Tweaking Kontakt 4 on Receptor

[vihreamies]

Hello there,

I use Kontakt4 quite a lot w/ Receptor2 and wish to have some advices on tweaking Kontakt as light as possible for the Receptor:

I use Snapshot feature and now I have many Kontakts on many channels, but using 1 at the time, so:

1. Which is better: To make a big multi patch on one Kontakt and have it on one channel of Receptor, and simply select the "play plugin midi channel" for each patch to get a certain intrument played in Kontakt. Or, just as I've done, having many Kontakts open on many channel and mute the ones I don't use.

2. Could need some other tips to make Kontakt as light as possible. I've already reduced the amount of voices on instruments. What about buffer size?

Every comment is highly appreciated!

-Vm

[nathankingcole]

I use my receptor live in an improvising situation, and need to have many instruments ready to go as I feel inspired to use them. I set up multiple instances of Kontakt, each with a multi patch of a particular family of sounds. Winds on channel 2, percussion on channel 3, ambient sounds on 4, tuned percussion on 5. On instances where I know that I would like to be able to use more than one instrument at a time, but still control volume and effects easily, I will set up a Receptor channel for a separate output from the Kontakt instance, as in tuned percussion on channel 5- I set up marimba to be on the channel 5 audio output, and tuned gongs to go to the channel 6 output.

[JayVee]

How did you get Kontact 4 on to your Receptor?
I just went to the Plugorama page and see they only have an 'Installer' for 3.5

I've heard that Kontact 2, what I've currently got on my unit, is better with CPU loads... Can anyone tell me if Kontact 4 is noticeably heavy on their CPU?

[nathankingcole]

I should add that I am using Kontakt 3- I would imagine that Vihreamies bought a Komplete 6 pre-installed Receptor 2. I am still waiting for the official release of the Komplete 6 installer to move to Kotakt 4. I will definitely do so, even if it is a higher CPU load, as the new features will be very useful to me.

[vihreamies]

Hi,

I don't have Komplete, but the Kontakt4 was there installed, though the library was missing, but I copied library files there manually. My unit is quite new, couple of months old.

I feel that Kontakt is heavy for CPU, that's why I'm asking about these tweaks to make it lighter. I even converted my 24bit Scarbee library to 16bit to make it run flawlesly. Now I use 16bit lite version, and it seems to run ok.

It's just that I need the snapshot feature on gigs to change patches quickly...and it's quite heavy for Receptor.

-Vm

[kungfudrummer]

Hi,

I'm also interested in this. I've been having all kinds of issues with Kontakt 4.1 fighting with BFD 2. Have you made any progress in this area of tweaking Kontakt for Receptor? Please let me know what you've discovered! I'm using the Receptor 2 with Komplete 6, and I've never gotten it to work at a comfortable flow.

Maybe I need to revert back to Kontakt 4.05?

Matthew

Hi,

I don't have Komplete, but the Kontakt4 was there installed, though the library was missing, but I copied library files there manually. My unit is quite new, couple of months old.

I feel that Kontakt is heavy for CPU, that's why I'm asking about these tweaks to make it lighter. I even converted my 24bit Scarbee library to 16bit to make it run flawlesly. Now I use 16bit lite version, and it seems to run ok.

It's just that I need the snapshot feature on gigs to change patches quickly...and it's quite heavy for Receptor.

-Vm

[vihreamies]

Hi,

I'm also interested in this. I've been having all kinds of issues with Kontakt 4.1 fighting with BFD 2. Have you made any progress in this area of tweaking Kontakt for Receptor? Please let me know what you've discovered! I'm using the Receptor 2 with Komplete 6, and I've never gotten it to work at a comfortable flow.

Maybe I need to revert back to Kontakt 4.05?

Matthew

Hi Matthew,

Nothing groundbreaking here I'm afraid. What I noticed with Vintage Organs running in Kontakt4, is that the reverb eats power very very much. So if you can, drop all possible effects away.

Also, I'm not sure, but I re-installed Kontakt , since I had issues with disappearing library, and the performance feels little bit better...but this is just a feeling...no major development.

I'm a bit suprised for the Kontakt performance with Receptor 2, my MacBook beats the Receptor 6-0. I don't know, but there could be some issues more than just the hardware --> Ivory runs really well in Receptor, and it's a heavy beast aswell.

Comments?

-Vm

[kungfudrummer]

Thanks, Vm.

I agree completely. My MacBookPro will run Ableton with 12 tracks of audio, BFD, Battery 3, Amber, Kontakt, and Mainstage routed via Soundflower with NO problems. I just don't understand why the Muse can't handle two plugins. It's got to be a compatibility issue.

Currently I'm at Kontakt 4.1, but the 4.1.3 update is now available. So now I'm wondering if I should upgrade, or not? With the present performance issues, I figure, what do I have to lose?

Or I could, as you mentioned, re-install. Are you talking about re-installation on the MUSE? If I was to re-install Kontakt, who would I go about doing this? Also, is it tricky to uninstall other plugins on the MUSE? I'm thinking clearing up the hard drive might help, too?

-Matthew

[vihreamies]

Hi Matthew,

I doubt you have to re-install, but if you want to, I suggest to get a (free) ticket from support and do it that way. It's not hard, but help is good.

I'll install the 4.1.3 today, I'll let you know how it is then.

Yes it's sad that Receptor has some probs especially with certain plugins. I'm really considering the aMuse Replacement and Bidule, but that's a whole another story...

best,
-Vm

[kungfudrummer]

I actually installed it yesterday. It works great. Kevin also tested it and said the program update is fine, but he advised holding off on the Factory Library update as it causes some components of the Kontakt library not to load properly. But since I'm using World Impact Global Percussion in Kontakt and triggering with Zendrum, it's not an issue for me.

He also recommended turning off Dual Core support in both Kontakt and the Receptor setup for 4.1, but for 4.1.3 he said to optimize by turning it on in Kontakt only. I haven't tried this yet, since if it is broken don't fix it, LOL, and also because Im using it along with FXpansion BFD 2.1 which is fairly processor intensive. So far so good....

Let me know what results you come up with.
And thanks for your insight and help!

m

[vihreamies]

Hi Matthew,

I just installed the update aswell, but since I didn't know, I installed the library content too. Well, no issues yet, works fine. But don't find any signs of better performance though.

Thanks for the tips, I'll try them right away!

There's been rumours and discussion about the dual core ability of Receptor, I wish I knew the right answer for that. But this info indicates, that Receptor is able to use dual cores...?

Let's keep posting, if something comes up.

-Vm

[vihreamies]

Hi again,

Actually my dual core enabling was ON in Kontakt, I don't know if this had changed due to update.

Well, I did some research with the dual mode On/Off switch in the Receptor setup. I found that if it's ON the performance on Receptor is better overall; it helps to cut those peaks in the CPU meter. Does they (Muse) really want us to turn it OFF?

-Vm

[nathankingcole]

And if they do recommend turning it off, is it just for certain software? Are there other reasons pertaining to the way the operating system uses the dual cores?

[Kevin@MuseResearch]

Just a word of caution to those in this thread: I have not done a whole bunch of testing with this update, and I'm not completely sure which situations or Kontakt libraries would benefit most from turning Kontakt dual core on. I do know that enabling Receptor's Dual Core option in setup will almost always cause some sort of performance problem with Kontakt. If you want to play it safe I'd recommend keeping Kontakt 4's dual core off as well, but if your cool with experimenting a bit you can go ahead and enable dual core for Kontakt. Just make sure you spend at least 20 minutes trying it out before you take it on a gig.

- Kevin

[nathankingcole]

If the dual core option is not enabled for the Receptor is there any benefit to having a dual core CPU in the unit?