More NI Synergy: Kontakt 3 as a MIDI insert effect in Kore 2
Kontakt 3 has fantastic MIDI transform scripting abilities, and they’re not limited to triggering internal samples. If you take a look at the MIDI dropdown menu on the engine tab of Kontakt 3′s main options, you’ll see settings for what MIDI events will be sent out when triggered or generated.
Here’s a download of the Kore performance and Kontakt multi I’m using so you can follow along easily.
I was looking to constrain incoming notes from a Kore 2 step sequencer to a particular scale. Easy enough – there’s a Kontakt 3 script for that. I inserted an instance of K3 in between a stepseq and an FM8 based electric piano sound like so:
In Kontakt, I created an empty instrument (no need for a sample here) and loaded the factory “constrain to scale” script:
I love the unexpected bonuses of experimentation and the unexpected bonus here is that using the constrain to scale script as a MIDI filter creates “pedal tones” that continue to ring longer. It sounds like some note-offs are being dropped. This doesn’t happen when this script is used internally, to trigger samples in Kontakt. If it’s a bug, I hope they don’t ever fix it.
This is actually preferable, to my ear, to what happens when you trigger the FM piano sound directly from the step sequencer. Drag the step sequencer down so it sits right above the “best comfort” sound and run the clock. Never mind the chromatic mess of the notes – notice how staccato it is now?
I’m going to keep exploring the (mis?)use of K3 scripts as MIDI insert effects – we’ve only scratched the surface here.
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11 Comments
Leave a CommentJack
i am surprised that kore doesn’t have have its own scripts
great work around though!
July 10, 2008 @ 8:02 am
Peter Kirn
A Kore scripting engine sounds like a fantastic idea! Will pass this suggestion along to NI. I’m not surprised that it’s missing in Kore 2 as Kore 2 is an entirely new, ground-up product (even relative to Kore), and scripting is generally not something you want to add at the outset. But I’d love to see it in a future release, too. In the meantime, a big thanks to Peter Dines, without whom I never would have gotten into Kontakt scripting; it’s really a lot of fun.
July 10, 2008 @ 11:49 am
Jack
is it possible to use the arps and sequencers in reaktor to drive absynth and such in kore?
what about fm8s arp
can that be used to dive other plugins in kore?
July 11, 2008 @ 10:49 am
Peter Dines
Certainly you can do that with Reaktor. FM8 – I could be wrong, but I don’t think it sends midi.
July 11, 2008 @ 3:33 pm
poorsod
Is it possible to use the KSP as an ordinary MIDI insert in other hosts?
I’ve tried in Ableton but the only way I’ve managed to get it to work is by cascading the MIDI through another track (with the internal routing). Same deal with Reaktor etc.
July 12, 2008 @ 3:38 am
Peter Dines
It should work in any host that supports midi routing – as you’ve noticed, Ableton doesn’t let you do it “inline” in the same track – you have to route the midi explicitly to another track. I just tried it in FL Studio too, with the “drum computer” script driving an instance of the Drumatic 3 VSTi. Fun stuff!
July 12, 2008 @ 6:45 am
Keenan
Hey Peter, I am having the exact same problem that poorsod was in Ableton Live, in that it is only displaying one elongated note as apposed to several script generated notes. Could you please explain in further detail how to route Kontakt 3′s midi to another track using internal routing so that these notes may be displayed??????
July 17, 2008 @ 3:22 pm
Peter Dines
Hi Keenan, are you trying to record the output into a midi track? I think the issue’s probably a matter of the Kontakt script not generating note-offs for the note on messages. Prrrobably since the script was originally intended for internal use only, it expects your keyboard or sequencer to send the note offs to Kontakt.
I’d have to dig into the script and do some debugging to fix it up proper. It should be possible – it’s just a matter of sending a note with a zero velocity to turn off a voice.
July 21, 2008 @ 3:42 pm
Loopy C
Hey Peter, should this work with the Kore Demo (v2.01)? I can only load Kontakt 2 via AU, are you loading K3 some other way (my icon is white).
The step sequencer triggers the MIDI in and keyboard of K2 but I cannot get MIDI out per your picture, only bypassing the K2 insert will the following sound (i.e. FM8) recieve the step sequencer.
Any ideas?
September 5, 2008 @ 3:41 am
Loopy C
Nevermind, HAS TO BE VST version of Kontakt as the AU’s do not pass MIDI (at least in Tiger PPC)
September 5, 2008 @ 3:54 am
Native Instruments Kore, Komplete, Reaktor @ Create Digital Music » Dive into Kontakt Scripting: A Gentle Introduction, plus Script Downloads
[...] create a constrain-to-scale MIDI insert effect for Kore and other hosts [...]
December 29, 2008 @ 10:25 pm
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