Kontakt setup tips: Multitimbral synths in Cubase

Goes over setting up a multitimbral synth in Cubase, especially how to configure Kontakt in computers that are underpowered. Also going over Halion setup!
More about me at www.gibbonscreative.ca
#kontakt

[@HeathcliffBlair]

Absolutely the most lucid explanation of the process I've seen on youtube. Foolproof. Thanks. Subscribed immediately!

[@jefgibbons]

Thanks! Glad it helped.

[@Menschenfischen]

Bro I LOVE YOU AND THANK YOU !!!!!!!It took me years to check dis out...now i understand!!!!best regards from germany

[@hintzundkuntz6208]

I absolutely love this video! Best explanation of the topic ever! Here's a suggestion for a follow up: A video about how to "render in place" multiple outputs of multitimbral synth, so you get an audio track for each (midi)-channel. If I try this with kontakt in cubase, it works at some point, but it get's quite messy, with a lot of empty extra audio tracks automatically created, ect. It is easy to do with dedicated instrument tracks or with drums via "disolve parts", but how do you do this properly with a bunch of midi channels routed to e.g. Kontakt? Would be great!

[@zow7604]

THAT WILL BE NICE

[@constantinestavropoulos2808]

I have seen countless videos on this topic but never one so comprehensive, concise and so well spoken. Great tutorials! Thank you and keep them coming!

[@wasiliyfilipchuk7136]

Hello. What is the name of the monitor?

[@rickvestuto]

This is a great tutorial but do you have one like this for Abelton? Can you do this same thing in LIVE 12 ? best rick

[@arsalanbeladimusicandpiano3211]

WhyWhy aren't Burly Me Autonaic channels recognized, especially if the bass and drum are separate on the track??

[@BandAmbassadors]

Superbly explained ! best video on this topic so far ! love from the Band Ambassadors !

[@beMOTIONdESIGN]

Thank you for this! Best explanation of how to do this that I've seen so far! I know in Ableton...after setting up the multi-timbral instrument...I can save it as a preset so I don't have to do this routing every time...After setting everything up, is there a way to save it as a preset so you don't have to do this every time?

[@ochre6887]

Would love to see video on midi port setup, the "ins" and "out" i get confused on whether my NI keyboard is a midi "in" or "out" device or if Kontakt is my "in" or "out" device even "audio connection" under the "studio tab" set up or explanation would be good too.

[@dlbcomposer]

Hey there. Awesome, well-structured content here. Subbed for that alone. I do have a question, though. I see you're using a komplete kontrol mkii keyboard. Considering Komplete Kontrol is not really set up for multi-timbral instruments, do you find yourself using komplete kontrol all that much? If not, do you feel like the lack of integration is affecting your workflow, or is the standard "MIDI mode" functional enough for you?

[@sekritskworl-sekrit_studios]

Jef, How do YOU typically "utilize" the Aux channels from Kontakt within Cubase?

[@arbous65]

Thank you so much. This was very helpful. I see you are having a KK mk2. Does the Kontakt parameters show on the NI keyboard display? I was just thinking it would be good to have a consolidated approach for using one instrument platform and make the KK keyboard to see the parameters properly and as we change the instruments within contact, it could apply that to other instruments too. For instance if one assigns the first four knobs on one Kontakt instrument to ADSR, as you switch to 2nd and 3rd, etc. instruments automatically ADSR parameters keep getting mapped to knob 1 to 4. I appreciate your comment for make good use of KK hardware GUI that can be created (perhaps may need more work in the beginning but hopefully only once) for best use of KK hardware with Cubase with multiple tracks and therefore multiple instruments. Thank you.

[@OjasviKirtan]

Thank you dear Jef, just what happened to me, when I turned of midi channels as you described I couldn't hear audio channels, probably I made mistake somewhere!? Please help!

[@DAVIDJCARON]

Thanks for this video.. However, when I add an instrument track , it does not set a default midi channel for the instrument track..there is a different symbol where the midi track should be in the left side panel.. Why would this be? I am using Cubase 5.. is this why? Also, at 7.06 in the video above, after setting your bass track midi channel, you can still hear the Hybrid keys from the track above, instead of hearing the bass, which is the point of setting the midi channel.. Why is this please?

[@jimkats6933]

this video is great! Can you do stuff like this for Fl Studio too please? it would be great! You are amazing, thanks a lot for your videos

[@99MUZIK]

I love my Cubase pro 10.5 along with my Maschine plus and Komplete 13 ultimate collector edition. I’m looking forward for Cubase pro 11 it’s coming real soon.

[@jefgibbons]

Great software you’ve got there! ;)

[@newdimension-io6826]

KONTAKT and KOMPLETE KONTROL sucks ! Ancient software with endless issues. Interface unreadable, un scalable, with major features missing. These two are an absolute piece of TRASH !

[@gdugan2]

Am I correct in saying that, in Cubase, you can't have an instrument track sending MIDI to a multi-timbral instrument, like VE Pro, and have the audio return to the same track? In this video, you showed MIDI tracks sending MIDI to multi-timbral instruments. Obviously, this requires TWO tracks per instrument (one for MIDI and one for audio), with all of the associated clutter and double-naming, etc. But I would like to have ONE track for each instrument, not two. I would like to have MIDI on the instrument track, send the MIDI info to VE Pro, and then return the audio from VE Pro back to the same instrument track. Pro Tools has had this since version 7, back in 2007. It's kind of baffling that Cubase, the supposed composer's DAW, doesn't have this in 2023. I'm new to Cubase, so please clarify if I'm mistaken.

[@beauhanister9318]

Hello Jef,I have just bought Komplete Kontrol A61. I have read the manual, however I'm having difficulty understanding the browser instructions. In Cubase 13 the browser light doesn't come on at all I'd be so grateful if you could shine a light on this Problem.

[@djpino72]

i'm impressed of your accurate explanation well done great job! Thanks a lot and you have also Obviously my like and my subscription.

[@farnamfirouzi8]

Hi , Perfect .... Can you just tell me 64 GB DDR5 RAM is ok for Work? or must use 128 Gb RAM , thanx Jef .

[@D.lapins]

Hi, I enjoyed the video I'm using Konakt like this But there is one big problem When using the 'Render in Place' function, all channels are extracted together Is there a solution?

[@chrisshollinrake6826]

When I have completed all the steps up to 12:50 in the video, I still have the midi files in the mixer, which play, individual channels appear but do not play, Switching to the project window, individual tracks are not showing. I have tried many times, closely following every move. Outcome is the same. The only place where there was a difference in the procedure, was when I added the five midi tracks, the channels were not automatically numbered, had to enter the channel numbers manually.

[@stukedin]

Great explanation - much thanks Jeff , very much appreciated edit.. all works well, but can you have separate automation for each track, I couldn't figure that out

[@MrBeattie2000]

Nice video.. i have used groove agent for drums but want to move to kontakt with get good drum samples. Can i set it up that each drum/symbol/hi hats etc. Has its own output/separate fader like groove agent? Is that possible?

[@priyanko6205]

Thank you sir....respect from india...🙏🙏🙏🙏❤️❤️❤️

[@abj358]

Funny that I should run into this vid. Out of necessity, I just figured out how to do this with EastWest's Play VST in Studio One. Cutz like butta. Then I tried doing it with the Reason Rack VST. No Joy. It's not multi-timbral. I checked with them and they said it was impossible. I corrected them (bold, I know), saying it was a design choice. And a good one at that. Thanks for showing this with Kontact. Didn't know I could do this with K, but you can count on it now. BTW: Learned how to do all this on a vintage Korg 16 track sequencing keyboard back in the nineties. Can't recall the model name/number.

[@youtuup]

you are wrong ... when you go to preferences you can tick on that Cubase will ask or put directly a midi track in the tracklist when opening a instrumenttrack ... .. That will be counting from miditrack no.1 ...

[@steveharris4296]

Great stuff! What resolution does your tv monitor have, 4k? UHD? What do you set your output resolution to? Looks amazing. Thanks

[@loubennett9849]

Thanks Jeff, This is a great tutorial. @Mamuka Megrelishvili asked me is it possible to set up the monogram cc with kontakt? I have had no luck....yet. If you have any suggestions we'd love to hear them. #kontakt #monogramcc

[@RICKYMCADAM]

How do I reset Kontakt back to its default condition . I watched your video and have had nothing but problems I.E. taking forever to load , changing my default audio drivers, I"m tired of having to go to Batch config every time I choose to load a single library etc. please If anyone can direct me to a video on how to resolve this issue I will so grateful.

[@chillwalker]

Every time a watch a video about the most Basic of Basics, I catch myself thinking: How dumb must one be, to have this explained...but then I remember that I am 50 now, and the digital revolution in music and I grew up together, all was new and it just was easy to keep up, cause "the basics" where just being invented. I really do not know if I had the patience to learn all the things that are now possible today If I was young. I guess I would be so overwhelmed...I would quit with the "midi vs audio" thing. (Remember the time when AUDIO was just for rich kids? ;-) All I wanna say: Nice job keeping the kids interested

[@IvanEzequiel897]

I can't even put into words how grateful I am for this valuable content. Literally the most clear and accurate explanation I have ever seen. I'm an absolute noob at this and you come out and put into really comprehensive words. Again, thank you a lot for this. Obviously you have my like and my subscription.

[@jefgibbons]

Thanks for the encouragement Ivan! Needed it today…

[@zematynnad]

This is super helpful but integration between Kontakt and Cubase is still so clunky. For example the first output channel is still named Kontakt Master even though it's only the output for "Analog Dreams" in your case or whichever instrument happens to be in the first slot.

[@sibujena1]

Very nice tutorial Sir can u demonstrate the same for fl studio and Reasons 5. With special emphasis on how to route all the 16 channels to FL studio mixer And how to apply swing on a particular midi out track.We would be very greatful

[@rafaelhernandez5550]

Hi Jef did you know if Cubase have the midi fx to change the picth like Ableton live the we can create an Intrument Rack and create different pictch on each one?. Thanks

[@C4STUDIO]

Thank you so much sir. Detailed explanation . 🎼🎻🎹🎺📯🎷🎸🎶🎵🎤👍🏼

[@purpledream9]

I have problem,I need to add a separate contact for the drum kit, all the sounds sound separate, but when I add the drum kit, the other sounds get mixed up and messed up.

[@iamrichlol]

No idea why, but this doesnt work for me on the latest version of cubase 12. brand new out of the box, so no idea where the problem is occuring. typical, always my luck

[@VeeIsDead]

@13:24 no it's still pretty confusing and over redundant process after 10 years. It baffles me that this process has not yet being simplified to the bone while more than half the Cubase users utilize kontakt in this manner. At first it was acceptable but now feels like trying to attach plane parts with Gorilla Glue

[@uryic000]

Jef you're my dude man, no doubt. But for a novice like myself I got a little confused when you said near the end of the vid turn the midi faders all the way to off if you're going to set up audio outs. It took me a minute to realize that you meant since the default position of the midi faders is in the off position even though they aren't actually off that you just "shouldn't touch" the midi faders at all ie move them from their default off position which in fact isn't actually off. I literally did each step you said and obviously at the end when I turned the midi faders "back" to off the audio outs didn't work. I think I understand what you meant though in that you should NEVER TOUCH the midi faders if you're planning to create audio outs, correct?

[@YesRelax]

Why so complicated? Does this only benefit you for cpu power?

[@MohamedElHanoun]

Smart Idea Thanks 🙏

[@RogerSartet007]

9:05 Here's where Cubase loses from Logic. I have and use both and actually do prefer Cubase, but the mixing panel and its use is far better organized in Logic (X) and hence way user friendly than the one in Cubase (11)

[@RobinPfleiderer]

Thank you for this great explenation!

[@joelandr_]

I've searched for years this multi outs routing Kontakt thing !! Thanks so much for your video, I've learnt a lot as a newcomer Cubase user !

[@cottonlarry8470]

So that means doing automation for St.1 must be done on the main i strument track itself? But will this affect other instruments too?

[@milenadeltorto7158]

So very helpful! I will go back to this and make notes; and thank you!

[@EdVizenor]

Thank you for your work. So I reset my Kontakt and now when I open it the keys are playing REALLY QUIET. It seems the input is off because when I press the same key on the player with my mouse it's loud. What setting is off? Can you help me fix this? Like restore to defaults? When I do that it restores to your settings. Thanks

[@jefgibbons]

Hi Ed! Is it the level in the Cubase mixer of a midi track? (Are you using kontakt with midi tracks or instrument tracks?)

[@EdVizenor]

@@jefgibbons wow, thanks for the reply and even fast reply. wow. I made a little video to show you my issues because I don't think I can explain them well enough. Let me know if this works for you. www.screencast.com/t/5ZYdYqD2

[@yohan1539]

amazing tutorial!! thank you so much man!!!

[@Gelfling62]

Compliments! You are a great teacher. And really saved me some headache :-)

[@athewhitedragon]

Best educational contents for DAW learner... thanks

[@pascaldepester6976]

Very clear explanation thank you very much!

[@bestofmusicchannel]

This is a headache ! I just open 8 separate Kontakts, each with its own channel parameters and im done !!

[@purpledream9]

Why is it added to all the sounds when I open the drum sound when adding channels in Kontakt?

[@AwesomeCrazyDude]

Fantastic... the best tutorial!!!! Thank you!!!!!

[@IamtheI]

the only issue i see is that default name of the vst track messes up the naming scheme once you activate the additional outputs... perhaps that can be remedied in your situaltion by making analog dreams start on midi channel 2 in the kontakt output

[@poweroftheweez]

Recently upgraded my system to a high end CPU for the very reason you mentioned in the beginning. Very excited to see what results I can get using this configuration!

[@jefgibbons]

It’s a good basic configuration for Kontakt. Enjoy the CPU power!!

[@stefan_josch]

You're my god. Thanks for these videos.

[@ctatrains]

I'm late to the party but man was this helpful! Thanks!!

[@bunker8digitallabs]

This is a great and very lucid explanation of setting up multi-timbral/multiple outputs with Kontakt. I have found however that it is better, from a multi-thread perspective to setup each Kontakt instance as its own instrument. It is better on memory and performance. Also, it makes it much easier to use the "load tracks from project" function in Cubase since when you load the track, you are loading the instrument track already configured, assigned and ready to go. If you load a MIDI track from a set of tracks, you have to shut off the extra tracks and outputs and go through the process of checking the setup prior to output of your stems.

[@duartecancela]

Very useful, thanks for this information!

[@sergelaporte4295]

Excellent and a real help. Thanks a million :)

[@itsrob2321]

Great tutorial! Thanks Jef!

[@zow7604]

Sorry I'm new at this but the video JUMP right before you COULD show me how to lock the faders (volume & pan L&R) to SYN together please HELP. can't move on unless I pass that spot Thanks' PS still A Great tutorial.

[@zow7604]

10 MONTHS AND NO HELP THANKS

[@schlonzschuppe4516]

super helpful, thank you. 👈

[@nico5]

Wonderful explanation of using the weirdness of Kontakt output assignments! - Just one question: When making a multi-timbral instrument, doesn’t that force each of the timbres into the same CPU thread, because it’s on the same DAW track? So if the timbres add up to a lot of CPU consumption, it may be advantageous to have them on different DAW tracks, so they can spread out over the different threads of a modern multi-core CPU?

[@Jason_Music]

Probably right, apparently with new CPUs with lots of cores, it's not necessarily bad to open a new Kontakt instance for each instrument in order to balance the load between those cores.

[@suchandanjena8557]

How to do the same in reason rack

[@thedavidcurrie]

Amazing tutorial, thankyou

[@manipurikhonjel]

Thanks of lot from Imphal

[@l-ayex4552]

Very useful thank you !!

[@yugaga]

Sooooo Helpful Thanks a lot.

[@joehufford6355]

I was about ready to quit trying to use Kontakt lol. Thanks, I now understand the power of it.

[@jefgibbons]

Thanks Joe! Glad to hear it

[@silverworks7]

Great! Thank you.

[@soundofheart217]

Thanks

[@rodrigoruiz1988]

Amazing display. What is that?

[@sergiuovydyu_SB_Studio]

Great explanation! Thanks

[@Steger13]

My god do complicated 😰

[@walterblackledge1137]

good info thanks.

[@jonathanparecki]

You're the best. I've been doing this for years using multiple instances of Kontakt. Things are going to be so much better going forward thanks to you!

[@jefgibbons]

That’s great to hear, thanks Jonathan!

[@TandisJenhudson]

Many thanks!

[@michaelmos7497]

🍀You have an excellent way of explaining "technical" things (configuration). I've had Kontakt 7 Player and various Native Instruments libraries here on my SSD for a few months. Because I somehow didn't understand the configuration, I've barely touched the whole thing to this day. Today I did exactly what you showed in the video step by step (I also have CUBASE PRO) - and it works. I can finally work effectively with the Native Instruments sounds. Thank you!

[@88keyz]

I watched this today 9-2022 very helpful I followed the steps using kontakt 6 player version in a different Daw works just about the same thanks looking forward to your kontakt 7 videos 👍🏾

[@user-xr1ej8nx3s]

Question. Hi Jeff, nowadays some people load Kontakt7 for each instrument. So 5 instruments = 5x Kontakt. It's heavier on the CPU. What is your opinion?

[@jefgibbons]

I'm definitely in that camp... computers are so fast now the CPU/RAM savings aren't even worth it! Maybe if you had dozens of patches in a template though... which I don't do!

[@user-xr1ej8nx3s]

Thnx. Btw Jeff, your KZbin videos are really great.👌🙏

[@davidreynaud7721]

Hi Jef. Hope you are well. Great Tutorial, thank you! Just discovered you on KZbin and Ive been trying to follow this tutorial as I have just bought Nuendo 11. However, as I haven't been able to find a Nuendo specific explanation of how you do this I thought I'd follow yours of how to do it on Cubase as I have heard the two platforms are basically identical. Please correct me if I am wrong. I'm eager to learn. I followed your tutorial and It works really great up until all the way up to where you mention to set all your midi channels to "off" and turn those faders down and then hide them. I do this and then all that happens is, I then cant hear the output of either of the midi instruments even coming out of their newly created Kontakt outputs. If you had any thoughts about where I might be going wrong of if there was a Nuendo-specific quirk to getting all this to work, I'd love to know. Many thanks again, Dave

[@marioorsolic1168]

Precise, concrete, all said without unnecessary story... great video! But, I have a question. What would happen if we delet MIDI track "Analog D"? I ask because VST instrument Analog Dreams is already on "Kontakt Master" track. After deleting it, we rename "Kontakt Master" track to Analog D, that's how we get a fader with appropriate name and remove excessive track that confuses us. Am I right or have I overlooked something? I appreciate your answer Jef.

[@markanderson9995]

Hi Jef, This is is great stuff so much appreciated !!!!. I'm just wondering though would the same apply if i were using an external hardware synth like say a Roland or EMU module connected as an "instrument" within Cubase ???. Any help would be greatly appreciated thanks...

[@brettchassen2888]

Really great video 👍🏻….question , ya know how you filtered out the midi tracks in the console so you only saw the outputs from kontakt (which makes total sense as you can’t mix with the midi tracks) can you do the reverse in the project window ?…i dont dig having 2 tracks to deal with in the project window (the midi track and the audio output track) and there seems to be no way to ‘filter out’ the audio track (The only way is to choose ‘hide other tracks’ but then it will hide marker tracks etc as well ) and if I hide the tracks in the visibility window it’ll hide them in the console so that wont work lol ….Is just keeping them in an ‘audio output’ folder The only way to just show Midi tracks in the project window ?

[@rodterrell304]

Wish I knew about you 3 years ago. Thanks

[@jefgibbons]

Most welcome!

[@bhargavjamvecha9818]

Thank you so much. Though I was looking/searching to setup Kontakt 6 in my cubase 10.5 pro, I think halion is way better/easy to setup as a multi timbre.

[@cynthiaroberts7206]

Can someone please tell me how Jef Gibbons did this set up with that huge display? Is this possible with Mac? Thanks! Very nice.

[@ronniewibbley]

Another concise unfussy and excellent tutorial. Thank you so much for not starting your videos by gurning into the camera and shouting "Are YOU running out of CPU power? Let ME show you how THE PROS do it!" followed by twenty seconds of an unnecessarily-flashy title sequence.

[@uryic000]

Jef Thank you, thank you, thank you, 1000 plus one times thank you. I am a 65 year old jazz keyboardist/educator/arranger/producer for over 23 years. been using DAW's for years, but just did a major upgrade from my old stand by Cakewalk Sonar to Abletone live Suite, Kontakt, Cubase with a nice array of various Spectrosonic plug ins Trillian, Keyscape etc. Plus many other VST's including Serum etc. Man this is ALL still fairly to me and there is so much information out there (both good and not so good) I learned a long time ago to always have a general idea of whatever it is you want to do 1st, then search for that specific thing in your research vs trying to learn all that a software program can do first per se. I had a fairly good idea of what it was that I wanted to do in running Kontakt inside of Cubase. That being I wanted to run 1 instance of Kontakt yet play and record various instruments from that 1 instance. You have no idea how long it took me until I FINALLY came to your excellent video. You have a new subscriber for life. Thank you so much. If you knew my whole story you would really understand just how much it meant to me to finally find a to the point and precise video such as yours. Thank you so much again.

[@scott7521]

FINALLY! someone that makes a detailed explanation of how to do something without showing us their fucking song or trying to sell us on something. You rule man

[@CharleyMarionsMusic]

awesome! you have great talent to communicate what you know! Thanks! Now I just need to add my montage to the template and I'll be rolling... I'll check to see if you have a video about adding ext keys! congrats!!! best video!!!!

[@jefgibbons]

Thanks Charley! I’ll see if I have a vid for you, what do you mean about adding ext keys?

[@CharleyMarionsMusic]

@@jefgibbons Thanks for answering Jeff! I’m adopting your template here! Great way to save some of the load on my 2012 Mac… even with 96 gigs of ram everything helps you know.. I just wish I could incorporate my Montage 8 and Integra 7 in your template. I’ve loaded their respective usb drivers and all and I’ve got them to synch and record thru my Komplete s61 but without audio from daw… since I have everything patched I can bring their audio into the mix but can’t believe there isn’t a better way to enjoy these two powerful units! I’ve found videos on Cubase and Montage stand alone but they are not helping with this template with Kontakt and my daw. I watched a video you recommended about adding gear in Cubase but there are no scripts I know for adding a midi instrument for montage 8 and Integra 7… so… kinda stuck here… thanks again!

[@jamesleaburn246]

Thanks, Jef top marks for your videos. I just got around to going through the process and it works great thanks to your excellent explanation. I noticed you have a Komplete Keyboard, same as me. It seems to me that you lose control of the instruments on the midi tracks using the controls on the keyboard. Is that true or have I missed something?

[@stephenmarsh3986]

Firstly, thanks for the really helpful video. I used to do most of my writing with hardware and C-Lab Creator sequencing therefore I relate to midi more than audio. It was great how much could be generated with so little computing power - think Atari 1040stfm. Gigabytes had yet to be invented! Also, in my case I'm no Bach on keyboards so constructing a piece from numerous loops of played ideas is how I tend work. Is this possible with Cubase? i.e. can the C-Lab work method be replicated/approximated with Cubase? I have Cubase 11 and the Track Loop function only seems to work in Editor. If I switch to Mix Console the Track Loop ceases to work until I go back to the Editor. How can I save the Track Loop for several parts? Also Is there a way to specify how many times the looped phrase is to play for? Events to Parts always seems to be greyed out. Does this only work with preset loop samples? The answers might be buried in one of the online manuals but life is too short and besides this is what You Tube is for right? This probably won't make any sense to anyone who wasn't around in the 80's but here's hoping. I appreciate anyone who can help with this. Thanks in advance. 🖖

[@djxia1]

Great Vid, For all the years I've owned Kontakt I never Knew it could do that, I should give this a try. Should be the same concept in different DAWS correct? Well anyway Thanks again for the video.

[@marioechaniz]

GREAT!