Analog Lab vs Kontakt

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TrueStory
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04 Sep 2020

I'm looking to get one of these and I was checking out this sound comparison vid.




For anyone here that uses Analog Lab or Kontakt with Reason, what are your experiences and recommendations?

jlgrimes
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07 Sep 2020

TrueStory wrote:
04 Sep 2020
I'm looking to get one of these and I was checking out this sound comparison vid.




For anyone here that uses Analog Lab or Kontakt with Reason, what are your experiences and recommendations?

I have the Arturia bundle. I think for synth presets, the Analog Lab would probably be better.

That said for realistic instruments, Kontakt by a long shot.

Kontakt IMO doesn't come with that great of a factory library, but amazing libraries can be had for free or minimal cost and depending on your budget, the sky is the limit.

As far as learning curve, Kontakt is very deep. But for playing presets its pretty easy to use.

Goriila Texas
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07 Sep 2020

I own both but use Analog Lab the most though. Each instrument is different with Analog Lab while you get a redundant amount of pianos,strings and drums in Kontakt. Another thing that you have to worry about in Kontakt is most of those instruments like the pianos be out of phase so you have to narrow the width to get them on the right side of a correlation meter for mono compatibility.

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TrueStory
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08 Sep 2020

jlgrimes wrote:
07 Sep 2020

I have the Arturia bundle. I think for synth presets, the Analog Lab would probably be better.

That said for realistic instruments, Kontakt by a long shot.

Kontakt IMO doesn't come with that great of a factory library, but amazing libraries can be had for free or minimal cost and depending on your budget, the sky is the limit.

As far as learning curve, Kontakt is very deep. But for playing presets its pretty easy to use.
Yeah I see what you mean about the learning curve. I'm checking out Kontakt now in Komplete Start and some of the instruments are pretty crazy. Kinetic Treats had me watching a tutorial just to understand the user interface which seems pretty pointless imo.
Goriila Texas wrote:
07 Sep 2020
I own both but use Analog Lab the most though. Each instrument is different with Analog Lab while you get a redundant amount of pianos,strings and drums in Kontakt. Another thing that you have to worry about in Kontakt is most of those instruments like the pianos be out of phase so you have to narrow the width to get them on the right side of a correlation meter for mono compatibility.
Wow sounds like NI is charging a lot of money for redundant instruments. Is Analog Lab heavy on CPU usage?

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QVprod
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08 Sep 2020

This would be better labeled as Komplete vs V Collection, as Kontakt does not come with other libraries (ones that are in the video) I have both. If your interest is keyboard and synth sounds, Arturia is the winner. Komplete has more realistic instruments like horns and strings if you need that. As far as value, Analog Lab presents quite a lot, and if you’re okay with limited control over presets, it covers more than enough ground for a lot of people.

enossified
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09 Sep 2020

That is such an apples and oranges comparison, it's not funny.

BTW, Analog Lab is a $200 package that is factory presets only, no deep editing at all...only 10 knobs and 9 sliders with preset mappings.

Kontakt is a $400 sample player (it doesn't create samples, similar to the way NN-XT worked until recently) with extremely deep editing.

Teh interwebz inflooencers are really getting on my nerves.

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selig
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09 Sep 2020

I know the original video compares Kontakt to Analog Lab, but I have both Komplete and the Arturia Collection and still agree it's apples to oranges. IMO Arturia is great for classic synths/instruments, Komplete is great for acoustic instruments and interesting sound FX/experimental explorations.

Which is more important to fill out your library?
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Lempface
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11 Sep 2020

enossified wrote:
09 Sep 2020
That is such an apples and oranges comparison, it's not funny.

BTW, Analog Lab is a $200 package that is factory presets only, no deep editing at all...only 10 knobs and 9 sliders with preset mappings.

Kontakt is a $400 sample player (it doesn't create samples, similar to the way NN-XT worked until recently) with extremely deep editing.

Teh interwebz inflooencers are really getting on my nerves.
Can you expound on the way NN-XT worked until recently in regards to not creating samples? Is there a new feature set I've missed?
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Spryx
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11 Sep 2020

Lempface wrote:
11 Sep 2020
enossified wrote:
09 Sep 2020
That is such an apples and oranges comparison, it's not funny.

BTW, Analog Lab is a $200 package that is factory presets only, no deep editing at all...only 10 knobs and 9 sliders with preset mappings.

Kontakt is a $400 sample player (it doesn't create samples, similar to the way NN-XT worked until recently) with extremely deep editing.

Teh interwebz inflooencers are really getting on my nerves.
Can you expound on the way NN-XT worked until recently in regards to not creating samples? Is there a new feature set I've missed?
+1.. I'd like to hear the answer to this as well. As far as I know, NN-XT hasn't changed since Reason 2.0 (2002).
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adfielding
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11 Sep 2020

Lempface wrote:
11 Sep 2020
Can you expound on the way NN-XT worked until recently in regards to not creating samples? Is there a new feature set I've missed?
I believe they're referring to the sampling functionality that was added in Reason 5 - if you open up the NN-XT programmer, there's a "start sampling" button that wasn't there in versions before R5. In that regard, the NN-XT (much like the NN-19 before it) wasn't able to actually sample anything before Reason 5 added that functionality, which is actually kind of funny when you think about it. That said - saying it's a "recent" addition might be pushing it ;)

edit: also yes, with regards to the original comparison I'm going to side with the "apples and oranges" crowd on this one.

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MrFigg
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11 Sep 2020

enossified wrote:
09 Sep 2020

BTW, Analog Lab is a $200 package that is factory presets only, no deep editing at all...only 10 knobs and 9 sliders with preset mappings.
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sublunar
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11 Sep 2020

selig wrote:
09 Sep 2020
I know the original video compares Kontakt to Analog Lab, but I have both Komplete and the Arturia Collection and still agree it's apples to oranges. IMO Arturia is great for classic synths/instruments, Komplete is great for acoustic instruments and interesting sound FX/experimental explorations.

Which is more important to fill out your library?
Selig's response basically nails it. Decide what it is you are looking for and go with that choice. They are two different animals.

As for me, I would say: get neither.

Save up and buy the real thing, either Komplete or Arturia V Collection. Guaranteed there will be black friday sales just around the corner.

I'm a huge fan of the Arturia V Collection myself. You can get in and edit everything on the original machines plus quite a few instruments have software only bonus editing features which takes them over the edge of excellent re-creations to infinitely more powerful software variants of the originals.

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Boombastix
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11 Sep 2020

I'd say skip both, see if your budget allows you to get into NI Komplete. A starter way is to buy the A49 keyboard for $220, and then do the upgrade to of Komplete when they go on sale at 50%.
Some of the Arturia synths have pretty good equivalents as free VSTs. All the "acoustic" stuff in Arturia (not much) you will get from Komplete (+ way more). Once you have the free VA VSTs and add Massive X you're pretty much set on synths.

Unless you plan to buy Arturia and one of Serum or Spire, but that isn't going to be cheaper.

The freebies to get are:
PG-8X
Uhe Tyrell
K1v
Dexed

But very much depends on budget, skill level, and what you plan to create...
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