Kontakt DRUMMER Series - Use Multiple Outputs to Record Drums in Pro Tools

How to route each drum from the Native Instruments DRUMMER series in Kontakt into Pro Tools and record the drums.
This method works for all of the DRUMMER instruments from Native Instruments - Studio Drummer, Abbey Road 50s Drummer, Abbey Road 60s Drummer, Abbey Road 70s Drummer, Abbey Road 80s Drummer, Abbey Road Modern Drummer, etc...
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STUDIO DRUMMER
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Abbey Road Drummer Collection
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Once you setup multiple outputs in Kontakt you can route out each drum to separate tracks and record them into your DAW. Then, you can use any plugins that you want to mix your drums.
This video covers everything in great depth - how to add outputs, set the default output for Kontakt, name tracks in Kontakt, create Kontakt output presets, route the outputs of Kontakt into Pro Tools, switch the routing of each drum in the DRUMMER series, and everything else you will need to know.
This video also applies to any other library for Kontakt when you want to create multiple outputs for different instruments.
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[@MrMattypooo]

First off, thank you so much for putting this together. I just wanted to point out that rather than reconfiguring all the outputs in the kit every time you load it up, you can save the kit as a preset in Kontakt and it will load it up with the appropriate routing. In Ableton I'm able to save the entire track group (VST and separate kick/snare/etc tracks) as a single file that I can drag into the session. The amazing thing is it'll even save the VST preset that is being used so there's ZERO routing or nonsense to deal with. Just drag the track group in and start playing. I'd be surprised if Pro Tools didn't have some similar sort of feature.

[@daveleblanc1729]

Thanks for the video! Couldn't figure this out on my own. Native Instruments really, really, REALLY needs to make this so much less painful and fix the bugs!

[@draemora7228]

Thank you so much man!! This is such a great tutorial!! I got it all set up while watching and now I can print every track at once. You just saved me days of work!

[@ShyEnkai]

Really great walkthrough! I can't believe how painful this process still is, surely native instruments can do something to make this easier on their end.

[@BenoniStudio]

A lot of this is Pro Tools. It's quiet a bit faster to do in other DAWs.

[@ShyEnkai]

@@BenoniStudio I've had a go at doing this in Logic and Ableton. I find Ableton limits the amount of stereo outputs you can get from Kontakt unless i've done something wrong...

[@rjbaldwinscore]

@@BenoniStudio Im a Cubase and Protools user. It's the same in Cubase too. Such a convoluted process. Thanks for the video

[@elevengauge2014]

You're a lifesaver man! Couldn't figure out how to get the inputs to show on Pro tools, and now I do!. Thanks a ton :) You've saved me quite a bit of time

[@BenoniStudio]

Thanks for watching 🤘

[@jowat6023]

Legend! Thanks for posting this up, i've been wanting to do this for years and could never figure it out. You rock!

[@BenoniStudio]

Cool man, thanks for the view.

[@SynthMan65]

Fantastic Tut! I just moved from Ableton Live as my primary production tool to PT 2020 and this tut is one of the first things I need to be spoon-fed on :)

[@brainiceland]

This video was a lifesaver. Thank you so much for making it!

[@samchoate1719]

I've been trying to do this for what seems like my entire life. Thank you sir.

[@BenoniStudio]

thanks for the view 🤘

[@m00zed]

Valuable info including the troubleshoot, thanks man!

[@MeMe-rs9yr]

Nice video man explains it much better than the article, ive got a few things ive found in regards to kontakt which might speed up the workflow for people: -Simply unloading Kontakt 5 (by suspending track, closing track or otherwise unloading the plugin from RAM) is enough to enable kontakt 5 to see the new outputs, restarting your DAW shouldnt be necessary. -The only difference between saving the output array as default and saving it as a preset is that the host DAW will only recognise custom names of output channels from kontakt if you save it as default. However this will result in the default kontakt mixer having 13 channels no matter what instrument you use. The tradeoff of the host DAW not recognising custom output names seems not worth the hassle of having junk ouput channels everytime you use kontakt Might be an unpopular opinion but setting up this vst is pretty painless for me, feels very similar to setting up a real micced up kit in the studio.

[@sharonroyk]

Thanks a bunch. I got what I wanted in the first 4 mins! :) Watching the rest too.

[@CharlieGiaretta]

what an awesome tutorial - thank you

[@NATmusic27]

Thanks for the video, i understood everything now. An advice for anyone who's here trying to learn this and finding it difficult: the first time you watch this (the first time you're learning anything, really) is the most overwhelming one. but when you go back the next day, it's 10x times easier, don't get discorauged ;)

[@williamblake]

Thank you for this great tutorial. NI is so much more complicated than XLN or Slate Drums, (really long load times too), so your video was v helpful

[@antcox169]

Thank you so much brother! This is exactly what I've been trying to figure out!

[@evgeniiliev1195]

Very Good Tutorial clear and understandable without unnecessary tales! (Y)

[@bobspearing4453]

Just tried that with Ableton, I only needed a crash cymbal! 2 hours later ....yay! It's not set up as neat as this, but I get the concept - great work on this explanation.

[@cintanegramusic9517]

Native Instruments made it too complicated!!

[@evenform]

why in the hell would they make it so stupid

[@mannie1974]

THANKS !! works great !

[@aaronpanganiban4827]

So it's almost best to keep it low key very generic, and set up the amount of inputs for an average session for kontakt. The thing that freaks me out is going from project to project and then getting some kind of error message saying "outputs have changed in kontakt" and then everything goes wonky. And like everyone here is saying, THANK YOU for going through all of this to help people out.

[@NATmusic27]

I always wonder why do this things need to be done like fricking hacks when they should just be normal straight forward functions

[@eranddroory9987]

Great vid. Thanks :-)

[@marshy_moo]

Surely, the only reason they would recommend use of stereo channels is so that panning and any stereo FX (i.e. reverb) which happens inside the plug is faithfully delivered. Can't imagine ever needing panning or reverb on my kick, I'll pass that through as mono, thanks. :)

[@thenub5606]

This is the most confusing thing I have ever tried to do on Protools

[@patrickjosephtobin8014]

i tried & its so over complicated rubbish

[@waynemiller6070]

cakewalk too!

[@MrBateryjka2]

Jep :D

[@californiamusic]

Very helpful, thanks. NI isn't the most user friendly software

[@jawojciechdrzymala]

2:19 Just for myself if I need to jump to this part anytime in the future.

[@Kheiredinek]

Thank u

[@bobmusikk]

Your explanation is complete and clear, but, It shows that Kontakt is 17 years old and never changed, what a pain. I tried before but gave up. With Cubase and Groove Agent 5 routing all drum pad output channels to the mixer is 1 press of a button, 1/2 second.

[@BenoniStudio]

It would be nice for this to be updated for sure.

[@bobmusikk]

@@BenoniStudio I just use them still, they sound real good but I use the internal mixer

[@sbrave]

Great tutorial. Why is this not any easier 20.x years later? Creating new tacks in Kontakt that don't match PT, saving as default, closing & re-opening PT, etc etc Bless you!

[@BenoniStudio]

Yeah, it's kind of a pain. But saving those Kontakt output presets really speeds things up. You can switch around in a minute or two.

[@AC-pu2eh]

How do I change what sound is on a track? For example. Pull out the Chop and put in a tamberine in its place for example

[@PaoloPeeweeDurante]

Hi There, thanx for your spectacular tutorial video. I ask you a question: Why when i send i sound (kick for example) from the master ch to Ch1,2 ect. the sound changes. Loose the fatness and the presence. I cannot understand how to do to have the exact sound routing the "close mics" to multiple outs. I can here everything separeted but the sound is not the same. Thanx a lot

[@soer4964]

Awesome Tutorial. BUT... I still have a question. In the mixer are several tabs. But there are missing instruments/ tabs like cow bell, wood block from the Kit Menu. How can I route these instruments to separate channels? Is it possible? If yes, how?

[@AC-pu2eh]

I can’t find the answer to this question either. Did you ever figure it out?

[@thenub5606]

Thanks for this video, Im sure you mentioned this but I can't find it again without rewatching the whole thingl again lol. But is it best to bounce all of the audio with the faders set to 0 in kontakt and all of the panning set to center?

[@BenoniStudio]

depends. mono tracks will always be center anyway. if you are using stereo tracks, which is what NI recommends, then it's up to you. You can do a pre-mix in DRUMMER and then bounce out, or just center everything and do all mixing in PT. It's up to you.

[@gatlinproduction]

I need help really bad. I follow most of all your instructions. What I didn't know if I made these changes inside of Studio Drummer would it affect all of my other Programs. I can not for the life of me get any other instruments to play back. But when I go back to this session I can hear my drums. What I'm trying to figure out now, If I upload a new session it's like the whole Kontakt is muted and no instruments are not playing back. I can see movement but it's like nothing is coming out. Can you help with this? Later on I can do a video showing what's going on if you like.

[@bryancameron9469]

I’m having trouble seeing more than two options for soundcard / host output. It only shows me stereo 1 and 2. Everything else is not connected. It only shows st. [1] and st. [2]. The list doesn’t even drop down like this with AUX options. So it keeps me from outputting more than one instrument channel in my DAW.

[@DunLan]

Has anyone else had a problem where after you get everything routed as shown the drums sound quiet and dull? I can see all my signals are coming out of the correct channels (if I play the snare it comes out of the channel I labeled "Snare"). I have done it start to finish 3 times and watched every video I could find so I am sure pretty sure everything is routed correctly but when I play drums they are quiet and dull. I compared to a copy of the exact same patch where I did not change the routing at all. I even turned up the volume to match the volume of the default studio drummer patch to see if it was only a volume discrepancy but there is a significant tonal difference as well. There is a bunch of top end missing. I initially thought maybe the overheads or room mics were not coming through but I am getting signal from those channels as well. I am so confused!

[@gatlinproduction]

Really ❤Love your teaching and tutorial. Excellent job. Native Instruments you gotta be fucking kidding me. It’s gotta be a better way.

[@nealpolitan_6th]

My drums aren't coming through the master but through their own channels. Everything is working but did I do something wrong or is this okay?

[@gatlinproduction]

Question. Do you have a video on Superior Drummer 3 doing the same thing using protools? I would love to see that in action.

[@BenoniStudio]

Nope, sorry. But Superior Drummer 3 is easier to setup multi-out than Kontakt is.

[@gatlinproduction]

@@BenoniStudio I spent a couple of hrs trying to set that up. I’ll try again tonight

[@sooesoss6063]

BFD3 is the way to go!

[@georgeg4136]

Nice video, thanks! However, the sound from multiple outputs drums is not the same to the sound from a stereo output. I have tried it with all Native Instruments drum sets, it's worse, very bad sound compared to the sound from a stereo output. Ιt is impossible to get exactly the same sound from multiple output drums.

[@SaenSaen1]

I'm having the same issue. The routing of each part to their own tracks sounds way worse than just the stereo summed version of the same kit...what gives?

[@herenazano2132]

Bro i downloaded drummica how do i move it to another computer

[@_octodel]

this will work in cubase?

[@Harrysound]

Where were y ou last week with the video when I was pulling my hair out.

[@blackbirdofficialis]

can you do the same thing but for DAMAGE (studio drum kit)

[@BenoniStudio]

I don't see any way to route individual channels for each instrument in Damage. You would have to load separate instances of DAMAGE and route the MIDI for each hit type into the proper instance.

[@deanc2000]

Watching this, and the video before this, I get the feeling that this series wasn't meant to be "played" via your midi keyboard. You've got 49 keys of different articulations, so how would you go about picking which articulation to play from your keyboard? I guess the optimal way to use this series is to pick out the grooves, pull out the midi loops to compose the full song, and mix it. Right?

[@BenoniStudio]

You can record with the standard articulations and then go back in your DAW and adjust to different artics if you need to.

[@RYAN-pj5ot]

Do you know if you can multi-route to 28 tracks in Pro Tools from Kontakt, or is the limit 16? I'm using GGD and I want to route every drum piece to it's own track in pro tools

[@RYAN-pj5ot]

Actually, I was able to figure it out

[@bobbytagoona]

what mic did you use to record your voice?

[@BenoniStudio]

Probably the RODE Procaster, maybe the MXL 2008, one of those.

[@sixweekssobergtr1]

I literally have done this step by step 5 times over the last 3 days and was not successful. I don't know what i"m doing wrong at this point I am just about done with Pro Tools. BTW this is a great tutorial but I'm losing my f#*king mind trying to set this up. Is there a template I can download? I am running PT 12 and NI Komplete 12

[@normanbataille8865]

same here

[@promiseesimorp2519]

It's quite easy. I could show you over whatsapp call if you still don't get it

[@44y4l4]

I did the "save current output as default" for all formats and now i want to undo it but can't find how..

[@BenoniStudio]

Just change the output setting to what you want and re-save. It's always a good idea to make several output presets, including a DEFAULT preset.

[@antonybecirspahic6801]

Trying to do this with kontakt inside of maschine inside of pro tools and it just isn't working. Native Instruments why have you done this to us?

[@evgeniiliev1195]

Can You or someone to explain me , is it possible any of these VST Drums to set up in MIDI external chanels(not in Audio)for exaple in Pro Tools. Regards !

[@BenoniStudio]

Can you expand on what you mean by "in Midi external channels"

[@evgeniiliev1195]

@@BenoniStudio I mean separate MIDI Chanels! To record each drum via MIDI, On MIDI tracks..

[@evgeniiliev1195]

I mean like on this tut: kzbin.info/www/bejne/rmTFn5WwpbCIrKs but with plug-in like EzDrummer or other similar (not Xpand)

[@herenazano2132]

I understand now its discontinued...if you still have a copy left it would mean much 😬😬

[@aiconic10]

You can split the midi into separate tracks but you still cannot record multiple drums with a single occurrence. So your right back where you started with the fail. The only way to accomplish what I would need is to play all drums at once. Nobody sequences in this manner. So how do you pull this off? I'm a lifetime MPC and Battery user. No idea how to use a drum VST beyond routing it. That's the easy part. All of the videos show prerecorded midi with multiple parts. None of them show how you record the multiple parts into one midi file after you route the outputs. Kind of defeats the purpose.

[@waynemiller6070]

Jesus, I've spent days and days trying to figure out HOW to make something play rather than playing. What a pain in the ass. Maybe after figure out how to bring the astronauts home after the onboard explosion, I can get kontact to play more than one f'ing instrument.

[@whiskyngeets]

Thanks for this, but good grief what a pain in the ass. For all the work NI did on these libraries, you'd think they would've planned for folks wanting individual outs to their DAWs.

[@BenoniStudio]

It could for sure be easier on NI's side. But some of this is Pro Tools specific. It is easier to use multi outs in other DAWs like Studio One.

[@ronnyb5890]

check out red room audio's superb fiddles,sounds like the real thing

[@sooesoss6063]

Confusing!!!!😮😮😮😮

[@buzwa2k]

My matt halpern drum pack doesn't have the mixer tab on the bottom so I can't figure out where to find it

[@therantingboy]

God could ni make it easier???

[@BenoniStudio]

To be fair, a lot of the problem comes from Pro Tools. This is much quicker in Studio One.

[@KozmykJ]

Then, once you have absorbed all that, go and take a nap ...

[@deanc2000]

So confusing.

[@jamespetrilla2176]

Whoever created the output section of Kontakt is a sociopath.

[@sevchyk]

The only drawback of your video is the fact that you took 47 minutes yo explain a single thing…

[@patrickjosephtobin8014]

so over complicated .i got bored trying.

[@BenoniStudio]

how do you think i felt making the video! 🤣

[@retainittech6272]

Way to much bullshit to go through. I have been watching this video for days and still don't know WTF is going on. Killed all my creative thoughts in the process. This is no reflection on this youtuber, I appreciate your work in this video but it's just way to fucking stupid that they expect the home user to do this.

[@BenoniStudio]

TO be fair to NI, a lot of this is Pro Tools. For many other DAWs you can simply change the output in Kontakt and you are ready to go.

[@retainittech6272]

@@BenoniStudio I wish this were true. I am using Reaper and I have literally been trying to accomplish this for over a week now. Not much hair left now to pull out.

[@eltouristoduo]

Dis sum BS. Definitely poorly implemented. Shitty on multiple counts, just one of which is that you have to set it up before you open an instrument !

[@lovepeaceabundance5625]

remake this without the ramble and get to the point