Using Kontakt for string quartet

Dorico
1

I am trying to use the Embertone Intimae Solo Strings VST library for my string quartet. I made an instance of Kontakt for each instrument in the VST Rack. Although I have a very well specified capable machine, Kontakt is consistenly crashing Dorico.

Am I doing this the wrong way? Should I have one Kontakt instance and four instriments in a multi with separate output channels, similar to Halion?

When I try this, only Violin I plays.

2

Just a few thoughts, that might be helpful perhaps, with using one instance of Kontakt with 4 instruments.

  1. Do all instruments in Play > Inspector (has to be blue) > Routing have the same Kontakt instance (the name of the vst instrument starts with every instrument with the same number, probably 02, so the name in my case here is: “02 - Kontakt 5 16out”)?
  2. Do all instruments in Kontakt have a different channel number (in this case violin 1 > channel I, violin 2 > channel 2 and so on)
  3. Do all instruments in Play > Inspector (has to be blue) > Routing have the same channel numbers as in Kontakt?

Here it worked with one instance.

3

Thanks @mmka before reading your post I got it all configured nicely. Using one instance of Kontakt with four Embertone strings loaded does not seem to crash so far. It would appear four instances of Kontakt upsets Kontakt and Dorico somehow. So now I have a Kontakt multi that seems pretty good.

4

I regularly have ten or eleven Kontakt VSTs playing multiple channels each. I never crash.

Try updating your Kontakt Player. The latest version is 6.7.1.

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5

I am on 6.7.1. My suspicion is something wrong with the Embertone ISS libraries.

6

Andro

I do this all of the time in Dorico and it is really simple using one instance of Kontakt with four instruments.

  1. Setup the score for the four parts. Since you are using ISS, I will assume that is Violin, Viola, Cello, Bass.

  2. In play mode, use the VST tab to select Kontakt. Kontakt should open automatically, or if it doesn’t, click on the “e” button below where it says Kontakt. Load the four instruments into Kontakt in the order they appear on the play tracks. Kontakt automatically adds each instrument to a new channel for each instrument, in this case channels 1 through 4.

  3. Now open the Inspector tab, click on Routing, and then click on the individual track labels and make sure the channel numbers are correct for the order that they instruments appeared in Kontakt.

  4. Done.

  5. To test, go to Write mode and put a few notes into the first measure of each instrument, then go back to Play mode and solo each instrument to make sure it is working as expected.

As for using individual instances of Kontakt on each track, I see not advantage to doing that because it only complicates what is a simple process.

Hope that helps.

7

Thank you all. I now have both setups working, a single instance multi with the SQ instruments, and four instances each with one SQ instrument. All seems to have settled down - perhaps I know more about what I am doing.

I appreciate the forum comments because it lets me know what is possible and what is not, and lots of backup confirmation that what I am doing is correct,

I have some very workable expression maps for the Embertone ISS instruments now as well. All going in the right direction!

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