What is Kontakt? And why should I download it?
Or should I go for the full Komplete software?
Just wondering how it compares to other DAWs?

 

First Kontakt is not a DAW but rather a VSTi Plugin.
And with it, you can have access to a very huge, if not astronomic number of samples libraries.
Whether you want it or not is truly up to what you want to do out of it.
One thing though, the Software & Libraries are to be purchased separetely.

 

About six or so years ago when I as a newb to the audio software world, I had the same question. I had seen and heard about Kontakt everywhere and knew it was very widely used in the music production, but I didn't know what it actually did. Native Instruments advertised it as an "industry standard sampler" but what did that mean? I knew what a sampler was, but what made Kontakt special?

I'll give you a great analogy.
Think of Kontakt like a video game system. It can play games, no more, no less. Think of a Kontakt library as a video game.
Kontakt legit comes with a whole host of optional built-in games (libraries), but people usually forego those for the perceived better third party libraries. If I'm a producer in my bedroom, and I need access to a grand piano, then tough luck. Why? Because you're a broke producer who can't afford to lease a studio and hire a profession keyboardist to play what you need, and an audio engineer to mic and record it.
So instead you would download a Kontakt grand piano library and open it within Kontakt. And voila, you have access to professionally recorded piano sounds that are for your use and your disposal. It would be as if you actually had a real grand piano in front of you.

What would have taken hundreds and thousands of dollars to record and produce 30+ or 40+ years ago, we can literally do for a few hundred, or a few thousand dollars (or for free if you are on a warez site ) thanks to audio software like Kontakt.

 

Kontakt or other samplers are generally for outdated acoustical sound freaks or people don't know how to produce and process sounds. It will turn you to a lazy person sonically and kontakt addict and will waste your time and money in the future and limit your productions to cinematic compositions.

 

Or for people like me who like to combine acoustic and electronic sounds and will only use drum samples that come with kontakt patches.

Also I have tons of kontakt synth libraries

 

It's that one plugin/standalone app I haven't trashed yet. It just sits there taking up space, along with some massive libraries I never touch collecting digital dust.


To be fair, it's a very capable sampler. I just prefer using something like Renoise Redux over it.

 

Last edited: Apr 24, 2018

Foster you don't think that might be a little ambiguous?
In the style you write in there are some fabulous trap, trance, hip-hop, modern R&B , ambient, dubstep and more KONTAKT libraries.
The cinematic libraries are there and in any good library of any musician.
That's like saying if you don't use Reaper then you are outdated. I "could" say that I have found many users of Reaper when encountering Pro-Tools and , Cubase and Logic X get bamboozled and run away from them. That would be like me saying because they run away from them means they are useless which is absolute garbage if I said that.
Each person works with what they feel most comfortable with FFS.

 

I would have to say not only ambiguous but also pretentious, 'cos his comments always downplay musical genres/styles by praising his preferences to the detriment of others. Also, there is an incredible resonance among Foster's compositions (as almost continuous loops) and his preference for attacking musical theory. Both are cyclical and, I would say, minimalist experiences!!!

PS: Please, see that there is nothing wrong with liking one genre/style/instrument and not liking another (although I find very pretentious to trash all the others), but another thing is to claim the superiority of a particular writing practice/music/instrument, classifying it as hi-brow, for not using conventions of genre, style and timbre which, in fact, in Foster's music, does not happen.

 

Last edited: Apr 24, 2018

And the world is a slice

 

Seems you don't know Foster yet. He's a provoker, with the cons and the pros.
Don't take seriously his "critics".

 

Hahahahahaa... You really are a clown!

 

Last edited: Apr 24, 2018

On the other hand, he actually makes music and post it here...

 

Exactly... He's like Jekyll and Hyde... Self contrarian... fascinating...

 

Instead of spreading numerous foolish (to say the least) threads and opinions like this one, you should learn a little music theory for a change.

 

Kontakt is a plugin like any other you'll open in a DAW of your choice. You can also use it as a stand-alone player without a DAW, like any other stand-alone VST instrument. Kontakt plays only sample libraries, but many libraries come with some built-in FX, so you can edit predefined sounds within Kontakt, if you will. You can also create whole new sounds by layering different instruments (.nki files) from different libraries. You can do this in any DAW without Kontakt too,
using other VSTi.

Kontakt Player is a free version of Kontakt from Native Instruments. You can’t create your own instruments with it,
but you can load & play any instruments without any limits if they are from an official Kontakt Player Library.
The library requirements are usually mentioned by developers. Libraries that require Full Kontakt, will still work with the free Kontakt Player, but only for 15 mins at a time, then needs a restart to continue for yet another 15 mins.

If you have your midis set & ready to go, 15 mins is plenty enough to run your midi through a sound of your choice,
then render/export your midi to audio track & continue shaping your newly made audio track by other means
without time limits (unless using time-limited plugins).

The sound & quality of any Kontakt library is the same in the free Kontakt Player / Full Kontakt.
Try/learn different tools & adapt what's best for you, be like water, be water my friend, cheers!

 

FINISH HIM!

 

I had to laugh @foster911


He is right dont use kontakt.
Make real music like Foster. Maybe you should try kontakt Foster some outdated sounds might make your personal sound maybe even better.

 

Dude, this is so free rule-based, totally standard free, my Gosh! its structure is totally original, never heard anything similar... SO FREE OF ARBITRARY IDEAS AND STRUCTURES!!!

 

Last edited: Apr 24, 2018

For me, Kontakt is the best ITB sampler there is. <-- fullstop

NI are the only one who made a sampler that is multitimbral, with loads of outputs, and with incredible synthesis capabilities. <-- fullstop

Many people, though, use it as a simple sample library player. That's their problem, not mine...

Kontakt is an ITB sampler god as it is. Simple as that. I really hope someone else would make a multitimbral sampler like Shortcircuit [x86 only] or Kontakt, but they are entertained with making another Juno-106 emulation... as if we need more 70s synths emulations. :puke: [not exactly puke, but I'm really tired of listening to the same old restricted subtractive synths already]