JuanSOLO wrote:
1. I remember there was lots of talk about Kore 1 being a flop. Is this just software related? Because the Kore 1 controller looks way better as far as Hardware ports.
Kore 1 was OK, they just fixed a lot of things with Kore 2. First off Kore 1 hardware is stickier with hot plugging. On Windows and certain Mac systems I guess if it's not plugged in or loses connection you have to reopen your Live set with Kore in it I hear. For whatever reason that has never been a problem for me, probably one time in twenty if the USB cord gets loose or something I have to restart Live, usually I just plug it back in and it works.
The other Kore 1 thing was for about the first 8 months you had to have the hardware plugged in to use the software, which was a stupid idea on NI's part.
2. My idea is that in my Live set I would just have Kore loaded instead instances of FM8, Reaktor, and Mssive. So I would be able to use Kore solely to store and recall all of my presets in the variety of NI softs without overloading my CPU? I mean I have seen this and watched some videos, I guess I just want to know how well it actually works as a plug in Live. How CPU and GUI friendly it really is.
I'm kind of surprised this idea was not integrated in to something like the APC40, some kind of Ableton controller with browser access so to speak. I hope Ableton and AKAI made enough money off the cheap ass build the APC40 turned out to be and decide to use some of those funds to build a better quality piece of hardware.
Kore eats CPU like a moderate or lightweight synth plug in. The way it works as a single instance is really pretty sweet. There are what they call Performance presets that hold all your currently loaded plug ins in various states modification wise, and in various on/off states. I run a modest at this point Core 2 duo 2.4Ghz. laptop and my Kore instance for my Live Set is roughly:
Kontakt 3 instances for various songs. Running a huge Akoustik Piano etc.
Absynth 2 instances
Massive 2 instances
B4, Filterscape, Zebra 2.
So roughly 10 instruments plus about 20 FX plug ins.
Outside of Kore I run an instance of Speakerphone and Buffer Override. Mostly the CPu stays bellow 60%. To me anyway that's pretty good considering my laptop is 3 1/2 years old now. The plug ins of course aren't all running at the same time, each Performance Preset turns off and on Tracks to save CPU. That line up would cripple even a modern high end desktop in most cases. I have songs set up as individual clips and each Performance is set to a program change message that sets up that song for my controller keyboard and Kore. Theres a little navigating in Kore to change focus for the controller itself, but beyond that it's all automatic.
I have no idea why Ableton completely lost focus on performing musicians that want to use Live as a way to play soft synths, but I think they've just never seen it as a viable market. A lot of people who play keys will use a Korg or other workstation with Live separate. Changing soft synths in Ableton has alway been dicy at best, and setting it all up to get Live to turn off the CPU to save resources is a PITA bar none. Then again if you're wanting to be glued to the screen of your laptop or set it all up in Arrangement View it's not so bad I guess.... but if I'm going to use a traditional linear window for live performance, it's going to be with Digital Performer <- Chunks also free up some CPU etc.