# Port B not available in Kontakt 5, Logic X & LASS



## sunnykim (Dec 26, 2013)

I'm with VEPRO 4 and Logic Pro X. I'm rebuilding a new orchestral template.

As seen in the picture, port B to D are not available now.

But I've seen one of the video tutorials from aubiobro 
(http://audiobro.com/arc-template-starters-tutorial) 

and it seems Logic X supports multi-port of midi channels.

I'm wondering how it works.

First, do I have to upgrade to VEPRO 5 and then make some tweaks on environment 

window?

Your comments would be much appreciated!


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## Justin Miller (Dec 26, 2013)

Hey Kim, Kontakt only offers those other ports on Kontakt's standalone mode. In a single VE-PRO instance you can load up as many instances of Kontakt as you need however. So download the multiport layer for VE-PRO from the VSL website and start a fresh template, then create a single VE-PRO instance and load up all your patches in that instance. Virtual connections to the VE PRO instance will be made through "external midi" channels in Logic X instead of standard instrument tracks. Make a single instrument track connected to that VE-PRO instance however, and add extra aux channels to that instrument for more audio returns into Logic from VE-PRO. If I was home I would just upload my starter template so you could just use that, but won't be for a week so try this and see if you can figure it out. Let me know if you run into troubles


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## Guy Rowland (Dec 26, 2013)

You can access ports B-D via LASS 2's ARC. I don't know of any other products or DAWs which can do this, but there may be some I'm unaware of.

My LASS fumbling walkthrough covers this - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFrhtGthJfA


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## EastWest Lurker (Dec 26, 2013)

I cannot recommend the VEPro Logic Multiport layer, unfortunately. Eventually, by VSL's own admission, isis prone to dropped MIDI events and erratic behaivor.


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## Justin Miller (Dec 26, 2013)

Jay, in Logic Pro X this isn't any issue anymore--at least not for me. I've run 16 ports full of instruments without and drops, that includes all divisi sections of LASS streaming together without drops.


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## EastWest Lurker (Dec 26, 2013)

Justin Miller @ Thu Dec 26 said:


> Jay, in Logic Pro X this isn't any issue anymore--at least not for me. I've run 16 ports full of instruments without and drops, that includes all divisi sections of LASS streaming together without drops.



Well, I am very glad it is working for you, Justin, but since nothing has changed in the way the Logic Environment works, and since VSL has not made any statements like "Eureka, we have fixed any issues with the Multiport in Version # whatever of VE Pro" I still cannot recommend it.


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## sunnykim (Dec 26, 2013)

Thanks a lot for all your replies! I just saw this because of time difference.



Justin Miller @ Thu Dec 26 said:


> Virtual connections to the VE PRO instance will be made through "external midi" channels in Logic X instead of standard instrument tracks.



Yes, yesterday I upgraded to VEPRO and tried this.

But still confused....There's a few things s I'd like to ask.


1. If that was working through "external midi" channels, does it mean that I can't use offline bouncing? 

Quite often, I have to bounce every single instrument track and send them to an engineer for mixing. Because I know Logic doesn't offer multi-track bounce (simultaneous task) for multi-timbral instrument tracks, I've used multi-timbral instrument track for offline bouncing.

On external midi tracks, do you record stem by stem? (I mean Woods, Brass, String...)

Even a template setup manual VSL offers shows the step through external midi tracks. My question is "when if how to record every single track". Tons of time to do it......I assume.


2. Regardless of curiosity above, I just upgraded to VEPRO5 and tried the file, VEP Multiport Layer.logic. 
However, a picture shown in a guide of VSL for a multiport Environment in Logic is different from mine. Do I have to connect manually between All Ports and Port5?


I'm spending lots of time to building a large template in Logic X and other-plugins. frustrating.....Your comments would be much appreciated!


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## sunnykim (Dec 26, 2013)

Guy Rowland @ Thu Dec 26 said:


> You can access ports B-D via LASS 2's ARC. I don't know of any other products or DAWs which can do this, but there may be some I'm unaware of.
> 
> My LASS fumbling walkthrough covers this - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFrhtGthJfA



Thanks!

I just got a message from audilbro.

They say like this.

If you use ARC you will definitely be able to route Key Switches thru ports B-D regardless of the host (they all work the same way). Kontakt will always say that Ports B-D are “unavailable” when loaded as a plugin, but they will work with ARC. You won’t have direct access to them… but you can set up Key Switches on A1-A16 that access instruments loaded 

I'm thinking to buy LASS...


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## sunnykim (Dec 26, 2013)

EastWest Lurker @ Thu Dec 26 said:


> I cannot recommend the VEPro Logic Multiport layer, unfortunately. Eventually, by VSL's own admission, isis prone to dropped MIDI events and erratic behaivor.



Thanks for informing of it.

So, do you use only 16 midi channels per one instance of VEPRO?

I've not tried LASS. Just saw a tutorials..

According to audiobro's message, it looks ARC works properly with Logic X and VEPRO5 to use multiport (A-D) in Kontakt.


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## IFM (Dec 26, 2013)

Jay,
I've never had dropped notes with the Multiport layer after Apple fixed it...although it allegedly still had the problem. I have noticed that using Event Input, although stuck on one core, does work quite well if you don't mind giving up volume control. On the non preloaded VEP instances I wish it would still open those minimized. 
Chris


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## Justin Miller (Dec 26, 2013)

I would download the CPCandKeyswitcher multi and use that for keyswitching with LASS---it's a hell of a lot easier, plus it can be used for any kontakt instrument. Jay, have you tried the multiport layer in Logic X with any success?


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## EastWest Lurker (Dec 26, 2013)

sunnykim @ Thu Dec 26 said:


> EastWest Lurker @ Thu Dec 26 said:
> 
> 
> > I cannot recommend the VEPro Logic Multiport layer, unfortunately. Eventually, by VSL's own admission, isis prone to dropped MIDI events and erratic behaivor.
> ...



Yes, but I use a lot of instances and Peter Schwartz's SkiSwitcher, and it works like butter connected to both my PC slave and my Mac.

Look guys, if I it works for you, that's great, I have no problem with that. But when the developers who design something candidly tell me it can be problematic, I don't build my work flow around it.


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