A few FYIs on multiple instances of KK in Ableton Racks with Kontrol Mk3 :)

Bodhi Beats

Having received a Kontrol S61 Mk3 not long ago, and being an Ableton nerd who is always trying to make things more complex than they should be, I've been playing with lots of instances of KK and Kontakt in Ableton Instrument racks. Here's a few things I think I've learned...

1. Assume several tracks where each has an instrument rack in them. On each rack, I have a chain with an instance of KK (in addition to other chains).
2. Good news: This seems to generally work. Using Kontrol Mk3 to switch tracks, the hardware reflects the instance of KK that is in the rack on the given track. Woohoo! This was not reliable with previous KK and Kontrol Mk2, for me. I'd given up on using multiple instances of KK in racks alongside other instruments because it was just always super flaky. Really happy this seems to work now!
3. Important note: I first made these racks by copying them from track to track. This was a mistake. For whatever reason, this confused the hardware and I started to see the wrong instance of KK reflected on screen. I would switch tracks with hardware, and see some instance of KK, but it often wasn't the one in the rack on the selected track. I re-made these racks without copy/pasting them and things seem to work now. It seems to me that copy/pasting instances of KK to different tracks confuses the hardware/software connection. Not sure if I'd call this a bug, but it's something to know about. :)
4. Interesting: If you put multiple instances of KK and/or Kontakt into an instrument rack and switch to that track, the hardware obviously can only display one of them. It's unclear to me how exactly it decides which to use — but it does seem to favor KK over Kontakt, in my experience. There's also no easy way I can find to switch which instance the hardware is using — you have to open the KK/Kontakt you'd like to use and assign the controller in there. Which is fine, but it would be really nice if there was an easier way to rotate between each instance on the rack.

Overall, Kontrol Mk3 and Ableton is definitely an improved experience from before. I'm really enjoying it. Hope this helps someone!