Native Instruments KONTAKT PLAYER Getting Started Download Page 1

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GETTING STARTED

Summary of Contents for KONTAKT PLAYER

Page 2: ...d reproduced or otherwise transmitted or recorded for any purpose without prior written permission by Native Instruments GmbH hereinafter referred to as Native Instruments All product and company names are or trademarks of their respective owners Getting Started guide written by Dan Santucci Edited by Nicolas Sidi Document Version 1 0 10 2009 Product Version 4 0 10 2009 Special thanks to the Beta ...

Page 3: ...erlin Germany info native instruments de www native instruments de USA Native Instruments North America Inc 5631 Hollywood Boulevard Los Angeles CA 90028 USA sales native instruments com www native instruments com Native Instruments GmbH 2009 All rights reserved ...

Page 4: ...dio Configuration 9 2 1 2 Latency Optimization 10 2 1 3 MIDI Configuration 11 2 2 Using KONTAKT PLAYER as a Plug in 12 3 User Interface 14 3 1 Main Control Panel 15 3 2 The Rack 16 3 3 Browser 16 3 3 1 Files Tab 17 3 3 2 Libraries Tab 18 3 4 Info Pane 20 3 5 On Screen Keyboard 20 4 Basic Operation 22 4 1 Loading and Playing Instruments 22 4 1 1 Loading an Instrument Using the Libraries Tab 23 4 1 ...

Page 5: ... 29 4 3 2 Locating a Moved or Missing Library 30 4 3 3 Removing a Library 32 4 3 4 Adding a Library 32 4 3 5 Other Library Box Functions 33 4 3 6 Locked Libraries 34 4 3 7 Legacy Support INTAKT KOMPAKT and KONTAKT PLAYER 1 35 4 4 Setting Basic Instrument Parameters 35 4 4 1 Setting Audio and MIDI Ports 36 4 4 2 Adjusting Volume and Panning 37 4 4 3 Using Mute and Solo 38 4 4 4 Performance View 39 ...

Page 6: ...d all of your INTAKT KOMPAKT and KONTAKT PLAYER 1 librar ies thus enabling you to use these libraries on Intel based Macs 1 1 About this Getting Started Guide The purpose of this Getting Started document is to guide you through the basic steps of setting up KONTAKT PLAYER and to get you acquainted with the fundamental aspects of its user interface After reading it you should be able to start KONTA...

Page 7: ...space 1 GB for minimal installation without any sound library Audio hardware for standalone operation Any fully compliant ASIO DirectSound or WASAPI interface 1 2 2 Mac Requirements Hardware Intel Core Duo 1 66 GHz or higher with at least 1 GB of RAM Operating system Mac OS X 10 5 Hard disk space 1 GB for minimal installation Audio hardware for standalone operation Any fully compliant Core Audio o...

Page 8: ...rns the way in which KONTAKT handles MIDI and audio streams In stand alone mode KONTAKT will address your MIDI and audio hardware directly which requires you to specify some details about your hardware and drivers When using KONTAKT as a plug in these details will be taken care of by the sequencer host application The following sections will explain both modes in more detail 2 1 Using KONTAKT PLAY...

Page 9: ...l it which hardware it should use This is done via the Options dialog which should appear automatically upon the first start You can also open this dialog at any time by clicking on the Options button at the top of the main window Click the Options button to open the Options dialog This Options dialog is the central place for configuring all aspects of KONTAKT s user inter face and its sample play...

Page 10: ...this is called latency but may cause drop outs and stuttering when playing a lot of voices at the same time Conversely setting this to a higher value will make playback more reliable at the cost of more latency 2 1 2 Latency Optimization The load that typical digital audio calculations generate on your processor is often not con stant and predictable parameter changes additional voices or other pr...

Page 11: ...ea to have as few other applications as possible running in the back ground when working with audio software Also if you can t get below a certain buffer size without getting drop outs consult the documentation of your audio hardware to find out whether you can access it via an alternative driver architecture as some architectures allow more efficient low level access to the hardware than others 2...

Page 12: ...sound generators and effect plug ins trigger them with the data of MIDI tracks from within your sequencer and directly feed their audio output into the signal flow of your virtual mixer Depending on your operating system and choices upon installation KONTAKT provides VST Audio Units and RTAS plug in formats Refer to the documentation of your sequencer to find out which of these formats is the righ...

Page 13: ...KONTAKT PLAYER Getting Started 13 In your host software select the Kontakt 4 entry from the list of available plug ins ...

Page 14: ...The KONTAKT PLAYER main window with no Instruments loaded The main window is subdivided into a number of sections each of which incorporates func tions for carrying out a specific group of tasks In the following sections we ll briefly explain the interface parts that are used for loading and playing instruments with KONTAKT PLAYER for a much more thorough description of all aspects of the user int...

Page 15: ... period of time you can save desktop space by hiding it The Browser is ex plained in section 3 3 of this guide and in the KONTAKT 4 Reference Manual Master Toggles the visibility of the Master Editor where you can adjust various global parameters such as overall volume tempo or master tuning Info Toggles the visibility of the Info Pane which will appear at the bottom of the window The Info Pane is...

Page 16: ...en you first start KONTAKT the Rack will be just an empty space indicating that no Instruments are currently loaded You ll need to either load an Instrument or open a Multi Chapter 4 1 of this guide explains how you find and load existing Instruments from the sound libraries on your hard disk The Rack header controls On top of the Rack you ll find a row of user controls most of these don t actuall...

Page 17: ...xplanations of the Files and Libraries tabs which offer access to your file system and your collection of instruments powered by KONTAKT and other KONTAKT libraries respectively 3 3 1 Files Tab When you click on the Files tab the Browser will switch to a two or possibly three pane view the third pane at the bottom can be switched on and off This tab allows you to navigate through your file system ...

Page 18: ...n that particular directory as a flat list If this list is longer than the pane just click and drag the scrollbar on its right side to scroll down Once you ve found what you ve been looking for either double click the file or click and drag it over into the Rack in order to load it into KONTAKT As mentioned you may notice a third section below the Container Pane and Object Pane if not you can show...

Page 19: ...ess of where they are located on your hard disk To access the contents of a library just click on the button labelled Browse on its head er Its directory structure will then show up below the header You can navigate through the contents in the same way you do in the panes of the Files tab the only difference being that in this case both subdirectories and loadable objects appear in the same list O...

Page 20: ...ell the Info Pane will be separated into two sections In addition to the user interface descriptions it will also display various details about the item that s currently selected in the Object Pane of the Browser if any 3 5 On Screen Keyboard The On Screen Keyboard appears just below the Rack when you click on the button labeled Keyb in the Main Control Panel see section 3 1 The On Screen Keyboard...

Page 21: ...r rored on the On Screen Keyboard this is an easy way to ensure that KONTAKT correctly receives MIDI data from the outside Finally provided that your current Multi contains any Instruments a range of consecutive keys will be colored blue this indicates the playable key range of the currently selected or topmost Instrument ...

Page 22: ...lled 3rd Party Libraries are shown Installed libraries show up as Library Boxes 4 1 Loading and Playing Instruments KONTAKT offers you a number of different tools that let you keep track of your installed sampling libraries and their contents Ultimately they all have the same purpose to let you locate and use any item you re looking for as quickly as possible The Files tab of the Browser is a tree...

Page 23: ...b Let s start by loading an Instrument In this example we will use an Instrument from the Factory Selection Library The following description applies to all libraries in a very similar manner so you can use another library if desired 1 Make sure the Browser is visible on the left side of the main window If it s not click on the button labeled Browse in the Main Control panel Toggle the visibility ...

Page 24: ... and show all Instruments or sub folders contained in the library Click the Browse button to access the Instruments and sub folders your library contains The Factory Selection library contains numerous sub folders which are marked with a folder icon next to their name They can be opened by double clicking on them To get back to the parent folder click on the first entry of the list which is marked...

Page 25: ...rence Manual to find out how to solve the problem 4 1 2 Playing the Instrument Once KONTAKT has successfully loaded the Instrument it appears as a horizontal Instrument Header within the Rack which indicates that it s ready for playing If you have a master key board connected to your computer play a few keys now In case you re using KONTAKT as a plug in within your sequencer you may need to put th...

Page 26: ...ad of Browse 3 Double click a folder to navigate further Once you found some Instruments hold Shift Mac or Ctrl Windows and click on an Instrument and then on another Click drag the selection to the right into the Rack We now have three Instruments possibly from different libraries loaded into our Rack such a combination of Instruments is called a Multi Three Instruments in the Rack top and bottom...

Page 27: ...emo mode You can also recognize that the library is in demo mode by the button labeled Activate appearing in the Library Box A library that has not been activated The demo mode allows you to play any Instruments from a particular library for 15 minutes The countdown begins when the first Instrument from that given library is loaded After 15 minutes have passed there will be a Demo Timeout message ...

Page 28: ...does not time out you can continue working with activated libraries making changes to activated Instruments and saving them You can even save a combination of activated and non activated Instruments as a Multi either in a host project or and stand alone mode And no worries total recall works so any changes will be in place upon reloading Saving a host project where KONTAKT is instantiated as a plu...

Page 29: ...d OK KONTAKT 4 license required some libraries are locked for editing by the library developer patches can always be loaded and recalled in demo mode n a not available 4 3 Working With Libraries 4 3 1 Activating a Library To remove the demo mode limitations you need to activate your library via the Service Center application To open the Service Center and activate your product 1 Either click the A...

Page 30: ...e and manual 3 Once the library is activated restart KONTAKT PLAYER If no Activate button is present in the Library Box afterwards the product has been successfully activated 4 3 2 Locating a Moved or Missing Library Sometimes you may want to move an installed library to another location This is no problem but the next time you start KONTAKT PLAYER you ll have to manually find the moved library Af...

Page 31: ...Alternatively you can have KONTAKT PLAYER search the file system by clicking on the button labeled Search Filesystem As KONTAKT PLAYER will scan all folders on your computer this may take a considerable amount of time After the missing file is located the Library Box re appears and functions as before For legacy libraries you will see a Locate Folder window Use this to navigate to the library s in...

Page 32: ... Library If you want to add a new or previously removed library to the Libraries tab do the following 1 Click on the Add Library button 2 In the dialog that opens select the desired library folder and click on OK at the bot tom of the dialog For example if you want to add Factory Selection which is a Native Instruments product please select the Library folder highlighted in blue below inside the N...

Page 33: ...rary Boxes to change their order in the Library Browser Info Menu Open the Info menu to access documentation content and additional product information The Info menu shows the content of the library s Documentation folder To open the Info menu click on the button labeled i Most commonly this menu holds links to the user manual as PDF file to quick start guides tutorial videos or even links to the ...

Page 34: ...gate to the library s install location without using the Finder Mac OS X or the Explorer Windows Remove Library Removes the Library Box from the Library tab see section 4 3 3 4 3 6 Locked Libraries KONTAKT PLAYER libraries will always be locked for editing when in Player mode If a library is locked its Instruments display a gear icon in their Instrument Header The gear icon in an Instrument Header...

Page 35: ...r computer do as follows 1 Simply attach the hard drive to the other computer 2 Click on the Add Library button and navigate to the library install location 3 Click on OK The Library Box will show up in the Libraries tab KOMPAKT and INTAKT libraries will show up in the Libraries tab but the Instruments only function once you have fully authorized the library for the new computer via the Service Ce...

Page 36: ...ew Maximize all Instrument Headers by clicking the Size Toggle button in the Rack Header once or twice 4 4 1 Setting Audio and MIDI Ports We already touched this topic briefly in the previous sections In order to make an Instrument respond to incoming MIDI data you ll have to tell KONTAKT on which MIDI input port and channel it should listen for that data To select both the MIDI port and the MIDI ...

Page 37: ... physical audio outputs per se For more infor mation about KONTAKT s internal audio routing refer to the Outputs section chapter of the KONTAKT 4 Reference Manual 4 4 2 Adjusting Volume and Panning You can set the playback volume and stereo panorama position for each Instrument in your Multi independently This is useful for creating a sub mix inside your KONTAKT instance If multiple Instruments ar...

Page 38: ...4 4 3 Using Mute and Solo When you re actively working on an arrangement or a Multi it s often helpful to temporarily exclude certain Instruments from the mix or to isolate a single element for making better judgments You can do this with the buttons labeled S Solo and M Mute in the Instrument Header Solo S and Mute M switches Clicking on the Mute switch will exclude the signal of an Instrument fr...

Page 39: ...cteristics As these controls are programmed by the library developer the available controls will vary from library to library To display the Performance View of an Instrument Click on the icon labelled PV in the lower right corner of the Instrument Header Here is a Performance View of one example Instrument The Performance View showing the Instrument s controls ...

Page 40: ...ess a key the Instrument already generates sound see picture below if you don t hear anything the signal gets lost somewhere between KONTAKT s internal output routing and your monitor speakers Make sure your audio interface is turned on and that you re listening to the right output channels The level meters show the peak level of an Instrument s audio signal If you re using KONTAKT in stand alone ...

Page 41: ...ly plugged in Make sure the value displayed next to the Midi Ch label in the Instrument Header match es the port that your master keyboard is connected to and the MIDI channel on which it is sending data To be able to play an Instrument its MIDI input port and channel have to be assigned correctly The ports of your MIDI interface are designated with letters starting with A with each port having 16...

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