Using Take Lanes

Hi;
I recently purchased Native Instruments Strummed Acoustic Guitar, but I've been a user of their Session Strings for a few years.  As anybody here who has either of these programs knows, both are capable of Animation and Articulation choices within the program.  On Session Strings every time I want to make a change in my animation/articulation I've been creating a new track with a new instance of the Kontackt 5 program.  This, of course, uses up much memory and I'm wondering if there's a way to have different articulations changes using only one instance of Kontakt 5.  I asked over at NI and they said to load a new instrument into the same Kontakt player but use a different articulation and MIDI track for every new articulation I want to use.  My question here is how do I utilize this insofar as linking the 2nd (etc) instruments to a 2nd (3rd, 4th, etc) MIDI track(s).  Also, do I insert a new MIDI track for each, use new take lanes, or what?
 
Hope some one can help.
 
Thanks
John B.

chris.r
Hi John
 
Yes, you can do it after NI's suggestion, load your articulations into same Kontakt instance and assign each to different MIDI channel. Here's what I usually do. Create new MIDI track for each MIDI channel. To assign track's output and MIDI channel, in Track View click the Output bar and find Kontakt there. You can do it directly in the track strip or in Inspector on the left (after making the track active/focus i.e. by cliking on it). Next, in Channel bar you then choose MIDI channel for each track, you may need to click "All" in Layout Presets drop-down bar above the first track to make Channel bar visible in track strip.
 
Now you can draw/record MIDI data into you tracks. I usually put the Kontakt track with audio outs and all corresponding MIDI tracks in same Track Folder.

Please help me a bit more.  At this point I can't even get a second instrument I've added to the player to even make a sound.
Thanks
John B

CakeLab    Now that's the best one yet.. did you come up with that? 
 
I have screen shoots in my tutorial on how to use a VST. see my signature for the link.
 
I've never used Kontakt not even sure what it is but I know lots of people here use it. 
But it sounds like a multi channel VST.
 
I use Airs Xpand2 and it has 4 instruments available.  So that might be similar
So you insert 4 midi tracks.
Set the outputs to Xpand
Set channels of each midi track to  ch1 thru 4.
Now load an instrument into the 4 places in Xpand and make sure they are turned on and the volume is up.  
You can set the banks and instruments in the track inspector or use the GUI. If you use the GUI make the track inspector boxes for Bank and Instrument NONE. 


 
 
Chris it's easy to post screens shots.
 
I have One Drive set to store all screenshots.  Drop box also does this. 
I then use Imgur to upload those.
Then post the link from Imgur. Takes less than a minute. 
 

I like the term "Cakelab".  It's easier and quicker than Cakewalk by Bandlab.   I think I'll call it that from now on.
Thanks for all the tips.  It might be easier now.  I'll try them and let you know.
 
John B.

which kontakt dll are you loading? there are 3 with different output configs (kontakt, kontakt8out and kontakt 16out)... and point 2, does cakelab now handle dynamic changing of a VST's number of outputs?

I think that the problem might be that John is trying to send each articulation to a different Kontakt audio output. Our tips above utilize only the main stereo out.
 

Johnbee58
...apparently they changed Kontakt's output channel selection.  You said that every new articulation was supposed to create a new output channel for it, but it doesn't.  There is one channel called st1 and three called aux...  There's no easy way to connect the articulations to a MIDI track...
...
2. Opened the Kontakt Output selection and went in and created another channel -st2
3. Created three MIDI tracks in Cakelab
4. Changed the inputs of the three MIDI channels to Kontakt...

John, for this moment try don't touch the audio outputs in Kontakt. Each new articulation should play from the same main audio stereo out. What I meant is that each new articulation should already have been assigned to a subsequent MIDI channel, so essentially you should be all set just by loading the articulations, no more steps needed in Kontakt.
 
To connect the articulation to a MIDI track you have to select corresponding output and channel in Cakelab MIDI track, like in the graphics in Cactus' post above. Output should be set to Kontakt and channel to one of your Kontakt articulation's channel.

In Kontakt instruments just above MIDI outs there are audio outs and I think that is what John was trying to mess with. But then he would need to create additional audio tracks and route separate Kontakt outs there. I think it's essential for now to not confuse audio in/out with midi in/out, and try to wrap basics how the audio/midi signal is flowing in CakeLab, which may be a little disconcerting in the beginning.
 

I know the instruments demo installed. I would assume those should show on the list here but it is blank?

my bad, click the cogwheel to open preferences, and then choose the database tab to see your library paths, make sure the factory lib is in there
 

Yeah it launched that app for me, but I have it installed, hence my follow up... you can locate libraries with that too but it's quicker via the prefs dialog
Sorry for the confusion

I tried it again after I put up my "Yours In Frustration" post and I (think I) got it to work.  Tell me if I'm doing something that doesn't need to be done.
1.  Started new Cakelab project
2. Inserted Kontakt Player, chose Strummed Acoustic Guitar and sent in three articulations.
3. In Kontakt I went into the Output section.  I clicked on the + (add).  A box opened and I clicked on a dropdown next to Standard/Host.
4.  I selected KT aux1 [1] and a new st1 appeared in the Output channels
5.  I clicked on Output+again and again went to the Standard/Host dropdown and this time selected KT aux 2[1].  Now I have three output channels.
6. Inserted 2 MIDI tracks in Cakelab. 
7. In MIDI channel 2 I went to the input and selected Kontakt, then went to the dropdown selecton at the top of the MIDI channel where there are three dropdowns stacked.  On the top dropdown I selected Kontakt 2
8. In MIDI channel 3 I went to the input and selected Kontakt, then went to the dropdown selecton at the top of the MIDI channel where there are three dropdowns stacked.  On the top dropdown I selected Kontakt 3.
9.  I went back into the original Kontakt player and set up my articulations in the second and third instruments.
 
This seemed to work.  All three channels played the different articulations and the CPU usage didn't seem to move.
Now, based on some of Chris's new post and the others, am I taking any unnecessary steps?  I came to these steps through trying a combination of what was posted here and various YouTube vids I saw.  I'd like to find a comprehensive user's guide for Kontakt Player.  Cannot seem to find that.
 
John B.
 
 
 
 

Bob Bone did a write up on Kontakt 5 a while ago that might be useful
 
http://forum.cakewalk.com/Sonar-X3-and-Kontakt-5-per-Bobs-request-m3030422.aspx
 
It's a bit of a read, but may help you out in setting up Kontakt5 for multi midi and multi output.
 
 

You're welcome John.
This is the one I used, so when I saw your post it took me back to this conversation.
 
Bob spelled it out pretty well on this one, but I also remember there was a post with pictures (so you could see what was going on).  I haven't found that one yet. 
Yes..  Post what you got so far (if you can).
 

OK.  I just made a step by step guide for myself that I'm going to put into my Studio Notes notebook.  This is how I do the Kontakt Player set up for multiple outputs.  Even though this is working for me, I'd like you to look it over and tell me if there are any steps that don't seem to make sense to you or that I may not need.  I'd appreciate it.
 
1. Insert Kontakt Player
2. Load multiple articulations into the one instance of Kontakt Player
3. Click the + sign next to Outputs
4. In box that appears, open dropdown at Standard/Host
5. As the original first channel is already output 1, select "KT aux 2 [1]" for the second articulation
6. Repeat steps 3&4
7. In Standard Host, for third articulation, select "KT aux 3 [1]"

Repeat steps 3,4 &5 for as many different articulations you want to load into Kontakt

8. In Cakelab, insert as many MIDI channels as you have created outputs in Kontakt
9. In each MIDI channel, go to the Output and select Kontakt
10. In each MIDI channel towards the top of the channel there are three dropdown selectors that are stacked.  On the top dropdown box, select the corrusponding channel you want (Track 2 would be Kontakt 2.  Track 3 would be Kontakt 3, etc.
11. Go into original Kontakt player and program your desired articulations
12. Record each desired articulation on the corrusponding MIDI track.

Cactus Music
Question, can you use other libraries? 

other libraries usually (always?) require the full blown kontakt (unless they come with the player), but that can be had 2nd hand for ~150 from time to time... it's waaaaaaaay more powerful than dim pro, dunno about air expand