Got an evening to get deeper into sound? Want to get a project started? We’ve been covering all aspects of using Kore in music, bit by bit. Here’s the overview of what we’ve done, which we’re expanding on an ongoing basis.

Using Kore

And, most importantly, I’ve just finished off:
Reference: How to Navigate Kore 2 with Hardware - No Mouse!

When you’re working in the studio or designing sounds, navigating complex parameters with a mouse makes some sense. But when you want to focus on sounds — while playing an instrument in private or (especially) live — you really want hardware control.

Kore 2’s controller does let you do this. The trick is to learn how to navigate different levels of sounds, since you may have different instruments in a performance you want to control. Here’s a quick reference guide to how to do it.

This comes off a little like those old text adventure games. (You’re in a dark dungeon. There are entrances to the LEFT and RIGHT. There are SOUNDS. You can hit the CONTROL button.) But walk through these steps with a performance open, and it’ll make sense — and with a little practice, you can do this quite quickly.

Playing – using your musical tools and toys as an instrument – is what it’s all about for a lot of us. And for many computer musicians, making the computer more playable live, whether onstage or improvising in the “studio,” is a reason to choose Ableton Live as a host.

From the day I first saw Kore at a pre-launch press conference, the pitch was that Kore was portable: you can move it from host to host as a plug-in or use it as a host itself. Lately, I’ve been putting that to use myself, playing some sets in Kore 2 alone, and moving into hosts, particularly Ableton Live. Before talking about the how, it’s worth covering some of the why.

Naturally, if you’re not into the full version of Kore 2, you can easily inject some extra sounds into Live with the soundpacks. But here, I’ll cover the all-stops-pulled complete version of Kore.

Live + Kore: How They Can Work Together

The reasons to use Ableton Live are probably most evident, since it does many of the things that Kore itself does not. I’ll go through what I think is important – if you’re a beginning user, don’t worry about this too much as it’ll make sense when you see it.

Koregonomics

After moving into a new apartment and being lucky enough to get a (semi) dedicated studio room, I’m finally getting around to rethinking my studio ergonomics.  While my Kore 1 hardware doesn’t really get in the way, I find that there are actually several different spots I’d like to have it in depending on what it’s being used for.

In my current setup, with my 88-key controller perpendicular to my desk, the Kore controller sits at the corner of that L-shape on a collapsible tripod shelf.  It’s fine until I need to spend some time editing user pages for example… then the constant reaching becomes a pain.

My solution will involve placing the keyboard between me and the monitors, with Kore somewhere close to hand - but which slice of the precious desktop real-estate to use?  At the moment I’m thinking of mounting a desk arm with a shelf like the Lindy Notebook-Arm or the slicker Rode PSA-1 (with some sort of shelf attachment of course), but I’m interested in hearing what our readers think.  Have you found the perfect way to slot Kore into your rig?

Help is at hand

If you want to try out reshuffling your hardware but don’t fancy hassle the hassle of rewiring, here’s something that might help.  I’ve been a fan of the free Google Sketchup since I made some attempts at a controller for Live, and recently turned to it again to help with my studio redesign.

This mainly involves designing and building a new desk, and although the desk isn’t yet finished I thought I’d share with you the mockup I made of my Kore 1 interface.  It’s not an exact copy but most of the measurements are accurate to within ~1mm, which should help you judge placement pretty well.

Kore 1 Controller (.skp)

I don’t have the Kore 2 controller so couldn’t make a version of that, although if anyone wants to have a go it shouldn’t be too difficult to modify my file to get the results you’re after.

Sketchup is highly recommended - aside from being very satisying to use, it makes trying out different studio layouts far easier and quicker.  Once you’ve put in some time recreating your main pieces of gear, you can rearrange them any way and as often as you want, with millimetre precision.

Related:  CDM asks: How do you Kore?

The Massive synth fits into Kore 2 and the Kore controller like a hand in a glove. Well, maybe more like a fist in a glove. It’s a combination of sound quality and tactile control that, in my humble opinion, moves plugin synthesis out of the shadows of hardware VAs and into the limelight.

One of the most instantly gratifying things you can do with this combo is to control sequenced Massive patches, manipulating the macro controls in the Massive synth. This can create entire song arrangements on the fly - dropping elements in and out and crossfading rhythms. There are a few tips and tricks that will help you get the most out of this dynamic duo and that’s what I cover in this screencast. Ed.: And as I will cover later today, you can control those macro knobs easily not only with the Kore controller but, as of 2.0.4 and later of the Kore software, any MIDI controller. -PK

Sequenced NI Massive patches in Kore 2 from Create Digital Media on Vimeo.

Here’s the Koresound I used in the screencast, with the Kore 2 controllers mapped to Massive’s macro controls.

Native Instruments announced today some new pricing for Kore and related products. The existing Kore product (hardware with software) is now cheaper, you can get just the software without the hardware for a lot less, and you can now buy a whole bunch of Koresound packs bundled together at once. I’ll break it down for you:

• You don’t own Kore, and you want the hardware and software. Kore 2 is now US$449 / EUR399 with the controller, down from $499 / EUR449.
• You don’t own Kore, and you want just the software. The “Kore 2 Software Edition” does everything the software does, but leaves out the controller if you don’t want it. Result: it costs about half as much, at US$229 / EUR199.
• You own Kore 1, and you want to upgrade to Kore 2 sans controller. That’s now US$119/EUR99 to migrate from Kore 1 to Kore 2 Software Edition — keeping in mind, Kore 2 Software Edition will still support your existing Kore controller / audio interface if you prefer that.
• You want more Koresounds. Now you don’t have to piece together the sound bundles you want a la carte. The new Kore Electronic Experience bundles together seven of the Kore soundpacks into one bundle, priced at US$229 / EUR199. And of course this is on top of what ships with Kore 2 in the other editions. Note that if you just want the sounds and not the custom sound editing and hosting capabilities of the full Kore software, this pack is all you need — it ships with the free Kore Player.

If you’ve played with creating Reaktor patches, you know the scenario: you’ve built your insane beat-mangling instrument/effect ensemble in Reaktor, but now you’d like a way to play it without fumbling around on your trackpad. Dropping Reaktor patches in Kore (in plug-in or standalone mode) gives you a nice way to do this:

• You can consolidate parameters you want to control on user control pages, so you only have to think of eight things at a time
• You can use Kore’s sound morphing capabilities
• You get instant hands-on control via the Kore controller
• The Kore controller will even display proper parameter names, as you specify them in Reaktor

The basic steps, as a review: