So I have had Kontakt since very early on, probably since it came out. I started making beats around 2001. I have gone through periods where I use Kontakt heavily, then others where I barely use it. I am at a point now where I haven't really used it in two years. I have two Terrabytes of libraries, and these are the libraries I wanted to keep, meaning I have probably deleted the same amount over the years when I realize I don't use a specific library or if I find a better library for the same type of sounds.
Now here I am hardly ever using it, but half of my computers' hard drives are dedicated to this.

I am on the verge of deleting all of the libraries so that I can use these drives for other sample libraries that I actually use, but I guess I have FOMO because I can't bring myself to do it knowing all the work that went into downloading, organizing, etc...

Convince me

 

Go ahead and delete your kontakt libraries.

 

Sorry but... I am passing for the same situation here

Its heavy for the harddrive and for the CPU

I have some really cool libraries that I like but I can do about the same sound with other tools more "friendly" for the machine

Do you think Kontakt is on the top of the tops for sound design and music in general

convince me (PLEASE!!)

 

I doubt I can convince you either way. I downloaded 500 GB one weekend and I don't know if I'll simply delete it. It's on a 4TB external SSD and I'm fortunately not hurting for drive space.

 

send them to me. already have them but could use a backup

 

You can buy yourself peace of mind if you get a new drive and put the old Kontakt drive into your 'in case analog TV becomes popular again' box of cables.

 

Really just buy more HDD. It's bordering on ridiculous to worry about this these days. Get a 18tb drive, organise libraries.. They are there when you need to call upon them. If that doesn't make sense to you, or you don't feel the value of that then delete your libraries. I don't understand the quandary.

 

Every time I acquire something there will be an underlying reason why I acquired it. Hence, this stuff will be saved on optical and cataloged for future use. Not everything gets installed on the production machine. In fact I try and keep that machine trimmed as much as possible of stuff that is not getting used. Stuff that is not in use gets the axe, but it's no big deal... If I ever need any of it again I simply grab it back off optical and install it.

 

Last edited: Mar 13, 2024

Everyone has their preferences and reasons. If you're not vibing on Kontakt, try something new.

I've used Kontakt on and off for roughly the same amount of time (since it was released) so I get what you mean. It's quite a capable sampler if you want it to be. However, what passes off as sound design these days is mostly prefab libraries that you can tweak within a simplified gui. For a beginner or someone not delving deep into sound design, these libraries can be a blessing. But it is also what I dislike most about Kontakt and the whole NI ecosystem. It became more about selling / collecting libraries and less about sampling.

I tend to use Falcon almost exclusively for sound design but it's not for everyone. The gui takes some time to get used to, the libraries can be enormous almost to the point of excessive, but it is a sound designer's wet dream, insanely deep and sounds incredible. It also doesnt suffer nearly as much with the overwhelming sea of libraries that Kontakt has, at least not yet.

For dedicated sampling, however, I use Maschine almost exclusively, with Tal-Sampler and Serato Sample sharing some of the work... and recently Bitwig's sampler which is fantastic. And all of them share one thing in common, simple workflow with the most important sampling features front and center, which IMO is what a great sampler should be.

I dont think a "perfect" sampler exists. They all do roughly the same thing, some better than others, but at the end of the day a sampler is only as good as the person using it.

 

Last edited: Mar 13, 2024

Just use cloud storage.
Upload all libraries and if you will need something in future you can download it, use and delete.

It's not expensive now if use service with minimum basic functions (upload / download / play audio and video).

 

Have you never used it in songs that you would like to open again? Since I have lots of songs that make use of kontakt libraries I feel I have to have them somewhere. Speaking about that; When Kontakt has an issue finding a library there are basically just two options (it seems). 1st option is of course locate the library if you have it somewhere. However, even if you are ok with not having and thus not loading THAT specific sample library, then it seems you have no option rather than to say 'ignore'. However, once you ignore him searching for your libraries, it meansa that all of hte libraries that it would load AFTER that one library are now not loaded, DESPITE them just being on your drive, basically being ready to be loaded. However, kontakt just gives up and stops loading anything affter.
How do you guys deal with this issue? Basically, it forces me to not throw away librarires that I MIGHT have used somewhere. I could of course go into the project, then delete that track with that instrument on, then go to kontkat let it load again and it will find all libraries. However, then I am needlessly butchering a song that is perfectly fine (just with one library not there)

I am so curious how you guys deal with all of this.

 

I started bouncing everything to audio years ago. If the vst ever goes missing, at least I still have the audio.

 

Don't delete "em! There will come a day when you'll be glad you didn't. Like you I've had plenty of times when I would never use Kontakt. However right now I'm so glad I kept everything. I'm on a new way and source of inspiration for writing beats and Kontakt fits right into the flow.

 

Buy some hard drives.
Put them on the shelf.

 

I think you make a great point. I do however believe the glory days of Kontakt (at least as far as I can tell) are over, so my solution was to stay on version 6. That way I can still use all of my stuff, but am unable to get sucked in to the endless stream of new libraries and such. Also I probably still haven't explored more that 20% of my sound content as like @thebeatsareill, I have an epic stockpile of sound libraries. Plus, it is easy to forget what a task it was building it and getting everything working correctly in the first place. Certainly not doing that again.

 

All of my sample libraries are stored on external drives. Before I start a new project I put a lot of thought into the sound palette, and then I install up what need. There's no point in having anything on your HD that you don't use.

 

Last edited: Mar 14, 2024

I do the same. Over the years after going from Mac to PC and back to Mac. Going from Studio Vision Pro, Login Pro v5, Ableton Live v9 to finally land on Studio One. Also after all the hardware & plugins sold & lost I've learned it's best to "Bounce to Audio!"
And Studio One makes this feature GREAT!

 

the best reason to use samples was because our synths, and particularly our computers/plugins; were not in any way good enough to achieve an acceptable amount of realism. Our computer resources (ram, cpu) were pathetic. Storage space was expensive, but you could upgrade it as much as needed; when you needed it. The best way to work around these limitations was to use sample based content.

As hardware samplers have been largely replaced by software samplers; I think software samplers are going the same route, in favor of more plugin-based synthesis. If you are doing commercial work, in a fast paced situation where everything was needed to be done yesterday, Kontakt is not going anywhere. But for many music styles, the days of using massive locally stored sample libraries are probably numbered.

 

hahahahahaha

LOL

 

I'm in your Klub, (native instruments pun, sorry).
I've got plugins and samples from the 90's onward, kept them all and catalogued them. Don't know if I'll ever use most of them, but handy to have an off line library.

CD catalog expert, can help you catalog and search your media. it can catalog, hard drives as well as optical media
http://www.zero2000.com/cd-catalog-expert/

if drives were expensive, i'd consider deleting your library, but a 2 tb toshiba USB drive is only 65$ and smaller than a pack of cigarettes. Buy em., Label the outside with unique id#, if you us one letter and one number, you get 26 variations per number, 1a,1b,1c etc.., make the volume label match the outside label, and index them with CD catalog expert.

I keep an 8tb connected to my internet connected machine, for current stuff from the last 5 years or so - pull off what I need or find interesting and put it on my production machine using a thumb drive, there up to 256gb these days, and thats enough for "sneaker networking".

I still love my old Soundforge/Sony/Magix Acid samples - shits and grins and layering...
never gone delete those either...