Has anyone out there figured out how to send multiple outputs from Kontakt 5 into Sonar, say from Studio Drummer, the same way one would do with Session Drummer 3? My intent is to eq each drum instrument individually for my final mix. I know that Studio Drummer has some awesome control for each kit instrument already built in, but I still prefer to mix down from a single console for my final mix-down, and I can't quite figure out how to do this with Kontakt. I've created the new outputs within Kontakt, assigned each kit piece to a given output, but can't seem to properly expose those Kontakt outputs as audio inputs into Sonar.
 
So far, I've been bouncing the instrument to a single stereo track after tweaking each instrument as cleanly  as possible within Kontakt, but that's just not cutting it for me anymore. I need to tweak only the snare, or only the kick etc, so I need them all on separate audio tracks for my final mix-down.
 
Help, someone? Anyone?

Hi - I am not at home right now, and will not be for several hours.  BUT, I have all kinds of experience with routing multiple loaded instruments from a single instance of Kontakt in Sonar, and will try to run you through the steps.  I just have to wait until I get back home.
 
Basically, there is a button near the top of the Kontakt UI, that toggles display on/off of the Output section.  It is HERE in that section that you set up the routings for each loaded instrument.  There is a batch function down in the output section that has a function to clear out the current default routing assignments and to create a new stereo set of routing assignments, for each instrument.  I try to explain this below - but not in detail.  I will walk through this when I get home, and I PROMISE you I will respond in great detail as to how to do this.
 
I did find this from an old post I put out there - perhaps you can start with this:
 
I have been a long-time NI user and have Kontakt 5 currently running -x64. 

I use multiple instruments in Kontakt all the time, but I reset all of the output channels using that batch function to clear the output section and recreate channels with 1 stereo channel for each loaded instrument.

I then rename them to match easy to read output channel names, like Piano, Bass, Organ, etc.  That makes for easier reading at a glance for me back in the assignments in the console.

Also, when I insert Kontakt 5 into the rack, I do NOT tall Sonar to create tracks for all of the outputs supported by K 5.

Instead, I manually insert 1 pair of tracks for each loaded instrument, 1 audio and 1 midi, so that they are ordered like:

T1 - Audio (ot two if you want them split)
T2 - Midi

T3 - Audio
T4 - Midi

And then each is paired appropriately associated with each of the instruments.  I do it this way because I like to that kind of order.

The process would certainly be quicker if I just told it to do it on insert of K 5, but it's really not a big deal to do time-wise.

In addition, everything is nicely named for me, which helps out a lot, and doing the above is a one-time deal per project.

I NEVER have problems with any outputs getting mixed up, or accidentally leave a bunch of unused tracks that got inserted just because the instrument supports having them.

Give it a try - I think you will find it a reasonable outcome for a reasonable amount of time, with zero problems stemming from doing it that way.
 
Bob Bone

OK - home now.
 
I tried to sum it up above - will take another stab at it.
 
I load multiple instruments into a single instance all the time, usually piano, organ, strings, bass.  Another instance may have some synths and such.
 
So, for each instance, I want to be able to route each instrument's output to separate audio and midi tracks in Sonar.
 
To do the above, for one instance of Kontakt, I do the following:
 
1.  Load up each desired instrument - I limit each instance to 4-5 instruments.  Each instrument, as it gets loaded, will by default auto-increment the midi channel assigned to each.  All of the loaded instruments will, by default, go to the first output channels.  This is what we will be adjusting in Kontakt.
 
2.  So, at the top of the Kontakt UI, you will see a button that toggles on/off the Kontakt's audio Output Section, which is where all audio routing assignments take place.  Make sure you toggle the button so that the Output Section is displayed at the bottom of the UI.
 
3.  Now, what I do is to wipe out the current assignments and set up new routing assignments, using a built-in function in Kontakt.  Down in the Output Section, you will see a list of batch functions, one of which tells Kontakt to wipe out any current assignments and create a new stereo pair of outputs for each loaded instrument.  Click on this function, and Kontakt will do just that - and you will end up with a bunch of stereo output routing assignments, with one stereo pair for each intrument that you loaded. 
 
4.  Now, what I do is to click on the top of each of the routing assignments and rename each one to be a shorter name than what it puts there by default.  So, for Piano I rename it to Piano, etc, so that my assignments are all named something nice and easy to read.
 
5.  Now, in Sonar, I insert usually a left and right audio track, as well as a midi track, for each instrument, naming them like Piano Left, Piano Right, Piano Midi, etc.
 
6.  Once the tracks are inserted, I change the inputs to the appropriate audio outputs from Kontakt, which are nicely named to make reading this easy on the screen.  
 
7.  For the midi tracks, the output of each midi track will of course go to Kontakt, but I assign the midi output channel for each midi track to match the corresponding midi channel assignment for the instrument in Kontakt, so if Piano was loaded as the first instrument in Kontakt it will have a midi channel of 1, and that is what I set the midi output channel in the channel strip for the Piano Midi track.  Organ would likely be channel 2 for me, strings channel 3, and bass channel 4.  This will cause the midi data for each midi track to play on the appropriate instrument in Kontakt, even though all of the midi outputs themselves are simply routed to Kontakt,  It is the midi channel assignment setting for each midi track that makes it all work, coupled with the appropriate audio assignments for the tracks being fed by the corresponding audio outputs as assigned in the Kontakt Output Section.
 
So, the above is how I do it.
 
I hope that helps, 
 
Please feel free to ask any additional questions, in case my crystal clear understanding comes across as mud to you.
 
Bob Bone
 

Thanks, Bob! I really appreciate your input. However, I am looking for an even lower-level routing than that - primarily for drum kits. Sonar's Session Drummer allows you to route each drum instrument into its own audio output, which means you can have your kick on track 1, Snare on track 2, hi-hat on track 3 and so on. This allows for individual treatment of each kit instrument in the final mix-down. Have you figured out how to do that with Studio Drummer (or any of the other kits) in Kontakt? Thanks again...

Hi baudze,
Are you wondering how to route individual drums to K5 outputs? If so, this might help:
http://forum.cakewalk.com/tm.aspx?high=&m=2481347&mpage=1#2481353
 
Dean

are you using a simple instrument track when inserting k? Don't, use the audio/midi combo option, but get your k routing sorted first as Bob says

Dean, you're a life saver! I believe this is exactly what I was looking for. Can't wait to get home and try it tonight. Thanks a million! :-)

Well, I have not attempted to do that particular granularity in Kontakt, but I DO do that all the time with another of their components - Battery 3.
 
I have multiple custom kits that I set up, where each kit DOES have specific 'cells' routed to their own individual outputs.  Battery 3 supports up to 32 outputs, and if you need more, just build a second kit the way you want it, and insert an additional instance of Battery 3 into your project, load it with the new kit, set up a new track folder for this kit, and load up all the audio tracks you want into that track folder.
 
That is PRECISELY how I run everything I do with Battery 3, so that I CAN have each and every kit piece able to be seperately processed, for effects and mixing, and all of that.
 
 
Do you have access to Battery 3?
 
I suppose if you tried to do something like that in Kontakt, you could use the routing assignments process that I described in great (but apparently not needed detail- doh! :), and you could load up multiple instances of the same kit as instruments within one or more instances of Kontakt, and have only 1 note per instrument get used.
 
So, what I mean by that is, and this is quite hokey, but it should work - I would have a drum kit loaded as my first instrument, the same drum kit loaded as my second instrument, and so on, up to 4-5 of them or so.  Then I would adjust the routing assignments in the output section so that each drum kit instance would have its own audio outputs from Kontakt.  This would then give me the ability with audio tracks to point a single audio track to each loaded instrument of the drum kit, thus allowing the individual control desired.
 
It's essentially the same thing as what you would get with doing it with Battery 3, but it would be handled much more cleanly in Battery 3 because it would all take place within a single instance of Battery 3, and of the desired kit.
 
I hope that helps - I WILL take a look at drum processing in Kontakt, in case there is something within that to allow the granularity you seek - I always Battery 3 so I just do not know off the top of my head what the possibilities and the limitations are of doing drums within Kontakt.  BUT, I WILL look into it for you and post back shortly.
 
Bob Bone
 

Thanks, Bob. I have Komplete Ultimate 8, so I do have access to Battery - just haven't learned it yet. Been mostly focused on Kontakt 5 so far. I believe Dean's response showing the channel-specific output routing is what I was looking for, and I expect it will give me the same capability you are describing for Battery. I'll give that a shot tonight and let you know what I find. Thanks again!

Battery 3 is EXPRESSLY built from the ground up for doing exactly that sort of thing.
 
Just fire it up, load any kit, and as you click on any particular 'cell', you will see output routing choices down at the bottom right, and you can set it there for each piece in the kit, up to using 32 different outputs for a single instance of Battery 3.
 
It is WAY more effective than trying to do something similar in Kontakt.
 
Bob Bone