Sharing Kontakt Insturments

[emdot_ambient]

I'm no noob to sampling, but I am to building instruments in Kontakt. I've just put together a Kontakt instrument based on samples of my old Roland RS-202 string ensemble and wouldn't mind sharing it, but I wasn't sure how to package it up for distribution. It was done in Kontakt2 and I think when I saved it I selected Save Samples With Instrument. Would I bundle the .nki file, say in a .rar along with a folder for the samples? Or does the .nki bundle the samples with it when saved like that?

I'd check the documentation, but I'm at work and decided to ask you people while I was thinking about it.

The RS-202 has Bass, Strings I and Strings II sounds for both the upper and lower keyboard (F1 to F6 I believe). It has two Ensemble settings, I & II. The instrument so far is only Strings I with Ensemble I. Each note was sampled and looped without any modifications (no noise reduction or volume normalization). There are marked volume changes as you play up the keyboard, which is exactly how the real thing plays. One sample per note and the samples are 16-bit, 44.1kHz mono (the instrument has mono outputs). Can't remember the instrument's file size. I think it's about 52MB.

I've actually done two versions, one with no FX and one with EQ (the RS-202 had a rudimentary tone control on it), delay, phase and reverb.

The RS-202 has a rather brash sound, but controlled by EQ it can be smooth, too. Any advice would be helpful.

Thanks!

[dougsyo]

I prefer .nki preset + wav files, preferably in a zip or rar file.

If they're sample-based sounds (as most Roland instruments like that are), they hold copyright on the sounds. I don't know that it ought to be shared under those circumstances. Keeping them for your own purposes should be fine though.

Doug

[stk]

Nah, string ensemble is analog, I believe. Which means no copywrong poop.

Anyways, K2 monoliths are handy to redistribute, otherwise nki+samples, easier for people to port it over to other samplers then.

/sk

[pw]

I prefer the preset + wav files format, rather than the Kontakt monolithic presets.

And, I can't wait to hear it! Payware or Freeware?

[emdot_ambient]

Yeah, I think I'll package it up as .nki + samples so others can use them. I'll zip up both the .nki's (clean and with FX) as they share the same samples.

The instrument is 100% analog. It's the old divide-down scheme used by Solinas, Crumar string synths, Eminent 310's, Freeman String's, all those. There are a limited number of oscillators (3 I assume for the RS-202, but I'm not sure) that are tuned to one high frequency pitch, then each key on the synth is attached to a circuit that divides the base frequency down to the specified note, thus making the synth totally polyphonic--all notes can be played at once.

As for copyrights, The RS-202, while it was still in production, was reverse engineered by Multivox to make the cleverly named Multivox MX-202. Roland never sued them becase at that time they weren't the mega corp they are today, and they didn't have money or staff enough to keep tabs on things like that.

This will be freeware, and it'll still take me a little to get this out, but I'll only be making it available here and probably on the Kara-Moon auditorium, though you'll be free to share it (with proper credit) or use the samples (with proper credit) for whatever.

Eventually I'll do instruments for all the permutations I've currently sampled:
Strings I
Strings I, Ensemble I (this is the one I've already made)
Strings I, Enxemble II
Strings II
Strings II, Ensemble I
Strings II, Enxemble II
(and maybe) Strings I & Strings II

But all that will take a while. So once I've got the current one packaged, I'll post it in this forum.

[emdot_ambient]

I only wish I had sampled my Crumar Performer before it decided to crap out on me I like that synth a lot better than the 202.

[emdot_ambient]

Oh, and eventually I'm planning on doing my ARP Axxe's. I have 2 of them and I'm thinking of doing both to see how different they sound...along with tryng some things like putting the Low output from each synth into the Ext. Audio input of the other for an ultra saturated sound...don't know if that would actually work or just sound like crap but it's worth a try

[pw]

looking forward to it all

[Bob Nova]

I prefer the preset + wav files format, rather than the Kontakt monolithic presets.

I'd prefer this too.Looking forward to it!

[dougsyo]

I only wish I had sampled my Crumar Performer before it decided to crap out on me I like that synth a lot better than the 202.

If you want Crumar Orchestrator, check out Puremagnetik String Machines - not bad at $12 for 250MB of samples.

Doug

[deastman]

Why not upload it to the Native Instruments Kontakt user library?

[emdot_ambient]

If you want Crumar Orchestrator, check out Puremagnetik String Machines - not bad at $12 for 250MB of samples.

Nice collection there...how close are the Orchestrator's strings to the Performer's?

I already have a pretty good sample set of the Performer from hollowsun (from back when they had a lot of free downloads), so I'm not desperate for one. I own a Performer, though, and would have liked to have sampled that one. I'm saving my money for the Gmedia Virtual String Machine, as that looks like it's going to be a killer insturment, way more than just a set of sampled sting synths.

[emdot_ambient]

Why not upload it to the Native Instruments Kontakt user library?

I probably will. I don't usually go to their pages. I knew there was one for Reaktor stuff, never looked to see if there were Kontakt libraries from users.

Thanks!