Trying to play a Maschine drum kit with A61 keyboard via Komplete Kontrol software

Joelinho

I'm a complete beginner, so sorry if this is an obvious question!

I have just bought a Komplete Kontrol A61 keyboard and the basic software that comes with it. In particular, I have the Maschine Factory Selection Sounds. In the Maschine 2 software, I can load a Maschine kit and spread the different drums out on the A61's keyboard. However, I can't find a way to do this using the Komplete Kontrol software. There I can only access the drums as individual one-shots, giving me one sample on the entire keyboard (with varying pitch).

Is there a way in Komplete Kontrol to play the whole Maschine drum kit with the keyboard, with different keys playing the different drums?

I have seen something very similar done in a YouTube video (sorry I can't post links as I'm too new! The title is "Creating drums with Komplete and Komplete Kontrol", by SubBass Academy of Electronic Music). It looks like in the Komplete Kontrol browser he is able to see whole kits, rather than just individual one-shots. Then he loads a kit and it automatically spreads the drums out on his keyboard. There are two differences with my set-up: (1) I don't think he's using a Maschine drum kit. (2) He has an S-series keyboard. I wonder if these (and in particular number 1) are why he can do this.

Thanks in advance for any help anyone can give me!

LostInFoundation

Yes, the guy in the video is not using a Maschine Group in KK (which is not possible) but a Kontakt drumkit.

Maschine can’t be loaded inside KK. Your options are to use another type of kit (like a Kontakt one as the one used in the video) or, if you own Battery, load Battery in KK. This will almost give you access to Maschine Groups, since the Expansions sold by NI usually contain Maschine Groups and Battery Kits, which often are almost the same thing (many Maschine Groups have their corresponding Battery kits).

Otherwise (if you don’t own Battery), if you really want to use a specific Maschine Group in KK you can create your own Kontakt instrument adding the Group sounds to it and spreading them in the keys wherever you want.

So, recapping: no, you can’t use Maschine Groups in KK, but if you own Battery you have access to their counterpart or if you own Kontakt you can use Groups sounds to built your Kontakt instrument playing them.

Using an A series or an S series makes no difference in all of this.

But…if I can ask…why do you want to use KK? If you load KK as a plugin into a DAW, you can do the same but loading directly Maschine as a plugin and have access to all your Groups

LostInFoundation

Yes, the guy in the video is not using a Maschine Group in KK (which is not possible) but a Kontakt drumkit.

Maschine can’t be loaded inside KK. Your options are to use another type of kit (like a Kontakt one as the one used in the video) or, if you own Battery, load Battery in KK. This will almost give you access to Maschine Groups, since the Expansions sold by NI usually contain Maschine Groups and Battery Kits, which often are almost the same thing (many Maschine Groups have their corresponding Battery kits).

Otherwise (if you don’t own Battery), if you really want to use a specific Maschine Group in KK you can create your own Kontakt instrument adding the Group sounds to it and spreading them in the keys wherever you want.

So, recapping: no, you can’t use Maschine Groups in KK, but if you own Battery you have access to their counterpart or if you own Kontakt you can use Groups sounds to built your Kontakt instrument playing them.

Using an A series or an S series makes no difference in all of this.

But…if I can ask…why do you want to use KK? If you load KK as a plugin into a DAW, you can do the same but loading directly Maschine as a plugin and have access to all your Groups

Joelinho

Thanks! That answers my question perfectly.

To answer yours: I'm a complete beginner, just trying to make the maximum amount of music for the minimum amount of learning of software. I thought if I could get away with just learning how to use KK and not Maschine, then I'd have more time to acutally make music. Even in Maschine, it was surprisingly hard for me to get the drums all on the keyboard at the same time. It probably seems completely obvious to people who are used to the software but, to this complete outsider at least, it wasn't that easy to find the answer. I was left with the impression that the Maschine software is really best used with the Maschine hardware.

I'm also trying to get as far as I can with just the software that came free with the A61, at least to begin with. So Battery and Kontakt will have to wait for now. Since the only drum kits that leaves me with are the ones from the Maschine Factory Selection, I'll load them into the DAW via Maschine just like you suggest.

LostInFoundation

Depending on what DAW you use, you should also have some kind of sampler or sample player built in in the DAW itself (Studio One has Sample One and Impact, Ableton has the drum rack, Logic has Quick Sampler, Bitwig has Sampler, Cubase has Sampler Track…).

It could be more efficient to load there the samples you want and play them with the keyboard controlling the DAW (surely easier than creating a Kontakt instrument).

Of course by using Maschine software and being the Groups prepared for it, probably you are loading them in their natural home. But, as you said, not so direct to play with a keyboard or if you want the midi to be recorded in the DAW itself (which can be in any case done, but through some tedious routings to set up)

Joelinho

Actually using the DAW's built in sample player seems like the most efficient solution in terms of minimal number of things to learn, since it will also let me make drum kits out of other samples that aren't from the Maschine Factory Collection. Thanks so much for your help! It's saved me time and also shown me that this forum is a great place for beginners like me!

LostInFoundation

You’re welcome.

Last suggestion if you go that route will be to always remember to save the kits you make, so next time they’ll be ready without the struggle to build them 😉

‘Have fun making music