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Template building-separate Kontakts per instrument or one Kontakt with everything in?

I use multitimbral instances of kontakt in my templates with 16 stereo outs. Each instrument in kontakt sends to a separate stereo pair and i have 16 aux channels per instance which show up as separate mixer channels where I can use my bussed fx and comp auxes, add au's, automate, etc. I can freeze each instrument individually and it uses much less ram than separate instances of kontakt for each nki
 
InLight-Tone said:
^^^ What Anders said. I'm in Cubase and have a 1000+ track template all disabled, all single instances of Kontakt with one instrument each and of course some synths. You just enable each track as you go, and a stereo Kontakt shows up in the mixer pre-routed to groups for stems if you like. No extra midi tracks, no convoluted routing, dirt simple.
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Hey @InLight-Tone, I'm intrigued by this. Cubase handles 1000 instances of Kontakt without slowing down? You mention you have them all disabled. How much time does it take to enable an instrument? As in, is it instant? Is it a second? Is it a few seconds? Is it several seconds depending on the size of the instrument?

I'm not a Cubase user, so I'm wondering exactly how Cubase handles "disabled" instruments and if all the samples are loaded or not (before enabling).
 
I am Also on the one instrument per kontakt.

I really find it the most easiest to work with. Everything can be changed quickly.

Although Kontakt uses some CPU power, I have never experienced any CPU power loss. I am not using a slave, only my Mac Pro Helmet ;) :)

Last, I think it's just a case of personal taste, preference and how you started. Maybe someday I will find it better to have multiple instruments in one kontakt.. ;)
 
ddas said:
Hey @InLight-Tone, I'm intrigued by this. Cubase handles 1000 instances of Kontakt without slowing down? You mention you have them all disabled. How much time does it take to enable an instrument? As in, is it instant? Is it a second? Is it a few seconds? Is it several seconds depending on the size of the instrument?

I'm not a Cubase user, so I'm wondering exactly how Cubase handles "disabled" instruments and if all the samples are loaded or not (before enabling).
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Well the instrument comes back immediately you can plaay it right away, but you have to wait for the samples to fully load, so that depends on the instrument but in Cubase it's pretty quick and seamless and I'm still using platter drives but plan to go to m2 PCIe so the wait would be minimal.

In the past, the worst part about it was saving the projects and could get up to 8 seconds but they must have improved it somehow cause my save times are under 2 seconds, near instantaneous though I am using an m2 drive as where I save my projects.

To note I tried building this in Studio One, and at 600 tracks the save times went over 10 seconds so I gave up. Steinberg has some magic going on...
 
One instrument per instance of Kontakt. I tried multiple instruments and it was a mixing headache for me. I've run 90+ instances of Kontakt on my 32 GB iMac. Multiple instruments in an instance of Kontakt only when they're going to the same channel -- high and low winds patches, for instance, so they're spread across the keyboard on the same track.
 
Ben E said:
One instrument per instance of Kontakt. I tried multiple instruments and it was a mixing headache for me. I've run 90+ instances of Kontakt on my 32 GB iMac. Multiple instruments in an instance of Kontakt only when they're going to the same channel -- high and low winds patches, for instance, so they're spread across the keyboard on the same track.
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My experience exactly. An automation headache as well...
 
This is slightly OT, but I've found a SIGNIFICANTLY more efficient way of keeping VIs from eating up ram and performance. Simply render them in place, with or without the FXs on their track (I'm a Cubase 9.5 user). Freezing midi is not quite the same as freezing audio, I've found. Then, just turn of the VI and any plug in inserts. If you decide to change the rendered part, make your changes in the VI (turn it on), render again. Not that time consuming and, IMO a far better way of truly lessening the DSP usage. Hope this helps!!!
 
Syneast said:
Finding the right Kontakt instance and setting up the midi channels and setting the track channels takes waaay too much time away from composing for me personally. And it's waaay to fiddly if I want to change things around or add instruments I don't use often. Or if I want to route patches to different effects. It's a nightmare.
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Same here, when I'm working with midi, it's always with projects, and it's the projects that dictate what I decide to use. They're always different, and no template will take care of that. Plus, I don't want a bunch of Kontakt instances I don't need.

I'm a one-instance-per-track guy. If it ever slows down my system I'd rather just freeze tracks. So far I've never had to do it though. Then again, I'm not a template guy. I change things with every track I make so I can't stick to a template.
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Well I differ here, depending on the project I will put several instruments in each instance of Kontakt. Back in the old days when computer specs were not so good, I would use up to 3 instances of Kontakt fro everything, this was with XP and I'm sure there are many here who understand that.

But now I will separate the instances depending on what they are, I'm no longer worried about computer specs. But still, I will put several instruments in each instance, depending on the project.

For sure though, I'm not a one-instance-per-track guy, I try to use them as judiciously as I can.
 
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