Kontakt - am I missing much by not having it?

[miden]

I actually own a licence for Komplete Elements, bu tIIRC this does not allow the loading of many of the add on 3rd party instruments/effects available. If it does it is in demo mode only IIRC.

I have Sampletank 3, but I was just thinking maybe there is a world of gear I am missing or would need by jumping in and getting the full player version of Kontakt.

What do others think?

Thanks

[Spencer Maddox]

In my opinion, with all the great 3rd party content. Yes.
Sampletank is very good but it does not have the same 3rd party extensions of Kontakt

[Jafo]

In my opinion, with all the great 3rd party content. Yes.
Sampletank is very good but it does not have the same 3rd party extensions of Kontakt

Emphatically agreed! You can go a long way with other samplers (sforzando, for example, is remarkably capable if you're not afraid of code), but there's just too much of this content to ignore.

[jancivil]

Yes, you are missing one hell of a lot.

Sampletank is not a comparable product really, because of the 3rd-party contributions.

[rACatkvr]

I think you have to ask yourself - what am I missing in terms of what sound/s you want, and then does Kontakt supply that? If not then maybe you don’t need it.

[miden]

Thanks guys - so I guess the only way to really go is get the full Kontakt Player - iirc the web store does allow the purchase of JUST the full player only, so I might re-visit it.

Great replies and much appreciated.

[funky lime]

Your bank account will hate you if you get Kontakt, just because of how much amazing 3rd party content there is. I had to buy a bigger SSD too. It's probably the only plugin (besides ReaEQ) that makes it into 100% of my projects.

IIRC they usually have a pretty good deal on it around the holidays, maybe for Black Friday? If you can wait til then, you might save $100 or so.

[Sg1122]

Thanks guys - so I guess the only way to really go is get the full Kontakt Player - iirc the web store does allow the purchase of JUST the full player only, so I might re-visit it.

Great replies and much appreciated.

you can get sennheiser drummica for free from their page and be eligible for the crossgrade price it is what i did i am just waiting for it to go on sale but it is in german only so you need to translate

[lfm]

I would look at Magix Independence Pro Suite - hiddeous amount of good content(70 GB).
Cakewalk Dimension Pro or later Rapture Pro also have a lot of good stuff.

I got rid on Kontakt 5-6 years ago.
I thought a bit of using it for crossgrade to Steinberg Halion 6 - but you could not get that boxed, just download over 20 GB - so dropped the idea.

I'm looking more and more on external gear like Roland Integra 7 and such, or the cut down stuff from that in Roland FA 06 synth.

[superscan]

I've found that the full version of Kontakt is one of few "must have" products. I also use it at least one instance in every project. Good advice about on how to get it for a decent price. December Sales are coming, so keep that in mind as well.

I would invest time in understanding what you are looking to add. Even if you can't demo, most sites have walkthroughs or demo sounds / songs to give you a sense of what you'd be getting. Make a list, add up the costs and requirements. I agree, I've added significant investments to cover the space and requirements to run all the wonderful things you can use within Kontakt.

[pottering]

For my taste, I found most libraries that caught my attention run on the free Player.

The 30 minutes and no preset saving demo limits for non-Player libs are not a big deal either, IMO, as 30 min is workable and you just play the "presets" with most sample libraries, it is not like Reaktor.


So I would recommend to research which Kontakt libraries one actually needs BEFORE getting full Kontakt, and then only get Kontakt if those don't run on the free Player and you can't deal with the demo limits.


Having said that, the Drummica crossgrade for $124.5 (on the 50% sales) is definitely not a bad deal, I doubt many people regretted it, and I always get tempted.

[miden]

Yeah I hear you about the 30 munite limt, does not really suit for live play as I would be wanting to use it in my live laptop/controller setup.

[EnochLight]

The moment I got Kontakt, I blew hundreds of dollars at Output. That said, I'd do it all over again in a heartbeat!

[jancivil]

I think you have to ask yourself - what am I missing in terms of what sound/s you want, and then does Kontakt supply that? If not then maybe you don’t need it.

I don't think you're clear on the concept: Kontakt itself "supplies" a Factory Library, which is finite and not so vast, and there is development for Kontakt by third parties. And it seems odd to me that one would have a definite foreknowledge of everything they need before fully exploring what is out there.

[jancivil]

For my taste, I found most libraries that caught my attention run on the free Player.

The 30 minutes and no preset saving demo limits for non-Player libs are not a big deal either, IMO, as 30 min is workable and you just play the "presets" with most sample libraries, it is not like Reaktor.

Well, it's 15 minutes and has been for years. There are things I would do with fairly bread and butter instruments I need to get under the hood for. Yes, I did Kontakt Player 5 for a long time like that but Kontakt 4 was a lot more viable for developers then. So it's not a big deal for you but it is for me. And I do not like timing out and reloading, the whole thing is just too broke-ass for me.

It's not Reaktor, but the Reaktor Player vs Reaktor full is the same concept, if you are someone that gets under the hood you do full. And I'm not a very fancy user of Kontakt.