KODA Sampler - coming KONTAKT alternative?

[VariKusBrainZ]

Its too new to take over unless they manage to score some heavyweights really quickly which is as likely as me getting laid, dev companies come and go like gnats in the summer

[EvilDragon]

All of that matters but the most important thing overall is performance. Which is still where Kontakt is about the best. I've spoken with Koda main developer and Koda doesn't support multicore processing as it stands, so heavily polyphonic and multi-mic libraries will definitely be more CPU intensive in Koda, until they decide to grapple with that problem.

[mi-os]

Re the risk, i think some people underestemate how fragile small companies can be. If something happens to a key person (accident, illness, ..) it can be game over pretty fast. Bigger companies are better at spreading risks like that.

Furthermore, any company, whether big/small or new/old, can be sold to private equity or similiar investors at any time. What looks great today may be disastrous tomorrow.

[sellyoursoul]

All of that matters but the most important thing overall is performance. Which is still where Kontakt is about the best. I've spoken with Koda main developer and Koda doesn't support multicore processing as it stands, so heavily polyphonic and multi-mic libraries will definitely be more CPU intensive in Koda, until they decide to grapple with that problem.

Performance is definitely important, but it's all relative with multi-core being more important for anyone running big multis, where the vast majority of Kontakt users are likely hobbyists running maybe a handful of instruments. I would think that the most important aspects for Koda out of the gate are stability, solid DFD, usability, and licensing.

[agharta]

All of that matters but the most important thing overall is performance. Which is still where Kontakt is about the best. I've spoken with Koda main developer and Koda doesn't support multicore processing as it stands, so heavily polyphonic and multi-mic libraries will definitely be more CPU intensive in Koda, until they decide to grapple with that problem.

Seems an odd omission for 2026 but I suppose multicore support for real time software still isn't straightforward.

Does Kontakt support multicore for a single articulation or only for multis?
If KODA is still single core for multis, then that's a failure.

[EvilDragon]

Kontakt does multicore throughout instrument busses within a single instrument (so, if you have a multi mic library and you route your mics through busses you get CPU savings), and then further through instruments loaded in the rack IIRC.

Koda is single code throughout as it stands. So you don't need a multi, all you need is a multi mic patch and it would not be as performant as in Kontakt, as of yet.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

This does look very cool in terms of being able to democratize and simplify sample library creation. Kudos to the devs. I'll be keeping an eye out for this.

[sellyoursoul]

This does look very cool in terms of being able to democratize and simplify sample library creation. Kudos to the devs. I'll be keeping an eye out for this.

Using a sampler might get much more interesting to a lot more people once an editor is available with good usability without the need for scripting, which could lead to availability of a lot more free and low cost instruments. And that in turn could cause a push for higher quality in commercially developed instruments.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

This does look very cool in terms of being able to democratize and simplify sample library creation. Kudos to the devs. I'll be keeping an eye out for this.

Using a sampler might get much more interesting to a lot more people once an editor is available with good usability without the need for scripting, which could lead to availability of a lot more free and low cost instruments. And that in turn could cause a push for higher quality in commercially developed instruments.

Yeah, exactly my thinking. I once sampled my Wurlitzer 120, which Hollow Sun distributed. I wanted to release it free but he did all the scripting work and hosting. If I had a good option that was easy to use, where I could make pro libraries on my own, I could see myself, time and will permitting, making some freebie libraries.

[Echoes in the Attic]

MPE without scripting would be cool.

[trusampler]

Kontakt RIP, on the early access list. This is much more interesting than the direction NI's been going with Kontakt all these years. The UI alone is so much better than any other sampler I've ever used.

[sellyoursoul]

Yeah, exactly my thinking. I once sampled my Wurlitzer 120, which Hollow Sun distributed. I wanted to release it free but he did all the scripting work and hosting. If I had a good option that was easy to use, where I could make pro libraries on my own, I could see myself, time and will permitting, making some freebie libraries.

And NI's licensing for Kontakt has done a lot to prevent free and low cost instruments.

High Price For A 100% Free or Commercial Instrument

Two scenarios: if a developer wants to release a free or commercial Kontakt Player instrument, they must contact the NI team and pay a one-off encoding fee of $1000 for each library. According to Native Instruments, this covers the development services for encoding, plus QA and integration into the NI ecosystem. Ouch, that’s a lot of money, especially for small developers.

Then the developer has to decide how many licenses he wants to generate for his library. This process is not free. The price differs here from a free to a commercial library.

For a FREE, aka promotional release, the developer has to pay 2500€/$2500 USD and get in exchange 25000 NFR serial numbers. If the library attracts more people, you can buy another batch for the same price. I think you can already see at this point why the market for free Kontakt Player is soo tiny. With 3000€/$3000 USD, it is simply too expensive for most indie developers.

Source: https://synthanatomy.com/2023/02/native ... eases.html

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

I believe that's just if you want to use their official library stuff/licensing system.

Any one of us could create a free Kontakt library and distribute it. I'm 95% sure that's not violating any licensing agreement and would fall under fair use. But if you want it to show up in Native Access, yeah, makes sense you'd need to pay.

[sellyoursoul]

I believe that's just if you want to use their official library stuff/licensing system.

Any one of us could create a free Kontakt library and distribute it. I'm 95% sure that's not violating any licensing agreement and would fall under fair use. But if you want it to show up in Native Access, yeah, makes sense you'd need to pay.

Maybe the only catch there is that free instruments can't be used in Kontakt Player, requiring the full version of Kontakt to be able to use the instruments.

How I'm understanding it the developer of Koda wants to avoid all the player/full version mess, and I guess we'll see how that goes.

[Tiles]

Yes, you can create a Kontakt library and offer it on your own website. Please note that users need the full version of Kontakt to use it. The free Kontakt Player is not sufficient. And since the full version of Kontakt can be quite expensive, this may be a limitation for some users.