How do you make loops play sequentially in Kontakt?

N

normanlevene

New member
I'd like to use kontakt as a live loop player.

The only function I need to do this successfully is to have it play a second triggered loop after the first triggered loop has reach its loop end.

Like a drum machine.

So that it stacks the loops instead of cutting in on them.

This way the beat remains continuous instead of interrupted.

Does anyone know how to do this?
 
hollandturbine said:
If you are using the term loop as a colloquialism then it's your sequencer that does the looping rather than Kontakt.
Click to expand...

With the greatest respect, I don't understand your point. Are you just into arguing semantics?
Why would anyone writing in a music creation forum use the term 'loop' as a colloquialism?
The concept of a loop is universally understood, even by laymen.
Kontakt plays a piece of audio, returns to the beginning of that piece of audio and plays it again.
Either by me telling kontakt to do it or by the sound file being preprogrammed to do so.
This piece of audio in this case is commonly referred to as a loop.
Excuse my obnoxiousness here but in order to answer my original question I have to assume anyone answering would be familiar with the basic terms of reference.
If you're not, then it's pretty unlikely you'd have the adequate knowledge or experience to help me further. Of course I could be wrong.

Anyhoo, the situation is.

I make extensive use of Cubase, Logic audio, Addictive drums, ezplayer and Ezdrummer to create and master these loops, and I have been triggering them in a live performance situation whilst playing bass keyboard and piano and singing.

Now I'd like to improve the timing of the loops by having Kontakt instinctively play them sequentially instead of just interrupting each triggered loop so that the backing drums maintain their tightness.

Sort of what a drum machine like the Alesis Sr18 does.

Preferably without the use of a DAW for reasons of simplicity and ease of use.

I know it can be done but I just don't know how.
 
Even the Kontakt manual raises the point of semantics in regard to the usage of the term loop so I don't think it's unreasonable to ask, but because you understand the meaning of the term loop, you should know that the timing of your loop depends on the length of the sample in relation to it's tempo (so a 95 BPM loop should always be 2.526 sec long etc) or it will drift, and because it's a loop the only sequencing required is a note on mesage to activate the loop and a note off mesage to stop it.
 
Dude!

Just because the Kontakt manual raises the issue of semantics, doesn't mean you should too.
Kind of a waste of time writing in to NOT solve my problem isn't it?

When someone asks you the time do you give them the date?

WTF?
 
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Semantics is what separates two different looping concepts and when it comes to shit like this the devil is often in the details.

BTW you should be able to use the input quantize script to control loop switching to some degree.
 
Click the spanner icon > script editor > preset > factory > performance > input quantize.

Try using both note on and off together and set the duration to 1 bar and it should switch over to the currently held note in synchronization with the BPM.
 
i'VE NEVER USED AN INPUT QUANTIZING SCRIPT BEFORE. (oops caps off)

Google don't fail me now.

Although (and unfortunately) Kontakt is giving me new problems. I'm having to hit the same key to turn the note off before I can press a different midi note. I was hope the second key would just steal voice from the previous.

Bleuch!
 
Try setting polyphony to 1. Depending on your particular setup you might find the MIDI latch script to be useful too, you can add it to the tab after the input quantize script.

Also keep in mind that all this switching is based on the tempo Kontakt is set to and also the 1 bar limitation of the input quantize script, more scripts can be found on the internet and you may well find something that works better for your setup.
 
surfin bird

I tried input quantizing but without any luck.
I even set the master tempo to the tempo of the loops.
I think the fact that I have to press a key twice for each loop (once to unlatch it and then to trigger another) might be causing problems too.
I was hoping that pressing a second key would steal the voice from the first after launching its loop in time but this isn't happening.

It's a small Kontakt 5 file (only 3mb) would you care to look at it doctor?


rcpt.yousendit.com/1277548782/60ab9b624f897bc5f3e6eb8960314cba
 
Most of my studio is boxed up and I am in the middle of painting at the moment, so I will need a bit of time before I dig my computer out.

Try limiting the polyphony or voice count to 1 or set up a MIDI latch script set to mono.

You can also use a sustain pedal to hold your loops and just pop it when switching.
 
Thanks

Thanks man.

I already solved the voice stealing problem by setting the midi latch to mono. The last piece of the puzzle is now getting the loops to play sequentially. I haven;t seen any results from using input quantize yet.

:hello:
 
What the input quantize script does is forces each loop to switch to the next loop only at every bar etc in sync with Kontakt's tempo, this allows you to avoid abrupt switching that results in loss of synchronization, the only drawback is that switching is set to a predetermined value so a short quantize value will prematurely interrupt a long loop if you switch too early, but it's efficient and easy to set up, you just set all the switches to "on" and put the MIDI latch script after it set to mono. I might be able to modify the input quantize script and add a few quantize values that are longer than 1 bar.

If you look at hardware like the Alesis Sr18 it's easy to overlook the fact that when you hit the pads to change patterns you are actually engaging the operating system to switch programs, the OS actually hijacks the pads (you can't access pattern switching via MIDI) and all the patterns have predefined parameters that the OS uses to control switching.

---------- Post added 11-14-2011 at 06:04 AM ---------- Previous post was 11-13-2011 at 04:54 PM ----------

Update: I have started making a script.

---------- Post added 11-15-2011 at 02:44 AM ---------- Previous post was 11-14-2011 at 06:04 AM ----------

Update: I now have two loops of different lengths switching, each waits until it's end before switching to the next loop in sync with Kontakt's tempo (just like patterns on a drum machine). For each loop there are only two parameters to set, measures and the note the sample is assigned to.

How many loops do you want and what is the minimum and maximum length?
 
First of all let me say a most humble thankyou to you sir. You've helped me far above and beyond the call of duty and I sincerely regret giving you shit about 'semantics.'

I was hoping to find out how to do this myself but I've never written a script before and it looks to be a bit of a steep learning curve. Anyways, I'm using 2 loops in one instrument. (surfin bird by the trashmen) Each loop is 4 bars long. The tempo is 92.5bpm.

I could email you the Kontakt or you could try accessing from here (after adding a few hotel, tango, tango etc, prelimiaries to the beginning of that link below)

rcpt.yousendit.com/1287577134/32080185491a01dd08af7bcbe7d0edb3

N.
 
This is what I have done so far, it's just the two loop banks for now and you will have to place a MIDI latch script in the tab after it, set to mono (the idea is to eventually set the MIDI latch range to only hold the keys you have loops on so that you can use the rest of the keyboard as normal, but we will worry about that later).

Kontakt will need to be set to the same tempo as your loop, and you will need to select the loop length from the drop down menu (1-10 bars) you will also need to select the note that triggers the loop, if the loop is playing without any synchronization double check the note setting (btw saving the settings is not yet properly implemented).

Let me know what you think.

zSHARE - kontakt loop switcher Ver 1.0.txt - Free File Hosting Service | Audio and Video Sharing | Image Uploading | Web storage

---------- Post added 12-11-2011 at 02:05 AM ---------- Previous post was 11-22-2011 at 04:51 AM ----------

OK, I haven't heard anything from you in a while so I am just going to go past the point of no return and add a bunch of shit.
 
I can't remember if I ever thanked youhanks for your help mate.

So I just want to say thanks for all your help.

:)
 
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