and processor overload.
> 
> This isn't limited to Komplete Kontrol and kontakt as plugins in ableton: If I simply load Straylight and a patch like "after hours" in Komplete Kontrol standalone in kontakt, i get the same high voices, overloading, and unplayability.
> ...


I'll 2nd that... All of the libraries from the _Light_ trilogy are pretty CPU intensive. Once I find something I like I either tend to bounce to audio, or render and import to Kontakt or another sampler.


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## StefanoM (Jul 7, 2022)

Buffer Size? and Latency?

The libraries that use a powerful Audio Engine, with Time Mode ( maybe in HD ) requires a lot of cpu ( per voice ) in particular with low latency buffer size.. I suggest to work with 512 of buffer size.

furthermore, Your CPU ( that i9) unfurtunatelly is not the best CPU because on that Mac Book Pro that i9 has a big throttling problem.

Then comparing the CPU Usage of a libary like Straylight that has a powerful synth/ sound design audio engine, with a classic sample based string library is not correct, so is normal it is not CPU Intensive.

They are completely different...

Even The Synth DIVA or Omnisphere with a Multi Loaded, requires more CPU of a String Library, that's normal.

On the PC with The VST3 Kontakt Version, that kind of libraries work better with Kontakt configured in Multicore with the Max value.


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## Terbarino (Jul 7, 2022)

Thank you for the replies, colleagues! My apologies, my string library, in a stacked multi or not, was probably not a good choice to compare to. For a better comparison, of my other kontakt libraries run fine, even at 256 for my buffer size, which is where I typically run - libraries such as Omnisphere, Bioscape, Geosonics, Heavyocity Aeon, etc. I can run multiple instances of each, and I've never had a problem, as I've been pretty strict about following all of the optimization recommendations from NI and Ableton. My macbook has been modified with better thermal paste, and I run it up north in a room with very cool ambient temperature, on a stand, with a cooling fan, which got rid of my i-9 cpu throttling for some time now. What I'm struggling with is that Straylight is the only library that is unusable because it overloads so quickly. Could any of you, perhaps, duplicate my troubles, for example, with the "After Hours" preset in Straylight, just so I know I'm not alone on this? My experience is that when playing 3 or 4 notes in certain Straylight patches, even with nothing else running in Ableton, or Komplete Kontrol standalone, and even with latency set to 512 or higher (which I've never had to set so high), Kontakt will shoot up to 450-500 voices being used, and overload, almost instantaneously. Has this been anyone's experience with Straylight? What's with the excessive voices on only 3 or 4 notes on a single instance & preset? Since I've been pretty strict with optimization, I'm wondering if there's anything else you could suggest that I may have missed? Perhaps I'm shooting too high - is it your experience, colleagues, that there are there some patches in Straylight that we all can only play maybe one note at a time on, as it's just such a cpu beast?
Thanks for your advice, all !


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## jcrosby (Jul 7, 2022)

Terbarino said:


> Thank you for the replies, colleagues! My apologies, my string library, in a stacked multi or not, was probably not a good choice to compare to. For a better comparison, of my other kontakt libraries run fine, even at 256 for my buffer size, which is where I typically run - libraries such as Omnisphere, Bioscape, Geosonics, Heavyocity Aeon, etc. I can run multiple instances of each, and I've never had a problem, as I've been pretty strict about following all of the optimization recommendations from NI and Ableton. My macbook has been modified with better thermal paste, and I run it up north in a room with very cool ambient temperature, on a stand, with a cooling fan, which got rid of my i-9 cpu throttling for some time now. What I'm struggling with is that Straylight is the only library that is unusable because it overloads so quickly. Coukdan any of you, perhaps, duplicate my troubles, for example, with the "After Hours" preset in Straylight? My experience is that playing 3 or 4 notes, even with nothing else running in ableton, or komplete kontrol standalone, and even with latency set to 512 or higher (which I've never had to set so high), Kontakt will shoot up to 450-500 voices being used, and overload. Has this been anyone's experience with Straylight? What's with the excessive voices on only 3 or 4 notes on a single instance & preset? Since I've been pretty strict with optimization, I'm wondering if there's anything else you could suggest that I may have missed? Perhaps I'm shooting too high - is it your experience, colleagues, that there are there some patches in Straylight that we all can only play maybe one note at a time on, as it's just such a cpu beast?
> Thanks for your advice, all !


The extra voices are from the granular engine, (which breaks a sample up into many tiny audio segments per second - which I'm assuming you understand....) I just double checked the patch, if you play a triad then disable the left voice you'll see the voice count drop from several hundred to 3. (And yes once I hit a 4th or 5th voice I would occasionally get a dropout).

Granular synthesis is notoriously CPU intensive... Kontakt's could be more optimized, but TBH I don't see that being likely any time soon for a number of reasons... They have to get the rest of Komplete in line with Apple Silicone, and I'm sure there are other issues they're working on like 4k/retina, etc. Those two alone are a lot more complicated than it looks from the outside.

Same goes for the new processors using Raum, Replika, Choral, etc, (which Stray/Ash/Pharlight use AFAIK)... They'd benefit from some kind of optimization, unfortunately I don't see it being likely soon for the reasons above...

Basically while it's not the answer you want to hear, that's why my mindset working with these libraries is to bounce in place then drag to a sample engine if I want to leave them playable... Unfortunately sometimes you have to adapt to the limitations of your system.... However that doesn't mean you have to let those limitations ruin your creative flow, (and you shouldn't, these libraries sound pretty great and I'd rather work around them vs getting bent out of shape)...


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## Terbarino (Jul 7, 2022)

jcrosby said:


> The extra voices are from the granular engine, (which breaks a sample up into many tiny audio segments per second - which I'm assuming you understand....) I just double checked the patch, if you play a triad then disable the left voice you'll see the voice count drop from several hundred to 3. (And yes once I hit a 4th or 5th voice I would occasionally get a dropout).
> 
> Granular synthesis is notoriously CPU intensive... Kontakt's could be more optimized, but TBH I don't see that being likely any time soon for a number of reasons... They have to get the rest of Komplete in line with Apple Silicone, and I'm sure there are other issues they're working on like 4k/retina, etc. Those two alone are a lot more complicated than it looks from the outside.
> 
> ...


Ah, all much appreciated, jcrosby, StefanoM and EvilDragon! Thank you for your comments, and thank you for taking the time to double-check the behavior on that patch, jcrosby; I'm glad to know I'm not alone on it. I use granular synthesis quite a bit with Granulizer II in Ableton and Quanta, but nothing approaching some of the Straylight patches in the number of voices reached & cpu cycles grabbed. On the flipside, though, it's true: Straylight is pretty singular in the sounds I can pull out of it quickly, and I'm staying with it, & feel it's well worth it. I've been experimenting this afternoon with a huge buffer (1024!) on Straylight to play live, and it's surprisingly pretty manageable. I'm assuming this is because the attacks are so slow on most of the cpu-hogging presets that it really doesn't feel like typically ugly latency when I play them in. Most of the other presets run fine on my Macbook at 256 or even 128, and I can live with using 1024 in Straylight on the huge presets to record & freeze, and return to 256 or 128 to continue. Beautiful sounds.
I've been running most of my VSTi's in KK to take advantage of the previews for a long time, which I find very helpful in the way I work (I typically grab sounds quickly, play live into a sequence and keep most of it), and KK has always been well worth it with the small increase in CPU from running VSTi's in it. I think I was befuddled because this is the first time since modifying my Macbook that I've encountered an instrument with certain patches I couldn't play at all in 512, which, after many years of playing live into a sequence, I can compensate for in my brain.
Thanks again colleagues, this is my first foray into the VI-Control community. Very cool, indeed.
Cheers!


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