[How To] Setup Komplete Kontrol with Ableton Live for Smart Play of any track

I have seen a few posts about how "hard / complex / stupid / impossible" it is to setup Komplete Kontrol with a DAW (such as Live) to allow the Smart Play (Scale/Arp) features to be easy to record the individual notes or to use the Komplete Kontrol software to play Lives own in-built instruments. There are setup instructions provided in this forum on how to setup recording of smartplay but many believe you will end up with extra MIDI tracks for smartplay for every track you have in Live.



This video should offer a bit of an idea on how to easily use a single instance of Komplete Kontrol to record smart play data to any track in your Live session simply by arming a track and get some new ideas down quick. Especially good to help upgrade older templates from before you even used Komplete Kontrol and it makes it super easy to change the key/scale you want to to play in without having to modify every tracks Komplete Kontrol instance.

Instructional Overview
Here are some quick steps to follow for reference

Step 1: Understand the Komplete Kontrol Ableton Rack
If you are brand new (or unfamiliar with Ableton Live) you first need to know that you need to load the KK plugin using an Ableton Instrument Rack included with the installation of komplete Kontrol. To install this and use it see This Thread

Step 2: Add a MIDI track for your Komplete Kontrol "input"
This is the single KK instance that acts as the MIDI input for your controllers. It will receive input from your controllers and send the smart play data to your tracks



Drag the Komplete Kontrol rack onto the channel. Make sure your rack has the "NIKB00" control set (note that if you have other instances already of Komplete Kontrol already in your project the end number will be different). Be sure to firstly understand the need to use the Instrument Rack instead of just loading the VST itself.

Step 3: Load a "blank" instrument in Komplete Kontrol
Open the VST interface for Komplete Kontrol


Then manually add the Kontakt plugin by going Menu > Plugins



Close the Browser to make a nice simple interface. You now have Kontakt loaded but it will remain empty


Step 4: Set the tracks MIDI Monitor input to "IN"
This sets the track to always listen to MIDI signals from controllers even when this track is not armed


Step 5: Setup your Instrument Tracks
Add whatever instrument tracks you like in Live and load with whatever instruments you like. On each track you would like to control using Komplete Kontrol smart play features set the "MIDI From" to receive signal from the Komplete Kontrol track:



Step 6: Arm the track and play your instrument
Once you arm the track you should be able to now play one of your attached MIDI devices and hear sound from your instrument track. This will be passed from the Komplete Kontrol track



Step 7: Change the Scale/Arp functions in Komplete Kontrol
Open the Scale/Arp settings in the Komplete Kontrol instance and set whatever you like (1).


You can also change these settings from the keyboard by pressing the "keyboard connect" button (2) or by pressing Shift+Instance on the keyboard

You should now be well on your way using a single instance of Komplete Kontrol to drive your entire project using smart play features. Just remember that any tracks you wish to use the smart play features you need to set the MIDI From to your KK instance track. Save this as a template to get started quickly.

You can switch tracks from the keyboard using the track navigation controls and the track will auto arm as you navigate allowing immediate playback of the track. Just press Shift + Instance on the keyboard to gain control of the Scale/Arp features to make adjustments

If you are a Push user you will note that tracks set to receive input from the KK track no longer "auto arm" when you use Push to select them. This is normal and a workaround is to Hold the REC button on Push and press the Track Select button (the one below the LCD that selects that track) which Rec Arms the track. A small circle icon appears next to the name of a track that is armed. You can now use Push to smart play through KK too.

 

This video does not explain how to set everything up, it shows final effect only so it is not helpful at all.

 

What does it not explain? If you are stuck I can help, saying it's "not helpful at all" isn't really helpful in itself.

 

Finally after watching few other videos I finally got to understanding how this is setup (although not everything is completely clear). This video simply skips certain steps assuming the user knows them. Obviously for someone who does this several times it might be no brainer but for most it should be more detailed. This video seems like being cut off from some other material...
I'm going to spend some time now trying to setup everything and see if it works for me. Thank you for offering your help - I appreciate.

I'm assuming - if I want to use FM8 (for example) I just drop the plugin directly into track - right ?
How would I use this procedure for sampled instruments (string ansamble etc.) ?


BTW. I have some other side question. Any ideas why when I run REAKTOR as standalone instrument I have no access to MIDI settings (everythiong is set to OFF and I cannot edit it). ?

ART

 

yeah I'm still not clear on why you don't understand. Are you an Ableton Live user? Do the posted overview steps in post 1 not make sense either? This was created directly from my own experience and I'd be happy to redo it to cover everything if you could explain why parts I'm missing.

In regards to the side questions, not on topic so please start a thread for that.

 

hey JesterMgee i was about start a thread in regards to some general question about komplete kontrol and Ableton but after reading this thread and your willingness to help maybe you can shed some light on some of my questions.

1st just want to say i bought komplete select without the kontrol s keyboard as i already have a midi controller and didn't really feel the need to shell out 300 bux for the kontrol s though i might be buying one used sometime in the near future. So happy with the quality of sound coming from the plug-ins i just went ahead and upgraded to ultimate, my upgrade hard drive should be here in couple days.

After kind of going through the plug-ins i figured i wouldn't even use the komplete kontrol plug-in as i don't have the kontrol-S, but someone had mentioned that you can still use it so i dropped it on track, at first my libraries weren't showing up so it said to load it in stand alone so i did, and all my libraries show but in partial form when loaded, it says i have the full version, is it normal that the plugins show up in partial form?

are there really any benefits other than scale and arp not having the kontrol-s? as i can load arp within the plugins themselves or Ableton, and I know my scales, also, when komplete kontrol is in stand alone it makes me activate my midi kontroller in preferences for each plug-in intially which i thought was Kind of weird.

My basic overall question is will i need to use komplete kontrol in order to use certain plug-ins that come with ultimate?

also i wanted to know if full integration mode on the kontrol-s only works with the komplete kontrol plug-in? as' i'm thinking about getting one but it seems the plug-ins only load partially in komplete kontrol(for me at least) something is prob not working right

thanks any advice helps

 

@Artcutech

Happy to help but this would have been much better suited to a dedicated thread as others who do not have an interest in KK+Live won't even look.

The Komplete Kontrol software can be used in a DAW without the need for the Komplete Kontrol keyboard if you just want to use the Scale/Arp features. These features are actually very useful and often better and more configurable than in-built ones in other instruments. One thing to note though is you will have to manually adjust the settings using your mouse and you cannot access the main feature of komplete kontrol being the mapped controls for a VST. All that functionality requires the KK Keyboard which integrates with the plugin seemlessly.

You do NOT need Komplete Kontrol for anything in Komplete Ultimate. What the KK software does is allow quick browsing of ALL the Ultimate content and presets, load up a sound and start playing and adjusting it right from the keyboard without having to map controls or use the mouse to find sounds. This is probably the main reason most users want Komplete Kontrol and the Keyboard.

In regards to your plugins "partially loading" in Komplete Kontrol I am guessing you mean the interface looks "limited" or much smaller than normal? This is normal as a scaled down version of the interface with the main controls is displayed by default for NI VSTs.



Just click that [+] button to open the full interface.

The KK S Series keyboards fully integrate with Komplete Kontrol but at the press of a button can also act as a typical MIDI controller so will integrate with any DAW etc. I have mine setup to control a KK instance loaded into my projects, control transport, control any auto-map controls in Ableton Live, access the volume controls of tracks and control anything via learned MIDI... Almost everything that can be done from controllers. Works quite well.

 

Thanks for the in depth response Jester! you answered my question and then some

 

This thread should be a sticky.

 

+1

 

JesterMgee, "My Hero"
Finally, a clear and simple explanation and procedure that actually works very well. Thank you!

 

Thank you so much @JesterMgee . Really appreciate the video and you're enthusiasm to help.Very good job.
@terrybritton this answers some questions. However need to to work on Ableton more to figure out better.

 

Thanks, always glad to help out.

It really makes a difference especially for people like me who have a lot of templates and projects I created over the years that I start off from and not wanting to spend hours/days/weeks updating all these to incorporate the KK software, this allows the features I now love to use to be used really quickly.

 

This all works very well but just to be clear with this setup:
1) you now bypass using Komplete Kontrol to select Instrument and Sounds (Patches)
2) If using Push you no longer have track selection control.
No complaints here, just making sure I am set up correctly.. Thanks again for the posting!

 

1) - Yes. This is designed to allow Komplete to integrate with an existing project or template to use the smart play features only. If you need browsing/instant mapping then you would be replacing existing tracks with Komplete Kontrol. This is just another way to work KK into your work.

2) - If you have Push then this will change the way things work a little. Push does an "auto arm" on tracks that have MIDI coming from Push (or "All MIDI) when it's selected. If the MIDI is routed from another source though then you do not get auto arming with Push (but Komplete Kontrol will when you switch tracks). On Push though what you can do is Hold the REC button then press the track select button to arm the track and now Push can play smartplay via the KK track... It's pretty flexible when you get the hang of it. I really need to redo the video to show all this.

 

Arming the track with Push was what I was after. Thank you, this is all very helpful.

 

I've done my full install and followed the steps above for Ableton integration however my main reason for purchasing KK was for the pre-mapping of the knobs on the thousands of NI plugins sounds so that I can spend my time making music, using a physical instrument as opposed to mapping them myself. The "smart play" features for chords and scales are of minimal interest to me as I'm a solid keyboard player (loving the arpeggio interface tho).

Just to be clear, is there currently no way of switching between tracks in the DAW and accessing the pre-mapped knobs without using a mouse to re-open the KK browser and click the keys button to reconnect the KK keybord to these features?!

I'm using Ableton Live and ideally want to control the track selection with my APC40 then play freely with keyboard and have the knobs mapped and ready to tweak. It's going to be painful having to do the above as the main reason I've bought this keyboard is for live performance, avoiding the need to stare at a screen and dick around with the mouse on stage.

 

What I have posted about here is not the "proper way" to do things, it is an additional way for users who may not wish to add a KK instance to every track or just want a single KK instance to act as a "Master" to other tracks so you can set a scale just 1 time then use that in every track easily. It also allows the Scale/Arp features of KK to feed a Live instrument which cannot be loaded within KK.

If you want the KK smart features (automatic parameter mapping) in any selected track you need to spend some time to build your set using a KK instance on every track with the instrument VST loaded within KK. You can then switch tracks and that track instance will display the mapped controls of the instrument on the keyboard display automatically which is certainly one of the biggest features of the keyboard.

One thing to be aware of is that the KK will display the instance from the track that is ARMED so you really need to have exclusive arming set (1 track at a time only) or you will need to switch instances using the mouse. I do not have an APC but do have a Push and when I switch tracks with Push it puts the track in a Pseudo arm starte where it's not armed red but "pink" so you can play the instrument but it's not set to record and this does not switch the KK to the track unless I arm the track (or use the KK to navigate to the track)

 

Yes! Got it working, had to use multiple tracks with an instrument rack on each - time to make some music

Here's my settings if it helps anyone else:

 

So far I feel really stupid with all this equipment. I’ve followed these and several other instructions and for the life of me I can’t get it to work. I simply want to pic an instrument in KK and play it on a track in ableton. Whatever I play records and sounds identical to what I just played. I create the kk track and then add a midi. I pick and instrument and hit play. No matter what I choose or do a track doesn’t get laid down and it isn’t on the timeline. What am I doing wrong?