Good instruments and libraries for NI Kontakt

[ATN69]

Sonic Couture is fun. Their Box of tricks is something I been thinking about to make myself ..by dragging my microphone out to the kitchen and see what I could make. Interesting stuff.

[jancivil]

I've used Glassworks in I think everything this year. It's kind of a bridge between acoustic and electronic instruments. They organize by regular plain instruments and a sound design folder.

[shonky]

Think the only things I've picked up from SC so far have been the freebies and the Scriptorium (which has some nice presets but also allows you to use those custom scripts in your own instruments), and they gave me the giant tongue drum as a free gift.

Not bad for a tenner

[ATN69]

I've used Glassworks in I think everything this year. It's kind of a bridge between acoustic and electronic instruments. They organize by regular plain instruments and a sound design folder.

Glassworks is absolutely a unique sounding thing. My first impression is that Sonic Couture make stuff that are quite out there. I saw they also have a big variation of things

[ATN69]

I just bought NI Envolve mutations 1 and 2 (Heavyocity) from donco in the second hand market.

[Tappistry]

The next Kontakt library I want to pick up is Phaedra for some really choice analogue synth sounds. From what I’ve heard of the demos, the sounds seem versatile and have fantastic quality.

I’m just impatiently waiting for a sale now that I subscribed to Zero-G’s newsletter. They seem to be quite aggressive with 48 hour sales. At that rate it seems like if I see something that’s vaguely interesting, that it’ll be on sale again inside of a few months.

[goldenhelix]

Re: Soniccouture I just recently picked up their Ondes library. After listening to Messiaen's Fete de Belle Eaux all the time at work I just kinda had to have it. Suffice it to say it probably isn't as amazing as having the real thing but it's about $20,000 cheaper And it does sound very nice. That's the only experience I have with their products, but I am sure the others are of great quality as well.

Re: libraries in general there are just so damn many of them at this point that it really depends on what you intend to do. I will say that for percussion I have got a fair amount of use out of Heavyocity's Damage and feel it's well worth the price, so since you asked about that I figured I'd throw a word in its favor.

As a random recommendation, Tronsonic has a library called SolinoProto which is recorded from a Solina and sounds excellent. It's very cheap too. It might not at all be what you are looking for since it kinda does something very specific but I figured I'd mention it.

[ATN69]

Thanks guys! Yeah, I am a complete rokkie when it comes to Kontakt and all the instruments and libraries out there for Kontakt. I never paid any attention to Kontakt stuff until I recently bought Komplete. A google search will present a huge amount of results and the question is how you separate the good stuff from the bad?!

One way of limiting the scope was to make this thread and to check out what you guy's recommend. I will check out these recommendations and hopefully I find some nice things. If I am really lucky some of these might show up as Black Friday items for sale

[djshire]

Ondes

I watched the demo video on SCs website, and when listening to it, it sounded familiar....very familiar...like I had heard it dozens of times before. So I did a bit of digging and sure enough...the Ondes was used on the Ghostbusters score.

[dark water]

The next Kontakt library I want to pick up is Phaedra for some really choice analogue synth sounds. From what I’ve heard of the demos, the sounds seem versatile and have fantastic quality.

I’m just impatiently waiting for a sale now that I subscribed to Zero-G’s newsletter. They seem to be quite aggressive with 48 hour sales. At that rate it seems like if I see something that’s vaguely interesting, that it’ll be on sale again inside of a few months.

If it fits the bill, get Epica instead or as well (to give the true GAS answer).
It's better.
I have both.

[Gribs]

Synthmagic: http://www.synthmagic.co.uk/index.html
Hideaway Studio: https://hideawaystudio.wordpress.com/
Hollow Sun (now maintained by EvilDragon): http://www.hollowsun.com/
Samplephonics (especially Nevo Analog Machines): https://www.samplephonics.com/products/ ... nstruments
Frozen Plain: http://frozenplain.com/
Rhythmic Robot: http://www.rhythmicrobot.com/

Many of these and other smaller labels can be found on Kontakt Hub as well:

https://www.kontakthub.com/

[shonky]

The next Kontakt library I want to pick up is Phaedra for some really choice analogue synth sounds. From what I’ve heard of the demos, the sounds seem versatile and have fantastic quality.

I’m just impatiently waiting for a sale now that I subscribed to Zero-G’s newsletter. They seem to be quite aggressive with 48 hour sales. At that rate it seems like if I see something that’s vaguely interesting, that it’ll be on sale again inside of a few months.

If it fits the bill, get Epica instead or as well (to give the true GAS answer).
It's better.
I have both.

Phaedra is currently half price and you get a $15 discount on your first order if you join the mailing list so I got it for just under £19.

Only a 48 hour sale so act fast if you want it.

[bigcat1969]

For underpriced garbage click on my little sig at the bottom of this message. If you need a certain sound briefly or for background some folks seem to check my GM soundset list which has a couple hundred Kontakt instruments.

Check some of the monthly audio plugin deal sights. I've gotten some pretty cool stuff there for 70-90% off. The often advertise on the KVR deals page and the VI-Control announcement deals page. Some chap who I can't remember often does preview vids. I got Impact's Brass and Drums and Colours this way for $200 which was a good deal for pretty high end stuff. Also the Embertone String Quartet for the same price which are nice solo strings. Never pay full price for anything.

I love the Berlin Inspire. Limited but beautiful sketching orchestra. Compare Inspire to The Orchestra to hear high versus lower end sampled orchestras.

[jancivil]

SonicCouture Toy Grand Piano is small and can't be too expensive, a gorgeous thing.

[ATN69]

Phaedra is currently half price and you get a $15 discount on your first order if you join the mailing list so I got it for just under £19.

Only a 48 hour sale so act fast if you want it.

Phaedra is $69.99 at Zero - G. Is that half price? I didn't see anything about sale in their website. I listened to the music demo and it sounds lovely. Very 80's, Human Legue, Depeche Mode, etc. ..all though I own a s**t load of vst synths that could do the job.