Handling VST instrument "clashing" across tracks

Hey all. One common issue I run in to is wanting to use the same VST plugin across many tracks. So I’ll load a VST instrument in to instrument bank #1. I’ll insert two notes… One in track 1 and one in track 2 using the same instrument. What happens is, one kinda clashes with the other and they cancel each other out (usually one plays and the other plays very momentarily then stops).

So what I typically do is just duplicate the instrument and use the duplicated instrument in track 2.

This works, but I run in to CPU issues pretty quickly because of all the duplicated instruments I need to run to achieve layering. I feel like I’m doing this wrong.

Is there a better way? Thanks in advance.

Obviously, layering is an expensive technique ^_^But…

If the instrument supports multi-timbral use, this is one possible way of bringing down CPU usage.

Whether this is possible or not depends on the plugin - and it’s not_that_common a feature, unfortunately.

Other approaches involve parallel-processed send tracks (basically, effects) to transform the sound in any number of ways.

And rendering multiple takes, obviously, could be handy as well…