Meet The New Evolution Strawberry & Steel Strings

Official support for: orangetreesamples.com
RELATED
PRODUCTS

Post

We didn't name the series "Evolution" for nothing--it just happened again.

Introducing new upgraded editions for Evolution Strawberry and Evolution Steel Strings. Both libraries are now encoded for the free Kontakt Player, so you don't need the full version of Kontakt to use them--plus you can enjoy the convenience of adding them to your "Libraries" tab in Kontakt.

We took the opportunity to make other improvements and additions:

Image
NKS-Ready

Native Instruments' Komplete Kontrol keyboards and Maschine now offer integration with virtual instruments. That way the Evolution guitar library's effects and settings are readily available directly from these excellent hardware interfaces. The upgrade also incorporates the Komplete Kontrol's Light Guide technology to display the different key ranges and keyswitches.

Image
Snapshot-based factory presets

The snapshot system in Kontakt 5 is designed specifically for handling presets, so we've upgraded the Evolution guitar engine to use those. It integrates really nicely with the Komplete software, Komplete Kontrol keyboards, and Maschine, too.

Oh, and while we were at it, we added a bunch of new factory presets.

Other miscellaneous improvements

The upgrade includes the very latest version of the Evolution guitar engine, which includes new reverb pedals, improved round-robin cycling for better multi-tracking, as well as a few minor bug fixes.

If you already own one of these libraries, you can upgrade for a special discounted price of $20 USD. This price can, of course, be discounted further by redeeming your Orange Slices.

If you bought either of the libraries from October 1st onward, we've upgraded you free of charge!

The improvements made in these two libraries will also be released as updates for Evolution Dracus and Evolution Stratosphere, so stay tuned for those.

You can check out the product pages for Evolution Strawberry and Steel Strings here:

Evolution Strawberry

Evolution Steel Strings
Greg Schlaepfer
Orange Tree Samples
Ultra-realistic sample libraries for Kontakt

Post

For those of us who don't need all the fancy additions, are the bug fixes to the engine at least available to us in a patch? Or do we have to cough up the $20 to get the bug fixes, whether or not we need all the stuff that's been added?

Post

There was only one minor bug fix, which had to do with playing a legato starting from an unmapped articulation. Something you probably won't run into in everyday use, but nevertheless a bug to iron out. Due to the nature of the other improvements, specifically adding snapshots and the NKS integration, licensing the Kontakt Player was pretty much a necessity:

Firstly, for full NKS integration the library really needs to be encoded for the Kontakt Player. That way you have it show up in Komplete Kontrol's browser, for example, accessible from the Komplete Kontrol keyboard and Maschine as well as the Komplete Kontrol software.

Secondly, we switched to use Kontakt 5's snapshot system rather than our own preset system. Snapshots were designed specifically for this purpose, and have a lot of advantages. For example, you can always see the name of the loaded preset--even user presets. The previous factory preset system used pre-rendered text for the factory preset names. Because Kontakt scripting can't recognize which NKA preset is loaded, all user presets would show the text "External Preset". Snapshots integrate really well with Komplete Kontrol because you can skip through the presets using buttons right on the hardware, too. Licensing the Kontakt Player was also essential for snapshots, because that's required in order to provide factory presets that reside within the library's own folder--otherwise the user would have to manually copy the snapshots into the Native Instruments user content folder, which is an extra installation step. Because in some cases you have to create the folders yourself, there's a lot of room for error, too.

While we ordinarily prefer updates to be free, licensing the Kontakt Player is a significant cost, which is why we chose to have the upgrade fee. That being said, if you still have the non-Kontakt Player edition of the library, that will stay in your account where you can access the library whenever you want.
Greg Schlaepfer
Orange Tree Samples
Ultra-realistic sample libraries for Kontakt

Post

Hi Greg
I just updated my Strawberry guitar and installed it. But how do I make it show up in the Komplete Kontrol browser?

Post

Ok... 10 hours later. Now I've got strawberry into Komplete Kontrol, but when I try to load a patch it says : Loading issue - Could not load plug-in. I have tried recanning... What to do now??

Post

That means that Komplete Kontrol is unable to load the Kontakt 5 / Kontakt 5 Player plugin. Make sure you have all the plugin formats for Kontakt installed if you're on Mac OS (particularly the VST version, I believe). If you're on Windows, it may be a matter of running NI's VST tool: http://www.native-instruments.com/en/su ... l-windows/
Greg Schlaepfer
Orange Tree Samples
Ultra-realistic sample libraries for Kontakt

Post

Hey Greg,

Just curious if this will be a standing offer of the $20 upgrade price, or is this for a limited time? Very interested in upgrading both, but can't make it happen right now. Thanks.

Post

The upgrade price is here to stay! It's also subject to any seasonal discounts/sales we might have.

For those who still own the non-Kontakt Player edition of either libraries, those stay in your account to re-download whenever needed, too.
Greg Schlaepfer
Orange Tree Samples
Ultra-realistic sample libraries for Kontakt

Post

Hey Greg,
I was wondering about these questions, too -
So thanks for pointing that out, and for providing your outstanding Service and dedication for products and your customers, too!
And btw, the new homepage is really great, also the integration of everything (products, shop, account,...).
Just one thing: Will Future updates only affect the Player version, or also the Non-Player?

Regards, Hardy

Post

The tough part with future updates is that full NKS integration pretty much requires the Kontakt Player. For example:

- Factory snapshots. We've now switched to use Kontakt 5's snapshot system, but in order to have factory snapshots stored within the library's folder, it has to be a Kontakt Player library. Otherwise the user would have to manually create the necessary folders in their shared content folder and move the snapshots there. If the snapshots aren't located exactly where they need to be, they won't show up in Kontakt, so it makes installation trickier.

- Komplete Kontrol library graphics. I believe that's all encoded in the library as part of the process of licensing the Kontakt Player.

- We've moved to using Kontakt 5 features, and Kontakt version 5.5 in particular. I realize that most people with the full version of Kontakt are using version 5 now, but it would still alienate some users--and not only those who haven't upgraded to Kontakt 5, but people who use earlier versions of Kontakt 5 in order to work with Mac OS 10.6.8 for example.

For those reasons, it's very difficult to keep two copies of all the scripts, distinguishing which features need the Kontakt Player and which don't. That being said, I still have the pre-NKS version of the library, scripts, etc. So the option to create less frequent updates for the non-Kontakt Player version is still a possibility. Currently the only update would be the round-robin improvement and additional reverb pedals, I believe. Everything else (snapshots, NKS integration) are really more suited to the Kontakt Player.
Greg Schlaepfer
Orange Tree Samples
Ultra-realistic sample libraries for Kontakt

Post

When updating to the Kontakt Player versions, do we have to download any samples or just the engine (and use the serial)?

Thanks!

Post

jsp1979 wrote:When updating to the Kontakt Player versions, do we have to download any samples or just the engine (and use the serial)?
I have the same question. Thanks in advance!

Post

The upgrades are now encoded for the Kontakt Player, so the samples are inside an NKX files now. The folder structure of this new version is a little different, too, so I'd recommend installing them into a different folder, as if they are completely different sample libraries. If you have older projects that use the previous versions, you might want to keep the old engine files--though the non-Kontakt Player download will remain in your account on the Orange Tree Samples website, so you can always re-download this previous version if you ever need to.
Greg Schlaepfer
Orange Tree Samples
Ultra-realistic sample libraries for Kontakt

Post

Gregjazz wrote:The upgrades are now encoded for the Kontakt Player, so the samples are inside an NKX files now. The folder structure of this new version is a little different, too, so I'd recommend installing them into a different folder, as if they are completely different sample libraries. If you have older projects that use the previous versions, you might want to keep the old engine files--though the non-Kontakt Player download will remain in your account on the Orange Tree Samples website, so you can always re-download this previous version if you ever need to.
Got it, thanks. I didn't think about the encoding.

Post

So for full kontakt owners and non komplete kontrol users there is no reason to upgrade ?

Post Reply

Return to “Orange Tree Samples”