OutrageProductions

Start in the PDF manual on page 1063. Available from this link. "Go to Edit > Preferences > Project - Surround"

When you take the concept of side-chaining the kick to the master mix buss waaaaaay too far. Granted, this may be someone's idea of "artistic expression", but come on kids... learn a little about engineering. And clean the wax out of your ears. It get's intolerable at the 0:52 second mark IMHO.

You probably have <Dim Solo> engaged. Look it up in the help system. The <Dim> button in the master section of the control bar is likely highlighted.

Go into the Device Manager CP and Disable the Realtek (not uninstall) then assign the Apollo and try again.

Open the MIDI channel in the <Inspector>. On the right channel strip well below the Arpeggiator section are slots for <Key +> and below that <Time +>. Enter a negative offset in the <Time +> field to have quantized notes play earlier in time so that the ramp up is fast enough to be on the beat. I've found that most VSL strings need about -30, some slower attack patches need -50 to -70 (in milliseconds), especially for faster tempos.

Nvrmnd.

The Export module is exactly the same no matter where you source it from (ie: menu/Shortcut key 'E', etc). Make the changes necessary in the <Sources> section, generally to 'Master' buss, but YMMV. You probably have your default set to 'Hardware Outputs'.

+1

I use Shepard tones all the time, both isolated and in subtle combinations as transitions.

A CAL script is a "one & done" operation. After you split & consolidate the MIDI notes to the individual instrument (ex: all hats... open/pedal/closed) you can then add/edit them on the individual assigned track to your hearts desire without the distraction of other drums in the same track.

+1

I use one ASIO driver and three devices without issue. 1 master device & two slaves on optical lightpipe for 24 channels of I/O.

The actual "engine" of Kontakt loading an instrument is usually loaded only once (for the GUI at least) even with multiple instances (unless you have more than one open & pinned to the workspace). What eats up the RAM/resources mostly is the instrument sounds (samples) that are loaded into it. I run sessions with over 100+ instances of a VSTi (mostly Kontakt, but others also) wrapped in Komplete Kontrol so that I have hardware control from my keyboard, and, as long as I'm juducious about freezing synths when I'm not actively editing, have yet to experience outrageous problems. As an experiment, create an empty project and load just one instance of Kontakt (without an instrument... ie: empty), then duplicate the track 9 times and compare the RAM usage. You'll be suprized at how little Kontakt (the engine) itself uses.

The freeze process operates monolithically on an instance of any multi-timbral instrument. It is not possible to isolate any particular track. Either bounce a particular voice/channel to a new dedicated audio track in an individual pass, or insert a specific instance of Kontakt for each instrument/ voice. Multiple instances of a VSTi engine really don't use that much more resources (other than sample ram). Unless I specifically want to actively layer instrument voices, I gave up on Kontakt Multis many years ago.

I use either an Avalon or a VoxBox which are out most folks price range. However, I used to have one of these for use with my laptop on location which worked pretty well. They were only $99 back in the day...(sigh)