srdmusic:
You guys are on the right track. I am a beta tester for Steinberg’s Cubase 8 and Nuendo. I’ve brought up this concept several times since I have also left Logic to work in Cubase and see the benefit of the Cubase’s audio engine controlling volume dynamics rather than Kontakt or any other instrument. Kontakt in particular has a horrible gain structure. After extensive research and even an intense generic remote set up I found a work around in VEP. Anything over 64inputs from VEP back into cubase starts to multiply the CPU usage by a lot so I have paired down tracks to food groups like (Violins I Long, Violins I Short, Violas Long ect). I have 2 x12 cores and 1 x 8 core with 64 outputs coming into cubase via VEP so that I don’t run into CPU spikes like you do if you start to go over the 64 input mark. In VEP in the instrument options of Kontakt you can tell Kontakt to not listen to CC7 or CC10 (Volume and Pan). I shut off Volume and pan for each instrument. In VEP every output of Kontakt gets it’s own Aux buss where each instrument can be assingned. 16 instruments = 16 Auxes in VEP. I then go into the automation map of VEP and learn cc7 and cc10 to each aux channel. This makes VEP the controller of volume and pan instead of Kontact. Then each aux gets bussed down to their appropriate bus category (example: Electronic Perc Hi, Electronic Perc Mid, ect.). VEP has a 32bit float mix bus just like Logic and Cubase. Kontakt has a 24bit mix engine so if you hit the red on Kontakt you hear a clip where as in Vienna’s volume automation you can go to about +6db before hearing a clip. Low volumes also sound more clear in vienna than in Kontakt. VEP’s mix bus sounds very similar to Cubase’s Must a German thing. On additional note: You’ll have to set the volume to max in Kontakt as you won’t be able to control it’s volume anymore. I do this by triggering a huge chord as velocity 127. I usually set the instrument volume to something that will never clip. At least 3db lower then clipping. This gives you room to move the fader up or down in VEP. Some instruments have a CC modifer written into the instrument. In group options select all samples and delete the cc7 modifier. Cinestrings seems to the the only instruments that do this internal CC modifier so don’t worry about that step if you’re not using cinestrings. Write with it this way and let me know how you guys get on.
Hey srdmusic,
I started rethinking your suggestions and I am really eager to try those. Just a few questions if I may…
I see an instant benefit of controlling volume/gains with the faders and not with the cc11/cc7 midi automations as you get more than 127 steps, so changes are smoother…but you are not using that, right? You still use midi cc (cc7) and not automation lanes which are supposed to provide greater “resolution”. So, are you saying that there are some other differences than that?
Any digital fader is lowering the gain by lowering bit depth, as far as I know…correct me please if I am wrong. Are you saying that VEP’s and Cubase’s 32bit audio engine are both lowering gains “more successfully” than Kontakt’s 24bit engine? And result is , among others, clearer low level sound?