Cheap crossgrade to Kontakt using Sennheiser "free" DrumMic'a

[whyterabbyt]

Well, no, you're not really "cross-grading" from DrumMic'a, as that requires Kontakt anyway.

No, its a library which requires the free Kontakt Player. Kontakt is capable of opening Player libraries, but it isnt required.

[EvilDragon]

For those of you who've gotten K5 and this DrumMic'a offer, have you found K5 to be useful for drums? I like Battery, because you can assign individual drums to individual outputs, for processing in the DAW. You can't do that with Kontakt though, right? At least, you couldn't with K4; the drum set loaded as one instrument.

Steve

Last time I checked Kontakt had multi-out options, at least it does now.

Sure it does, since v1.0.0.

[planetearth]

For those of you who've gotten K5 and this DrumMic'a offer, have you found K5 to be useful for drums? I like Battery, because you can assign individual drums to individual outputs, for processing in the DAW. You can't do that with Kontakt though, right? At least, you couldn't with K4; the drum set loaded as one instrument.

Steve

Last time I checked Kontakt had multi-out options, at least it does now.

It has multiple outputs, yes, but if you're loading the entire drum kit as one instrument, how do you assign the kick drum to one output, the snare to one output, etc.?

With Battery and other drum-specific samplers, you're only loading individual samples and assigning them to pads. Those pads are assigned to individual outputs. And, of course, you can save that entire collection of samples-assigned-to-pads as an "instrument".

So again, I'm wondering how you're assigning specific drums to specific outputs in Kontakt. If anyone has done this, please let me know.

Steve

[planetearth]

Actually, yes, you ARE crossgrading from Drum'mica to Kontakt. That's how NI refers to it (it's an eligible product for Kontakt crossgrade).

Ok, if NI is allowing the use of their own product as the basis for a "cross-grade" to another of their products, then that's on them. And if DrumMic'a is a modified version of K5 anyway (more than the Player but not the same as the "full" version), then that's fine. I couldn't find a list of "eligible cross-grade products" on NI's site.

But if you already have any version of Kontakt, you can get K5 for $99--so why would you spend $125 "cross-grading" from DrumMic'a?

My point was that I assumed many on KVR already had some previous version of Kontakt, especially from the posts I've read over the past nine years.

Steve

[whyterabbyt]

[
It has multiple outputs, yes, but if you're loading the entire drum kit as one instrument, how do you assign the kick drum to one output, the snare to one output, etc.?

An Instrument is the entity you’ll encounter most frequently when you’re working with ready-made KONTAKT libraries. As its name suggests, it’s the virtual equivalent of an acoustic instrument — when being played, it produces a specific range of sounds, possibly at different timbres, dynamics, and articulations. Technically, a KONTAKT Instrument is a wrapper for a number of Groups, whose output signals will be mixed and pass a common signal chain; the modules in this chain are said to reside on the “Instrument level”.

AFAIK, groups feed outputs.

[whyterabbyt]

Actually, yes, you ARE crossgrading from Drum'mica to Kontakt. That's how NI refers to it (it's an eligible product for Kontakt crossgrade).

Ok, if NI is allowing the use of their own product as the basis for a "cross-grade" to another of their products, then that's on them.

In the case of DrumMic'A, they're not. Its not an NI product. Its a Sennheiser product, for which they paid a license for it to be Kontakt-Player compatible.

And if DrumMic'a is a modified version of K5 anyway (more than the Player but not the same as the "full" version), then that's fine.

No, DrumMic'A is a library that requires the Player, or the full version, to run on. Its not a modified version of anything.

But if you already have any version of Kontakt, you can get K5 for $99--so why would you spend $125 "cross-grading" from DrumMic'a?

What 'any version' would you be talking about? You mean a previous full version? That would be an upgrade, not a crossgrade, but yes, if its cheaper, then use that option. Why would that not be obvious?

However, NI offer a crossgrade option from any Kontakt-Player compatible licensed library to the full version of Kontakt which might appeal to someone who does not own any full version of Kontakt. DrumMic'A is such a licensed Kontakt-Player compatible library, but unlike almost all of the others, its free. Hence it offers a 'cheap crossgrade' path as per the OP. Cheaper than any other crossgrade path. It may not be cheaper as a single purchase than an upgrade path, but once you factor in the original cost of the previous version one might be upgrading from, the total cost could be.#
Follow?

My point was that I assumed many on KVR already had some previous version of Kontakt, especially from the posts I've read over the past nine years.

Many do. Likewise, many dont.

[planetearth]

[
It has multiple outputs, yes, but if you're loading the entire drum kit as one instrument, how do you assign the kick drum to one output, the snare to one output, etc.?

An Instrument is the entity you’ll encounter most frequently when you’re working with ready-made KONTAKT libraries. As its name suggests, it’s the virtual equivalent of an acoustic instrument — when being played, it produces a specific range of sounds, possibly at different timbres, dynamics, and articulations. Technically, a KONTAKT Instrument is a wrapper for a number of Groups, whose output signals will be mixed and pass a common signal chain; the modules in this chain are said to reside on the “Instrument level”.

AFAIK, groups feed outputs.

That helps a bit. I've used K4 for a few years, and haven't seen any of these "groups" in any of the instruments I've loaded--but I have seen the "group" tab. I suppose that maybe certain drums could be mapped to the groups, and the groups could be directed to individual outputs for further processing in the DAW.

At any rate, that's what I was trying to find out, from someone who has actually used Kontakt for drums.

Thanks.

Steve

[planetearth]

Actually, yes, you ARE crossgrading from Drum'mica to Kontakt. That's how NI refers to it (it's an eligible product for Kontakt crossgrade).

Ok, if NI is allowing the use of their own product as the basis for a "cross-grade" to another of their products, then that's on them.

In the case of DrumMic'A, they're not. Its not an NI product. Its a Sennheiser product, for which they paid a license for it to be Kontakt-Player compatible.

And if DrumMic'a is a modified version of K5 anyway (more than the Player but not the same as the "full" version), then that's fine.

No, DrumMic'A is a library that requires the Player, or the full version, to run on. Its not a modified version of anything.

Ok, we're probably getting more into semantics here, but from what you're saying, it sounds like DrumMic'a is a set of Sennheiser-owned samples, which they've mapped and processed for use in the Kontakt Player. They've paid Kontakt for the use of the software, as other developers could do (for the Player). But without Kontakt, the set of samples isn't doing Sennheiser any good; they didn't also map and treat them for any other drum sampler (not even Battery). So this was made, ostensibly, for Kontakt, and it's using the Kontakt engine to play it. That's fine. That means that Kontakt is allowing a "cross-grade" from one of their products to another, in effect. What I was trying to determine is which other ROMpler, sampler or VSTi does Kontakt allow for this "cross-grade" to the full version? SampleTank? Omnisphere? Something from UVI? I'm just wondering, because (by and large) the rest of the software world offers "cross-grades" from competing products; otherwise, they're upgrades.

In essence, Sennheiser paid Kontakt for the license and, in doing so, subsidized the "upgrade" path to the full version of Kontakt for anyone who wanted it. Seems like that was a very nice thing to do! (Yes, I appreciate that Sennheiser did this, presumably, to promote their microphones. If that's the case, I hope they sold enough to pay for the license!)

Steve

[whyterabbyt]

That means that Kontakt is allowing a "cross-grade" from one of their products to another, in effect. What I was trying to determine is which other ROMpler, sampler or VSTi does Kontakt allow for this "cross-grade" to the full version? SampleTank? Omnisphere? Something from UVI? I'm just wondering, because (by and large) the rest of the software world offers "cross-grades" from competing products; otherwise, they're upgrades.

Ah, now I see what you're getting at. No, AFAIK, its an upgrade from Kontakt-older-version or crossgrade from Kontakt-Player-Library and that's it. Nothing from competing products, within the Kontakt family only.

In essence, Sennheiser paid Kontakt for the license and, in doing so, subsidized the "upgrade" path to the full version of Kontakt for anyone who wanted it.

Yup.

[EvilDragon]

For more semantics: Sennheiser didn't pay Kontakt for the license, Sennheiser paid NI for the license.

[mutantdog]

iZotope do a "crossgrade" deal on Iris if you already own another iZotope product. It's not an upgrade cos its a different product, so the term is fair. I don't see many companies offering crossgrades to people that own a competitor's product (u-he's dinosaur thing is the only one i can think of).

[V0RT3X]

Glad to see others chimed in to explain

It does seem a bit strange that you can get a "free" product like DrumMic'a which allows you to "crossgrade" to the flagship product which it's built off at a discounted price. Almost seems to good to be true, and you know what they say about that stuff

Even when not on sale, you are getting the ability to buy Kontakt5 for $249.00 which is a considerable discount off the retail price of $399.00. I imagine it's kind of annoying for people who paid money to get the same discount

In the end at least people have the ability to get a copy of Kontakt for super cheap. I think everyone should own a copy of Reaktor & Kontakt

[mutantdog]

Since i used this as a double crossgrade route to Ultimate, I now have Studio Drummer which kinda renders DrumMicA useless. So the question is can i uninstall DrumMicA now or will everything stop working?

[planetearth]

For more semantics: Sennheiser didn't pay Kontakt for the license, Sennheiser paid NI for the license.

Yeah, sorry. That was "collateral damage" of a few, rushed edits to try to make my point.

Steve

[whyterabbyt]

So the question is can i uninstall DrumMicA now or will everything stop working?

Yup, it can be safely uninstalled.