Kong: Chunk Trigger vs Slice Trigger Mode

There's little doubt in my mind that Kong is one of the most powerful drum machines on the market today. The sheer quality of sound sources available is one of it's main strengths and the Nurse Rex loop player is certainly amongst the highlights here.

When playing back slices of Rex files in Kong you need to be intimately familiar with the Nurse Rex's playback methods, two of these are chunk and slice trigger modes. Let's quickly cover these now.

Step 1: Getting Rex Files into Kong

Before we get into Kong's playback modes we first need to get it initiated and load up our .Rex files. We do this by loading a completely blank patch into Kong and then selecting the Nurse Rex loop player as the sound generator for pad number one.

The initialized Kong

With our Nurse Rex installed we can go ahead and load any Rex file by simply hitting the load icon at the top of the Nurse Rex's interface. With our Rex files loaded we can start to think about different playback modes.

Loading a .Rex file into the Nurse Rex player

Step 2: Using the Chunk Trig Mode

With the Nurse Rex placed on pad one it's automatically placed in 'Loop trig' mode. This means that the whole loop will be played back on hitting the pad but there are actually three other modes that can be used here.

The modes in question are 'chunk trig', 'slice trig' and 'stop'. First up we'll take a look at chunk trig mode.

The real beauty of Kong is that the same sound source can be assigned to a number of it's pads and this is a crucial feature when it comes to using the Nurse Rex's various modes.

To do this move to a blank pad and use the drum assignment number that relates to the original Nurse Rex. In this case I moved to pad 2 and used drum assignment number 1. This set means that both pads are triggering the same generator.

Now change both pads to chunk trig mode. You will notice the loop is then split in two within the Nurse Rex's main display. This is the key to chunk trig mode as it allows different pads to trigger individual 'chunks' or sections of your loop.

Our pads are now set to chunk trig mode

The more pads you assign to the Nurse Rex in this mode, the more chunks the loop will be divided into but the loop can also be manually sliced up by changing the chunk lengths. This is a great mode for triggering your loops across a number of pads and it's relatively easy to set up.

The Nurse Rex display now shows the loop split into chunks

Step 3: Using the Slice Trig Mode

Alternatively you could try using 'Slice trig' mode. This can also be used across any number of pads but instead of triggering 'chunks' of your loop it actually homes in on individual slices of the .Rex file.

This is great for triggering single drum hits within a loop or an effect from an instrument loop. You actually choose the slices you want to trigger by selecting the slice in the Nurse Rex's interface and ticking the slice box.

Ticking the slice box determines which slice will be triggered

If you select more than one slice at this stage the slices chosen will be triggered in order as you hit the pad. You can make great fills by selecting your favorite hits in a loop and programming a roll or continuous pattern.

Our pads are now set to chunk trig mode