Soft instruments - instance use question

I use all soft synths/instruments.
 
Using Kontakt5 for my question:
 
What are your preferences or how do you go about setting up your tracks when using soft synths.
 
I load a new instance of Kontakt5 for each instrument on it's own track and always play out of channel one.
 
The other option is to load a single instance of Kontakt5, load all the instruments into it, and have each instrument on a separate channel.
 
So gang, how do you prefer to handle this?
 
I am considering the affect to the overhead and whether either method is better than the other.
 
Regards,
Lance

Thanks John.
 
I like your approach and I do use simple instrument tracks always.
 
If you have a single soft synth structure, say Rapture, do setup your midi and audio tracks the same way? 
 

Handy.
 
Thanks.
 
Lance

I guess it also depends on the size of your projects and samples libraries. Workflow-wise, I prefer having one Kontakt per instrument unless it's a logical set like violins/violas/celli/basses. I also like splitting drums so I can use my own plugins on the various kit pieces rather than rely on the built in mixers that come with Abbey Road 60's drummer etc.

I don't usually mix piano, strings, drums, bass etc within a single Kontakt instance. I have a reasonably modern computer (i7 3770 with 8GB RAM) but nothing really top of the line and I haven't run into issues yet for my purposes.

Kontakt will make more efficient use of resources with fewer instances, so overall efficiency will be better with a single instance in multi-timbral mode.
 
However, the improvement is marginal. By far the most significant resource is memory, and that's mostly determined by the libraries themselves and won't increase or decrease based on the number of Kontakt instances.
 
Furthermore, when you use a single instance, you lose the ability to freeze each instrument independently. So if resource management is a big deal, such as somebody trying to squeeze giant libraries into limited RAM, then you may be better off with separate instances that you can freeze when you're done with them. Or at least purge the sample sets to reduce their memory footprint.
 
If, however, CPU is your bottleneck rather than RAM, then a single instance will definitely be more CPU-friendly. Each individual instance will use the first core, whereas with multiple instruments Kontakt is smart enough to at least attempt to use one of the other cores (assuming multi-core has been enabled).
 
My own method is a compromise between single and multiple instances. I combine instruments that are likely to be frozen as a group, such as a string section made up of 3 or 4 libraries, or a percussion group. But the big instruments that I'll be editing throughout the project (e.g. large guitar libraries) get their own instance.

I run about 5-6 instruments max per instance of Kontakt 5, and never ever use simple instrument tracks.  They just do not work for the multi-timbral synths, from what I understand.
 
So, especially for Kontakt, I use separate audio tracks and separate midi tracks for each instrument, and use the Kontakt Batch Functions in the Output Section to set up separate stereo outputs for each loaded instrument, then insert audio tracks and midi tracks for each instrument in the Track Pane in Sonar, and route accordingly back to the corresponding instruments in Kontakt.
 
 
To take the above even farther, for common combinations of loaded instruments in Kontakt, I will select the audio and midi tracks for that instance of Kontakt, then create a Sonar Track Template, which will save off all of the audio and midi tracks I set up for that instance of Kontakt, as well as the multi-rack and the loaded multiple instruments and their settings in Kontakt, all as part of that track template.
 
Then, for new projects that use the same or similar instruments, I just insert from the saved Track Template, and all of the routing assignments, tracks, and the Kontakt instance, are all loaded into the new project with just a small number of mouse clicks.
 
VERY handy.
 
Hope the above helped - please post back if you have any questions about any of it.
 
Bob Bone
 

Single instance for each instrument here for Kontakt. It suits my work flow especially if I'm writing/editing for Orchestra.

Bibs

Thanks for all the input.
 
So many variations and reasoning.
 
Lance

So, did you get all that? I personally like using multitimbral , single instance for soft synths whenever I can for track economy and I feel the performance is better. The more softsynths I open up, the more I feel I'm taxing my system. When using multiple outs, let Sonar open them all, you'll use 'em. Bitflipper's point is well noted. Multiple instances allows you to freeze any given instance, if necessary.