Kontakt sampling instrument (KEY's 2 VST's)

Introduction
These blog post's will show the process of creating a multi- sampled instrument that could work on a daw such as logic Ableton or pt, There is many ways of doing this such as logic's exs ?? or simply mapping the keys out into the key slots or mapping to an external controller, in this case Kontakt by native instruments will be used as its sampling, modulation, and grouping functions are very powerful and intuitive.
The scripting functions allow you to create a user interface which compliments the instrument by allowing you to create for other users, and it all comes in a standalone app.

Choosing the Instrument
having a melodica gifted to me i thought to put it to good use and create a kontakt sample instrument out of it, The melodica, also known as the pianica, blow-organ, key harmonica, or melodyhorn, is a free-reed instrument similar to the pump organ and harmonica. It has a musical keyboard on top, and is played by blowing air through a mouthpiece that fits into a hole in the side of the instrument. Pressing a key opens a hole, allowing air to flow through a reed. The keyboard is usually two or three octaves long.

you could choose any instrument you like this project will demonstrate the procedure for a melodica ! as long as you have a mic and an audio interface your good to go!

Studio Recording
the following images show the studio arrangement, which was the XML990 floating above the instrument with another Shure 515 to the left and a Sm58 on the right,

as for the array of sounds that i will be sampling from this instrument will be three velocity variations (1/3, 2/3, 3/3) groups and two variations on a Staccatto (pre-pressure, post-pressure) groups,
The velocity levels are so the sampler wont play at full volume when you hit the key at 10% velocity,

Pre-staccato is pushing air to the instrument then hitting the key at full velocity to allow the air through quickly.

Post-staccato  is holding the key down then pushing a full lung of air through to the instrument.

The audible difference between the two are pre staccato has a instant attack and short release
and the post staccato has a slightly longer attack and a longer release due to the build up of pressure through the instrument.




Editing and the power of Organisation

Since i didn't have Pro Tools on my personal computer  i used  logic and the DAW used to cut samples doesn't really matter as they all function the same in this area, at least for what you need.
the screenshot below shows the separate tracks that i needed to cut the audio down to and bounce in place at the end to have a folder with every spliced note and velocity in separate audio files to be used in Kontakt later. this will save you a lot of time when it comes to drag and dropping samples into Kontakt.

Have all your mic tracks then group slice the sample out of all and past into your named track which will look similar to the image below.

as you can see its quite a lot of tracks and when you times this number by ever key
this particular instrument was 32 X 15 = 525, so make sure your daw and laptop memory that can handle and save often! .

Kontakt

sample to key

now all your bounced audio tracks have the correct name you can drag and drop into separate groups, i have chosen to have three mic groups a pre-pressure and post-pressure. in total there are 9 groups which are then used together to create the final instrument, grouping all the velocity samples together and distributed to there respective mic groups then 6 groups of separate mic staccato's  through all groups there was a AET morphing applied to all zones of samples to help smooth out the velocity to volume between samples.

Scripting for user and instrumental midi showcase
To properly demonstrate the capabilities of this instrument as intended the scripting editor will be used to create a simple Graphical user interface that cleans up the panel on the top view of kontakt,
by adding some toggle buttons for the microphones and an arpeggiator  the user side of the instrument becomes a lot more refined and capable of exploring different sounds with the instrument.

script for UI buttons

Conclusion
This project has taught me valuable lesson in managing a large sample project from start to finish, there are many stages along the way where i could have done things faster and more productively and there are ways that i saved potential hours in editing and mundane dragging and dropping, with all of kontakts editing tools taking a acoustic instrument and turning into a powerful VST with many possibility that would be impossible to achieve.