KVR Audio

AlesisVi61 · Post by **AlesisVi61** » Tue Sep 30, 2014 11:38 am

dwozzle wrote:
If you actively don't want all that Komplete comes with (it's freaking huge if you install the whole thing), or can't wait, then do what you want to do. But if any of it appeals to you, it's kind of a no-brainer next to paying $400 for Kontakt alone.

And you're right about Kontakt, it's hugely powerful, and somewhat of an industry standard. There are tons of high quality libs out there for it.

Dwozzle,

As things are now on my main computer(having Reason 7 & many libraries for it,Studio One and the AIR Expansion bundle on it...I can't possibly clutter it up with Komplete 10 and like I said,I don't want a bunch of extra baggage I won't use.
Just having Kontakt 5 on it,will be pushing the limits and I certainly can't put Komplete 10(or anything like it) on my other PC,as it's mainly used for miscellaneous web surfing.
My secondary PC will however,double as a light-duty workstation...as I plan to either install S1 Artist or Ableton Live Lite(for the purpose of running all of my beloved freeware VST's...for all of my synth-based projects.
You,nor anyone else...can persuade me into buying Komplete 10(as I had K6) and I want nothing more to do with NI's bundles.
I won't be ready for a long while,until such time as I can afford Kontakt 5 anyhow...so maybe I will score some type of deal on it in the future(though really not necessary,because Kontakt 5 has the best sample engine and library content in the industry,for the price) and this is all I want from Native Instruments...nothing more.

AlesisVi61 · Post by **AlesisVi61** » Tue Sep 30, 2014 11:55 am

stikygum wrote:I have Kontakt 5, but just can't get into. Granted I haven't read the manual or watched videos to make my own setups within Kontakt, but I'm only a fan of all the libraries available, not the Kontakt software. I just don't like the structure of Kontakt. Too complex and deep for a sampler. If it were more intuitive, then I'd probably have a different view, but I still think there are better samplers out there.

I think Vengeance Phalanx is much nicer. Has big graphs for Env and LFOs, nice effects, and bunch of very useful straightforward features.

It sounds to me like you had no business buying Kontakt 5 in the first place,because Phalanx was primarily designed for drums and synths(assuming that this is your main focus).

If however...authentic sounding bread & butter sounds are also important to you,then you simply can't do any better than Kontakt.
Though Structure has a simple GUI,there is no way you can cycle through the presets(as you are forced to access a drop menu and scroll down to the sound you want and click on it-EACH & EVERY TIME you want to change to a different preset and of course,Structure can't touch the quality of Kontakt and neither can most other sample players/samplers.
That being said,my advice to you...is to appreciate what you have and take the initiative to become more familiar with the functionality of your Kontakt 5.

noiseboyuk · Post by **noiseboyuk** » Wed Oct 01, 2014 8:24 am

For serious third party libraries, of course it's pretty much the only game in town. Seems to me that there are three reasons why that has happened - 1, the scripting is very powerful; 2 - it's a very efficient engine and 3 - no dongle required. Also, it sounds good and with K5 has a good timestretch engine, finally. There have been very brief flurries of activity from developers to try to use UVI, Mach Five or Engine instead, but they've never amounted to much. Personally I think Kontakt could use the competition, but as an end user it's pretty great.

As to the whole sampler thing - yeah, yawwwwn. You can use it to make your own instruments of course. Has some nice drag and drop features, but could use some clever wizards to get folks up and running quickly.

musicdoc · Post by **musicdoc** » Wed Oct 01, 2014 9:53 pm

Another way to get a discount if you don't have any NI software- go on the for sale forum and pick up some cheap NI software, than do the upgrade/cross grade. There's usually someone selling something NI..

AlesisVi61 · Post by **AlesisVi61** » Thu Oct 02, 2014 2:06 am

musicdoc wrote:Another way to get a discount if you don't have any NI software- go on the for sale forum and pick up some cheap NI software, than do the upgrade/cross grade. There's usually someone selling something NI..

I once had lite versions of NI products that were included with a keyboard controller I once bought long ago and ran into some serious technical glitches with registration & licensing on NI's website...NEVER AGAIN...will I consider lite versions,old & used versions or anything of that sort.

I had a similar problem with Behringer's EnergyXT software...which was so severe,I actually coaxed a refund from Behringer(probably the one and only refund on software I will ever have seen in my lifetime).

VariKusBrainZ · Post by **VariKusBrainZ** » Thu Oct 02, 2014 8:50 am

You know you can buy an upgrade to Kontakt 5 from any previous version, no need to buy Komplete

Monkberry · Post by **Monkberry** » Thu Oct 02, 2014 9:57 am

Could not live without Kontakt. It is the engine of choice by the sample developer community and every serious and not so serious composer is required to use it. I used Mach 5 originally a few years back and although it's a well designed sampler, Kontakt is the de facto standard. There are so many incredible libraries offered for Kontakt.

noiseboyuk · Post by **noiseboyuk** » Thu Oct 02, 2014 11:50 am

musicdoc wrote:Another way to get a discount if you don't have any NI software- go on the for sale forum and pick up some cheap NI software, than do the upgrade/cross grade. There's usually someone selling something NI..

Unbelievably, you can get the crossgrade price by just installing the free Senheisser drum library - http://de-de.sennheiser.com/drummica

Numanoid · Post by **Numanoid** » Tue Oct 07, 2014 8:32 pm

Robmobius · Post by **Robmobius** » Tue Oct 07, 2014 8:41 pm

I prefer Mach 5.

I'm not big fan of Konakt. BUT nobody carries 3rd party libraries like it, so it's here to stay...

AlesisVi61 · Post by **AlesisVi61** » Wed Oct 08, 2014 1:36 am

Robmobius wrote:I prefer Mach 5.

I'm not big fan of Konakt. BUT nobody carries 3rd party libraries like it, so it's here to stay...

K5 is unsurpassed in quality and expansion options for it's price tag...but actually,I not so much a fan of it myself,due to the GUI...which really isn't what I would call a pleasure to navigate through(but that is a very arbitrary complaint)..in contrast to what a cluster-f**k and an utter nightmare Kontakt can be,if you run into a technical glitch.
I mean...if you make any sort of mistake in the installation process,it can be hard to bounce back from & in my recent case,I had an impossible time trying to figure out why the Kontakt 5 Player I installed,continuously crashes my Presonus S1 and worse,despite everything I've tried,I cannot eliminate this problem.
To make matters worse,Native Instruments won't help me,because the friggin' program is FREE.

Though I still hold to my opinion that Kontakt has no equal at this price point,well...after watching this video;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eN9FXon ... dGvbjIjTJQ

...I realized that I don't need Kontakt 5 for acoustical sounds(though the ST3's synths are nothing special...but I have my synth needs already covered) and that the overall design and configuration of IKM's ST3 is much more my speed.

Also..ST3 is easy to install,set up,it's CPU-friendly and load times are lightening fast.It's also a lot more flexible and editable than some people realize,along with having an exceptionally efficient workflow(the best I've ever seen,actually..according to the various videos I've watched).

Besides all that,I just can't support a company that won't support me and Native Instruments has let me down hard,more than once.

I thought about Mach 5,but I am not paying an extra $50 for a friggin' iLok for any software on the market(just because there are to many jerk-off software-hackers out there...ruining the marketplace for all of the honest folk out there who are happy to pay for software that works.

gamecat666 · Post by **gamecat666** » Wed Oct 08, 2014 7:57 am

(nevermind)

frankz00 · Post by **frankz00** » Thu Oct 16, 2014 8:26 pm

noiseboyuk wrote:
musicdoc wrote:Another way to get a discount if you don't have any NI software- go on the for sale forum and pick up some cheap NI software, than do the upgrade/cross grade. There's usually someone selling something NI..
Unbelievably, you can get the crossgrade price by just installing the free Senheisser drum library - http://de-de.sennheiser.com/drummica

Yes this is the best deal in town.... Also the Reaktor $99 sale I believe qualifies you to a nice price on the Komplete crossgrade sale.

Gadget Fiend · Post by **Gadget Fiend** » Fri Oct 17, 2014 4:41 am

As a MachFive 3, HALion 5, EXS, and Kontakt 5 owner, I think Kontakt "wins" by simply having the greatest number of 3rd party libraries. It's not really that much better than MachFive or HALion, for instance.

MachFive, HALion, and Kontakt are all unnecessarily complicated, IMO. The "semi-modular" design of Kontakt is certainly flexible. But it's a pain in the ass to have to assign mod routings for the filter key tracking, velocity sensitivity, etc. These should just be hard-wired, IMO.

Even though it's getting a bit long in the tooth, the EXS24 is still arguably the best sounding and easiest to use soft sampler. The filters sound great and the mod matrix is both powerful and intuitive. Too bad it's Mac/Logic-only. (I'm using a PC running Cubase 7.5 now for my main music computer.)

masterhiggins · Post by **masterhiggins** » Fri Oct 17, 2014 5:34 am

EvilDragon wrote:If you think Kontakt is deep, you shouldn't check out MachFive 3...

Phalanx can't really be compared with Kontakt, it has a totally different purpose (i.e. not huge multisampled instruments) and is much less featured.

I was reading about MachFive's features and was totally blown away by it.

So evidently they're capable of writing good software. I wonder why their hardware is so terrible.

-Sam

Kontakt 5,There's No Substitute