Kontrol VST 32 Out Configuration

While the intention may be good, without knowing the software it can potentially end up confusing things by just throwing out random answers without understanding the software/question, possibly best to leave it to those that do have more of an understanding.

The OP is probably just curious since the plugin reports a multi-out capability but the main reason people want to utilise multi-outs (other than layered instruments) is for things such as drum plugins for example where you can assign different parts of the kit to different output channels to make it easier to apply processing to separate parts of the kit and use effects not available within the kit. Most obvious example would be to use a nice reverb on cymbals but not affect the snare or hats where you want different effects or to apply EQ to different kit elements separately. I use this all the time and have special kits designed already to use the multi-outs.

Example again in Live:

This is slightly more complex than what the OP asks but this is a multi-channel drum kit for Battery where each pad in the kit can be played from Push and is colour coded for every kit element. Because the kit has multiple sample pads for different kicks, hats, snares etc these are easily grouped and assigned to a dedicated output channel which now appear as mixable sub channels where effects can be applied OR channels can be sent to return tracks.

Benefits are you have simple single assigned effects and no need to place multiple reverbs on every sound, each kit element runs through the same processing (so can easily apply the same EQ and filtering to all kicks at the same time for example) and it makes mixing and processing much faster especially when using multiple different samples of the same element through a project, downside is it can take some time to setup but can be saved as a full rack to recall later easily.

So yeah, most people will be content to just do basic processing and mixing of drums without much additional thought but some folks (like me) who have a desire to have more fine control over everything will want to split a whole kit up into smaller mixable busses.

I have a video I did years ago on setting all that up in Live for Push to get the pads showing different colours along with discrete channels that might show it in more detail. This can apply to ANY plugin that has multi-outs, not just KK (which technically just passes through the available channels from the loaded plugin).

Hey, no problem. Again, I was not trying to make a deal or offend, just suggesting that based on your own admission that you don't use KK nor have a controller that maybe it's an area that others with experience can better answer.

Reverb was just one example, there are numerous other reasons people (not just me) want to access multi outs from plugins, that was simply one of the most common reasons. Parallel compression, separate gated effects, sidechain triggering, delays... Loads of useful ways to apply discrete processing to a single element in a larger instrument.

Anyway, that's how it works.

Komplete Kontrol is only capable of loading a single instrument in a single instance. It can, of course, load Kontakt which you can then load multiple layers BUT the smarts of KK/NKS only work on the first channel, the multi-outs are really just available for the cases I mentioned where you need to have multiple channels out.

Layering has been asked as an option but realistically, DAWs split the load of a project up by tracks so loading multiple instruments onto a single track will usually assign a single processor to that track which can end up maxing out things faster. It's considered more efficient to just use more tracks even tho it seems like it would be more efficient to have things bundled into a single track.

Articulatus

I come from an era when our studio had a hunk of sheet metal mounted on a frame in a room and a half-track for slap-delay. Loops in the seventies and eighties were done with long pieces of tape and two reel to reels, inspired by Beatles, Eno, Fripp.

Les Paul and Bob Moog were actual engineers.

Thanks for the lessons. 😏