[jtwinpcola]

I've been a Sonar user for the last few years but have been getting myself up to speed with Pro Tools 10 over the last few months and I'm really liking it.

Today though, for the first time, I inserted an instance of the Kontakt 5 plugin (with Studio Drummer as the only instrument) and banged out a few bars from my MIDI keyboard. I then played it back in order to see how well Pro Tools handles VI plugins. Pro Tools really seemed to be struggling. I heard dropouts and stutters. I then opened the System usage window and was shocked when I saw the CPU meter banging around 25% - 30%! With no audio tracks, no plugins, and only one instrument track with a VI?

I'm running a pretty powerful computer (i7 Quad Core at 3.5 GHz, 16 GB RAM)and I've had as many as 30 or 40 audio tracks with a couple of dozen plugins running and the CPU was still less than 10% and playback was smooth as silk.

I've used Kontakt 5 with Sonar in the past and the CPU meter pegs at around 3-4%! Am I doing something wrong or does Pro Tools 10 really struggle that hard with VI plugins?