KVR Audio

griels · Post by **griels** » Mon Mar 07, 2005 5:40 pm

Markleford wrote:
Pete C wrote:[...] I just want to set the record straight that Kontakt's original factory library is absolute trash. It is not even worth the space on your hard disk.
Complete agreement here. I think the 12-string was the only instrument that was somewhat useful for me. Much of the others were merely poor advertisments for their synths, and a passable piano (uninspiring: YMMV) and drums. Fairly stock stuff, but not nearly as useful or playable as ST2 offerings.

I totally agree with one major exception : the Yellow Tools world percussion... The Djembe and Bongos are great IMO...

Beardedone · Post by **Beardedone** » Mon Mar 07, 2005 6:23 pm

Thanks so much Sacha. This is an aspect of Kontakt that I have not yet got my head around. I will have to wait until tonight to play with these.

Best,
Gordon

Markleford · Post by **Markleford** » Mon Mar 07, 2005 6:36 pm

griels wrote:I totally agree with one major exception : the Yellow Tools world percussion... The Djembe and Bongos are great IMO...

I'll have to take your word on that, as I honestly don't remember them (and I tend to stockpile ethnic perc sounds whenever possible).

I heard that the Kompakt Player actually had a good included library...

- m

kevvvvv · Post by **kevvvvv** » Mon Mar 07, 2005 6:58 pm

No mention here of Halion 3 which has a superb spec and 2.5 gb of samples - Wizoo variety, which means professional, clean, quiet, all working.

The Halion 3 spec is here. Take a drool
http://www.steinberg.net/ProductPage_sb ... angue_ID=2

By comparison, ST samples, while having a few huge flagship sample sets, don't really have that many multi-samples in them compared to Halion (or Kontakt), and they're sometimes noisy.

I don't think ST has key trigger import either, which is a major distinguishing feature between a sampler and a rompler. And only 4 outs.

But in fairness, Squids doesn't suggest ST is better than Hal or Kontakt ... and his preset programming is first class.

He makes such good use of effects etc that many of his sample sets are a pleasure to play.

Generally esounds samples - programed by squids - are wonderfully characterful - better than IK's, which sound relatively staid by comparison.

But very soon we'll have Halion Player with the full Halion 3 soundset, Waldorf filters, AND 16 outs.

http://www.steinberg.net/ProductPage_sb ... angue_ID=2

And as Markleford says we already have Kompakt with gbs of samples for $199 list, while ST2 is £299 GBP (reduced from £399)

http://www.nativeinstruments.de/index.php?kompakt_us

I wish I had such great choices when I bought my first soft sampler

Sascha Franck · Post by **Sascha Franck** » Mon Mar 07, 2005 7:29 pm

Markleford wrote: I heard that the Kompakt Player actually had a good included library...

Well... if you need a properly sampled Alphorn, then yes.

No seriously, the Kompakt library is a quite a bit better than the one coming with Kontakt.
If you have the time to search (and luck to find) some soundfonts (the freebies actually have a very bad s/n ratio), you may find better replacements for about anything though.

But as said before, NI seems to be aware of this... the K2 library will defenitely be a huge leap forward.

jeffn1 · Post by **jeffn1** » Mon Mar 07, 2005 7:33 pm

Is there going to be a Kompakt2?

jeffn1

Sascha Franck wrote:
Markleford wrote: I heard that the Kompakt Player actually had a good included library...
Well... if you need a properly sampled Alphorn, then yes.

No seriously, the Kompakt library is a quite a bit better than the one coming with Kontakt.
If you have the time to search (and luck to find) some soundfonts (the freebies actually have a very bad s/n ratio), you may find better replacements for about anything though.

But as said before, NI seems to be aware of this... the K2 library will defenitely be a huge leap forward.

Sascha Franck · Post by **Sascha Franck** » Mon Mar 07, 2005 7:40 pm

jeffn1 wrote:Is there going to be a Kompakt2?

I would bet there will be.
I mean, quite a lot of libraries these days are released along with a Kompakt player, with the patches actually being set up in Kontakt. Now, with all the new Kontakt 2 funtions coming up, it'd make not all that much sense to leave Kompakt alone (which, especially along with the libraries mentioned, was quite a huge success) as sample library developers will surely make use of all the new Kontakt features - which Kompakt1 wouldn't be able to interprete correctly.

Markleford · Post by **Markleford** » Mon Mar 07, 2005 7:46 pm

kevvvvv wrote:I wish I had such great choices when I bought my first soft sampler

Heck, I wish there were soft samplers when I bought my hardware sampler!

- m

Kim Lajoie · Post by **Kim Lajoie** » Mon Mar 07, 2005 11:39 pm

kevvvvv wrote:And only 4 outs.

SampleTank2 currently has 8 stereo outs, and version 2.1 (which will be a free engine upgrade) will have 16 stereo outs.

Forever,

Kim.

kovacs · Post by **kovacs** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 12:00 am

I think they'll EOL Kompakt2 and try to move everyone over on Kontakt. There has only been minor updates to the program since it was released.

I agree with the others here - Kompakt library is very, very good (I used the oboe for last month's KVR contest and a lot of my friends thought it was the real thing).

kevvvvv · Post by **kevvvvv** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 5:26 am

jeez

SampleTank2 currently has 8 stereo outs, and version 2.1 (which will be a free engine upgrade) will have 16 stereo outs.

That's an improvement I'm sure many ST users will welcome.

Back when ST1 first came out I bought into the whole IK and esoundz package as it was all there was, and we all duly lived with 4 outs, like it or not

When ST2 came out, I bailed out of upgrading to ST2 as the upgrade cost was so high, especially since it was mostly the same samples rehashed.

At the time I was quite angry that loyal ST1 users like me had to pay so much to upgrade to rebuy the same samples.

I was told I was paying for the new super ST2 engine, and basically it was tough sh#t.

So I decided to shop around.

I switched to Halion and haven't looked back.

At first I converted ST samples to Hal to start me off.

That's when I first discovered:

- that quite often there was very little in an ST sample set, eg, maybe only 3 or 6 samples.

- how well Squids had programmed them to sound good.

These days I'm lucky enough to have built up a whole Hal sample collection and don't really use ST any more.

I feel it's something ppl outgrow if they can afford to.

John-Paul · Post by **John-Paul** » Thu Mar 10, 2005 7:38 am

Another cool feature to be implemented in Kontakt 2 is the ability to import pretty much every sample format available (hard and soft samplers included).

This even includes the Reason NNXT format --- which seems like a first for any sampler other than Reason iself.

http://www.nativeinstruments.de/index.php?kontakt_us

harmony gardens · Post by **harmony gardens** » Thu Mar 10, 2005 8:10 am

Sampletank 2 came with IK sounds. Anyone who buys XL now will get the soon to be released sounds for the 2.1 version. These will be Squids sounds, so they should be a great improvement over what is included now. SS2's sound set is top shelf, and they integrate nicely into the library. When it comes to quality samples, a nice player, and great crossgrade paths to other great sound sets, I think Sampletank 2 XL makes for a great deal. Especially when they add the Sonik Reality soundset to it.

bduffy · Post by **bduffy** » Thu Mar 10, 2005 8:41 am

Sorry, I just don't see Sampletank in the same category as Hal, Kontakt, EXS-24...but I'm amazed at the users they get on their site, so I must be missing something...

harmony gardens · Post by **harmony gardens** » Thu Mar 10, 2005 9:38 am

Sorry, I just don't see Sampletank in the same category as Hal, Kontakt, EXS-24...but I'm amazed at the users they get on their site, so I must be missing something...

I'll grant you that Sampletank isn't the full feature thing that the ones you listed are. Just my two cents, I don't honestly have the time or patience to get into intense sampling sessions or create my own samples. What I create for myself, are usually sound fx or a collection of loops I need for a song. Sampletank handles this level of sampling nicely for me.

I've been extremely happy with Sonik Reality sounds, and I've found that I can get such a good deal on them, and the more you buy, the better the deal is. It just delivers what I need in a simple to use package that integrates nicely into Sonar. The librarian funtion makes all my sounds easy to find, and I can use up to sixteen of them to make combinations. If I want to tweak a sound, or add an effect, the GUI is easy to use, and everything is right there.

To me, all the extra features of a full version sampler are pretty much feature bloat at the end of the day. I have V Sampler which I use to play sounds Sampletank doesn't handle, and I never use any of the advanced features in it. I wish Sampletank handled a few more formats, but to me, as an engine, it's slick, powerful, and easy to use.

Kontakt vs Sampletank XL 2