Kontakt - How is it?

[WFTurner]

1.How are the included stock sample libraries?

2.Is it resource hungry compared to other samplers you use?

3.How is user support?

4.How well does it import other sampler formats?

5. How intuitive are all the various

sections and views of the sampler if you like to play with setting on filters and oscillators or like to build your own sample libraries?

6.How aggrivating is it's registration process, initial and long and short term?

 

Thanks.

[Alndln2]

Libraries? : I haven't upgraded to 2.0 but from what I hear the new library is a huge improvement over the previous version which is nothing special. Resouece CPU ? : Well,with 1.6 it's not much of an issue and actually quite low compared to your average VSTi,2.0 might be a bit more especially if you use the included convolution verbs.Support ? : They have a forum but don't attend to it as much as some people would like but whatever they put out after 1 or 2 upgrades is usually solid,at least for me.Importing other formats ? : No problem here but I'm sure some huge made for Giga library's might not be 100% which is ubderstandable,but I've personnaly had no problems importing my old Giga and Akaia library,EMU is a bit flakey but that's just true of trying to convert that particular format.How intuitive ? : I'd say very and it's simplicity is part of what sold me on it,you can find filter adjustment fairly easy,the sample browser is an explorer in which you can drag any sample or audio into the play area and creating multisamples is probably the most painless of all Iv'e tried,just drag your .wav's over the keyboard grid,make loop adjustments and your basically done,unless you want to go deeper.Copy Protection ? : Challenge and respone,it is what it is but I haven't had any problems in upgrades.

[Alndln2]

I should point out some negatives as well .Apart from any copy protection beyond a serial number I don't like the new trend of sample companies putting out library's that are Kontakt compatible,but force you to register a Kompakt module just to use it in Kontak,that gets old and cumbersome after a while especially in light of it not working as copy protection anyway,not to mention if your an avid customer you'll wind up overcrowding and making a mess of your VSTi /DXi folder/selection,that's my biggest gripe and stopped me from buying when I would have.When Freezing or bouncing to disk in Sonar ,you must use Slow Bounce ,but's that's usually true of any large sample freeze/bounce.

[Red Winger]

Hey William,

 

1. Libraries -- K2's library is huge...something like 15 GB or so, I believe. It's nothing surprising, but the strings from the VSL collection are a very nice addition for me. I don't use many strings in what I like to do, so the few I get from the Kontakt library saved me the need to buy a more advanced orchestral collection.

 

2. Resources -- The only other soft samplers I've used are NN-19, NN-XT and EXS. In my experience, Kontakt is probalby somewhat more resource hungry (particularly if you add things in like a convolution reverbs to your Instrument setup in Kontakt), but I think that has more to do with the close integration of EXS with Logic (my sequencer of choice) and NN-19/NN-XT with Reason (which is, itself, a very resource-friendly program). For my system, resources have not been a problem. Frankly, with the freeze features on all major DAWs now, I don't think it's as big of a deal as it used to be. The biggest issue for you might be RAM, as you'll either need a fair chuck (1 GB+) if you're going to layer lots of instruments (particularly big ones), or will need to have a system that can handle drive streaming.

 

3. Support -- Never really needed it, but NI has a great user base with a Kontakt library for exchanging scripts, etc. The few times I've emailed NI, I've usually received a reasonably prompt response.

 

4. Import -- It has worked great with my Rex samples and EXS libraries (I had some pianos in EXS format that went it perfectly!). Can't speak to all formats, but I would assume that it generally works with all of the ones advertised, although there might need to be some clean-up you do afterward with some files.

 

5. Intuitiveness -- You should download the demo and play with it, because I don't think anyone can really answer this other than you. Personally, I find it more intuitive than EXS and the drag-n-drop features added in version 2 have really improved that for me. I've shifted from using EXS as my main soft-sampler to K2 since over the last couple of months (although I still use EXS for some things). YMMV.

 

6. Registration -- Do you hate challenge/response? If so, then you'll probably be aggravated by it. It worked very well for me, and I prefer a challenge/response to a dongle, as I get tired of having multiple dongles hogging my USB ports. I've transferred my authorizations to different computers a couple of times with no problems whatsoever under NI's scheme. I believe (don't quote me here, as I'm not 100% sure on this) that you can get up to 3 computers authorized at any given time, which is more than I need (I only need 2).

 

As you can tell, I'm really happy with the additions in K2 and liked Kontakt before. Definitely, though, you should try out the demo before you make any decisions on it.

 

Cheers,

Mark

[Anderton]

Dittos on the above, but another point is that Kontakt 2 puts a big emphasis on effects -- you can add them at the voice, instrument, or output level. And it comes with a lot of effects! The script editor is very cool, but I suspect most people will use the "canned" scripts rather than write their own.