ABOUT THIS MANUAL
Compatibility
To use our instruments, you need to have the full retail version of the latest version of KONTAKT by NATIVE-INSTRUMENTS.
Our libraries will work with KONTAKT 6.4.2 and above,
(except Plateau and Viewpoint that needs K6.6)
INSTALLATION
Unzip the files and move them to your preferred location. No extra installation is necessary.
To use our instruments, you need to have the full retail version of the latest version of KONTAKT by NATIVE-INSTRUMENTS.
You load the instruments into Kontakt by dragging them in, or by using the “Load” menu. [more info]
CONTROLS
AMOUNT SLIDERS
Click and drag the slider to adjust amount of effect applied. For finer increment adjustments, hold down SHIFT while dragging the slider. Holding CTRL whilst clicking on any of the instrument parameters will move the control back to its default position VOLUME (expression)
The slider labeled “VOL” controls the overall volume of the instrument. It sums all the mix sliders in one master-fader. The slider comes pre-mapped with CC11 as standard.
DYNAMIC CONTROL
The “DYN” slider is mapped to CC01 as default. It will further adjust the dynamics being played.
For patches marked with “[mw]” in the filename, MODWHEEL is reserved to crossfade between different sounds or expressions.
If you prefer to disable key-velocity, and only use the DYN slider for dynamics, you may do so in the settings view
GLIDE
Portamento is a musical effect where a sound smoothly transitions in pitch from one note to the next, rather than jumping abruptly. It creates a “sliding” or “gliding” effect, common in string instruments, fretless basses, synths, and vocals.
A scripted portamento script leverages Kontakt to:
Detect Note-on Events: The script monitors incoming MIDI note messages.
Determine Overlap/Legato: It identifies when a new note is played before the previous note is released (this is the key for legato/portamento performance).
Calculate Pitch Bend: Based on the pitch difference between the held note and the new note, the script calculates the necessary pitch bend.
Apply Pitch Bend Over Time: Instead of applying the pitch bend instantly, the script will smoothly “ramp” the pitch up or down over a defined period (the “portamento time”). This is often done by controlling Kontakt’s internal pitch bend wheel or by directly manipulating the tune parameter of the active voices.
Voice Management: For monophonic (single-note) portamento, the script might also handle voice stealing, ensuring that only one note plays at a time and the glide applies correctly to the active voice. It can also manage crossfading between samples if different samples are used for different parts of the glide or for true legato.
MIX SLIDERS
The number of mix sliders will vary instrument to instrument, and have different sources or microphone signals. They control the playback volume.
VU meters indicate the volume on each track.
The mixsliders comes pre-mapped with CC nr:
- Mix slider 1 – CC22
- Mix slider 2 – CC23
- Mix slider 3 – CC24
- Mix slider 4 – CC25
- Mix slider 5 – CC26
Rightclick on slider if you need to assign other CCs or remove it.
To un-purge a purged track, just move the mix slider, and the track will go from purge-mode and load its belonging samples.
Some instruments have additional mix-slider in the settings view, for extra trimming of release samples volume.
DYNAMIC ENVELOPE CONTROLS
Behind most of the ‘words’ in the user interface, you will find controls for further tweaking of parameters.
Clicking on “DYN” reveals controls to adjust attack and release settings and sample offset settings.
SAMPLE START
Sample-start slider controls where playback begins when the sample is triggered.
The [RND] button sets sample start to random. An awesome supplement to the Simulated RR function. It creates more variation and life to the triggered samples Random samplestart sets the startpoint of every note at a different random place in the first part of the audio file.
PURGE SAMPLES
Purging tracks unloads the samples from memory, lowers voice-count, and saving you RAM.
To purge a track – click on the square below the mixer fader. It will then become inactive and muted.
Alternatively, drag the mix-slider all the way down. If the track is purged, just move the slider a little to un-purge it
It is not recommended to automate purging (loading/unloading samples) within a session.
By command clicking a purge-button, you purge all the other tracks but the one you clicked. This allows you to preview the mic channel by itself, like a mute-button.
● CHANNEL STRIPS
CHANNEL STRIP : PAN
Controls the stereo position of the individual track. Pro-users might use this in conjunction with the width control below.
CMND-click resets to center.
For certain patches with different tracks, it can create interesting width results to pan the individual tracks differently.
CHANNEL STRIP : STEREO WIDTH
Spread the stereo image from mono to 200%. Experiment with the width slider in combination with the pan slider, for specific stereo positioning.
CHANNEL STRIP : SWAP LEFT RIGHT
Flips the stereo image so that the Left channel becomes Right and vice versa on selected track.
CHANNEL STRIP : Phase INVERT (Ø)
When engaged, the signal is flipped 180°. Can be a useful tool when mixing.
But be aware that L/R phase inverted channels can cancel each other out if the output is converted to mono. [more info]
CHANNEL STRIP : 4-BAND EQ
You assign EQ parameters to the EQ wheel by clicking on the dropdown menu below the EQ wheel. What you dial in, will show as numbers on top of the mixer track while moving the controls.
EQ us bypassed by default – Engage with the EQ ON/OFF button.
DEACTIVATE PITCHBEND ON TRACKS
THE PB button deactivates Pitchbend on individual tracks. Can be used to create interesting aleatoric effects, or to simulate string-bending on individual strings.
RESET CHANNEL STRIP
Reset sets the channel-strip controls to default state on the selected strip.
● EFFECTS
Reverb settings
The amount of reverb is set by dragging the reverb slider on the front user-interface. Click on “REV” to choose IR and tweak reverb length and pre-delay.
PRE-DELAY – Adds a short delay before the reverb.
Convolution Preset Menu (IR)
From the “REV” button, you’ll access to the send-reverb setting and a dropdown panel with custom IR reverbs. Each with a different character. Adjust reverb amount, pre-delay and length as preferred
DELAY
Behind the “DLY” button, you can tweak the delay effect settings.
- RATE – Sets the delay length divisions, synced to tempo
- LENGTH – sets the feedback.
You’ll also be able to see what BPM tempo KONTAKT is picking up from the DAW.
DYNAMIC LFO // PAN LFO
The LFO amount slider triggers the dynamic LFO and the PAN LFO
PUMP : Sets the amount of volum LFO
RETRIGGER – when ON, and no notes are held, the position of the LFO is reset, starting again when you begin playing
RATE : This adjusts the speed of the LFO – synced to the DAW.
PAN : LFO panning. Add movement to sounds by using LFO to move between the speakers.
SHAPE : Choose the dynamic shape of the LFO : sine, rectangle, triangle and saw.
Tip : we love to utilize PAN LFO for high percussion, vibraphones, Pads etc. Drag the “PUMP” slider down, and the PAN slider to the preferred amount.
VIBRATO
By clicking on the “VIB”, a new window opens with a slider that sets the speed of the vibrato.
(only applicable for instruments where VIB shows on the front user interface)
The control can be assigned to its own controller by rightclicking. Often routed to CC3 by default
FILTER
Most of our sample-libraries has this implemented. Most often a hard low-pass filter, because we love to use filters as an alternative to volume.
● Sound sculpting [FX]
Engage by clicking ‘FX’ and morph sounds to the unrecognisable. It will provide unorthodox ways of morphing the sounds. Most of these presets built up by different kinds of random moving parameters that simultaneously triggers Kontakt’s internal envelopes, effects and modulations.
SCULPT PRESET MENU
SOUND SCULPTING WITH XY PAD
Real-time movements in the XY pad can be automated and recorded from the DAW or by assigning MIDI CC from the menu below.
CMND click sets XY cursor to start position.
Use LEARN buttons to quickly assign MIDI CC to X axis or Y axis. Or choose a CC number directly from the number row.
To remove assignments, CMND click on the ‘LEARN’ button
CONVERT SCULPTS TO AUDIO?
TIP : Because of their multiple layered randomizing parameters, it can sometimes be a good idea to convert midi regions to audio-regions when using these. If you need them to sound exactly the same on each playthrough. And if you need to save RAM
● SETTINGS VIEW
The settings-view gives you control over advanced parametres and calibrations.
VELOCITY RESPONSIVENESS
The velocity curves allows dynamics to be biased towards louder or softer sounds, and to adjust instrument to your keyboard sensitivity and playing style.
Choose between four different pre-made velocity presets, or draw your own. In the keyboard responsiveness dropdown menu you’ll find :
- CUSTOM VELOCITY BYPASSED (sets velocity to Kontakt 50% linear default)
- FLAT VELOCITY
- CONCAVE VELOCITY CURVE
- SHELF VELOCITY CURVE
- LINEAR VELOCITY CURVE
- CONVEX VELOCITY CURVE
you may also freely draw your own lines directly onto a curve, save if needed.
LOAD / SAVE VELOCITY CURVE – Custom velocity curves can be loaded and saved, and shared between wrongtools instruments.
Pitchbend range
Pitchbend range can be set from the Settings view by +/- 12 semitones
ARTICULATION SWITCHING
For instruments that has articulation switching, you’ll see a row of articulation-names in the bottom row.
You can switch between these by either clicking on the buttons, by CC or by Keyswitching [articulation menu]. You may also set your own custom host automation CCs by right-clicking the articulation buttons.
ARTICULATION SWITCHING MENU
You’ll find the articulation-switching alternatives in a dropdown menu in settings view.
Latching KS, means that you have to press the same articulation key to turn it off. With this setting, you can overlay several articulations on top of each other.
You can do this anytime with the buttons in the GUI too, just hold SHIFT while clicking.
Articulation switching by Key Switch (KS). Set ROOT note for Key switching row.
Articulation switching by MIDI CC. Choose CC number to control swapping of articulation
OVERLAY ARTICULATIONS
Hold down SHIFT while clicking on the articulation buttons (articulation-names in the bottom row), to play more articulations at the same time.
Or choose “latch KS” (overlay-mode) from the Articulation menu
TRANSPOSE
All instruments, except drums, have a transpose section located in the “settings view” of the interface. The transpose feature enables you to shift the playable range of the entire patch without affecting non-playable keys and keyswitches. You can go up or down 24 semitones and the instruments keyboard graphics is updated to show the new range.
RELEASE SAMPLES VOLUME
Some of our instruments have an extra trim-slider, where you may fine-tune the volume of the release-samples further. Drag this slider to zero, to purge the release-samples.
SUSTAIN PEDAL
Sustain pedal is set to CC64 by default, which is the MIDI standard for sustain pedals. Some keyboard instrument have pedal noises sampled. These are mapped to dedicated mix-sliders, and you can easily adjust volume or purge the noise triggered from the pedal.
SIMULATED ROUND-ROBINS
Control how the alternative scripted RR should be handled.
It is a scripted round-robin function where neighbouring samples are swapped in to create variations on repeated notes.
SIM. RR ON/OFF
SIM RR INTERVAL– choose what notes should be swapped in
SIM RR REPETITION PR. NOTE – sets how many times a note can be repeated before a neighbouring sample is swapped in
SAVE AND LOAD SETTINGS
From the dropdown menu behind the floppy-disk, in settings view you can store all settings, and import them to a different Wrongtools instrument. Practical if you want to share your mixer or effects settings between different patches.
RESET ALL
In the load / save dropdown-menu, there is a “reset” function. This sets all controls back a default state. Please save a backup before trying
EXTEND KEYRANGE
In the load / save menu, you may extend the keyrange. Click on “Extend keyrange“. To go back, click “default keyrange” from the same dropdown menu.
MAGNIFY USER INTERFACE
From the settings view, you can resize the UI, and swap between a large and small look. A larger window can be more pleasing for the eye.
Then click on Exclamation mark “!” and voilá!
● OTHER
Inbuilt manual
Click on the book icon at bottom left.
To see what version your instrument is, click on the BOOK icon (bottom left). You’ll see the version number at the bottom right.
If you want to get email notifications when a product is updated, you need to be signed up on our [e-list]
FIND INFO & HELP TEXT
If there’s a control parameter you don’t understand, hover your mouse over it and help text appears at the left bottom of the Kontakt window. You’ll have to have the Kontakt infopanel activated for this to display. Controls will also have text that appears nearby when it is moved. CLOSE WINDOWS
To close a window or any control panel in the user interface, simply click anywhere else.
Assigning midi CC’s to any control
Simply right-click on any of the controls in Kontakt and click on ‘learn MIDI CC# automation’. Tell Kontakt which control you want assigned by jiggling it.
You can also set the automation range for MIDI CCs in KONTAKT’s own MIDI automation tab in the KONTAKT left side browser.
Assignments for the XY FX-sculpt PAD can be done with LEARN buttons or by setting the number manually. This includes aftertouch CC128 and pitchbend CC129. Cmnd-click on LEARN buttons resets the X or Y assignments.
Wrongtools instruments comes pre-assigned with these CCs :
CC01 – modulation
CC03 – vibrato (sometimes CC01 on clean synths)
CC11 – expression
CC22 – mixslider1
CC23 – mixslider2
CC24 – mixslider3
CC25 – mixslider4
CC26 – mixslider5
CC115 – internal (don’t use)
Komplete Kontrol interfaces
Although the instruments are not NKS-player compatible, the controls parameters are automatically mapped out and available on Komplete Kontrol interfaces.
Set up output routing in Kontakt
Routing different KONTAKT tracks to individual tracks in your DAW, can be handy if you are working in multichannel surround. This allows you to utilize third-party plugins or hardware routing on individual tracks.
Rightclick on the trackname (or symbol) above the track mix slider. You need to configure KONTAKT for multiple output tracks. more info here
Changing outputs on trackmixer can change the internal routing of the sculpt effects. Save as a separate instrument.
Why is my Kontakt patch volume low?
The short answer is: we set the patch volumes at a moderate level to give you the best possible starting point for a clean and professional mix.
Think of it like this: If every single sound was super loud by default, it would be really easy for all your instruments together to hit “red” in your mixer.
The catch is that this can happen inside effects-plugins, like reverbs and EQs, and in bus-summing.
By giving you some headroom – a bit of space below the maximum volume – we help you avoid that.
This way, you can easily add our sounds to your track, blend them with other instruments, and then just push up your faders until everything sounds perfect without any unwanted distortion. It makes balancing a large project much smoother.
Troubles?
There’s no sound
A possible reason could be that you have “latch KS” active in the Articulation / keyswitch menu, and that all articulations are switched off from there.
VOICE LIMIT
In KONTAKT, each patch is assigned a maximum number of notes (“voices”) it can play simultaneously. If this limit is exceeded while playing, Kontakt will automatically stop the earliest played voices still sounding.
To facilitate every potentially playing voice, Kontakt reserves some system memory. Hence, setting the number of maximum voices excessively high can lead to wastage of memory.
If you use all mic positions (tracks) and play lots of notes simultaneously, you may experience dropped notes.
To optimize the performance of your application, try experimenting with different settings until you find the perfect balance. Once you determine the ideal value, save the patch and it will be recalled every time you load it.
Resolve Issues with Missing Samples and Batch Resave
Batch resaving (theoretically) accelerates loading times and checks that everything is installed correctly.
To perform a Batch resave, select ‘batch re-save’ from the file menu in Kontakt. Click ‘Yes’ then locate the libraries instruments folder on your hard drive and click ‘choose’. More info HERE. This can resolve issues with missing samples message for a Kontakt library.
Should there actually be files missing, the the best way get things in order is to re-download the library.
Changing outputs on trackmixer can change the internal routing of the sculpt effects. Save as a separate instrument.
Audio device not connected
There’s no sound when the instrument is loaded and the interface says : “Audio device not connected”.
First check the track in your DAW if the Kontakt plug-in is turned ON. If yes, then proceed to check settings in Kontakt Option Panel”. Try to reset your output configuration in the Option Panel. Set your output configuration so that it has stereo tracks, and not mono tracks.
If you use VEP, try to send in some MIDI signals, and the “Audio device not connected” dialogue will disappear
More questions answered in the FAQ section