CPU Overloads (Scarbee Clavinet, Electric Sunburst)

I have just installed Pro Tools 2018 and Kontakt 5.8 on a brand new IMAC 27", 4.2 Ghz, Quad Core, 1 Tb SSD drive, 16 Gb ram. The Kontakt content is all stored on an external SSD. Recording is all done on another external SSD. On a simple session with 2 audio tracks and a couple of P.T. effects aux tracks, the total cpu usage is around 10%. My hardware buffer is set to 128 samples (any higher and recording latency is not tolerable). I add 1 new instrument track with Kontakt Clavinet, hit one chord and the cpu maxes out in the red and the session freezes. This happened frequently on my old Mac Pro but I can't believe the problem persists. I am close to abandoning Kontakt altogether.

 

BTW, other keys plugins such as Pro Tools Velvet barely bump the cpu meter. This is definitely a Kontakt deal.

 

I have a similar issue. Although I'm not sure if it a OS or a Kontakt problem. I use Pro Tool 2018.4 Ultimate with OS High Sierra 10.13.4. I have a brand new refurbished Mac trash can (6.1). I have 68 GB RAM, 3. GHZ, 10 core, intel zeon, 1 TB SSD internal disk. When I have a clean session with only two tracks, master fader and instrument track with KONTAKT, the CPU will almost overload when I play some libs. Especially the lib Electric sunburst or acoustic strumming will make the cpu go instantly in red. It cannot be true. What is wrong here. All the other Kontakt lib will also push the cpu, although it takes 2-3 libs at the same time, which also is crazy, considering my horsepower. Help!

 

I've no such issues on Windows 10 here (4.5 GHz i7-6700K, 64 GB RAM), but I'm not using PT. That might be the key factor here.

 

Having no cpu overloads with kontakt in standalone or in logic on mac with high sierra. You might try loading several libs in standalone and check settings in kontakt. Then try loading in pro tools after any tweaks to buffers and whatnot in standalone. That is how i optimized it for my system.

 

The new Electric Sunburst lib is causing my cpu in pro tools 2018.4 to go crazy. I've tested with only 1 instrument track and 1 plug-in (kontakt). I've done a lot of troubleshooting, with no succes. When playing the lib Electric sunburst, cpu goes immediately to 70-80 % and sometimes to 100% (red). No other lib does that. I can have 16 libs open (incl LASS strings, session guitarist acoustic, una corda etc) without even reaching 40 %. Electric sunburst works fine in standalone, and I did try to copy the settings into pro tools, as Simchris suggested, but it didn't help. Anyone have a clue?

Mac 6.1 / 3. Ghz / 10 core / 64 gb ram / 1 TB SSD internal disk
Pro tool Ultimate 2018.4
Apollo 8 Quad

 

Anyone? Since moderator erased my new thread about severe problems with Electric Sunburst, maybe you would comment or something? Need help.

 

Yes there was no need to open another thread that has the same symptoms mentioned in this one.

I don't use Mac or ProTools so I cannot comment on CPU usage there, but Simchris seems to have no issues at least, but he isn't using PT. I wonder if this is a PT-specific issue, perhaps. Do you have any other DAWs to try it on to see if you get the same behavior as far as CPU usage is concerned?

 

Hmm it's the only library behaving like that. I have no problem with any other library. I've just tried re-installing. But it didn't help. Is there a mac (and maybe Pro Tool) moderator in here? I don't think it's a pro tool issue. But I'm not sure.

 

This is why I'm asking you to try another DAW. Garageband? Reaper? See what happens. I don't think we have per-host or per-platform moderators here.

But moreover, you might wanna contact NI support directly. That's the proper channel for these sorts of issues.

 

Sorry, yes, it's the same story in Logic pro X. Heavy cpu load.

 

Yeh definitely contact NI support then. Short of trying another computer not much else I can suggest, CPU usage is fine over here.

 

So, you get the overload in standalone mode also? Or, only inside a DAW. And you have tweaked memory settings and preload and all that?

 

Yes to all. I have tweaked all settings from Kontakt standalone to Kontakt in DAW. Last time I tried, Kontakt (for some reason) actually remembered the settings from standalone to DAW. Hmm

Electric Sunburst works fine in standalone. It's only inside PT and Logic. I can have plenty of my other Kontakt libs going inside my DAW at the same time, without heavy cpu load.

 

Memory settings don't have much to do with CPU load tho...

Can you try Reaper?

 

I will test on reaper and get back. Thanks.

 

Yes, i found optimizing the standalone version before using in Daw helped which is why i had asked. I know with some plugins in the daw you can get weird spikes depending on how you have system setup, number of tracks, etc. i have some plugins in logic where initially i get one cpu core going to 100% but then when i add couple more tracks, it balances a ross cores. Dont have simple suggestion, unfortunately.