Hi Charlie
You disable all non needed (Wifi, Bluetooth, Flash ......)
To see if you have enough CPU power and enough fast disk you should set all pre-load buffer size to maximum (in you DAW and in VSL)
Is there are no more problems, you can start to reduce them until you get problems ! and set it back to the values where there is no problem.
Then if the latency is not acceptable, you should go with SSD and/or put memory to 32 or 48 GB, and/or change computer, and/or add slaves
For Kontakt it is the same, also it is better to have Kontakt in the DAW, if you put it in VEP you will add another layer in the processing.
Best
Cyril
MacBook Pro M3 MAX 128 GB 8TB - 2 x 48" screen --- Logic Pro --- Mir Pro 3D --- Most of the VI libs, a few Synch... libs --- Quite a few Kontakt libs --- CS80 fanatic