Optimizing Kontakt library within Bandlab

[Sven]

I love Bandlab but I've never liked Kontakt.   I especially hate the interface.   Unfortunately, there are several plugins I like that only work with it.    I'm still using version 5.6.5.    I've never had any serious performance issues when I've added multiple Kontakt Soft Synth instances into Bandlab projects.   In fact,  I've been quite impressed at how well Bandlab keeps up with the many Kontakt plugins I've used at the same time even without my freezing them.  My computer isn't the fastest but Bandlab does a  great job even when I add 50 tracks or more including many Soft Synths:

I did notice a few hiccups using Symphobia where a string section or whatever might start to sound out of tune after a while (player fatigue?).  I attributed it to a lack of memory or cpu resources but it was easily solved by deleting the plugin in Kontakt and reinserting it again.  Not sure why that worked.  I could then freeze that track just fine and move on.

Recently I started using Evolution Rick 12 and it worked fine until I started recording a track in Sonar.   It sounds fine at first and then suddenly starts sounding way out of tune (rock and roll guitar player realism?).   There are no error messages and it's also not crashing.  It just makes dogs run frantically from the room.    My old Symphobia delete/reinsert trick doesn't work this time.   It seems like if I free up as much computer ram as possible things maybe get a bit better.   I tried increasing the setting below but I don't think it does the trick.   Maybe I didn't change it correctly:

 

I generally don't touch any of the Bandlap ASIO driver settings because things seem to usually work fine:

 

 

Does anyone have any suggestions on how I might improve the performance of this plugin by changing any Bandlab or Kontakt settings?  

Thanks.

[msmcleod]

The only thing I could put this down to is a pitch bend message occurring somewhere in your project.

As far as improving performance, since you've got a multi-core CPU you could make sure this setting is checked within Kontakt:


 

[Sven]

Hi msmcleod,

  It did seem to have been a problem with a pitch bend message.    I turned that  setting off and it seems to be working fine now.    Thanks!   I had the 4 cores support turned on so I didn't have to change that.

  I thought I had turned all the extra MIDI controls off previously because of a different problem.   There were some extras check boxes still on for some reason including the pitch bend.

  This is usually how I have my settings:

 

I'm using an ancient KeyRig 49 and I usually only care about MIDI notes and velocity.

Thanks again.

 

 

[Tezza]

Your latency settings might be a bit too low for good mixing performance on that machine with that audio interface. You would want to be setting it at least to 256 but preferably 512. I have a similar computer to you. Mine is set to 512 or 1024 usually. If I'm recording vocals or guitar I don't need to change it as I direct monitor off the interface for that. It's only if I want to record using the midi keyboard or guitar sim in real time that I change it. Then I run it at 64. Sometimes I might mute a number of tracks because I don't need all tracks to record. I can run it at 64 all the time but there will be the occasional glitch if I do that. Sometimes I leave it on 64 without realizing until I get a glitch and then check it. I find 64 is good for real time recording with amp sim and USB midi keyboard. I generally don't freeze tracks because I like everything to remain in midi until the end.

128 might be a good compromise for recording and mixing if you are recording a lot with midi keyboard and don't want to keep changing things but if you have a lot of tracks and are getting some glitching or hiccups on playback, that setting is probably responsible.

 

 

Edited August 14, 2020 by Tezza