What appears to be erratic Kontakt volume may be a misunderstanding on my part.  Here's the deal:
 
• It could be any Kontakt instrument, but assume Scarbee Jay Bass as an example.
• When I first insert the instrument, it seems to play at normal volume.
• When I put a Controller 7 = 127 message in the track (which should make it full volume), the instrument is suddenly much quieter and I can see that the volume slider in Kontakt has moved down to the half-way point.  I also tried a Controller 11=127 in addition, but that did not help.
• I should have skipped adding the Controller, but it's too late now; and, anyway, the reason I did this was because I find that if I do not, the volume slide in Kontakt may change on its own.
• I can set the volume slide manually by using the mouse in the Kontakt interface, but the Controller message moves it back down to half way.  That makes no sense.  127 is the maximum value.
• In the free Kontakt player, you can click the gear symbol and select -6 db, 0, +6, or +12.  I cannot this function in the full player.  (This is not the same as the issue above.)
 
So, how do I set the volume of a Kontakt instrument reliably?
 
Thanks.
 
Update: I removed the controller messages and moved the slide up manually, but, unforuntately, this function does not seem to automate: doing in it Write mode did not automate the volume setting.
 
 

I had a similar issue with a midi file that appeared to be originally composed on a yamaha keyboard, and it was one a track where I had Kontakt going. I couldn't see where anything specifically was touching the volume. I went and deleted all the sysx banks, I deleted a single track where it was setting controls (didn't see any CC7's though) to multiple tracks, but didn't have any notes. Finally, I went and nuked some setup controls, RPNs, and NNRPNs that each track had - I didn't want to use the synth's chorus, reverb, and what nots, (I'll almost always do those on the synth's audio track) and there wasn't any volume envelopes to preserve. That did it. If had had done things step-wise, I might have been able to identify a specific problem locus.. So I don't know if it was Sonar or Kontakt (in the face of unused CC's and RPNs/NNRPN's)... but it might give you a place to look into...
 

I hope I understand you.
 
Try to do this metod.
 
in PRV automation Volume CC7.
 

 
Track Midi Automation: Add Midi Volume and set it as you wish...
 

 
Go to the Preferences
 

 
after STOP go to the empty space (no clip under cursor) and push Play then quickly Stop. Now your Volume CC7 will be reset to the Track Midi Volume Automation. And you can play this normal Volume.
 

 
I hope Cakewalk fix this bug (push Play then quickly Stop)...
 
And you can change CC# setup in this this track inspector...
 

 
Right mouse click to the CC91
 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 

konradh
• When I put a Controller 7 = 127 message in the track (which should make it full volume), the instrument is suddenly much quieter and I can see that the volume slider in Kontakt has moved down to the half-way point.  I also tried a Controller 11=127 in addition, but that did not help.

It seems all NI instruments do this. CC7 = 127 gives you 0dB on the Master Volume control in the synth, and you can only get the higher levels by tweaking the control manually. But I assume 0dB means the samples are playing at their recorded level, so you might as well settle for that, and if you need more volume for some reason, do it with audio volume in SONAR.

In Kontakt, click the spanner for the instrument to go into "Instrument Edit Mode".
 
Click on the "Instrument Options" tab.
 
In the "Instrument Options" popup dialog, choose the "Controller" tab.
There you can set the "CC 7 Volume Range" - set it to 12db and you'll get that full swing with CC #7.
 
Here's the catch. It will save with the project OK, but to repeat this you need to save the instrument.
There does not appear to be a global way of setting this, it's saved in the .nki file.
 
You can of course, set up templates with instruments loaded and set - which is what I do for various setups.
 
Hope that helps.
 
Cheers - Cliff

Thank you all for going to such trouble to explain this so well.  You guys are great--much appreciated!

Cliff, CC7 was set to -6 so that was the main problem.
 
Andrey, Thanks very much for the screen shots.  That was very kind and helpful of you!
 
I need to take some time to learn Kontakt in depth, but you know how it is—there is always a project to finish and no time to dig into the details!

Glad it helped Konrad.
 
That one got me, drove me silly for days trying to work that one out :-)
 
Cheers - Cliff