How to use Kontakt 4 with Logic Pro 9

Logic Studio (1&2) has made it easier to use multi-timbral and multi-output instruments than it was in previous versions of Logic. You no longer need to open up the environment to route and create auxiliary channels in order to use multi-out plugins. Athough this tutorial is about Kontakt 4, I will note some minor differences between KONTAKT 4 and Kontakt 3.

Adding a software instrument track to Logic

Create a new software instrument track by selecting track>new or the plus button on top of the arrange page or option-apple-n. When the New Tracks dialog appears, check the multi-timbral box. (Logic will automatically select the software instrument radio button and by default have 16 tracks. This can be changed to whatever configuration that you may want. ) Then click on Create.

Logic will then create 16 tracks on the arrange page. Each track will be labeled Inst. 1 and each will be assigned to a different midi channel for instrument 1. To determine which midi channel a track is assigned to look in the second dropdown on the far right channel strip (below MIDI Through, click on the triangle if it is not visible).

Add Kontakt to Logic

Select the first instrument 1 track and choose KONTAKT 4 for the I/O on the left channel strip. You will be given mono, stereo, 5.1 and multi-out configuration options for the plugin. The reason for this is that the output choice you choose will determine how many auxiliary channels Logic will allow you to create.

Add mixer channels to the Kontakt Mixer

Click on the Add Channel button to add mixer or aux channels to the Kontakt Mixer. KONTAKT 4
will display a dialog box, which asks you to input the amount of channels you want, which makes it easier to create multiple channels. In Kontakt 3 you will have to press the add channel button for every channel you want to create. After adding the desired amount of channels click on the Presets/ Batch Configuration button to save. (Kontakt 3 click on the Make Default Button)

When saving the mixer configuration (in Kontakt 3) you will be prompted by Kontakt to close and re-open all instances of the program. To do this, just remove and then reinsert Kontakt to the I/O of the instrument channel. When Kontakt is initialized it will advertise its number of outputs to the sequencer.  Therefore it cannot change the output configuration during use.

Load samples in to Kontakt

As we can see from the screen shot, Kontakt is open and has a sample loaded in it.

To add a new sample you can go to the File button and select new instrument or instrument bank from the drop down menu. Or you can double click on a sample in the file browser or you can double click on the empty space for a new blank instrument.

Before we proceed let’s look at the instrument interface.
Wrench button expands the sample instrument to display all the editing functions
Output lets you select which channel in the Kontakt mixer to route the sample instrument to.
Midi channel allows you to select which midi channel to assign to the sample instrument so that you can trigger it from an external source.
S & M buttons are solo and mute
Panning slider (beneath the tune knob), pans the instrument in the stereo field
Volume (beneath the meters) adjust the overall volume of the sample instrument
Zone Editing
To adjust sample zones or add multiple samples to one sample instrument, click on the Mapping Editor to edit the zones that the sample(s) will be mapped to on the keyboard.

A zone in the mapping editor is represented by a blue (not selected)or yellow (selected) rectangle. The keys that are below the zone are the only keys that will trigger that zone.

To move a zone click and hold the left mouse button and drag it to the location you want.
To change the size of the zone, place the mouse pointer over the left or right edge and then click and drag to resize it.
To create a new zone with another sample just drag the sample from the file browser and place in the location where you want to create the zone.

Assign an instrument to a channel in the kontakt mixer

Click on the output on the instrument to display the mixer channel menu

Double clicking on a zone will open the wave editor window
Clicking on a key below the zone will play the sample

Setting up the logic mixer to receive multiple outputs from kontakt
In the mixer view you will only see one channel for kontakt. This channel will only be playing what is coming from output 1 in Kontakt. To see the additional outputs in the logic mixer click the plus (+) button on the bottom of the channel strip that kontakt is loaded on. This will open up an aux channel that will automatically be routed to the next output in kontakt.

Trigger Samples From Logic

To trigger samples from Logic open the Piano roll and draw in the notes in the area(s) of the piano roll that the samples are mapped too.

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Tagged as: Kontakt 4, Logic Pro 9, Logic Studio, Native Instruments, Sampler, Samples