If you have a Kontakt instance in a VST instrument or Rack instrument it is possible to have multis using channels 17-32 (and beyond) as it allows inputs A1-16 B17-32 C33+ and so on.
However I can’t find away for a cubase midi track to address anything other than 1-16 or Any. I’m sure I remember being able to do this in older versions (I go back to Cubase SX), but my memory is failing or faulty.
Is it not possible to address the other 48 possible channels in Cubase14, or am I missing something?
Afaik it is not possible in Cubase (the 16 channels of course being a limitation of MIDI), and also Kontakt itself doesn’t support it, from the manual:
Note that the maximum number of distinct MIDI channels that you can use is 64 in the stand-alone version of Kontakt, and 16 when using Kontakt as a plug-in.
The solution is of course just opening another instance of Kontakt…
Yes I know the answer is to add further instances, I was just curious as I have some memory of being able to do this in the past. And Vepro allows the addressing of multiple midi ports if kontakt is hosted there. I allowed myself to fall into the rabbit hole devised by copilot:
" Cubase only displays MIDI channels 1–16 per MIDI port in the track inspector. But here’s the trick: Kontakt’s Port B channels (B1–B5) correspond to MIDI channels 17–21 in Cubase. Even though Cubase doesn’t label them as “B1” etc., you can still access them.
Here’s how to do it:
- Create a MIDI track (not an Instrument track).
- In the Inspector, set the MIDI Output to your Kontakt instance.
- Then set the MIDI Channel to 17, 18, 19, 20, or 21—these correspond to B1 through B5.
If you don’t see channels above 16 in the dropdown, try typing the number manually into the MIDI Channel field. Cubase will accept it even if it’s not listed."
“In the VST Instruments panel, click the “+” next to Kontakt to add additional MIDI inputs—you’ll see options like “Kontakt - MIDI In 2” which corresponds to Port B.”
All of which, as we farmers say, is a load of bullocks.
Seems to be a Kontakt 8 thing?
I remember it being possible once upon a time with Kontakt, but I don’t remember how far back. I think it can still be done in the stand alone version. I guess they’ve pulled that support for the VST3 plugin?
Note, multiple MIDI inputs do show up with HALion 7, so it’s still supporting the 64 channels over 4 inputs.
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I double checked Kontakt 6 VST3 (Win10) and it also seemed limited to just Port A, when used as a plugin.
I think it’s fair to say, that NI was rather late to supporting VST3 and I wouldn’t be surprised if they only implemented limited VST3 capabilities.
Reducing functionality in newer versions of their software has been a regular occurrence with NI products over the last few years. That’s in addition to reducing their VST instrument portfolio slowly but steadily.
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I am fairly sure it has always been like that, because I vaguely remember posing myself the same question years and years ago, and then stumbling upon that section in the manual which I quoted.
For that to work, a plugin must support multiple MIDI input ports, which VST3 seems to allow (VST2 not), but it seems like the only plugin that implemented that is VEPro.
And I personally doubt that many others, including Kontakt, will implement it, it is just easier to open a new instance..
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Makes sense. I’m probably remembering running Kontakt ‘stand alone’ in live situations.
I got into HALion back with version 5, and it has supported the 64 channels as far back as l can remember in Cubase. I think I was running Cubase 7 or 8 back in those days. Seems like you are right about the VST2 version…with VST2 only hosts (Mine were Sibelius and Finale) one needed more instances for more than 16 channels.
Seems like there used to be some VST2 instruments that could fake extra channels if you preceded events with a given CC. Kind of like a program change but rather than loading new instruments it would simply ‘bounce’ among preloaded instrument slots (thus an illusion of more than 16 ‘channels’). HALion 5 could do this among ‘layers’ easily enough (MIDI Mega Trigger).
Going ‘way back’ Kontakt might have been one of the instruments that could do this (bounce pre-loaded instrument slots/layers via CC or PC)? I’d suspect it still can if you have a library built to support it, or that allows user edits deep in the guts of an instrument.
All of which rather begs the question of why the Kontakt VST multi-rack screen clearly shows 4 tabs at the top for 64 inputs. ..
It shows 4 tabs of pages where one page can hold a maximum of 16 instruments. Doesn’t really have anything to do with MIDI channels.
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As already stated in this thread, the standalone app can use up to 4 MIDI ports with each 16 channels. The GUI for the plugin and the standalone is the same, just the features differ.
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I don’t agree - it has everything to do with midi channels. The interface suggests Port B17-32 will be used by default if you put instruments on that page. But as fese points out, that is a standalone feature, and doesn’t seem to apply to the vst. I now understand that. It’s not that important in the scheme of things, I was just wondering, initially, if there was away to use those midi channels like there is with Halion and Vepro.
Take it up with NI and their documentation.