Video summary

How I Use Kontakt As A Sound Designer

Main summary

Key takeaways

Technology

Overview

Tyler (Aftertouch Audio) explains his daily workflow for using Native Instruments Kontakt to quickly create custom sampled instruments—especially foley-style sounds like footsteps and cloth/equipment—without manually cutting and managing individual samples.

Main workflow / tutorial steps

  1. Purpose

    • Build custom Kontakt instruments (e.g., rocks/waves/robotic feet/bullet-like impacts).
    • Import sample collections and map them inside Kontakt.

  2. Open Kontakt and create an instrument

    • Uses Kontakt Standalone Editor.
    • Creates a new default instrument.
    • Opens the Mapping Editor to assign samples.

  3. Import & map samples efficiently (key zones)

    • Drags an entire set of samples into the mapping editor.
    • Controls how many keys each sample occupies:
      • Dragging up/down changes the key range each sample uses.
      • Dragging far enough to overlap stacks samples “on top of each other” (useful for multi-sample triggering on the same key).
    • Initially imports onto one key, then refines the structure.

  4. Velocity organization for footsteps

    • For a footsteps set, he maps them to specific keys (C2 and D2) so he can “walk” through them like foot steps (using his fingers as the feet).
    • Notes about velocity layers:
      • Soft playing selects lower velocity samples.
      • Hard playing selects higher velocity samples.
    • If the source library doesn’t include true velocity layers, this approach still helps organize the performance mapping.

  5. Force multi-sample playback across all velocities

    • Sets velocity range to 1–127.
    • This makes a single key trigger many samples at once (example: 36 samples).

  6. Turn overlapping samples into separate groups (important fix)

    • To prevent multiple samples from playing simultaneously, he:
      • Highlights the zones,
      • Right-clicks and uses “move each zone to its own group.”
    • Then uses Group Editor → “Edit all groups.”

  7. Enable random / round-robin playback to avoid repeats

    • Sets Group Start to cycle random (explicitly mentioned as his preference).
    • Result: each trigger plays a random sample from the group set.
    • Especially helpful for cutting and building walking sequences for film and video games.

Example use cases

  • Applies the same technique to other Foley libraries, including:
    • Cloth movements
    • Backpacks
    • Military gear, etc.
  • Demonstrates layered equipment sounds:
    • Mixes multiple vest elements so walking triggers cause the elements to feel responsive.
    • Adjusts tune and mix to make elements feel “heavier.”
  • Emphasizes that the method scales to any amount of custom Kontakt instruments and workflows, avoiding tedious manual sample cutting.

Main speaker / source

  • Tyler (Aftertouch Audio)

Original video