Multiple Instruments in Kontakt

[MisterGreen]

1 minute ago, msmcleod said:

For Kontakt, what I tend to do is add a single per-output track for the first instrument, then:

1. Add another instrument in Kontakt
2. Run the outputs batch script to add the outputs
3. Use "Append Instrument Track" for each of the instruments.

You can do this for each time you add a new instrument.

Thanks Mark. I'll give that a try.

[abacab]

55 minutes ago, msmcleod said:

For Kontakt, what I tend to do is add a single per-output track for the first instrument, then:

1. Add another instrument in Kontakt
2. Run the outputs batch script to add the outputs
3. Use "Append Instrument Track" for each of the instruments.

You can do this for each time you add a new instrument.

@msmcleodThat method does work great! At first I wasn't sure if you meant that initially you added a "simple" instrument track for the first instrument, but I did that and everything else fell into place. 🙂

Keeps things nice and tidy in the track view and console (no extra MIDI tracks), with every thing lined up channel wise between Cakewalk tracks and the Kontakt multi. Plus you can have the MIDI data for each instrument on it's own track.

I never tried the "Append Instrument Track" feature before, but that seems exactly what it was intended for. 👍

Thanks!

[abacab]

19 hours ago, Billy86 said:

 After you’ve set up the multi, I’d save the multi as some has mentioned doing, then close the instance of Kontakt, then reopen it. Sometimes, some tasks in Kontakt have to be closed/reopened to take affect. Saving the multi you’ve set up allows you to easily reload it as a failsafe. 

Thanks for that tip! When I followed the method suggested by msmcleod to add instruments one at a time, everything lined up OK channel wise, but I noticed that I was only getting sound on channel 4 no matter what I did. I had inserted 4 instruments as a test.

So then I saved and closed my project. When I re-opened it, everything was playing fine!

[Billy86]

11 hours ago, abacab said:

Thanks for that tip! When I followed the method suggested by msmcleod to add instruments one at a time, everything lined up OK channel wise, but I noticed that I was only getting sound on channel 4 no matter what I did. I had inserted 4 instruments as a test.

So then I saved and closed my project. When I re-opened it, everything was playing fine!

I’ve received a lot of help from the community. Glad I was able to help. 

[DamianAdams]

having similar problems, i wanted to output separate audio for studio drummer but it all goes wrong.

it would not be so bad if you could find the correct output and rename it in cakewalk but they marry the two together , I thought at first it was just mono but it seems to be after a set number of outputs it all goes pear shaped.

Any help gratefull on what is going on here.

 

 

 

 

 

[msmcleod]

1 hour ago, DamianAdams said:

having similar problems, i wanted to output separate audio for studio drummer but it all goes wrong.

it would not be so bad if you could find the correct output and rename it in cakewalk but they marry the two together , I thought at first it was just mono but it seems to be after a set number of outputs it all goes pear shaped.

Any help gratefull on what is going on here.

The key is to ensure your outputs are correctly mapped in Kontakt first... then add the track in Cakewalk.  Cakewalk won't retrospectively rename its output names once it's created the track, as it's not expecting them to change (and AFAIK there's no mechanism for it to tell Cakewalk they've changed names).

AFAIK Kontakt is the only VSTi that does this - most VSTi's have a fixed number of outputs when the VSTi is inserted.
 

So in other words:

1. Add Studio Drummer in Kontakt
2. Make sure the audio outputs are correctly created/mapped within Kontakt.
3. Add the instrument track in Cakewalk.

Looking at your screenshot, It looks like you might be doing something wrong in step 2.

Kontakt is not particularly intuitive with regards to audio outputs, so you might have to refer to both Kontakt's documentation and the documentation for Studio Drummer.

[MisterGreen]

 

21 minutes ago, msmcleod said:

The key is to ensure your outputs are correctly mapped in Kontakt first... then add the track in Cakewalk.  Cakewalk won't retrospectively rename its output names once it's created the track, as it's not expecting them to change (and AFAIK there's no mechanism for it to tell Cakewalk they've changed names).

AFAIK Kontakt is the only VSTi that does this - most VSTi's have a fixed number of outputs when the VSTi is inserted.
 

So in other words:

1. Add Studio Drummer in Kontakt
2. Make sure the audio outputs are correctly created/mapped within Kontakt.
3. Add the instrument track in Cakewalk.

Looking at your screenshot, It looks like you might be doing something wrong in step 2.

Kontakt is not particularly intuitive with regards to audio outputs, so you might have to refer to both Kontakt's documentation and the documentation for Studio Drummer.

I was thinking the same thing. I'm not familiar with Studio Drummer but by the looks of it, shouldn't the Kontakt mixer have 11 outputs?

Edited January 4, 2021 by MisterGreen

[msmcleod]

Just now, MisterGreen said:

 

I was thinking the same thing. I'm not familiar with Studio Drummer but by the looks of it, shouldn't the Kontakt mixer have 11 outputs?

The Kontakt mixer can have as many outputs as you configure, so you'll have to add them and map them to the Studio Drummer outputs.

You may want to save the output configuration as a preset within Kontakt so you don't have to manually do it again.

[msmcleod]

@MisterGreen - Looks like it's a pretty involved process getting multiple outs:

https://support.native-instruments.com/hc/en-us/articles/209584489-How-Can-I-Use-my-DRUMMER-Product-with-Multi-Outputs-in-KONTAKT-5-

 

[Steve Harder]

On 1/1/2021 at 11:16 AM, abacab said:

The track assignments in Cakewalk don't match the newly reassigned outputs in Kontakt

My untrustworthy memory seems to recall a thread (where?) that talked of a bug/feature between Cakewalk and Kontakt that resulted in what you are seeing.  I'll try to find that thread tonight.  Fwiw ...

[abacab]

1 hour ago, DamianAdams said:

having similar problems, i wanted to output separate audio for studio drummer but it all goes wrong.

it would not be so bad if you could find the correct output and rename it in cakewalk but they marry the two together , I thought at first it was just mono but it seems to be after a set number of outputs it all goes pear shaped.

Any help gratefull on what is going on here.

It appears that you are still using Kontakt 5, which if I remember correctly, had different versions with various output configurations shown in Cakewalk.

This was improved to a single version for Kontakt 6.

[abacab]

52 minutes ago, Steve Harder said:

My untrustworthy memory seems to recall a thread (where?) that talked of a bug/feature between Cakewalk and Kontakt that resulted in what you are seeing.  I'll try to find that thread tonight.  Fwiw ...

This all seems to be sorted by following msmleod's procedure described earlier:

Add Kontakt as the first instrument track to Cakewalk.

Setup your instruments in Kontakt with their respective outputs enabled (Run the outputs batch script to add the outputs)

Add the remaining instrument tracks one at a time to Cakewalk (Use "Append Instrument Track" for each of the instruments).

Note: I am using the latest Kontakt 6.4.2 Player.

Edited January 4, 2021 by abacab

[Plutogenie]

On 1/2/2021 at 6:48 AM, msmcleod said:

For Kontakt, what I tend to do is add a single per-output track for the first instrument, then:

1. Add another instrument in Kontakt
2. Run the outputs batch script to add the outputs
3. Use "Append Instrument Track" for each of the instruments.

You can do this for each time you add a new instrument.

Many thanks, everyone and especially @msmcleod , for these instructions. They worked for me too when trying to create multiple tracks of NI Lores instruments, and similarly for multiple Spitfire library tracks.

One part I was unsure about, but worked out after some mis-steps, was that I needed to click "Yes" in the dialog that opens with "Append Instrument Track" in Step 3. From what I can work out, the "Yes" option assigns the first simple instrument track to Kontakt 1 (under channel in the MIDI tab of Inspector) and the appended track to Kontakt 2 (and so on for each subsequent track).

I am a novice when it comes to many Cakewalk features, and only just starting out with Kontakt and VSTs etc. I hope that this additional clarification might help other novices like me, assuming my understanding is correct, that is! 😉

On 1/2/2021 at 6:46 AM, Billy86 said:

Okay. Version 5 had different configurations that had different output arrangements. After you’ve set up the multi, I’d save the multi as some has mentioned doing, then close the instance of Kontakt, then reopen it. Sometimes, some tasks in Kontakt have to be closed/reopened to take affect. Saving the multi you’ve set up allows you to easily reload it as a failsafe. 

I am using Kontakt 7 Player and there is an "!" button in the top right hand corner (i.e. Restart) which one video tutorial explained can be used when adding new Kontakt outputs to apply changes. @billy86 , is that button equivalent to closing and re-opening Kontakt, or do you find closing/opening Kontakt is worth doing anyway just to be sure due to Kontakt quirks? This question is for my curiosity and learning.

Thanks again, everyone, for the terrific help. It saved me a lot of time.

[msmcleod]

2 hours ago, Plutogenie said:

Many thanks, everyone and especially @msmcleod , for these instructions. They worked for me too when trying to create multiple tracks of NI Lores instruments, and similarly for multiple Spitfire library tracks.

One part I was unsure about, but worked out after some mis-steps, was that I needed to click "Yes" in the dialog that opens with "Append Instrument Track" in Step 3. From what I can work out, the "Yes" option assigns the first simple instrument track to Kontakt 1 (under channel in the MIDI tab of Inspector) and the appended track to Kontakt 2 (and so on for each subsequent track).

I am a novice when it comes to many Cakewalk features, and only just starting out with Kontakt and VSTs etc. I hope that this additional clarification might help other novices like me, assuming my understanding is correct, that is! 😉

 

Per-Output instrument tracks are essentially the same as Simple Instrument tracks with the exception that they have a MIDI channel assigned.  

So for a new per-output instrument track to be appended, it needs:
1. A spare audio output on the VSTi that isn't being used by any other instrument track
2. A midi channel on the VSTi that isn't being used by any other instrument track

There's an important step though - you need to make sure that within Kontakt (or whatever VSTi you're using), you assign each instrument to its own unique audio output, and make sure it has a different channel for the input.

Each VSTi does this differently, so you'll have to consult the documentation for each VSTi.

Here's some examples:

Kontakt:

Omnisphere:

TTS-1:

 

[Plutogenie]

On 4/3/2023 at 10:53 PM, msmcleod said:

There's an important step though - you need to make sure that within Kontakt (or whatever VSTi you're using), you assign each instrument to its own unique audio output, and make sure it has a different channel for the input.

Many thanks, @msmcleod, for this extra pointer. I found that Kontakt did this automatically when using the Batch function step. I will know, now, to double check this.

Until recently I was mainly using Spitfire dedicated plugins (e.g. Originals, a smaller Abbey Road One library). Separate instances for each instrument in my small projects (only about 5 VST tracks, an audio track I'm forking, then later some bounced audio tracks, no FX etc) were working fine on my system (Acer Nitro i5 quad core, 8 Gb RAM, external 2TB SSD, Focusrite 4i4 Gen 3, Win10). But now I'm experimenting with bigger Kontakt libraries, and combining more instruments etc, the above instructions will become increasingly useful I think. So much to learn!😀