Another interesting result is that if I solo one of the 5 Kontakt instances, I still get the problem. But, if I delete the unused instances, it seems to work. So, the issue seems related to the number of instances loaded, not the number of instances involved in playback. Weird.

OK, now we're getting somewhere. Could you try a similar thing with something like Stylus or Omnisphere, to see if those players can cope with tempo ramps? If they can. then it is definitely a Kontakt problem, LASS problem, or both. If they can't then the VEP programmers need to have a look at it.

The other thing to look at is whether or not things are better or worse if you change the multi processor settings in Kontakt (I can't remember whether or not you have done this).

DG

I tried Kontakt with the multiprocessing settings both on and off and it didn't seem to make a difference. The only other libraries I have installed on my Kontakt 5 machine are VSL and Play libraries, which don't seem to be having the problem. However, I also found that if I delete some of the instruments from each Kontakt instance, the problem goes away (even with 5 Kontakt instances). 

I don't think the problem is with LASS because I bypassed the LASS scripts and was still getting the problem.

I just noticed that during the ramp tempo change, the CPU usage in VE Pro jumps to ~99%. This is definitely the problem, but I'm still not sure of the cause.

In my latest tests, the CPU during a tempo change is over 90% during a tempo change and only 20-30% at other times. Unfortunately, my previous "fixes" (either reducing the Kontakt instances or reducing the size of each instance) don't actually work because a single reduced instance still has the CPU around 85% during a tempo change. So, there actually isn't a workaround because even if I replicate VE Pro instances, the CPU will just jump back to 100%.

I've tried almost everything I can think of, with the exception of reverting back to VE Pro 4.

I also tried all combinations of buffer sizes and reducing the midi and audio ports in VE Pro.

Sorry for the swarm of messages, but I keep finding new information. If I completely mute everything in Cubase, so there is no midi data being sent to VE Pro (or Kontakt), the CPU usage still jumps to ~100% on my VE PRO slave.during the tempo change.

Progress! It is most likely a Kontakt problem. If I manually disable the host tempo sync in *every* instance of Kontakt, it seems fine. I guess Kontakt 5 has issues with tempo sync and large templates. I'm not sure if this is specific to instances of Kontakt in VE Pro or in general. I'll need to change my setup to test it directly in Cubase, but I'll report back on anything I find.

I never thought about tempo sync, apparently I never found the need. however I looked at it, I have external sync enabled in every case; I have projects that double the tempo or more in Cubase. But, I am using Kontakt 4. This seems like an issue for NI per Kontakt 5 to me.

I've just joined the club. Distortion, Kontakt-only instruments in VEP 5 (VSL stuff not affected), CPU through the roof, and only on tempo ramp (in Cubase).

The weird part of it is that I've been working on the same 4-5 projects this week, using the same template, no change whatsoever, no upgrade, nothing. I just opened a project from three days ago and spent half an hour figuring out what was causing this.

If it was a config problem I'd understand (sort of), but this just happened out of nowhere. Very strange.

Like everyone here, I deactivated Kontakt tempo sync but this is obviously not a solution.

I too have issues with tempo changes using Cubase 6.5x and VE PRO.  I am not sure if it is just Kontakt or not, but my template is gigantic and I run a sound card buffer of 128.  I noticed that when mixing if I increase my sound card buffer to 512 I can mix the cues with no issues what so ever that I hear at 128 samples.  So I assume by me increasing to 512 that it is lowering the cpu usage across all machines getting rid of the problem.  In other words I think this shows more evidence that there is a cpu spike happening on the slave machines during tempo changes.

-Danny

I would really like to see this solved.  Has anyone determined if this is a VE PRO problem or a Kontakt issue?

I haven't been able to reproduce this with other tempo synced plugins, so it seems like Kontakt (or one of its libraries) is eating a lot of CPU during tempo changes, causing crackles in large templates. It seems like a problem to solve by Native Instruments (or the specific library manufacturer).

This only happens with Kontakt in VEPro with Cubase.  When I connect DP to the same instance of VEPro tempo changes work great.  Also when I had the same template with Logic I did not have a problem with tempo changes.  It potentially has something to do with the VST implementation?  Also when I load the libraries directly in Cubase tempo changes work fine as well.  So I am not sure the problem is in Kontakt.  If you want I can send you my VEPro Metaframe.

Like I wrote above, Cubase + VEP + Kontakt used to work just fine. AFAIK it started out of the blue with no configuration change on my Mac.

I'm in contact with NI about this Kontakt issue, so hope is on the horizon.

Any news? This has started happening for me too.