Pro Tools 10 / Kontakt 5...WTF?

[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?

[zedhed]

I'm not familiar with Sonar, is it a 64Bit or 32Bit App?

Pro Tools 10 is 32Bit which means it only has access to about 3GB of system RAM which seriously compromises performance using VI's (especially memory hungry ones). Having said that, your performance sounds somewhat low. The best thing to do is post a Sandra Report so we can look at your overall system specs to see if there are any potential problems with it.

BTW, what version of Knotakt are you using?

It might be an interesting exercise for you to download a trial copy of PT 11. Since it is a 64Bit app it would be interesting to compare the performance between the two on your system.

[nst7]

You should not be having those kind of issues with just one instance of Kontakt. I don't know what the trouble could be, but that's definitely not normal, even in Protools 10.

[jtwinpcola]

Yes, I agree, there is something else wrong. I cannot believe that a single instance of a virtual instrument should bring Pro Tools to its knees like that.

Thank you for the replies, I just wanted to verify that this is not normal before I contact Avid.

I'm looking forward to PT11, but I have an Apollo Quad and a UAD-2 Duo and I'm not making a move to PT11 until I'm satisfied that UA is up to speed.

They're working on it and I'm sure they will be pretty soon.