Networking Sonar and Kontakt

For me, personally, the easiest way is to have Kontakt run in VE Pro from VSL. Basically, you need a minimum of two computers -- one computer where Sonar will reside and a second computer with just VE Pro on it. Most likely you've already got your main computer with Sonar. On the slave computer (one with VE Pro), you'd need to have windows installed and VE Pro. That's about it. I control my main computer and my slave both with the same mouse and keyboard. I do that with a way cool free program called Input Director. Awesome program.

On the slave you won't need an audio nor a midi interface because VE Pro sends the audio and midi data back to the main computer over LAN, your local are network. However, you will need someway to get LAN back. A lot of motherboards have LAN built into them, but I've opted for Intel Network cards which plug in the pci busses. If you're motherboard uses Intel LAN, then you're good to go. But I've had problems with Marvell LAN.

Hope this little bit of info helps. Have to go now, but ask any specific questions and I'll try to get to them.

Mahlon

Its not so much a need for more processing power (you won't get it) as it is a way to distribute the processing load. In other words, you would be able to run many more Kontakt instrument tracks in a live setting without performance issues. Or you could utilize ram across 2 or more machines to load large VSTi libraries into memory. If you don't have load-based issues, this probably isn't something you need to worry about. The software you would need and the setup architecture you would use is somewhat dependent on the particular instruments you host in Kontakt, so you will have to do homework in the appropriate forums and support groups to get things right the first time. The instruments available to you are limited by your host and target machine OS. There are also technical considerations regarding the normal housekeeping issues (backup/recovery, software maintenance, for example) as well as issues specific to a host/target architecture (latency, license/dongle requirements). If you use SONAR as the host sequencer, you may not be able to freeze those instrument tracks and you would have to bounce in real time. Also, SONAR doesn't  transmit midi cc values to the target computer when you bounce tracks so you have to follow a work around procedure. Bottom line - this isn't something that you can plan out in a day or two.
 
I used FX-teleport until a few years ago. It works well, but I don't think Max has issued a 64 bit version yet. If you're working with 32 bit systems, it would be a good way to experiment with setup without investing a lot of cash. If you need 64 bit capability, you need to look at things like MolCP3 or IPmidi, Vienna Ensemble pro, midi splitters, and maybe some guest service programs. It just depends on what you specifically need to accomplish. If you know which instruments you want to host in Kontakt, I would first go to the forum or support contact for that software, and see if someone there can tell you how they've put it together. Best of luck.

Ah.. perils of skim reading. FX Teleport.

If you have a second computer with a decent audio interface, you can simply use it as you would any standalone hardware synth, at zero additional cost and no LAN connection needed.

Of course, it's not as convenient, as your Kontakt settings can't be saved or modified in the project file. But the price is right for those (like me) who have no money to spend but a surplus of old computers around.