# How often do you use Komplete Kontrol tracks?



## MeloKeyz (Oct 15, 2021)

Hi all,

I've been using my Kontakt template in Cubase for 1.5 yrs now and I completely dumped KK and NKS, what a loss! That is because I rely heavily on MIDI tracks routed to multiple instances in a single Kontakt track and I stayed away from the RAM hunger game of the KK. 

Developers are adopting NKS rapidly and I wanna re-take advantage of that. After I bought HY's Symphonic Destruction yesterday, it looked sexy inside KK  Now, I think of building a native KK/NKS-only template but not sure how much resources it will eat when 35 tracks min. are enabled so I have to experiment more. 

Before, I used to use a combination of both Kontakt and KK. Performance-speaking, it was somehow acceptable but nothing beats the performance of multiple instances per Kontakt track routed to MIDI tracks.

So, how often do you guys use KK instrument tracks in your projects?


----------



## Cideboy (Jan 1, 2022)

Just load Kontakt and then browse to your multi. It’s a pia to route the audio /midi in Cubase so I simply don’t use it for orchestral templates. I do find it really useful for pop and electronic music though. Typically these templates have much less voices and the automatic macro control is nice to revive some of those older libraries. 

I just hope everyone moves away from Kontakt. I’m really enjoying spitfires new plugin, Sine is amazing although buggy, and opus is really good. If spitfire would just port their libraries over like OT, I might just dump NI for everything but their core products. They used to make good synths but they’ve turned into a hardware company with some pretty subpar and overpriced releases lately ( other than their Cremona Quartet which is surprisingly good for the price. I also do like using their Symphony series ensemble for the auto-divisi when sketching) . I would stay away from their ROMplers like the light trilogy. They sound cool but it’s probably best to use for sketching and pitches. I wouldn’t put anything out there with a stock preset. Unfortunately most of these presets are instantly recognized. Great for beginners though!


----------



## dylanmixer (Jan 7, 2022)

Never. It's a pain to use, and the first time Komplete Kontrol updated for me, it wiped my instances of KK clean and I lost a ton of time on a project. Never again.


----------



## Cideboy (Jan 8, 2022)

dylanmixer said:


> Never. It's a pain to use, and the first time Komplete Kontrol updated for me, it wiped my instances of KK clean and I lost a ton of time on a project. Never again.


Same with Kontakt updates for me. I did that mid project and lost all of my settings on each channel. Barely hit the deadline. Professional software has better QC and much better support. NI just points fingers - when and if you get a response. I own komplete but likely will slowly sell off the products. I got arturia collection and pigments just kills most of NI products. I’ll alway hang onto Massive, FM8, Absynth, Reaktor and handful of other products but they are clearly moving towards the commercial space. Most of their new products over the last few years have been Reaktor based and/or romplers with pretty cliché tropey patches. The subscription model pretty much seals the deal. This will force quantity over quality. It was sad to see Eastwest go that route too. At least their products are still pretty good and opus is reallly good

I think it’s probably best if a company has a stake in both the engine and the content. I’m guessing Kontakt will remain the platform for smaller budget companies with no marketing or new to the scene. Professionals will move to their own platform which will offer more flexibility for competition (not stuck with Kontakt limitations) and a much better support model. I’m sure there are tons of licensing fees to develop using Kontakt too. It makes business sense to move away from that platform once you have the product and audience to do so. They can put the money saved on licensing fees towards a better product. Exciting times ahead if OT Sine is any indication of the future. Mic merge is a god send!

@Spitfire How about updating your amazing content in your new plugin hrm?? I see your hiring quite a few developers—- one can hope! I for one will happily upgrade if it was priced fairly. Seems like a great way to pull in some revenue while it’s tough to record due to COVID—- your welcome


----------



## Paulogic (Jan 8, 2022)

It a pity that KK works is initially made for creating loops and switching these on and off.
This is maybe very handy for creating music with beats - basslines and so on but not
for other stuff. Ok this is completely my experience and I don't make "boom-tsjak" music as
we "call it". That's why I sold my Mikro MK3. I still use Kontakt because of all the libraries made
for this and I like it.


----------



## Hellmaster92 (Jan 10, 2022)

I use KK only for synth textures, specials effects, underscoring, etc... The preview and the navigation is really cool and fast for achieving this kind of work. To me, it's sometimes very inspiring to discover tons of different sounds, and it brings me some fresh new ideas.

I then render the tracks on audio and deactivate the track to save the preset. Because yeah, KK is a ram killer (in my setup at least).

I also get KK instances cleaned after update...


----------



## Alex Fraser (Jan 10, 2022)

Hellmaster92 said:


> I use KK only for synth textures, specials effects, underscoring, etc... The preview and the navigation is really cool and fast for achieving this kind of work. To me, it's sometimes very inspiring to discover tons of different sounds, and it brings me some fresh new ideas.
> 
> I then render the tracks on audio and deactivate the track to save the preset. Because yeah, KK is a ram killer (in my setup at least).
> 
> I also get KK instances cleaned after update...


Yep, KK is ideal for that. Ripping through the NI product line to quickly audition sounds when you're not really in a "details" place. 

For orchestral stuff, I use Kontakt sans KK. I also have a number of saved Logic patches to load Kontakt based libraries for things like pianos etc.


----------



## Cideboy (Jan 10, 2022)

Alex Fraser said:


> Yep, KK is ideal for that. Ripping through the NI product line to quickly audition sounds when you're not really in a "details" place.
> 
> For orchestral stuff, I use Kontakt sans KK. I also have a number of saved Logic patches to load Kontakt based libraries for things like pianos etc.


I find it really messes up quick controls in cubase for me. I probably did it wrong, but I cannot get the mappings to work. Anyways, If I’m using the rotary knobs on my s88 I’ll use KK, otherwise I’ll use QC with my midi faders for dynamics, expression, etc. my favorite part of KK is how it lights up your key switches and key ranges. If it’s a complex instrument, I’ll load it up for that too.


----------



## Hellmaster92 (Jan 10, 2022)

Cideboy said:


> I find it really messes up quick controls in cubase for me. I probably did it wrong, but I cannot get the mappings to work. Anyways, If I’m using the rotary knobs on my s88 I’ll use KK, otherwise I’ll use QC with my midi faders for dynamics, expression, etc. my favorite part of KK is how it lights up your key switches and key ranges. If it’s a complex instrument, I’ll load it up for that too.


In Cubase, I simply activate the automation writting and then start to live edit the parameters, while playing or after, without touching the quick controls. The touchstrip works the same for me.


----------



## Cideboy (Jan 10, 2022)

Hellmaster92 said:


> In Cubase, I simply activate the automation writting and then start to live edit the parameters, while playing or after, without touching the quick controls. The touchstrip works the same for me.


Just to clarify that part works but I have the touch strips for both mod and pitch so I use another midi controller. I would like to have the QC map to a Macro in KK but I couldn’t figure it out :(


----------



## onnomusic (Jan 10, 2022)

its very slow for me to load (OSX and logic though, so your milage might vary). I do really like the browsing, so I have my template stuff in kontakt and use KK for the per track basis tracks if that makes sense?


----------



## Reid Rosefelt (Jan 10, 2022)

Almost always. The only times i load an instrument directly is when I don't see any benefit to using Komplete Kontrol or UNIFY. 

I buy NKS templates for non-NKS instruments from Freelance Soundlabs. For example, it's unbelievable how much easier it is for me to sort through my Falcon libraries, auditioning the sounds and searching through categories. I wouldn't do it any other way. If I don't have a Freelance Soundlabs template, I load other instruments (not just Kontakt ones) in Komplete Kontrol anyway, because almost always I get the light guides or even the full mapping of the knobs. If there's no benefit, I don't load in KK.

But in some cases UNIFY is more useful, as with LABS, BBCSO Core, Pigments, Chromophone, etc. and when you can take advantage of its multicore functionality.

Still I'm not an orchestral composer, and I realize that my workflow might not work for one. There's rarely more than a dozen instruments in my music. There are many more instruments in some of my templates, but those are for searching through categories like pianos, acoustic guitars, solo strings, pads, etc--not for composing. 

But even the few pieces I've done that were very large--using KK did not slow me down at all. 

It all comes down to how useful somebody finds NKS. It's central to my workflow, although this year I'm going to be incorporating UNIFY more than I have before.


----------



## Cideboy (Jan 10, 2022)

Reid Rosefelt said:


> Almost always. The only times i load an instrument directly is when I don't see any benefit to using Komplete Kontrol or UNIFY.
> 
> I buy NKS templates for non-NKS instruments from Freelance Soundlabs. For example, it's unbelievable how much easier it is for me to sort through my Falcon libraries, auditioning the sounds and searching through categories. I wouldn't do it any other way. If I don't have a Freelance Soundlabs template, I load other instruments (not just Kontakt ones) in Komplete Kontrol anyway, because almost always I get the light guides or even the full mapping of the knobs. If there's no benefit, I don't load in KK.
> 
> ...


Wow, I hadn’t heard of UNIFY. It’s Reasons Combinator for VST and cheap too. Thanks! I’m going to have some fun with this.

Link for others: 
Updated https://www.pluginguru.com/products/unify-standard/


----------



## Reid Rosefelt (Jan 10, 2022)

Or more directly from the PluginGuru site:









Unify (Standard Edition) - PluginGuru.com


Unify 1.9.1 is here with Apple Silicon support and a new MIDI Effect called CC RIDER that changes EVERYTHING!!!




www.pluginguru.com


----------



## kevinh (Jan 10, 2022)

Cideboy said:


> I’m going to have some fun with this.


Oh oh look what you’ve done Reid. Poor chap won’t get any work done for days hahah


----------



## RSK (Jan 10, 2022)

I haven't used it for a while because you couldn't freeze the track.


----------



## antsteep (Jan 10, 2022)

Reid Rosefelt said:


> Or more directly from the PluginGuru site:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


What a confusing website. So difficult to find out what Unify actually is.


----------



## cedricm (Jan 11, 2022)

antsteep said:


> What a confusing website. So difficult to find out what Unify actually is.


I saw the stream when Unified launched, and I was not convinced of the usefulness of paying for adding yet another layer of software, but to each his own.


----------



## TomislavEP (Jan 11, 2022)

I'm kind of tempted trying to use KK as my starting point in REAPER. It seems practical and convenient on some points. I frequently work with the software included in Komplete and also have quite a few NKS compatible 3rd party products. On the other hand, I don't use hardware from NI but rather from Studiologic and Nektar. Speaking of which, I've never really embraced using the Nektarine software inside the DAW but only in a standalone mode for practice, jamming, and trying out sounds.

For a long time, I've thought that using a pre-routed instance of Kontakt with 16 MIDI tracks as a starting point is the only sensible way to go. For a while now, I'm just using a separate instance of Kontakt for each track. I find it easier to organize a project this way and it also simplifies working with Kontakt multis. I generally strive for minimalism, even when doing some kind of orchestral arrangement, so I tend to keep the tracks count as low as possible. My current DAW has an eight-core CPU, 64 GB of RAM, and separate SSD's for everything. Performance-wise, there doesn't seem to be a huge difference between using separate Kontakt and pre-routed Kontakt tracks.


----------



## antsteep (Jan 11, 2022)

cedricm said:


> I saw the stream when Unified launched, and I was not convinced of the usefulness of paying for adding yet another layer of software, but to each his own.


Yes. The site seems like it is only for people who already know what it is. There isn't much introductory information. It's all about the updates


----------



## SupremeFist (Jan 11, 2022)

I have an m32 on the desk and I love using all my softsynths inside KK for the easy knob access to basic controls like cutoff etc. Never seen much reason for it with sample libraries though — but it is great for accessibility for those who need it.


----------



## Reid Rosefelt (Jan 11, 2022)

FYI, I recently started a thread on UNIFY.





__





For PluginGuru Unify Owners: Why did you buy it? What do you use it for?


There have been a few posts here (including this one) about how Unify works with BBCSO, but it does a lot more than that, and I think that not many users know all the things it can do. In fact, I've owned it for a long time and I've only recently started digging through the manual and the hours...




vi-control.net


----------

