Ableton Live & Kontakt Tutorial | Multiple Outputs & Instruments | The Definitive Guide

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This is the definitive tutorial guide to setting up multiple instruments and multiple stereo outputs for Kontakt in Ableton Live!
This tutorial works for the Kontakt Player and the full version of Kontakt from Native Instruments.
Along the way you will learn how to setup multiple outputs in Kontakt (the easiest, best, correct way) and then how to use the External Instrument device in Ableton Live to receive those outputs. You will also learn how to set up multiple instruments within one instance of Kontakt and control them with combined or separate MIDI signals.
There is a lot to cover and the entire video / process is important to understand. There are some finicky bits along the way that cause people issues, so follow along closely and do everything exactly as I do it.
Go ahead and load Kontakt in Ableton Live. Any version is fine for this and the process will be the same for each of them. Don’t load an instrument yet.
Make sure you can see your outputs.
How to See the Outputs Panel in Kontakt
Next, in the Outputs panel, click the + button. This will bring up the Outputs menu. Look at the picture below and make yours look the same. This will set up 4 stereo outputs (8 mono channels total).
Outputs Configuration in Kontakt
Quantity 4
Number of Channels 2
Soundcard / Host output Kt. st. 1[1] (*this is very important)
Ascending output Assignment CHECKED
Delete existing channels… CHECKED
Make this your default… UNCHECKED
Multiple Outputs Configuration in Kontakt
Once you click OK, you should see what is pictured below. There should now be 4 Stereo Channels and 4 AUX Channels. At the bottom the first four channels (st.1-st.4) should be ascending in order by pairs 1|2, 3|4, 5|6, 7|8
If they are not the same, you’ve missed something in the last step.
New Stereo Output Configuration in Kontakt
The next thing to do is save this as the default preset. You can do this by click the big “Presets / Batch Configuration” button next to the + - buttons.
I suggest doing this, so these outputs will be set up every time you launch the Kontakt VST Plugin. You can also just save the output section preset as.. and save it somewhere else. That’s up to you. The with the former, Kontakt will still function as normal even if you are not using multiple outputs.
IMPORTANT: Now delete the Kontakt VST Plugin and re-launch it. If you don’t do this you will run into issue in the later steps. DO THIS!
Next we need to add the External Instrument device in Ableton Live. This is available in the Standard and Suite additions of Live. If you are using Live Lite, you are out of luck.
This device does two important things. It can send MIDI information to a Kontakt instrument on another channel and receive audio from any of the newly created audio outputs.
There are two drop downs in the MIDI To are. The first is the actual Kontakt Instrument. If you only have 1, choose 1-Kontakt.
The second drop down is for the instrument in the instantiation of the Kontakt instrument container. If you have more than one isntrument loaded, you will want to choose whichever it is in the order from Top (being #1) to bottom.
If you are using an instrument in Kontakt that has multiple outputs of its own, just leave this on 1-Kontakt as well.
The Audio From drop down is where you will select the Stereo Output in Kontakt. Which ever audio you route to that particular output in Kontakt will come out on this channel.
If you didn’t delete and re-launch Kontakt in the early steps, you would see Kt. St.2 or Kt. st. 3, etc.
You will want to load 3 Ext. Instruments and make sure the Audio From options are for st.2, st.3 and st.4
The MIDI channel that the actual Kontakt VST lives on will by st.1
External Instrument Device Setup
Now you will have complete control over each instrument and stereo output and you will have to route the actual instruments loaded in the Kontakt plugin.
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