Track disable with Kontakt - Orchestral Template

Cubase
#1

Hi, I am completely new to Cubase and VSTs etc having been using Reason for years, (don’t ask!!)

I’ve just got started with Cubase and have 8.5. I’ve also just got a new PC running Windows 10 with 64Gbt RAM an I7 8 core proccessor and my libraries on a SSD.

I want to create a large orchestral template using Kontakt, (I’ve run out of cash for VEP).

I’ve figured out how to load multi-timbral instances of Kontakt into Cubase however I have a problem with disabling tracks and whether to use Kontakt as a Track instrument or Rack instrument.

I have spent 2 days now trawling these forums, YouTube and the net. I have found very useful tips but due to my ignorance, I feel that I am missing something very simple. I found this on YouTube ’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMQmzbhtFsc '. This guy says that track disable only works with Track instruments and therefore uses one instance of Kontakt for each instrument thus he has loads and loads of instances of Kontakt in his template. My problem is that I did see another video with someone using Kontakt multitimbraly, (if thats a word) and still being able to disable particular tracks which also seemed to purge the specific instrument in Kontakt.

Which ever way I go, track or rack, when I disable the relevant MIDI tracks, Kontakt is not purging samples in the instrument routed to that track as I’ve seen happen on other YouTube template tutorials, (which I now can’t find), and therefore not cutting down on my CPU and RAM usage or my loading speed of my Cubase template.

Would someone be kind enough to talk me through the set up of Konakt so as I can disable the tracks I don’t need or point me in the right direction.

Apologies for the long post. As a newbie, I’m trying to make as much sense as I can :slight_smile:

Many thanks in advance.

Cheers. Phil

#2

As I understand it you can only get the purge / cpu saving benefits from using single “instrument track” instances of Kontakt, not when using a multi-timbral rack instrument.

I switched from a multi-timbral environment to a single instance per instrument and it’s been a game changer for me…

#3

Thank you! This is what I am staring to gather from researching the net.

I had started to set up a template using “instrument track” instances of Kontakt with several multi-timbral instruments in each linked to midi channels, purging all instruments and then disabling the tracks prior to saving the template. When re-opened, the instruments stayed purged until you hit a note. This did seem to work but upon re-opening, Cubase appears to lose some of the midi imputs and I have to manually re-connect which is a bit of a pain.

I think I’ll start again with your suggestion. It does seem to be the way to go. It just sort of feels wrong loading single instances of Kontakt for each when it can handle up to 64 outputs, but hey, it works!

Thank you so very much again for your help.

Cheers, Phil.

#4

Even using single track instances, cubase has a habit of forgetting the midi inputs when re-enabled :frowning:

#5

Ok, that’s a shame. Maybe they’ll fix that in a later update!?!

Just about to start work on it…here goes…

Cheers!

#6

Good luck! Enabling re-connecting and saving seems to sort it sometimes. Also, if you duplicate a track (which saves time when creating templates) then that seems to create the connection problem. Think that one is actually a confirmed bug.

Definitely a great way of working though, with single tracks!

#7

Thanks Matthew. Just had a look at your website. Impressive stuff. Hopefully I can get to your level one day.

Thanks for the tips mate.

Phil

#8

A few questions for Matthew, how many tracks do you have in your template? What are your save times like?

#9

Hi there. Not sure how many tracks I have. Hundreds I think! Save times vary. An empty project about 2 seconds. Could be up to about 7-8s for a big active project

#10

AFAIK, this is not possible. Patches inside of Kontakt do not interact with the host DAW in a way that would facilitate this. Maybe one day… (A new VST 4 spec?)

#11

Can you reproduce this problem and post the steps on the Bug Report subforum? It would be nice if this could be fixed.

#12

This has been a long-standing bug. Every time, it gets reported, Steinberg claims to fix it, then it returns in another incarnation.

#13

It’s still better to report it or else you’re sure it will stay like this. Bugs can have multiple causes and all of them need to be solved.

#14

The problem with its current incarnation is that it’s very elusive and difficult to reproduce, but definitely still there.

#15

I’ll also try my best to catch its context when I come across it.

#16

I have :slight_smile:

#17

Thanks. I’m going the single instance route. Slowly getting the template together :smiley: