Best free Kontakt instruments

[mixyguy2]

I have a lot of these and I think this is a good list:

https://blog.native-instruments.com/bes ... struments/

[hotmitts]

I came accross this one recently and it's great :

https://versilian-studios.com/virtuosity-drums

Basically a big detailed, dynamic jazz kit with multiple mics and percussion, the best free jazz-style kit I'm aware of (and I've been searching all free percussive things a lot recently)

EDIT: Also remembered this one, really detailed Cajon and Bongo set:
https://8dio.com/products/the-new-cajon ... 9934485704

[mixyguy2]

EDIT: Also remembered this one, really detailed Cajon and Bongo set:
https://8dio.com/products/the-new-cajon ... 9934485704

Yep those are in the article. I recommend 8Dio's freebies in general.

[hotmitts]

I'll have a closer look at the article, thanks for posting...any favourites of yours ?

[eDrummist]

This is the most extensive curated list of reviewed and recommended free Kontakt (full and free Kontakt Player) instruments based on my research (search engines and AI tools). It has more than 300 Kontakt instruments / sample libraries, organized by instrument category and many feature an audio demo.

I started on the list a few years ago and have been adding to it nearly every week. I download, install, test out free libraries for Kontakt and if they're recommendation-worthy, they make the list. The idea for it was this -- it's really easy to find free sample libraries for Kontakt, but you need to sift through a lot of bad and mediocre libraries to find the cream of the crop. That was my intention in creating this list, to just share the cream of the crop:

https://linkedmusicians.com/best-free-k ... struments/

[writheuk]

I started on the list a few years ago and have been adding to it nearly every week. I download, install, test out free libraries for Kontakt and if they're recommendation-worthy, they make the list.

https://linkedmusicians.com/best-free-k ... struments/

Excellent!

[hotmitts]

This is the most extensive curated list of reviewed and recommended free Kontakt (full and free Kontakt Player) instruments based on my research (search engines and AI tools). It has more than 300 Kontakt instruments / sample libraries, organized by instrument category and many feature an audio demo.

I started on the list a few years ago and have been adding to it nearly every week. I download, install, test out free libraries for Kontakt and if they're recommendation-worthy, they make the list. The idea for it was this -- it's really easy to find free sample libraries for Kontakt, but you need to sift through a lot of bad and mediocre libraries to find the cream of the crop. That was my intention in creating this list, to just share the cream of the crop:

https://linkedmusicians.com/best-free-k ... struments/

Wow that's amazing ! Thanks for that - I've been searching a lot but that's invaluable

[hotmitts]

I've been looking for some free or affordable Mallet-played drums (for soft acoustic type music) , does anyone have any recommendations ? It's the one thing I've not been able to find for free (or very cheap)

....waiting for a sale on 'Royale' by Analogue Drums, who are always great

[hotmitts]

I've been looking for some free or affordable Mallet-played drums (for soft acoustic type music) ,

Nothing doing ?

[eDrummist]

I've been looking for some free or affordable Mallet-played drums (for soft acoustic type music) , does anyone have any recommendations ? It's the one thing I've not been able to find for free (or very cheap)

....waiting for a sale on 'Royale' by Analogue Drums, who are always great

I just posted a 50% discount code for a sale at Ink Audio at LinkedMusicians (my community basically started with a group of friends that left another forum; it's my passion project -- basically hobby site, but I maintain two extensive lists of free sample libraries / plugins and there's a bunch of other lists of free effects plugins, free presets, etc. ). They have a deep sampled kit played with mallets that's now $20 US with the discount.

Off-hand, I know that there's an Addictive Drums 2 kit played with mallets -- that's now at 60% off. There's a Sommerville Audio freebie that's played with rods -- I'm not sure if it is played with mallets. I believe that there's a drum kit played with mallets in the free Labs -- that morphed into Splice INSTRUMENT. Goran Grooves has a VST called Handy Drums that is an acoustic kit played with mallets that's normally around $65, but is on sale (but if you own AD2, I think that their kit played with mallets has a lot more detail).

Okay, so I am kind of obsessed with drum sample libraries and VSTs! I hope that helps.

[eDrummist]

Okay, I went back to my site and grabbed the code for 50% off at Ink Audio where they have an acoustic kit played with mallets that's on sale for $20, but it requires the full version of Kontakt. This is the code: FIFTY.

FTR, that's not an affiliate code -- at least, not to my knowledge. If you don't own Kontakt, the other choices in my earlier post are the best options I know of. There's also some options from Toontrack, but they're on the more expensive side, and you wrote you were looking for something free or low cost, so I didn't mention that earlier (SD3 is my personal go to for acoustic drum sample libraries, but I also use AD2 and a lot of different Kontakt libraries from various developers).

[hotmitts]

I just posted a 50% discount code for a sale at Ink Audio at LinkedMusicians (my community basically started with a group of friends that left another forum; it's my passion project -- basically hobby site, but I maintain two extensive lists of free sample libraries / plugins and there's a bunch of other lists of free effects plugins, free presets, etc. ). They have a deep sampled kit played with mallets that's now $20 US with the discount.

Off-hand, I know that there's an Addictive Drums 2 kit played with mallets -- that's now at 60% off. There's a Sommerville Audio freebie that's played with rods -- I'm not sure if it is played with mallets. I believe that there's a drum kit played with mallets in the free Labs -- that morphed into Splice INSTRUMENT. Goran Grooves has a VST called Handy Drums that is an acoustic kit played with mallets that's normally around $65, but is on sale (but if you own AD2, I think that their kit played with mallets has a lot more detail).

Okay, so I am kind of obsessed with drum sample libraries and VSTs! I hope that helps.

Really helpful thanks ! Wasn't aware of the Ink site so I'll check it out now

Like you I've been collecting drums (well, on the softer side) : I do have the Goran ones and the AD2, very good.
My somewhat eccentric setup at the moment is translating lots of stuff to Sf2 and the Reason NNXT , I've been limiting myself to not installing hundreds of VST thereby avoiding choice (and installation) overload!
Anyway the latest Awave Studio translates recent Kontakt formats now so I've been trying many of the great free options. Lots of work setting up the samples properly afterwards but rewarding

[mixyguy2]

I'll have a closer look at the article, thanks for posting...any favourites of yours ?

8Dio's stuff
Emberton's stuff (most of it anyway)
Heritage Percussion
Shreddage 3 (guitar)
Tokyo Scoring Strings
The Alpine Project (orchestral instruments)
Strezov Diamond Jazz Trio (piano, bass, and sax)