Play Bass With Your Left Hand and The Melody With Your Right with a Split Keyboard

Did you know that you can use a split keyboard in Kontakt, making half the keyboard play one sound while the other half of the keyboard plays another? This quick video tutorial will show how you to create one or more keyboard splits using a few different methods.

The point on a keyboard where the choice of instrument can be split to allow two instruments to be played at once is a called a Key Split. In the late 1980s it was common to use a MIDI controller to control more than one keyboard from a single device. The MIDI controller had no sound of its own, but was designed for the sole purpose of allowing access to more sound controls for performance purposes. MIDI controllers allowed one to split the keyboard into two or more sections and assign each section to a MIDI channel, to send note data to an external keyboard. Many consumer keyboards offer at least one split to separate bass or auto-accompaniment chording instruments from the melody instrument.

This tutorial will show you two methods on splitting the Keyboard in Kontakt so that you can play multiple groups and/or instruments from one midi keyboard without having to switch midi channels.

Split Keyboard is great for performance and allows musicians to play multiple sounds with both hands. Traditionally, they use multiple workstations, but with the power of kontakt this can be reduced to one midi keyboard and a laptop. Split Keyboard is also useful in music production because it allows you lay down multiple sounds at once. With Key Split you can play bass with your left hand and the melody with your right.

Until next time…now go make some music.