Komplete Kontrol 3 Instantiates & Opens Windows A LOT slower than V2

FosterMoose · November 2023

I noticed after installing Komplete Kontrol 3 that instruments were taking much longer to instantiate and open in Cubase Pro. So, I tested the observation. I picked two dozen different instruments of varying sizes and complexity from many different devs (including NI), and timed how long it took them to go from being enabled to being able to open the window for that instrument. I also did the same using Komplete 2 and Kontakt 7.

Averages:

Komplete Kontrol 3: 13.3 seconds. Komplete Kontrol 2: 8.9 seconds. Kontakt 7: 4.3 seconds. Almost a TEN SECOND difference between KK3 and K7. That may not seem like much, but it adds up fast when working with a big template. It's also a long enough pause to be a flow-breaker, sort of like waiting over ten seconds every time you make a save. Further, the issue seems to be exacerbated when enabling multiple tracks. As an additional note, the difference remained vast when the instrument was already instantiated and the window was just opened for edit. KK3 never took less than five seconds to open the window. Kontakt was almost instantaneous.

What happened? Not sure, but It seems that KK3 is re-scanning or re-acquiring the instrument database EVERY time it opens a window. KK2 used to take a long time to open the first instrument, but then it was only a bit slower than Kontakt. Kontakt itself is outright zippy.

Can this be fixed? Aside from the new browser being near-unusable because it can't be resized and quick previews being basically negated because of having to switch back and forth between the library browser and the main UI, this slowdown is now happening. Granted I have a lot of libraries (just under 102K presets), but that was never an issue in the past and Kontakt still mows through them at the same speed it always has.