Reviewed By xtreme sounds [all]
September 14th, 2022
Version reviewed: 6 on Windows
Kontakt needs a serious overhaul for 2023 to meet great plugin standards. The Gui should be resizeable, preset management should be modernized, even the way we select a library and add it should be more of a a bunch of smaller squares or something instead of the current large panels on the left. Samples are slow to load, volumes need to be cranked up to hear them.
Read ReviewIs Kontakt the best sampling platform I can imagine? Not even close. Worse yet, the version 6 pitfalls have been among the worst since early version 4 (about 10 years ago). Have they added features? Sure. And gigantic bloat.
Unfortunately, the bloat is not only in the size of the engine. The screen real estate it fills with useless graphics is even worse.
All that negativity aside, Kontakt is the standard of the industry for sampling that sits in your DAW. If you don't license it, you will be missing a significant chunk of available sound libraries and virtual instruments. And that's the cool part: if you want more sounds, get Kontakt for endless possibilities.
Read ReviewReviewed By AngelShark [all]
October 5th, 2021
Version reviewed: 6.6 on Windows
At this point, in 2021, Kontakt is very much a necessary evil. If you want to use many of the best sample libraries out there, you need to pay up the cash for the full version of Kontakt. But you probably won't be happy about it.
There are competing products out there that offer (at least) most of the same functionality, for a lot less money, and without using anywhere near the ridiculous processing overhead that Kontakt uses.
Oh, and those competing products have re-sizable GUIs as well. Still not figured that out in Kontakt, Native Instruments, despite what you charge for it?
It's become a bit of a joke how little regard NI has for its customers concerning this and other core products. They keep pumping out new expensive products and focus on drawing in new customers, whilst completely ignoring the problems with Kontakt that existing customers have been complaining about for years (yes, YEARS).
Sadly, it has gotten to the point where I will actively avoid buying Native Instruments products unless there's absolutely no alternative. Their market segment is ripe for disruption and frankly the day can't come soon enough...
Read ReviewThe worst piece of drek this side of Pro Tools. Overpriced, the ridiculously cramped screen with tons of real estate wasted, you can't resize or even simply maximize that cramped screen, the ridiculous cobweb of file extensions, the lame and inconsistent file navigation, the weak customer service, the short shelf life (it's not long before simply having Kontakt is enough, you need a newer version for newer plugins, and can only get the free upgrade for minor upgrades), I could go on. And really this plugin within a plugin thing is stupid in the first place. It's a shame that so many plugins were written just to appease this archaic software sewage, which is the ONLY reason to get it. Fortunately I there are a ton of great plugins which don't require it, and few if any sample libraries do anymore, so I'll never waste money on it (I'm only familiar with due to a friend having it and quickly realized how happy I was that I never bought it).
Read ReviewThis is a bad product.
Maybe it was a good (and better than all of it's competition) sometimes in the past, but not now. If you are about to purchase it, here's what to expect.
1. It's kind of heavy on resources. Some libraries can make my 2018 Hexacore Core i5 chug to the point of complete impossibility to work (and that's for 1 instance).
2. Expect locate samples manually all the time, because at least for 5th of libraries paths to samples won't work for some reason.
3. Expect to pay $100 on average per library.
4. Expect buyer's remorse. It's a bad value for the 50% Sale price, and terrible value for the fill price.
5. Expect to not being able to write your instrument as a markup file, and fiddling with the UI instead.
6. Expect to receive samples packed in a proprietary encrypted .ncw pseudo-format often with inability to unpack anything.
Kontakt is bad. And it's status quo is to blame.
Read ReviewReviewed By Photosynth [all]
November 17th, 2020
Version reviewed: 6 on Windows
Kontakt by itself is a five-star sampling application and the literal heart and centerpiece of all my music production. Kontakt as an MPE software ranges from 3.5 stars to 4.5 stars depending on a billion factors, like:
So if you need Kontakt for its core functionality (loading up and playing your virtual instruments beyond the Kontakt Player functionality) and also found at least one MPE-enabled Kontakt library, then grab it for sure.
But if you think Kontakt is (as of 2020) a playground of enldess MPE-controlled fun, dig much deeper before pressing the buy button.
Read ReviewReviewed By arturmeinild [all]
June 6th, 2017
Version reviewed: 5 on Windows
Industry standard sample player, complex scripting, tons of additional content and continuous support. It's really a no-brainer as part of the Komplete bundle, which is very reasonably priced with it's upgrade path.
Read ReviewLatest 8 reviews from a total of 8
One of the #best !
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Gentlemen-Question?-Certain wav files when played back sound jittery almost breaking up-Can any one explain-Regards-Dizzyfingers.
Dear dizzyfingers, it can be the file how it's designed (no bread and butter here, all patches are made with several layers to have a complex movement) or the way you play it back in Kontakt 5, the higher the key you play the more it sounds jittery... try to start from C3, and follow the note "try lower keys" for more subtle and soft soundscapes. Cheers.
Major issue with 5.6.5 update, Kontakt does not display all sample libs and user instruments (about 25% of my libs).
Hello! Just another kindly request to compile for Linux. Thanks.
AngelShark's "review" is not a review – just a whining rant against NI in general. Kontakt is the standard, and for good reasons.
Oh, come on. It's no less of a review because one NI fanboy doesn't agree with it. You're entitled to your opinion of Kontakt, just as I'm entitled to mine (as a dissatisfied paying customer). Prospective buyers of Kontakt should be made aware of the drawbacks as well as the benefits. However, feel free to refute anything within my review that you feel is factually incorrect. If you look again, you'll notice I did essentially say Kontakt is the standard, but if NI aren't prepared to bring it into the current decade, the industry should move on. Just because something has always been done a certain way, doesn't mean that should be the case in the future.
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