In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to set up a multi-output drum kit in Kontakt, and how to offline bounce each component of the drum kit to a separate audio file.

Next, I loaded up Abbey Road Modern Drummer. As you can see in the screenshot below, the default audio output configuration does not represent our 8xStereo/8xMono choice.

In Kontakt’s mixer session, click on the + button to bring up the output configuration window. The settings in the screenshot below will delete the existing channels, and create eight new stereo channels. Ensure the Soundcard/Host Output setting is set to st.1 [1], and the** Ascending Output Assignment** box is checked.

In the screenshot above, you can see my eight stereo channels take up outputs 1 – 16. Our next task is to create eight mono channels, and map them to outputs 17 – 24. We’ll also get rid of those four stereo aux channels.

Navigate to the output configuration window again, and use the following settings to create eight mono channels starting at aux 4 [1], which corresponds to Output 17. Make sure you don’t delete the existing channels this time around.

Now, you can see eight stereo channels on Outputs 1 – 16, followed by eight mono channels on Outputs 17 – 24. Next, navigate to your instrument’s mixer.

Click on SETTINGS to access the output assignment option (this may vary depending on what Kontakt library you’re using). In the screenshot above, the output selection dropdown can be found to the right of the UI.

For the purposes of this tutorial, let’s use the following routings.

  • MASTER: Output 1 – 2
  • KICK: Output 17
  • SNARE: Output 18
  • HIHAT: Output 19
  • TOM1: Output 3 – 4
  • TOM2: Output 3 – 4
  • TOM3: Output 3 – 4
  • TOM4: Output 3 – 4
  • TAMBOURINE: Output 20
  • OH ST: Output 5 – 6
  • RM ST: Output 7 – 8
  • RM M: Output 21.

With this routing setup, kick, snare, hi-hat, tambourine, and the mono room mic will get routed to dedicated mono outputs. All four toms will get routed to one single stereo output. Finally, the stereo overhead and stereo room mics will get routed to dedicated stereo outputs.

Now, we can proceed with routing different drum kit components to their designated outputs. Let’s start with the kick drum. Click on the output dropdown, and you’ll see something like this.

Where did all our channels go? To fix this issue, simply reload Kontakt by pressing the ! button in the upper right corner.

Click on the output dropdown again, and you should see the complete list of outputs. Now, just match each mixer channel to the correct output.

Next, go to Logic Pro X’s mixer view, and click the + button under the fader to access the multi-output channels. Since we created a 8xStereo/8xMono configuration, there will be 15 additional channel strips in addition to the main output channel strip, for a total of 16 (8x Stereo/8x Mono) channels.

As you can see, we’ve now set up a multi-output configuration from Kontakt. Next, load up or record a MIDI sequence. In the screenshot below, my MIDI sequence contains kick, snare, hi-hat, and cymbals.

When I hit play, you can see each drum kit componenet being routed to their designated output in the mixer.

Finally, we can bounce each component into a separate audio track. To do this, select the DRUMS track, and press Cmd-Ctrl-B.

Ensure that Include Instrument Multi-Outputs and** As Additional Tracks** are both checked. When the offline bounce is finished, you’ll be presented with individual audio tracks for each.

Since my MIDI sequence didn’t contain any tambourine, there is no resulting audio file. Lastly, the audio files have different lengths because Logic automatically trims silence off the end of the file.