Your thoughts on Kontakt 5

[stratatonic]

Unless you're developing your own sample libraries for Kontakt, the biggest benefit to owning the full version is that you can take advantage of tons of great free or very inexpensive third-party Kontakt instruments, which only work in the full version.

Ok, well that's interesting. What are some of your favourite free Kontakt instruments?

Your best bet is probably to buy a Kontakt Player library that has a crossgrade offer with Kontakt. Crossgrades are currently on sale at NI's site, and so this is probably the cheapest way to get the full version of Kontakt.

Apparently there's a free drum library from Sennheiser called Drumic'a that can be used for the crossgrade, so I would go that route. 124.50 is better than 399, that's for sure.

[stratatonic]

HATE

WITH

PASSION

However, most people seem to like it. Infinite (though they all sound the same) options.

WHY

DO

YOU

HATE?

Well, for one thing, it's so complex and convoluted it pisses me off. I got a good hold of it. Got multi timbre down, had a boat-load of soundsets. But it was NEVER satisfying. Add in some troubles with certain hosts, the fact that it's designed more for the designer and not-so much for the "musician" , add the money and time spent, and shazam! Hate.

I'm still trying to expand the GUI. Would love the change font size/type as well. It does seem a little convoluted, but maybe the NI and third party stuff is less so?

[stratatonic]

Based on the sampler factory content alone, I would say Kontakt's is slightly better than Logic's. Definitely better than NNXT's.

Logic's Steinway Piano is better than any factory NNXT piano. Kontakt's VSL piano is good, but I still prefer Logic's.

The acoustic and electronic drumkits in EXS24 are fantastic.

EXS24 also has over 150 very solid orchestral patches but Kontakt wins here because they have a nice set of VSL instruments.

Logic's synth patches are better than Kontakt's. I'd say synth patches are the EXS24's strength. I prefer the NNXTs synth patches over Kontakt's.

Kontakt has a decent collection of world instruments (though rather limited). Logic has an impressive library of world/ethnic sounds and you also have access to all of garageband's jam packs which are of really high quality.

If I had to pick one it would be Kontakt, because its 3rd party instruments are where it shines. EXS24 is #2 because although there are many high quality expansions for it, they come nowhere close to Kontakt's. But stay tuned because they're going to do something special with the EXS24

NNXT - last place.

Thanks for your insights. It's hard to justify to buy third party stuff (at my stage of composing/mixing) when Logic has so much under the hood. But I agree, it does all seem to be really solid.

So you have inside access to Cupertino? What else can you share?

[esselfortium]

Unless you're developing your own sample libraries for Kontakt, the biggest benefit to owning the full version is that you can take advantage of tons of great free or very inexpensive third-party Kontakt instruments, which only work in the full version.

Ok, well that's interesting. What are some of your favourite free Kontakt instruments?

Your best bet is probably to buy a Kontakt Player library that has a crossgrade offer with Kontakt. Crossgrades are currently on sale at NI's site, and so this is probably the cheapest way to get the full version of Kontakt.

Apparently there's a free drum library from Sennheiser called Drumic'a that can be used for the crossgrade, so I would go that route. 124.50 is better than 399, that's for sure.

Embertone has a bunch of great freebies (and some inexpensive libraries like Sensual Sax that sound very nice from the demos). One I'd point out from them in particular is Intimate Strings Lite, which is a wonderful-sounding strings quartet with true legato slurs. It doesn't go into the higher octaves, but for a free library it's great quality.

Impact Soundworks' Stroh Violin is quite nice, especially for staccato strings rhythms.

Ivy Audio's Carpenter Trombone and Clare Solo are great-sounding solo trombone and solo female vocal instruments with true legato.

Spitfire Labs is a series of instruments that go for $3 apiece. I love their Frozen Strings, Scary Strings, Permafrost Strings (lots of weird strings! ), and their Soft Piano is a beautiful muted piano for somber filmscore stuff...

Surely lots of others worth checking out too, but those are some that I've enjoyed.

Also, wow, that Sennheiser deal sounds almost too good to be true! Anyone looking into getting Kontakt should definitely check that out

[stratatonic]

Unless you're developing your own sample libraries for Kontakt, the biggest benefit to owning the full version is that you can take advantage of tons of great free or very inexpensive third-party Kontakt instruments, which only work in the full version.

Ok, well that's interesting. What are some of your favourite free Kontakt instruments?

Your best bet is probably to buy a Kontakt Player library that has a crossgrade offer with Kontakt. Crossgrades are currently on sale at NI's site, and so this is probably the cheapest way to get the full version of Kontakt.

Apparently there's a free drum library from Sennheiser called Drumic'a that can be used for the crossgrade, so I would go that route. 124.50 is better than 399, that's for sure.

Embertone has a bunch of great freebies (and some inexpensive libraries like Sensual Sax that sound very nice from the demos). One I'd point out from them in particular is Intimate Strings Lite, which is a wonderful-sounding strings quartet with true legato slurs. It doesn't go into the higher octaves, but for a free library it's great quality.

Impact Soundworks' Stroh Violin is quite nice, especially for staccato strings rhythms.

Ivy Audio's Carpenter Trombone and Clare Solo are great-sounding solo trombone and solo female vocal instruments with true legato.

Spitfire Labs is a series of instruments that go for $3 apiece. I love their Frozen Strings, Scary Strings, Permafrost Strings (lots of weird strings! ), and their Soft Piano is a beautiful muted piano for somber filmscore stuff...

Surely lots of others worth checking out too, but those are some that I've enjoyed.

Also, wow, that Sennheiser deal sounds almost too good to be true! Anyone looking into getting Kontakt should definitely check that out

Thanks for the suggestions. I appreciate that. i'll check them out.

About the Stroh - on YouTube it shows that there is a sequencer for that instrument.
1/ Is there a sequencer within Kontakt?
2/ Can one swap out the included samples of an instrument with your own samples?

re: Sennheiser deal - after figuring out how to download and install and register etc etc all in German (Google translate only works on one page), Kontakt should be free. What a headache!

[tumar]

1/ Is there a sequencer within Kontakt?
2/ Can one swap out the included samples of an instrument with your own samples?

Yes, Kontakt has own sequencer, arpeggiator, drum computer etc. You can find it in scripts under Factory->Sequencing. It works with any samples you throw in. Other words: if any Kontakt library has sequencer, mostly it is just own Kontakt sequencer but wrapped into shiny skin

Check here:
https://insessionaudio.com/kontakt-add- ... -anything/

[Carly(Poohbear)]

re: Sennheiser deal - after figuring out how to download and install and register etc etc all in German (Google translate only works on one page), Kontakt should be free. What a headache!

I nearly through the laptop out of the window, but I managed to get the frame page name and hit that (that small screen on the webpage that did not translate) directly so then Google translated it..

http://sennheiser.us/drummica.html

Ultimate is in the post

PoohBear
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[stratatonic]

re: Sennheiser deal - after figuring out how to download and install and register etc etc all in German (Google translate only works on one page), Kontakt should be free. What a headache!

I nearly through the laptop out of the window, but I managed to get the frame page name and hit that (that small screen on the webpage that did not translate) directly so then Google translated it..

http://sennheiser.us/drummica.html

Ultimate is in the post

Ahhh yes...the "frame page"...nice...never thought of that.

So it comes in the post...can you start downloading sections now?

[stratatonic]

1/ Is there a sequencer within Kontakt?
2/ Can one swap out the included samples of an instrument with your own samples?

Yes, Kontakt has own sequencer, arpeggiator, drum computer etc. You can find it in scripts under Factory->Sequencing. It works with any samples you throw in. Other words: if any Kontakt library has sequencer, mostly it is just own Kontakt sequencer but wrapped into shiny skin

Check here:
https://insessionaudio.com/kontakt-add- ... -anything/

Thanks for the link ....there's more to Kontakt than meets the eye, it seems. Not sure if that's a rabbit hole I want to go down. It looks deep - maybe it's not so bad. I think with Reaktor, guys go missing for weeks at a time with that one.

[Carly(Poohbear)]

re: Sennheiser deal - after figuring out how to download and install and register etc etc all in German (Google translate only works on one page), Kontakt should be free. What a headache!

I nearly through the laptop out of the window, but I managed to get the frame page name and hit that (that small screen on the webpage that did not translate) directly so then Google translated it..

http://sennheiser.us/drummica.html

Ultimate is in the post

Ahhh yes...the "frame page"...nice...never thought of that.

So it comes in the post...can you start downloading sections now?

I ordered it from Amazon in the end as it was £10 cheaper (also with the HDD installer) plus I get double points from Amazon
But I can't start downloading yet, which in away is better for me as I'm so busy at the moment, but it should be here tomorrow!!!

[erichgschmidt]

If you don't own Kontakt 11 ultimate ($1200 version), guitar center and I believe musicians friend have bundled it at a decent price with machine($1100), maschine studio($1300), and their 61 keyboard ($1200).

Meaning, at the very least you can save $100 off the ultimate retail, AND get a free Maschine in the process. If your feeling saucy, just sell your maschine on eBay or wherever, and make back $400-$500 bucks on that. Net total $600-$700. Not too shabby.

I recommend searching with the keyword "bundle". It will cut through a lot of clutter on those sites.