Ableton Forum

What is the difference and benefits of routing a MIDI track to another via the External Instrument vs. "MIDI TO" in the IN/OUT section - specifically in reference to a single instance of Kontakt 5 with multiple instruments on multiple MIDI tracks? Thanks for any help.

They have completely different uses. "External Instrument" is used to send MIDI to a piece of hardware, like an analog synth, a sound module, or a hardware sampler, external to your computer. Kontakt is a plugin, so does not really apply as an "External Instrument".

Richie Witch wrote:They have completely different uses. "External Instrument" is used to send MIDI to a piece of hardware, like an analog synth, a sound module, or a hardware sampler, external to your computer. Kontakt is a plugin, so does not really apply as an "External Instrument".

Thank you, Ritchie, for the response. It is very easy to route internal Midi channels with the External Instrument. A number of YouTube videos recommend it for routing for Kontakt 5. Here is just one of many:

https://youtu.be/U04mPxegwfM?t=5m22s

There are also a number that recommend using the IN/OUT section. I've gotten both to work just fine, but am a little confused which might be best.

Richie Witch wrote:They have completely different uses. "External Instrument" is used to send MIDI to a piece of hardware, like an analog synth, a sound module, or a hardware sampler, external to your computer. Kontakt is a plugin, so does not really apply as an "External Instrument".

The External Instrument is routinely used also for multi-timbral plugins with multiple outputs.

"The External Instrument device is not an instrument itself, but rather a routing utility that allows you to easily integrate external (hardware) synthesizers, ReWire devices and multitimbral plug- ins into your projects. It sends MIDI out and returns audio."

From the Live 9 manual 24.4 External Instrument

ChangoM wrote: I've gotten both to work just fine, but am a little confused which might be best.

It really comes down to how you want to work. What External Instrument has is access to the individual outputs of Reaktor in this case. If used in a rack, that could lead individual outputs to their own processing chain outside of Reaktor.

For instance I use my drum plug-ins this way and have the individual chains extracted to their own tracks so that each individual sound can have its own clips with their own length, groove, quantization and so on. This way they can also share return effects with other instruments.

It looks like one advantage (BIG) of the External Instrument is that I can apply audio effects to the individual tracks. That may seal it for me.