KVR Audio

BillyBoyKVR · Post by **BillyBoyKVR** » Thu Jul 13, 2017 3:06 am

Greetings Audio-Guru's!

Any advice from those who've used both samplers welcome:
Kontakt 5 (full version) vs. Air Structure 2

I have Kontakt 5 PLAYER (free version) only...
Am considering purchase of full version Kontakt 5
-- OR Air's Structure 2, pretty much only because of my limited budget at present.

Besides cost, which is the obvious diff (K= $399; AS2= $149), I'm really just interested in the best possible, amazing QUALITY finished sounds -- especially in the natural instruments. I won't be tinkering with processing, slicing or dicing. Just be using finished samples straight up as they come, adjusting only whatever controls or switches on any given instrument's interface.

Clearly, Kontakt is the industry standard and its quality of samples and finished processing of these are high. Unfortunately, there are very few demos (plus not EVEN a master list) for Structure 2's offering. 37 Gigs worth with Structure 2; 43 Gigs for Kontakt (which of course means nothing regarding quality, since number of samples are unknown for Structure 2). At least NI publishes sample content for Kontakt.

But what say ye?

Are Air Structure 2's finished sample sounds (especially natural instruments; including their processing) anywhere near as good as Kontakt's?

What do you think?

Many thanks for all feedback,
~Billy Boy

BillyBoyKVR · Post by **BillyBoyKVR** » Thu Jul 13, 2017 3:18 am

On the Cakewalk forum, regarding Structure 2, Soundwise comments:
"Samples are great, but instruments have only basic articulations."

shidostrife · Post by **shidostrife** » Thu Jul 13, 2017 3:51 am

This should be in instruments forum, not host.

on topic, I had Structure for a pretty short time, but I believe the samples are better than Kontakt's factory library. I particularly like the piano.

But of course the strength of Kontakt lies in the huge (and I mean HUGE) third party libraries available, both free and commercial.

BillyBoyKVR · Post by **BillyBoyKVR** » Thu Jul 13, 2017 6:38 am

Greetings Audio-Guru's!

Any advice from those who've used both samplers welcome:
Kontakt 5 (full version) vs. Air Structure 2

I have Kontakt 5 PLAYER (free version) only...
Am considering purchase of full version Kontakt 5
-- OR Air's Structure 2, pretty much only because of my limited budget at present.

Besides cost, which is the obvious diff (K= $399; AS2= $149), I'm really just interested in the best possible, amazing QUALITY finished sounds -- especially in the natural instruments. I won't be tinkering with processing, slicing or dicing. Just be using finished samples straight up as they come, adjusting only whatever controls or switches on any given instrument's interface.

Clearly, Kontakt is the industry standard and its quality of samples and finished processing of these are high. Unfortunately, there are very few demos (plus not EVEN a master list) for Structure 2's offering. 37 Gigs worth with Structure 2; 43 Gigs for Kontakt (which of course means nothing regarding quality, since number of samples are unknown for Structure 2). At least NI publishes sample content for Kontakt.

Are Air Structure 2's finished sample sounds (especially natural instruments; including their processing/articulations) as good as Kontakt's?

What do you think?

Regarding Structure 2, on the Cakewalk forum Soundwise comments:
"Samples are great, but instruments have only basic articulations."

Thanks for all feedback,
~Billy Boy

BillyBoyKVR · Post by **BillyBoyKVR** » Thu Jul 13, 2017 7:01 am

Re-posted in Instruments... Please respond there.
~Thanks

ghettosynth · Post by **ghettosynth** » Thu Jul 13, 2017 7:18 am

I would buy neither at full price, ever, under any circumstances. You missed the recent upgrade sale where Kontakt could have been had for $125 as an crossgrade from the free DrumMic'a, but you can get it now for $249 as a crossgrade.

Bump1 · Post by **Bump1** » Thu Jul 13, 2017 7:58 am

The deciding factor for me was simply Kontakt being the much better supported platform.

When it comes to 3rd party libraries and pallette of sheer options (library wise)? There's Kontakt....and then everybody else.

YMMV

kinwie · Post by **kinwie** » Thu Jul 13, 2017 8:24 am

I've used Structure since I was working as tech.support/product specialist for Avid reseller in my country. It is a good sample player with quality ranks as Kontakt.
But overall,it's still some level below Kontakt (programming, scripting, number of libraries available, etc.)

And one crucial thing that I want to point out is, It's not good for Drums/percussion type sounds because the choke-group is monophonic (even Xpand2 is the same).
And I have no idea if they, AIR Music aware about that or not

Examigan · Post by **Examigan** » Thu Jul 13, 2017 10:12 am

I like Structure 2, I never ran into that choke issue (as I probably never tried it), so I will have to check that out. Anyway if you have any of their products, you can get this great upgrade deal for only $60
http://www.pluginboutique.com/product/1 ... E-UPGRADE-

"This is an upgrade for users who own previous versions of the AIR Instrument Expansion Pack, the AIR Instrument Expansion Pack SELECT or a single AIR Music Technology instrument (including Xpand!2"

Xpand!2 was given away as a freebie recently for a short while.

Examigan · Post by **Examigan** » Thu Jul 13, 2017 12:16 pm

One thing I'd like is to have is resizable displays for both the AIR plugins and Kontakt. I only have the Player version of Kontakt, but both of these are a little small on my new monitor (1920*1080).

zzz00m · Post by **zzz00m** » Thu Jul 13, 2017 4:07 pm

Examigan wrote:I like Structure 2, I never ran into that choke issue (as I probably never tried it), so I will have to check that out. Anyway if you have any of their products, you can get this great upgrade deal for only $60
http://www.pluginboutique.com/product/1 ... E-UPGRADE-

"This is an upgrade for users who own previous versions of the AIR Instrument Expansion Pack, the AIR Instrument Expansion Pack SELECT or a single AIR Music Technology instrument (including Xpand!2"

Xpand!2 was given away as a freebie recently for a short while.

I would have to say the no brainer deal would be to get Structure 2 included with the Air Expansion Pack for $60. https://www.audiodeluxe.com/products/ai ... te-upgrade

All you need to qualify for the entire bundle is to own any one AIR instrument, such as those bundled with keyboards from Akai, Alesis, or M-Audio. Some examples are Hybrid 3, Loom, and Xpand!2.

Xpand!2 has gone on sale for $1 a few times recently, so you may need to shop around.

As far as the sounds go, the factory 37GB sample library is for real. Quality sounds that cover a lot more then the factory sounds included with Kontakt 5.

At one time I was considering Kontakt 5 (already have the Player), but what I saw was the limited factory content that kept me from jumping in. It seems you would need to pay additional $$$ to get all the instruments that you wanted from add-on libraries. That being said, the Kontakt ecosystem has become almost an industry standard. The UI is top notch, and you get a lot of performance control over the instruments.

So if you are making money with your music, or plan to eventually, maybe Kontakt is a good choice. But I have noticed lately that quite a few Kontakt instruments are being marketed these days as "works with Kontakt Player", so maybe you can find that special instrument you need that way.

Since I have Structure 2 (and the AIR collection), I will say that you cannot beat Structure 2 for the price, on sale.

I also found a killer deal on SampleTank 3, so I have my sampled sounds covered well now. It also comes with a decent factory collection, but is limited on expansion add-ons. They have a free version that is worth checking out.

lunarchris1 · Post by **lunarchris1** » Thu Jul 13, 2017 6:27 pm

I think folks have said it well so far, but to sum up, the factory library in Structure is great. The factory library with Kontakt is not so great (though not terrible). For everything else (functionality, GUI, routing, effects, sampling, etc.), Structure is worse than Kontakt. So that's really what you need to consider. Will you be happy with just the basic sound library and limited functionality?

dellboy · Post by **dellboy** » Thu Jul 13, 2017 7:06 pm

BillyBoyKVR wrote:
Clearly, Kontakt is the industry standard
~Billy Boy

Yeah I listened to that hype and that is why I bought it and yet virtually never use it.

But sometime later I bought the whole AIR package which included Structure,and use it in most songs I make.

In fact,if I had bought the Air package first then I wouldn't have purchased Kontakt,or IK Sampletank3, or lots of other stuff that sits and does nothing. Strike drummer has made Jamstix 3 redundant for me all on its own,and all the other stuff in the package deal was the icing on the cake.

The main redeeming feature of Kontakt that I could find was that it loads quicker.

Kinh · Post by **Kinh** » Fri Jul 14, 2017 6:00 am

lunarchris1 wrote:I think folks have said it well so far, but to sum up, the factory library in Structure is great. The factory library with Kontakt is not so great (though not terrible). For everything else (functionality, GUI, routing, effects, sampling, etc.), Structure is worse than Kontakt. So that's really what you need to consider. Will you be happy with just the basic sound library and limited functionality?

I dont intend to start an argument but this comment and the one above it I wouldn't take seriously if I were you. No offense intended.

Komplete is superior in every way. This is what Structure is...a few generic horns, strings, pianos, guitars (with some nice keyswitches I might add) and the synths...they are sampled mostly from Xpand (the stock vst that comes with protools) which sounds like Hybrid3 only worse... I personally think this is a pretty tacky approach to filling Structure up but then again it's real cheap.
+ You can add new libraries in kontakt.

Saukar30 · Post by **Saukar30** » Fri Jul 14, 2017 6:34 am

I bough Kontakt a while ago... and have sunk a good $400+ or so (plus a lot of time googling for free stuff) to get the sounds that I want. It's like a black hole. However... it is the MOST reliable sampler I have. It just works & rarely crashes. The stock library is not really meant to get you far. However... there are GREAT 3rd party libraries available.

Structure, I can comment on because I don't have it. However, if I had a a choice between this & Kontakt today, I would probably get Structure. I don't need most of what Kontakt has (besides it's stability & fast loading time). I'd rather a good set of stock natural instrument sounds & get on with music making. You can always use external effect to make things sound good.

BTW I use other samplers as when I dont feel like messing with Kontakt. Tal Sampler is great for the lofi sounds & stretching if you just want simple sounds with not a lot of layers.

Kontakt 5 vs. Structure 2 ??