SONAR X1 and Kontakt Tutorial NEEDED for 100's of newbies

First  insert Kontakt in the synth rack. A pop up dialog should appear. Here is where you configure how you want Kontakt to work in your project. Pay attention to multi outs. You will want to select All Synth Outputs.  Click OK and X1 will start making multiple audio tracks.

Now you have Kontakt up and empty. No instruments are loaded. Toward the left top you will see a menu that has Files Libraries Database. Lets go to the database by clicking on it. You should see columns with type bank and timbre. For now select under type Piano/Keys. In the next column select Grand Piano. Look down below the database and you should see 3 pianos there. Select the last one which should be Grand Piano. You do this by double clicking on it. That instrument module will load. Now here is the hard part(not really)You should see the GP module with its name there near the top left. Just below it is output and just below that is the input.

The input should match your MIDI tracks output. I will get to that in a moment.

Be sure that the mixer is shown for Kontakt. There you will see some channel strips You add more if you need to up to the number of audio tracks you have created using that popup dialog that came up when you inserted Kontakt. Now you may need to set up the mixer for other channels. At the bottom the first channel will have 1/2 that is output 1 and 2.  Nest if don't see a output in numbers just plus click on it and a dialog will appear. Here you select another out from the list.  You do this for as many outs as you need.

For the first module it is set up by default most likely the way you will want.  Now lets load another instrument module. Go back to the database and select organ. In the third column select vintage looking below Melotron Organ should be there. Double click on it and it will also load. Although the module is different the area above where the name is is the same as the piano the output will most likely be the first or channel 1. Change that to 2. Click on it and it will give you a drop down window that offers all the mixer channels setup in the mixer.  You want the second one or as above 2.

The MIDI channel should also be changed to 2 if it isn't already.

Now you have Kontakt setup you need to go to your first MIDI track and select its output to Kontakt. The Inspector is a good place to go for this. If using the Inspector Go to the bottom of the inspector and select Kontakt.

Just below the FX bin you have 3 drop down widgets. The first sets the channel for Kontakt. The other 2 don't count with a soft sampler. They do with hardware. 

If there is data in the MIDI track then play X1 by hitting the play button.

For the second MIDI track do everything the same except change the top channel widget to 2.

Repeat as needed.

Not to confuse the matter for the OP... 
But I just wanted to mention that Sonar is particularly flexible in the routing of VSTi outputs.
You can set any track to receive any synth output.
Once you're up-to-speed with the routing, you'll appreciate the flexibility.

Applause to John - Stepping through post #2 should get any newbie up and running.  And Jim's footnote about how slick it is to route any MIDI track to any synth in Sonar is something that will light up like the proverbial Eureka! light bulb, once these basics of MIDI routing in Sonar are grasped.

Props to you both.

Randy B.

God Bless you John!! and timwalk

I have wrestled with this since I got Kontackt - seemed like I could only load one sample per track/instrument

Thanks for the help guys!

I believe NI are adding "Output section presets" with Kontakt version 5.

They already have this in Kontakt 4. I don't think it's that bad setting up Kontakt outputs...

I'm aware of the method that John described as that is how I've always known to do this with Kontakt.
My question is...is it possible to setup multiple instruments in one instance of Kontakt and have them function separately without routing to different midi channels. 
For example, like Omnisphere......the way you can route each of the 8 channels to a separate output but have them all on the same midi channel and have them functioning independently and playing different melodies, etc. 
When you get to using some of the in-depth string libraries w/ Kontakt and so forth you can start running out of midi channels rather quickly if you only have 16 midi channels.

bladetragic


I'm aware of the method that John described as that is how I've always known to do this with Kontakt.
My question is...is it possible to setup multiple instruments in one instance of Kontakt and have them function separately without routing to different midi channels. 
For example, like Omnisphere......the way you can route each of the 8 channels to a separate output but have them all on the same midi channel and have them functioning independently and playing different melodies, etc. 
When you get to using some of the in-depth string libraries w/ Kontakt and so forth you can start running out of midi channels rather quickly if you only have 16 midi channels.

I don't see how that would be possible. Nor do I understand how that could be done in any other synth. If you send MIDI data from one MIDI track to all modules in Kontakt all those modules will play the same MIDI data. If you have a synth that has its own MIDI patterns such as SD3 then yes but it isn't just playing the MIDI from the MIDI track.

Hi Jim, Aah you're talking about efx and busses *within* an instrument. This is new in K5 but I think this is way beyond what this thread is talking about ;-) I also take back my words about Kontakt being "not too bad" to set up. I guess it *is* a little confusing - and the outputs from K5 seem to look a little screwy in SONAR X1 (when you choose which out a SONAR track is assigned to) - although they play back fine.

Jim you sure about high CPU with unused audio tracks in Kontakt? I have never seen that on my system. Are you basing this on the Sonar CPU meter or Windows?

OK that may explain it.  Thanks for explaining.

your problem is likely that you didn't add the kontakt location to your scan folder.  and if you've installed kontakt while sonar is open then it hasn't had a chance to scan it anyway.

go to preferences (P) and go to FILE>VST SETTINGS and add the correct folders to the scan path for the 64bit and/or 32bit Kontakt where it was installed.  then click on the SCAN VST FOLDERS button.

you need to use it as a VST, not standalone for it to route into sonar.

With SONAR closed, re-install Kontakt and pay attention where it installs the VSTi dll files. When done, open SONAR go to the Cakewalk plug in Manager and add the location of the Kontakt dll files and then do a VST scan.

That should do it.

Is the Kontakt .dll file the sort that you can't copy and paste into your preferred VST folder after installation if you didn't direct it there originally? Some you can do that with. All I know is it sure helps to have all your VSTs in one folder - a sub-folder in the master Cakewalk program file, instead of having them spread out all over and having to add more and more paths for the plug-in manager to scan. RB

For any newbies using kontakt 4. I remember that someone released a few presets for the audio routing on the NI Kontakt forums a while back..  I'm on my mobile now so can't search for it. You load them as a multi.

Hifidavid


Well another bump.  For those of you who tried the points to get this to work, I'd love to see if they could post an update to John's great post.  I have been trying to get Kontakt 5 and Sonar to work for weeks now without success.  I get close though... I get the midi tracks to load and can play the instruments, recording midi data and playback...but I can't figure out how to record the AUDIO.  Where does this record/route to?  Do I create a seperate audio track with the input from Kontackt audio out?
What am I missing?

Thanks!

you don't record the audio, you just route it through the output tracks in sonar.  it sounds to me like you're trying to run kontakt standalone instead of as a VST.  you have to use it as a VST, insert it from the X1 browser or from the synth rack, choose however many outputs you want to use and the routing for the first stereo output pair of Kontakt automatically goes to the 1st output track created in sonar. 
 
after re-reading your post again, I'm not sure that's the case either.  regardless, even if you have kontakt inserted as a vst, you don't record the audio output.  if you have to have it as a static wavefile, (which some users want, but it's not always necessary depeding on what you're doing), then use BOUNCE TO TRACKS or FREEZE.  either of those options will give you a static wave instead of the output from the output tracks of the synth.