A Short Guide On Using The Track Mixer Feature Of Komplete Kontrol Keyboards With Reaper

Does not apply to S-Series MK1 Models

A-Series & M32 Controllers

This section is aplicable to Native Instruments A25, A49, A61 & M32 Mini Controllers. Some small but important differences with MK2 S Series Komplete Kontrol Keyboards will be covered later in the document.

Setting Up...

This feature works best when used in conjunction with OSARA's surface feedback. Surface feedback will provide spoken values as you make adjustments from your KK hardware. To enable surface feedback, hit Control+F12 on Windows or Command+F12 on Mac to open the OSARA Configuration dialog, and check the "Report changes made via control surfaces" option.

You will also need to have the ReaKontrol driver installed into your Reaper user plugins folder. For a standard Reaper install on Windows, this is located at:
c:\users\your-username\appdata\roaming\reaper\user plugins
For a standard Reaper install on Mac, go to:
/Library/Application Support/Reaper/UserPlugins

Note: ReaKontrol can now be installed automatically using Reapack. Head over to reapack.com for more info.

Even more important note: following the March 2021 Komplete Kontrol 2.6 update, it is no longer necessary to have the 'all notifications' option checked in the plugin automation settings, located after pressing the applications key on the Komplete Kontrol vst plugin prior to loading.

How to Use...

The four way encoder is the large knob on the upper top right of the keyboard. This is multi directional. It can be rotated clockwise and anti clockwise, pressed down, and can also be tilted up, down, left or right (think 12, 6, 9 and 6 o'clock positions on a clock face).

This functionality will work regardless of whether your tracks contain instances of Komplete Kontrol, the important factor is the presence of the Reaper Kontrol driver.

With a multi track project loaded, press the top right button on your keyboard, this is the Track button.

This will place the keyboard into track or mixer mode.  At this point the eight knobs along the top of your KK keyboard will become assigned to controlling the volume levels of each available track, be this with an individual instance of Komplete Kontrol on each track, or in the case where a multiple output instrument has been routed to individual tracks such as a drum kit, or as mentioned a standard audio or media track containing your own recordings or media files.

If you wish to control the pan position of the track within the stereo field instead, hold down the Shift button on your KK keyboard while adjusting the knob for the relevant track.

To advance beyond the initial eight tracks (which will include the master track if visible) tilt the large four way encoder to the 6 o'clock or 12 o'clock positions to bank through available tracks in groups of eight.
  
Finally, pressing the plug-in or browser buttons will return you to normal Komplete Kontrol function status.

MK2 S Series Komplete Kontrol Keyboards

Setup the Reaper Kontrol driver and reporting of surface reader fuctionality, as specified above for the A-series and M32 models.

The operation is almost identical with the Komplete Kontrol S-Series MK2 range of keyboards, but I will run through the steps to ensure absolute clarity.

If you press the mixer button (the top right button in the bank of six above the encoder, this immediately puts you into track volume control mode. Now the eight main rotary knobs control the volume of the first eight tracks in your project (including the master track which will be assigned to knob one if you have master visible in Reaper's View top menu).

The page left and right buttons on your KK keyboard will take you to track volume controls for anything beyond the first eight tracks of your project.

Holding down the shift button on the top left of the keyboard, and tilting the encoder towards 12 o'clock switches from volume to pan control. Now the knobs on your KK hardware allow you to pan each track left or right within the stereo field instead.

Chris
www.kk-access.com