Getting separate .NKIs to behave as a single instrument

I have an issue, trying to use large articulation sets with Spitfire libraries in Kontakt 6.

I'm using Metagrid as a trigger, through Cubase Pro 10.5, loaded with Babylonwaves Arts Conductor expression maps.

Babylonwaves supplies special Combined maps, which load all articulations onto one track in Cubase. The direction then, is to load all the relevant libraries (in my case Spitfire Symphonic Strings) into Kontakt and set them to the same midi channel. So, to get all the articulations available for a single Cubase track, I need to load (for example) Violins 1 Core, Violins 1 Decorative and Violins 1 Performance Legato ... three distinct .NKIs, but set to behave as one ... in theory.

The problem is that each instrument—Core, Decorative and Legato—will ALWAYS each have one articulation active, whether or not it's the one you want. So, three instruments on one midi channel means three active articulations playing simultaneously ... when all you wanted was one. It defeats the whole idea of individual articulations.

I've stared at Kontakt for days and days, trying to figure out if there's a way to make these instruments truly behave as one. I'm out of ideas ...

Can anyone please put me out of my misery? Either tell me of a neat trick ... or tell me definitively that it's a pointless exercise?

Many thanks in advance ... Michael

 

I don't have Cubase but I think I understand your problem which I remember struggling with myself. The problem is not with Kontakt, which can easily select separate instruments even on the same channel. The Spitfire libraries allow you to change articulation under MIDI control but have no setting for "all off", and block access to the Kontakt facilities where you could organise this. I got round this by doing it in my host program (Bidule, in which it's very easy to do this kind of thing).

If Cubase can't do this, one way of running more than one instrument on the same channel is to transpose them to different parts of the keyboard, which is allowed by Spitfire. Violins for instance, need 4 octaves, so in my orchestra the arco violins are transposed up one octave, pizzicato or staccato violins down 3 octaves. Instrument with lesser range (e.g.oboe) fit into 3 octaves and you can have 3 articulations across the keyboard. (Obviously your sequencer tracks would need to be suitably transposed also - I would hope that Cubase could cope with that).

The (monphonic) legato articulations seem happy to ignore notes being played outside their own instrument range.

 

Thanks for the reply Stephen. I think I understand what you're saying about the Spitfire/Kontakt difficulties, re midi control and the lack of an 'All Off' setting.

Transpositions would definitely be a workaround, except that it becomes too complex and unwieldy, if you're trying to have up to 18 articulations available at any given time.

But are you saying that Kontakt has an 'All Off' command available, one that could (theoretically ... if implemented in Spitfire libraries) turn off all articulations, then allowing just one to be switched on at any given time? I ask this because I'm using an app on my iPad, called Metagrid, to switch articulations. I can program in the correct UACC KS commands and that part works. But if I knew that another command existed that would switch off all articulations, as part of the command chain, prior to then selecting the correct articulation, that'd solve everything.

 

My methods are very unorthodox and I build my own instruments (except for the special legato instruments which are locked to editing.) I switch articulations on and off via "Group start options" using a cc, so each group is enabled only when this cc holds the value assigned to the group. You can switch any group on and off by this method - provided the library authors allow you to. For locked instruments I built a special filter in Bidule which reads the same cc and controls the flow of note messages to the instruments.

Had a quick look at Instrument Banks in the Kontakt manual. I've never used them as when I started my system, Program Change hadn't been implemented in Kontakt. Skating through, it looks as though it could solve your problem. More expert people than I might be able to advise.