34 – Breaking out of Kong

Exploring the Advanced features of Kong, learn how to use Kong’s FX modules on audio from other devices, process your Kong sounds through other Effects units not included in Kong, expand your Drum processing abilities by parallel drum processing or processing each drum module individually.

In this tutorial I’m going to explore some of the advanced features of Kong. We’ll learn how to use Kong’s FX modules on audio from other devices, process your Kong sounds through other Effects units not included in Kong, expand your drum processing abilities by parallel drum processing, and process each drum module individually.

Break Out / Break In

The first foray into exploring some outside routing came from an email request I got. The person who emailed me wanted to know how the first tip from “Music Radar’s Top 10 Essential Reason 5 Tips” worked. The tip went like this:

“One of Kong’s best features is its powerful level-setting system, but another key point is its connectivity. Instead of mixing internally within Kong, try routing the pads out through a 14:2 Mixer and then back into Kong via the Break-in connections. This enables you to set levels and EQ with the mixer, and still use the powerful master output FX. Save your construction as a Combinator for future use.”

Well, here’s how it works. The basic idea is that the Break-out jacks on the back of Kong act as an additional way to insert Effect devices between the FX2 and Bus FX modules in the signal flow. The flow works something like this:

Drum Module > FX1 > FX2 > [Your Insert FX here / Break-out & Break-in jacks] > Bus FX > Master FX > Main Output

That’s essentially the signal flow. Keep in mind though, that if your Drum output is set to “Master FX” which is the default, or any of the output jacks (3-4, for example), you will need to use the Bus FX Send knob on the drum panel on the front of Kong to adjust the level of the external effects devices. Also note that the external effects devices are global. You can use them as an insert for all the drum modules inside Kong. If you don’t want them used on a specific drum, then just keep the Bus FX Send for that specific drum at it’s zero (0) default.

I know this sounds a little complex, so I put together this video to show you an example:

Parallel Drum Processing, Kong Style

Here’s an interesting way to create Parallel processing on your kick via Kong. And it’s stupid-easy!

Parallel processing is when you use the same drum sound both wet and dry at the same time. You can tune the amount of each, but both together add up to a beefier sound. Again, the idea is to trigger both a processed and unprocessed drum sound at once and then mix both together to create a punchier beefier kick. So here’s the easy way to do it in Kong. Note that we’ll do it inside a Combinator so you can save the patch for later use.

  1. First, Create a Combinator and inside create a 14:2 Line Mixer (we’ll do this to have access to the Mixer’s EQ, otherwise you can create a 6:2 mixer instead, that’s totally up to you). Then create a Kong.
  2. Open up Kong and add a Physical Bass Drum into drum module 1. Set the drum output to the 3/4 stereo pair. Add a Parametric EQ device into the Bus FX slot and a Compressor into the Master FX slot.
  3. Flip the rack around and send a pair of audio cables from the 3 / 4 Audio outputs on the back of Kong into the second channel of the 14:2 Mixer.
  4. Now comes the fun part. Flip back to the front. Turn up the Drum’s Bus FX send to about 100, and start playing the Drum Pad. As you play, adjust the EQ and Compressor to taste. You’ll hear the effect it has on the sound.

The reason this works is because you are sending the same drum sound two different places. The unprocessed sound is going straight through ouput 3/4 (and into channel 2 on the Mixer), while the processed sound is running through the Bus FX and Master FX and back out the main outputs into channel 1 of the 14:2 Mixer. Both are playing at once. Instant parallel sound.

If you want to ease back on the level of processed sound (ie: the sound going through the EQ and Compressor), simply reduce the Bus FX send knob. If you want to adjust the level of dry sound, use the Channel 2 Level fader. You can also turn on the EQ and adjust the EQ parameters directly on the 14:2 Mixer. This setup provides loads of options.

7 Drums to 7 Channels: Hooking up each Drum Module Separately

And now for something completely different. I’ve heard many people ask how they can send their drum pads to individual channels in the mixer. The easy answer is to send each drum module through the different outputs available on the back of Kong; 7 stereo pairs in all.

In actuality, if you count the Master FX, Bus FX, and Direct output, you have 10 in total. But for our purposes here, let’s focus on sending 7 drum pads out to 7 different channels in the Mixer. In this way, all the drums operate exactly the same in terms of signal path and it’s the easiest to work with when you’re first starting out.

To set this up, first create a Combinator as we did earlier (so we can save this as a template for use later). In the Combinator create a 14:2 Mixer and holding the shift key down, create a Kong device.

On Kong, click the Show Drum and FX button. Then load up 7 drums in the first 7 drum module slots. These can be any drum modules you like, and they can have any associated FX inserted into the FX1 and FX2 slots.

At the bottom right of the drum module select the appropriate outputs as follows:

Drum Module 1 > Output 3 – 4

Drum Module 2 > Output 5 – 6

Drum Module 3 > Output 7 – 8

Drum Module 4 > Output 9 – 10

Drum Module 5 > Output 11 – 12

Drum Module 6 > Output 13 – 14

Drum Module 7 > Output 15 – 16

Flip the rack around to the back, and route each of the above audio outputs to their own Left/Right channels in the 14:2 Mixer (7 channels in total).

That’s all there is to it. Now, you can control each of the drums via the Mixer channels. This means that you can control the Level, EQ, Panning, etc. from the Mixer channel strip. This also opens you up to using 4 different sends on the drums via the Mixer sends if you like (if you did everything through Kong, you’d have access to only 2 sends via the Aux 1 and Aux 2 cables on the back of Kong).

One caveat. In this type of setup, you can control the Level of the individual drums via the Drum Level knob on each drum panel, if you so choose. So don’t get confused. Essentially, this means you have three junctures at which to control each of the drum levels: The Drum Module’s Level knob, the Drum panel Level knob, and the Mixer Channel Level fader. It’s important to know the proper signal chain between all these various levels. It goes exactly in that order:

Drum Module Level > Drum Panel Level > Mixer Channel Fader > Mixer Master Fader

Since there is nothing routed from the main output of Kong, Kong’s Master Level isn’t even utilized (put another way, it’s useless and does nothing in this setup).

Processing Audio Through Kong

Finally, here’s how you can process your audio through Kong. It’s drop-dead simple, and you can process Any audio from any device (and from any audio track if you have Record) through any number of Kong FX devices. Watch the video to find out how it’s done.


So that’s it. A few advanced ideas for breaking outside Kong and using the device for more than just drum processing. I’m sure there’s many others. But these are the ones that came to my mind. What’s your favorite idea or feature of Kong? Drop me a line or comment on this post and let’s see just how far we can push Kong.

10 thoughts on “34 – Breaking out of Kong”

  1. I really am enjoying tour tutorials,I’ve only ever used Reason as a plug-in for Sonar,but since the latest release R+R5 I’ve started to use it more on its own.Watching tutorials on how things are done is really enjoyable.I’m 64yrs old and certainly no musician but I love importing midi files and attempt to chop them up and remix them, great fun! Please continue the good work! Regards

    1. Mike,
      Remixing is a great way to get to know Reason, and there’s lots of fun to be had with all the samplers and synths inside Reason, especially when you utilize midi files. You should have a look at Hydlide’s remix videos to see how a real pro works with midi files. Let me see. Here’s the link to the first video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2XpTi_3eFg From there, you’ll see the others in his series. That may also interest you.

  2. This is awesome! Since I started playing with Reason 5 I seem to find myself putting a kong everywhere. All my drum sounds have moved over to kong…many of my samples have migrated from my NNXT into my kong… my audio runs through it for the effects. It’s like “all roads lead to kong.” Great tutorial!

    1. Pete,
      Thanks for commenting. I couldn’t agree more. I can’t wait to start diving into pairing Kong up with both Thor for filtering, and Neptune for pitch adjusting. There’s lots of fun to be had. 😉

  3. Thumbs up. Great vids. I was wondering on how to lock the volume of the triggered pads in at full velocity and this video helped me understand how. On an MPC, you can just hit a button and it sets all the pads to full velocity. I didn’t think you could do that in the KONG but this video shows me you can. Thanks for posting this.

    1. Red,
      I’m really glad you found the vids useful. I’ve been playing a lot with Kong lately, and it never ceases to amaze me at how versatile it is. It still could use a few enhancements here and there, but for the most part, it’s a great device. Thanks for your comment.

  4. Thanks for helping me wrap my head around Reason 5.

    For future reference: the 127 in a midi setting is not a percentage rather it is the maximum level for midi values whether it’s volume, pan or ???

    1. @Scott,
      Glad I could help out.

      As for the midi values, yeah I know they are values from 0-127 strictly speaking, but if you are using them to affect a setting that is 0-100, as sometimes happens in Thor (think of CV going through a combinator CV In, and then that affects a thor mod bus amount (set from 0-100 in the Combinator), you have a situation where the 0-127 CV actually affects a destination which is 0-100. The CV controls the percentage from 0-100. That’s why sometimes it’s easier to think of midi values affecting a destination in terms of percentages. The opposite can be true as well. You can have a 0-100 source affecting a 0-127 destination.

      I just think it’s sometimes easier for people to grasp the percentage concept. Also when translating the 0-127 levels of the 14:2 mixer to the dB levels of the SSL in Record, I often think it can be simpler to think of things in terms of percentages there as well. But maybe that’s just me. 😉

      I appreciate your comment. Thanks for sharing! Happy Reasoning!

    1. @Piano Chord,
      Thanks for saying so. Kong is an awesome device for a lot of reasons. It’s odd that there are only 8 stereo outputs instead of 16, but you can easily create a mono setup where all the drums/pads have individual outputs to the Mixer. The NN-XT is a device I haven’t written very much about. However, books could be written on that device alone. I’ll have to see what I can come up with creatively for that device. Thanks for commenting.

      One other thing that’s nice about Reason is that you can still do all the things you used to do right from Reason 1 all the way up to Reason 4 and 5. As far as legacy patches and setups, the Props have a solid forward compatibility plan that you seldom see in any other software company. Part of why I love working in the Propellerheads’ software.

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