HOW TO HARNESS THE POWER OF THE KOMPLETE KONTROL ARP & SCALE FEATURES
The Komplete Kontrol Arp & Scale features are much more than just a simple novelty, and can often be dismissed for being just that.
The fact is, that if for example you do not have a great working knowledge of music theory, or perhaps have some physical restrictions on being able to play some of those finger stretching chords or fast paced arpeggio runs, then both of these useful tools may well be your key to unlock and use them in your music creation.
Here we will explain how to set up and record the notes that are generated by these helpful features, and record the subsequent output into your DAW where they can be further edited to your personal taste.
For this short tutorial we will be using Reaper on Windows, however most modern DAW’s on both Windows & MAC should be equally capable of offering equivelent functionality.
Firstly, insert an instance of Komplete Kontrol onto a track, and load up a suitable instrument such as a piano.
Now hit the applications key to invoke the menu, then arrow up or down to the Record/output option, then arrow right to the sub menue, and then down to midi, and simply hit enter.
Essentially, this has now instructed your DAW to captured any multiple notes and their midi values that are sent to the actively armed track when recording.
Pressing shift plus the Arp buttons on your Komplete Kontrol keyboard will place you in the Arp edit mode.
In this mode you can make changes to the available arpregiator controls and settings, there is also a second page of advance parameters to explore.
You can exit the edit mode by pressing the browse button on your KK keyboard, and the Arp will remain switched on,
Now, with the Arp still turned on, whenever you record what you play on your track, the Arp’s note output wil be captured and recorded in your DAW.
Remember to turn the Arp off again when playing back within your DAW, otherwise notes will be doubled up with the Komplete Kontrol arp and DAW recording both attempting to play them back simultaneously.
These recorded notes can now be further edited, tweaked and manipulated within your respective midi editor.
On S-Series keyboards, there is an unlabelled control knob on page two of the Komplete Kontrol arp which is actually useful to know about.
This is the arp latch or hold control, which allows you to commence playback of the arp and have it continue playing without the need to hold down the relevant keys.
Simply navigate to page two and rotate knob eight in order to invoke this control.
Komplete Kontrol Scale Feature
We have already looked at how to record the notes generated by the arp function, and with this already set up in your DAW there is no other preparation necessary to let the scale function behave in the same way.
Press shift plus the Scale button to enter the scale mode, now you can explore the many facets and possabilities available to you via this advanced set of parameters.
Press the browse button to exit the Scale edit mode, and your changes will be retained while the scale button remains active.
Now here, as in the Arp section, those weird and exotic sounding scales and chord choices that you just made, will now be captured and recorded via midi when your DAW is armed and recording until you turn off the Scale feature, and the keyboard once more reverts to it’s usual standard musical format.
These two fantastic features when used in combination, will let you use your keyboard to explore many types of world scales and arpeggios and these alone can be an immensely powerful and accessible compositional tool that will potentially take you on exciting voyages of new musical discovery
Chris Ankin
KK-Access.com
KK-ACCESS 