Is there a way to control different instruments that are inside a Kontakt instrument without having to create a new Kontakt instance on another track?
For example, I add orchestral brass section to Kontakt. Since it's few instruments bound together under one .nki file, in some software like Sonokinetic Da Capo I can set the volume of each of the 4 instrument types. The natural thing for me to do then would be to start an automation for each volume knob - full control over how loud which group plays when. It seems like automation is impossible in Kontakt though! Is it really?
The next thing that came to mind was to create 4 instances within Kontakt instrument, each with only 1 instrument group. This way I have full manual control over each instrument type. Much worse option though, as now I need 4x more resources to make the same thing! But what makes it straight up impossible is that then there are articulation types, so in order to really have full control, assuming each instrument has 3 articulation types, I now need 12x more resources for the same thing as creating few volume/articulation automation lanes that take 0 extra resources.
Obviously, if this would indeed be that then suicide rate among film/game composers would be absurdly high, so I must be missing some simple solution to that headache. How do you do it?
Orchestration workflow question
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simon.a.billington simon.a.billington https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=341278
- KVRAF
- 2375 posts since 12 Nov, 2014
It depends on your platform.
Of you're on Logic one instance per track is really ideal in its cause because of the way Logic manages memory and possibly CPU.
Of you're on Logic one instance per track is really ideal in its cause because of the way Logic manages memory and possibly CPU.
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- KVRAF
- 3071 posts since 29 Sep, 2005
First, if I may suggest, since your question is specifically about Kontakt, you may want to consider a title change and ask the mods to move your thread to the Instruments forum. I think you will get much more response and there are several people in this forum extremely knowledgeable of Kontakt.
One instance of Kontakt is capable of providing a Multi of up to 64 instruments over 4 MIDI ports (each port capable of 16 channels) and as many stereo audio channels. Your manual will show you how to set this up and there are numerous Youtube vids to assist.
An instance of Kontakt does not require much in the way of resources; however, the instruments you load can and likely will, especially with orchestral instruments.
Personally, I limit the instruments I load into an instance of Kontakt for greater control, especially of volume automation of an instrument. I load as many instances of Kontakt as required.
For example; on one instance of Kontakt I may have all my Albion instuments (Strings Hi, Strings Lo, Strings ensemble, etc. Or, I may load each of these into just one instance of Kontakt.). On another instance of Kontakt I may have Action Strings, or Grosso, or LASS, etc, etc.
With the flexibility of Kontakt and controlling automation via MIDI there are many ways one can have their instruments set up. Yes, Kontakt is fully automatable and controllable. If you cannot then you have done something wrong in the set up.
Personally I opt for this flexibility opposed to concern of resources. Certainly at some point the resources become a concern. One only has so much RAM to work with. Unless you have an outdated CPU I wouldn't worry about the CPU usage.
Kontakt offers good use of CPU and is relatively low on CPU usage, depending of course on the library being used.
To answer your initial question, yes, there is a way to control many instruments inside an instance of Kontakt. By using MIDI control commands and a little known (I think) feature of Kontakt - take a look at the "Auto" tab on Kontakt (top right on the browser).
This feature gives you 127 MIDI CC's on "MIDI Automation" tab and an additional 511 controls on "Host Automation" tab. Add to that multiple MIDI ports you have a powerful instrument at your hands.
You can assign these parameters in a lot of ways. Check your host and Kontakt documentation for how to use.
For me, I use Kontakt in the ways it adds to easy work flow. Every time I use it can be different from the last time. It all depends on my needs at the time and Kontakt affords me that ability.
HTH
Cheers!
dsan
One instance of Kontakt is capable of providing a Multi of up to 64 instruments over 4 MIDI ports (each port capable of 16 channels) and as many stereo audio channels. Your manual will show you how to set this up and there are numerous Youtube vids to assist.
An instance of Kontakt does not require much in the way of resources; however, the instruments you load can and likely will, especially with orchestral instruments.
Personally, I limit the instruments I load into an instance of Kontakt for greater control, especially of volume automation of an instrument. I load as many instances of Kontakt as required.
For example; on one instance of Kontakt I may have all my Albion instuments (Strings Hi, Strings Lo, Strings ensemble, etc. Or, I may load each of these into just one instance of Kontakt.). On another instance of Kontakt I may have Action Strings, or Grosso, or LASS, etc, etc.
With the flexibility of Kontakt and controlling automation via MIDI there are many ways one can have their instruments set up. Yes, Kontakt is fully automatable and controllable. If you cannot then you have done something wrong in the set up.
Personally I opt for this flexibility opposed to concern of resources. Certainly at some point the resources become a concern. One only has so much RAM to work with. Unless you have an outdated CPU I wouldn't worry about the CPU usage.
Kontakt offers good use of CPU and is relatively low on CPU usage, depending of course on the library being used.
To answer your initial question, yes, there is a way to control many instruments inside an instance of Kontakt. By using MIDI control commands and a little known (I think) feature of Kontakt - take a look at the "Auto" tab on Kontakt (top right on the browser).
This feature gives you 127 MIDI CC's on "MIDI Automation" tab and an additional 511 controls on "Host Automation" tab. Add to that multiple MIDI ports you have a powerful instrument at your hands.
You can assign these parameters in a lot of ways. Check your host and Kontakt documentation for how to use.
For me, I use Kontakt in the ways it adds to easy work flow. Every time I use it can be different from the last time. It all depends on my needs at the time and Kontakt affords me that ability.
HTH
Cheers!
dsan
My DAW System:
W7, i5, x64, 8Gb Ram, Edirol FA-101
W7, i5, x64, 8Gb Ram, Edirol FA-101
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Winstontaneous Winstontaneous https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=98336
- KVRAF
- 2351 posts since 15 Feb, 2006 from Berkeley, CA
Great reply, dsan@mail.com.
To the OP - I've found the Groove3 videos very helpful for learning the finer points of Kontakt automation (among other things).
To the OP - I've found the Groove3 videos very helpful for learning the finer points of Kontakt automation (among other things).
