I have searched NI forums extensively but found no solution or many recent threads on this issue. My system (6700k, 32gB RAM, SSD x 3, Roland Octacapture, running Win10) seems pretty robust and generally has not issues but for reasons I cannot explain cannot run more than a couple of Kontakt5 instruments without choking. A typical scenario would be 3 or 4 instruments, e.g., Maverick, OTS Modern Nylon, OTS  Strawberry and Vintage organs running standalone resulting in cpu spikes to 100% causing momentary audio dropouts. When not spiking the cpu indicator (in Kontakt) is generally less than 20%. CPU meter in task manager is very low, barely registering and never reflects the spikes which are instantaneous and probably too short to register. I notice that the spikes seem only to happen if I have been playing for awhile, several minutes at least. But once they start they rapidly recur every few seconds. Changing driver settings, even increasing to unplayable degree of latency does not seem to matter. Thoughts??
 
Brian

Are you running the latest version of Kontakt (v5.7.1)? If so, have you always had the problem, or just after updating?

Some of the Vintage Organs are CPU killers.

Do you have plug in load balancing "ticked" (activated?)  I had terrible spiking with Izotope Neutron, until they advised use VST3 ONLY and also I de-activated plug in load balancing - I still get very occasional spiking but the problem is say 95% resolved
Nigel
 

Just in case you haven't done this......check to make sure your Octacapture has the latest drivers installed.

TheMaartian
Are you running the latest version of Kontakt (v5.7.1)? If so, have you always had the problem, or just after updating?

I know 5.7.1 just came out. I will update tonight.
 

msorrels
Some of the Vintage Organs are CPU killers.

I have heard that too, but still...I should have plenty of computer horsepower.
 

Bajan Blue
Do you have plug in load balancing "ticked" (activated?)  I had terrible spiking with Izotope Neutron, until they advised use VST3 ONLY and also I de-activated plug in load balancing - I still get very occasional spiking but the problem is say 95% resolved
Nigel
 

Not sure how to do that but I will have a look around and see what I find. Some on NI advocated disabling multicore support. Mine is enabled, but disabling was only advocated when used in a DAW with its own thread scheduling. I have this problem in standalone and in Sonar. I suppose I should disable it when in the DAW.
 

Mesh
Just in case you haven't done this......check to make sure your Octacapture has the latest drivers installed.

Roland has an unusual driver situation. You cannot go their website and DL a Win10 driver. The device phones home (after the software is updated to 1.5) and gets the appropriate driver from Roland. My software and driver are up to date.
 
Thanks everyone for the suggestions! I appreciate all the help I can get!

Finally have worked through as many alternatives as I can think of to explains this behavior.
It is not Sonar as it happens equally in standalone.
It is unrelated to speed step or any other bios settings.
Unrelated to whether wifi is enabled or not.
It is not a Roland driver issue - the same thing happens with my Focusrite 2i2.
It does not matter if I run multiple instances of single instruments or multiple instruments in one rack.
It only happens with Kontakt. I can run mult instances of Ample AGG, AAS instruments, mult other NI instruments or anything else without problems.
That said, I dont think the problem is Kontakt, per se. I can run large multis without problems, say 5 or 6 instruments with cpu (monitored in Kontakt) usually peaking around 25% and averaging much less UNTIL I throw in an instance of OTS Stratosphere. Once I do that the cpu starts cranking about 40 -50% and if I add a second instance of Stratosphere it will crash within 5 minutes of playing fast dense chords. Interestingly (to me) a second instance of Stratosphere will rapidly develop clicks and drop outs then crash even if two instances of Stratosphere are the only instruments in the rack. I have been experimenting using Cupcake and E Flat presets for each instance every time. They do have effects so other presets may behave better (or worse). I experience no prob running multiple instances of OTS Modern Nylon.
Latency Mon runs green until it crashes, then suddenly red. 
 
In summary, it appears that OTS Stratosphere is the culprit. Also seems curious that it takes a little time to develop. As if Stratos isnt letting go of notes and they eventually build up with a crescendo of clicks and drops before ultimately crashing.
 
Is it possible that there is some parameter in Stratos that I have mistakenly changed or perhaps a bug that causes this behaviour? I would be very interested to know if others can reproduce this problem or if others can run multiple jnstances of Stratos all day with no issues??
 
Brian

Bajan Blue
Do you have plug in load balancing "ticked" (activated?)  I had terrible spiking with Izotope Neutron, until they advised use VST3 ONLY and also I de-activated plug in load balancing - I still get very occasional spiking but the problem is say 95% resolved
Nigel
 

From my understanding Plug Load Balancing has nothing to do with Virtual Instruments, VSTi's, it only works with VST's, FX plugins and such.

I forwarded an issue back then to spitfire , and i narrowed the issues to voices handling in the last versions of kontakts specially when they use in the script the octaver or stuff that when you play one not it play several , so when you start to play chord , it in fact mega chords !!!!

It was confirmed by spitfire and NI is aware ...it s on their side , it was wasn t present before a certain update ....

I forwarded an issue back then to spitfire , and i narrowed the issues to voices handling in the last versions of kontakts specially when they use in the script the octaver or stuff that when you play one not it play several , so when you start to play chord , it in fact mega chords !!!!

It was confirmed by spitfire and NI is aware ...it s on their side , it was wasn t present before a certain update ....