I have a composition that is using a large number of VSTs so I can switch patches. I found this thread viewtopic.php?f=4&t=184758 which describes using an instrument rack to hold "thousands" of VSTs with no heavy penalty to the CPU. I could not get this to work past a few VSTs as it would peak the CPU over 125% with as few as 15 VSTs so I made a test.
I made a rack with 10 chains of Omnisphere all playing a simple 1 bar melody. The patches were selected based on audibility to verify they were working. The rack, when run with all VSTs on peaked at 47%. I then loaded a group of 10 Omnispheres using random patches. Played together, with the Instrument Rack idling, the peak was 26%.
I then played the rack and the group. The peak was 47% so the group did not impact the rack at all. Visa-versa, not true.
My main VSTs are Alchemy, Zebra 2, Omnisphere, and Kontakt 5 (mostly for piano). I have Komplete 7 but don't really use it that much. I've read about the benefits of using racks to save CPU but don't see this happening. Please chime in with advise as I'm probably looking at 100 instances of VSTs.
Thanks,
Burt