Vienna Symphonic Library Forum
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  • Instances...how much is too much?

    I have been putting together a large orchestral template.  I first started with lots of small instances, but then I read in the VEP manual that it said that the fewer instances the better.  

    So my question is-what is the limit of how big you should make a single instance?   I see you can have something like 750+ audio tracks coming out of a single instance and many dozens of midi ports, so even with my relatively powerful slave computer, I would not run out of audio outputs or midi ports even if I just put everything in to a single instance....

    So that's my question.  I'm running something like 700 Kontakt and Play instances in my template currently,  and that is using about 90 Gigs of Ram.  I'm running a pretty powerful 8 core (16 thread) 7820x i7.  

    The last instance I made was for all my woodwinds and it used somethiing like 150 audio outputs and 25 MIDI Ports.  

    How do you decide when an instance is "big enough"?  


  • Well, people organize things their way, I'm seeing people here with an enormous number of instances because they like to compartmentalize to that extent.

    For me, five instances is getting to be too much. I don't like too much in an instance so that I'm scrolling right and left all the time so that's a primary reason for a new instance.

    I like my BFD3 setup in its own instance, I'm using all of its stereo outs and frequently half the mono outs so it spreads out. I may put some of the other percussion in as it's going to mean a holistic mix with the reverb designs.
    By habit, and this comes from when you could assign threads per instance, I keep the synth sound design in its own instance, and the things which comport with that mix-wise are in that one. I tend to compartmentalize percussion, including keys and 'Elements', harp and like that. But I like to keep things fairly simple.

    I do not do a lot of audio outs. My preferences have been at 4 stereo for some time. I mix by automation map, and write automation in Cubendo and have not a lot of need for channels coming back. And this is for rendering separately like stems. I have been printing a lot of audio and I like to print the reverb return separately from the instrument channel. But I'm doing it one or two insts at a time.