386: Kontakt Player - optimal settings to improve playback

Kontakt Player Silver and Gold both make significant demands on the capabilities of your computer, and you will need to carefully adjust the settings in order to obtain the best results for your particular system.

This article is a quick reference for changing these settings to get the best possible playback. For further details, refer to Kontakt Player in your Sibelius 4 User Guide or "Upgrading to Sibelius 4" booklet.

Which settings to change

To judge the best settings for a score, choose the most complex passage, or a passage in which you encounter playback problems, then try changing the settings, playing back that section again after each change to judge the improvement.

It is assumed that reverb is normally switched off (and is only used when playing back scores that use a small number of slots). Try changing the following settings, in this order:

• Global voice limit: reduce this to something much lower than the default; e.g. 32. To change this option, choose Window > Kontakt Player, then look for the icon of a pair of eighth notes (quavers), with the text 0/256 immediately after it. Click and drag downwards to reduce the number.
• Use ECO instrument set: the ECO sounds require 30% less CPU power on average than the full instrument set. To find this option, choose Window > Kontakt Player, then click Options.
• Increase latency: this can reduce or eliminate stuttering or uneven playback. To find this option, choose Window > Kontakt Player, then click Audio Setup. Mac users NOTE: any value higher than 53 ms will disable DLS playback. To be sure to hear the DLS device again set the latency back to 35 ms
• Share slots: switch on Use the same slot for identical sounds in Play > Playback and Input Devices > Kontakt Player Options to reduce the number of slots used overall.
• Limit slots: if sharing slots doesn't significantly reduce the number of used slots, try limiting them in Play > Playback and Input Devices > Kontakt Player Options.
• Switch off DFD: you should only switch off DFD if you have a large amount of RAM in your computer (around 512Mb total RAM installed on Windows, around 1Gb total RAM installed for Mac OS X). To switch off DFD, choose Window > Kontakt Player, then click Options.

There is more information on adjusting Kontakt Player settings for improved playback in Tips for slower computers in the Kontakt Player topic of your Sibelius 4 User Guide or Upgrading to Sibelius 4 booklet.

Download PDF file

A PDF file containing extra information for optimizing playback of larger scores using Kontakt Player Gold, is also available for download here:

• Getting the best out of Kontakt Player Gold for Mac (408K, requires free Adobe Reader software)