🛩️Spitfire Kontakt Libraries

Spitfire instruments allow you to use special Key Switches to choose articulations. We’ve decided to use those so-called “UACC KS” instead of regular notes. The reason behind this is that UACC KS is based on a standard that is universal to all their instruments.

A legato articulation, for instance, is always triggered by the same value. This enables you to exchange the sample instrument, and your articulation switches will keep working as long as the replacement instrument contains the articulation you’ve previously chosen. Below is the menu, which pops up once you press the lock symbol with the little triangle.

Note that some libraries by Spitfire only support Key Switches. Articulation Templates for those libraries have the suffix “KSONLY” added to the filename.

You’ll also note that some Spitfire libraries contain an Articulation set with the suffix “CB” (for “Combined” in the filename). This indicates we’ve consolidated all relevant instruments in the “Extended Techniques” and “Legato” folders into one extensive articulation set.

To get the best use out of it, make sure you put all the instruments into one Kontakt multi, use the same MIDI channel for all, and don’t forget to enable UACC KS. This way, only one articulation plays at any given time, even though you use multiple instruments on one MIDI channel.

Spitfire Video tutorials:

🎦 Logic: https://youtu.be/9NYTxIPrNzc 🎦 Cubase: https://youtu.be/c4mQoO2rzug 🎦 Digital Performer: https://youtu.be/mlnzCdLjqIk

It appears that in some libraries, depending on the version of the library you’re using, the UACC Key Switch is not set to C-2, but to something else. So, if the key switches are not working, or you hear multiple articulations simultaneously when using multiple instruments, check if the base key switch is set to C-2 first. Also, see https://spitfireaudio.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360033378974-Moving-the-UACC-KS-Keyswitch-