# Custom library: question on multiple microphones/keyswitches in kontakt 5



## A3D2 (Nov 5, 2015)

Hi everyone,

I am a composer, new to the forum. But I have been reading around on vi.control for some time before and I am very glad to finally be a part of this great community now . I am planning to record a new private sample library of wooden custom experimental flutes built by a local instrument builder. I was thinking of recording them 48.000Hz, 24bit in a church for the acoustics and record both a mono close mic and a stereo ambient mic (and maybe even surround also). I only bought kontakt 5 since this year and before that I have been recording/making/programming my own custom sample libraries in logic's EXS24 for years: but I have seen that building sample instruments is very different in kontakt .

Now my question is: I would record - of course - different velocity layers for each note (soft, medium, loud) and many articulations, but I would also have two sets of mic-sounds per note (close mic and ambient mic).

Is there an easy way of programming/scripting this in kontakt (for example have a gui with two mic options and sliders like the spitfire libraries have?) and at the meantime also having the different velocity layers available? (meaning: if you play harder on the keyboard you'll trigger the louder recorded performance)

I was also thinking of implementing a keyswitching system for the instruments' different articulations, but likewise, I am not sure about the difficulty of this.

Hope you guys can help me out,


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## pkm (Nov 5, 2015)

Velocity layers and keyswitches are very easy for a beginner. Multiple mic positions will take some learning scripting but it's certainly doable. It will just take some trial and error.

There are great resources between KSP manuals (especially the older ones), the Mike Novy book, this forum, and the NI forum. And I would highly highly recommend David Healey's online course.

By the way, if you're in a church, I'd even record the close mics in stereo.

Good luck!


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## A3D2 (Nov 5, 2015)

pkm said:


> Velocity layers and keyswitches are very easy for a beginner. Multiple mic positions will take some learning scripting but it's certainly doable. It will just take some trial and error.
> 
> There are great resources between KSP manuals (especially the older ones), the Mike Novy book, this forum, and the NI forum. And I would highly highly recommend David Healy's online course.
> 
> ...


Thank you so much for the advice!  This is really kind of you. I will definitely close mic the instruments in stereo instead of mono then, thank you for the advice. Regarding the old KSP manuals: do you think they are still available anywhere?


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## pkm (Nov 5, 2015)

No problem! I think I saw EvilDragon post a link to them on here yesterday. Try searching through his recent posts.

EDIT: http://www.opasquet.fr/dl/texts/kontakt3_p2.pdf

There you go!


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## A3D2 (Nov 5, 2015)

pkm said:


> No problem! I think I saw EvilDragon post a link to them on here yesterday. Try searching through his recent posts.


Thanks!  I found the Kontakt 3 KSP manual, I'll read into it and get a bit wiser. Do you have any more tips for someone going from creating EXS24 instruments to Kontakt instruments? What I saw in a video is that you do not have to cut every single note in your recording like you have to in EXS24, is this correct? That Kontakt finds all single notes automatically? Or is it safer to cut each sample beforehand and then import into kontakt?


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## pkm (Nov 5, 2015)

It's better to still cut all the samples outside of Kontakt.


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## A3D2 (Nov 5, 2015)

pkm said:


> It's better to still cut all the samples outside of Kontakt.


Ok, great to know . I am very grateful for you helping me out. After recording is done, and when I start working on the instrument I might need some more help along the way if I get stuck somewhere, but I'll first try to manage with the KSP manuals and video's and see how far I can get programming my library


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## Lindon (Nov 5, 2015)

As a (simple)start:

1.record all your articulations for each microphone set.
2. place all the articulations for the close mics in one Kontakt group (Group 0)
3. place all the articulations for your ambient mics in another group(using the same key locations for each articulation) (Group 1)
4. Now write a script with two buttons to turn on(purge,1) one group and turn off the other (purge,0)
5. You might want to think about mixing the two groups together check out(volume setting):

set_engine_par() in the KSP manual.


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## A3D2 (Nov 6, 2015)

Lindon said:


> As a (simple)start:
> 
> 1.record all your articulations for each microphone set.
> 2. place all the articulations for the close mics in one Kontakt group (Group 0)
> ...



Thank you for these tips!  I will definitely check out these things in the KSP manual and will try to create the groups the way you suggested. Indeed, being able to manually control the volume of each microphone position in the GUI would be nice if that is possible: I will definitely check that out as well.


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## jasonachapman (Nov 12, 2015)

Also, as I'm sure you are aware, it's important when you edit the samples to edit your close mics and ambient mics at the sample edit point to keep them phase aligned. Don't trunicate or edit out the few milliseconds of silence on the ambient mics.


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## A3D2 (Nov 19, 2015)

jasonachapman said:


> Also, as I'm sure you are aware, it's important when you edit the samples to edit your close mics and ambient mics at the sample edit point to keep them phase aligned. Don't trunicate or edit out the few milliseconds of silence on the ambient mics.


Ok thanks!  that is good to know. It is the first time I'll be attempting to make a sample instrument with multiple mic recordings, so I didn't know that one yet. I'll definitely keep it in mind.


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## d.healey (Nov 19, 2015)

A3D2 said:


> Ok thanks!  that is good to know. It is the first time I'll be attempting to make a sample instrument with multiple mic recordings, so I didn't know that one yet. I'll definitely keep it in mind.


Also make sure any tuning or other effects you apply can handle multi-channel audio otherwise things will start to drift out of phase - for tuning that only leaves you with two options (as far as I'm aware) melodyne or reatune.


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## A3D2 (Nov 26, 2015)

Ok, I have melodyne, so that is good to know: I'll keep that in mind as well . I'm glad to be part of the vi.control community, it's great that we can help each other out here.


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## d.healey (Nov 26, 2015)

I've just been doing a load of testing with ReaTune over the past few days, it can't handle multi channel audio so don't use it  use Melodyne, especially since you have it already.


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## A3D2 (Dec 2, 2015)

Hi guys! I was still thinking about something: in case I need some noise removal software if the samples would contains too much 'hiss buildup' when playing several notes at the same time, what do you recommend?
I was thinking about buying Izotope RX5 (https://www.izotope.com/en/products/audio-repair/rx/) Would that be enough/good to do the trick? Or does it produce artifacts? Does anybody has any experience with it?


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## d.healey (Dec 2, 2015)

RX is good if you want to clean up a whole track in one go but not so good for individual samples. I use Z noise by waves or ReaFir.


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## A3D2 (Dec 3, 2015)

d.healey said:


> RX is good if you want to clean up a whole track in one go but not so good for individual samples. I use Z noise by waves or ReaFir.


OK, that's good to know: I'll go and buy Z noise then  Thanks!


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## A3D2 (Dec 11, 2015)

d.healey said:


> RX is good if you want to clean up a whole track in one go but not so good for individual samples. I use Z noise by waves or ReaFir.


Hi David! Just to let you know I've bought Z-noise and it is really great. I had some other old homemade sample libraries lying around that I love to use a lot because of the feeling in the sampled sounds, but that were recorded with a high noise floor and Z-noise just cleaned the 'hiss' up perfectly without messing up the timbre of the sound. Loving it  Thanks again for the tip!


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