# CPU Overloads in DP with Kontakt 5



## Jeff Tymoschuk (Jan 15, 2012)

Hi there. I'm setting up an orchestral template in DP 7.24 using mostly multiple instances of Kontakt 5.0.1.5371. I'm running into all sorts of CPU issues while placing what seems like it should be a very manageable load on the machine. DP's CPU monitor hovers between 40 - 50% while not playing, although it spikes up around 75% on a regular basis (around once a second) while at idle. When I'm actually playing something, it only takes a few notes being played for it to spike into the red. I'm running it with the buffer at 512, it's a little better at 1024 but the problems are still there.

I've loaded eight instances of K5 into DP, and populated them with a fair number of instruments, totalling 5.56 GB showing in the Memory Server display. In the Activity Monitor, I'm currently showing 2.22 GB of free memory, and 3.3 GB of inactive memory. I've turned multiprocessor support in K5 off, and increased my preload buffer to 192 kb (after trying it at the default without too much success). I have everything routed through aux busses into subgroups and stems, but the only processing that I have in place is one instance of QL Spaces on one track, enabling or disabling it makes no difference. I've tried offloading two of the K5 instances into VE Pro 5, but it's the same problem. 

My computer is a 2007-era Mac Pro Quad 2.66 GHz, so it's admittedly a little on the old side, but I've got 16 gigs of RAM in my machine, and have the KMS engaged, so I was hoping to do a little better than the performance that I'm getting. I should be able to offload the balance of memory to CPU more to the RAM side since I've got room to spare, but I'm not quite sure the best way to do that, or if it'll help the problem.

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

Jeff


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## PMortise (Jan 16, 2012)

Hi Jeff,

For a start, I would delete all the K5 tracks to see what the audio performance bar looks like with a "clean slate", and if it looks comfortable at that point add incrementally to see where things start to add up.

I'm pretty sure turning off Processor Support in Kontakt is only relevant when using it as a Standalone. DP already uses all cores for itself and plugins through the MAS (Motu Audio System).

Another good place to look for help (if you haven't already) is http://www.motunation.com/forum/index.php

These 2 threads are a good starting place:
http://www.motunation.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=48923
http://www.motunation.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=6480

I hope this helps.


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## Jeff Tymoschuk (Jan 16, 2012)

Hey, thanks for the reply. I've gone in and reshuffled things around, moving a few things out to VE Pro. I also had to reload a few of my Kontakt multis from scratch, it seemed to be loading up with some of the multis being empty for some reason. It seems to be a little bit better now, although enabling one Kontakt instance with 15 LASS 2 channels (no Stage & Color, just the ARC enabled) is still putting the CPU at around 15-20% with the buffer at 1024, and I've disabled QL Spaces. 

...that's without hitting play, just sitting at an idle, which doesn't bode well.

Thanks also for those two threads, I'll check them out and see what I can turn up.


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## MichaelL (Jan 16, 2012)

Jeff Tymoschuk @ Mon Jan 16 said:


> I've gone in and reshuffled things around, moving a few things out to VE Pro.



1) why not put all of your Kontakt instances in VE PRO? (but turn off memory server)

2) Wait for NAMM. (I'm starting a DP8 64 bit rumor) :wink:


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## reddognoyz (Jan 17, 2012)

You'll do much much better running Kontakt in VEP.


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## EastWest Lurker (Jan 17, 2012)

Not trying to knock DP, but this is on the VSL forum :

"Well we did a not very scientific test this morning using DP7, Cubase 6 and Logic 9 running on a Quad Core Mac 2.66 10.6.6, 9Gbs RAM 
In essence when running with 5 identical instances of Kontakt 5 in server mode and playing the same sequence:
Logic (64 bit) used 90%
Cubase (64 bit) 160%
DP (32 bit) 190% 
DP also seemed the most erratic and spiked quite often which is where clicks and pops come from. As a life long DP user this is a little bit depressing"


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## j_kranz (Jan 17, 2012)

Jeff, are you running Kontakt under the 'always run in real-time' mode (not using DP's pre-rendering)?

http://www.motunation.com/forum/viewtop ... =1&t=30016


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## reddognoyz (Jan 17, 2012)

I'm a DP user and well aware of DP's bloat and inefficiency compared to other DAW's. I'm hangin' in and hopin' NAMM will bring the long awaited announcement re 64 bit DP.


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## MichaelL (Jan 17, 2012)

reddognoyz @ Tue Jan 17 said:


> I'm a DP user and well aware of DP's bloat and inefficiency compared to other DAW's. I'm hangin' in and hopin' NAMM will bring the long awaited announcement re 64 bit DP.




I think our prayers are about to be answered.

And, as I think Jonathan suggested ..."pre-gen" mode is disaster with Kontakt.

ALWAYS run plugins in real time.


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## reddognoyz (Jan 17, 2012)

I would amend that and say run sample based vi's in real time. modeled stuff fairs better I think


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## dcoscina (Jan 17, 2012)

Weird. Of all the DAWs I have and use (and I have all of them) I have the least amount of crashes from DP. I also find it runs the most efficient...

I know Kontakt 5 runs at higher CPU levels than previous incarnations but with 5.2 I read that usage is down.


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## Jeff Tymoschuk (Jan 17, 2012)

Holy cow, I guess I somehow got unsubscribed from the thread, so missed all the back & forth. Thanks for all the replies!

So after MUCH trial and error, I think I may have tracked down where part of the problem is, although I haven't figured out the best way to fix it. I've moved all the Kontakt instances into VE Pro, leaving DP empty except for one instance of Omnisphere (which I've left disabled for the time being). The CPU meter in DP was still around 40% at idle, so that wasn't it. And everything's running in real time, no pre-gen enabling.

For the last while I've tried to do lots of routing within DP to make it easy to quickly print stems. To do this, I've run things through a couple of layers of Aux channels. For example, my LASS strings in one group, EW in another, Symphobia in a third, so as to be able to reverb/EQ them individually before sending them into through another Aux into a Strings Bus audio track (which is Input Monitored while working, then record enabled to print stems). The stems are then sent out a Master bus into one more audio track for printing the mix, for a total right around 25 busses. 

I decided to try deleting some of the busses to see if that helped. I deleted about half of the busses, with a negligible difference in the CPU meter, then kept deleting one by one. With one bussed track still enabled, no real change, but when I deleted that one, the CPU meter dropped down to next to nothing. After rejoicing mightily (and prematurely), I reassigned everything out my main output, and sadly watched it spike back up to around 35% at idle. This is a little better though, so it's starting to border on usable.

Now the odd part is that with nothing loaded into DP itself except the MIDI tracks, a few busses without any processing, and everything sitting at idle, no MIDI recorded into the tracks, no audio files, DP's still hogging 53% of my computer's CPU, according to the monitor in MiniUsage. When I disable the VE tracks, theoretically freeing up the resources, DP is still using 28%. Quitting VE altogether and leaving DP open the meter is around the same.

The only other application open is Safari (so I can type this), and that's it. With the DP session project closed and nothing loaded in VE, DP uses 2.2%, and in an empty session it's around 4%. It seems strange that a bunch of empty MIDI tracks and a couple of Aux busses take that much computing power, so I'm not really sure what to make of it. 

And that's where it's at. I'm at a bit of a loss of what to try next, I've got an old slave PC that I can try to bring into service, but it's probably only good to offload a small amount of the load to it.

Thanks again folks, I appreciate the ideas.

Jeff


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## Jeff Tymoschuk (Jan 18, 2012)

Another bit of progress made thanks to a thread on MOTUnation. I disabled Eucon in the Control Surface Setup, which cut the idle CPU overhead in half, down to around 15-20% at a buffer setting of 512. 

It seems like the problem lies somewhere in the output stage. With the instances of Kontakt all loaded into VE, everything sent through the auxes into stems, and then into the outputs, the CPU load is around 25% at idle. Deleting only the final outputs, which leaves everything else loaded and only removes the output stage, drops it down to 5% or less. Of course without it eventually coming to an output I don't get any audio or see anything show up in the meters, but it isn't unloading the instruments like it would if selected "None" in the Output for the channels. I've also tried bypassing all the fancy routing and just sending everything out the outputs, and the same problem's there.

At least now I'm back to work, although without being able to use my MC Control. There's a Eucon update that I'm downloading now, I'll give it a try.


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