i dislike the new kontakt from 7 to 8. kontakt 5 was the best.. althought you may dis agree i find the interface confusing and bad.

 

Kontakt 5 - oriented at composers - $
Kontakt 8 - oriented at the masses - $$$
(press one button = you're a producer, son!)
Kontakt 9 - $$$$$

 

Oh yeah, the famously changed Kontakt interface:

 

i dislike all versions of Kontakt equally

 

Hmmm... I have it set up pretty much like all the previous versions. Doesn't appear to have changed at all really. Admittedly on first install it defaults to that new wacky browser, or what ever it is. But you can change back to the older browser that makes sense.

 

It's a quarter of a century old plugin with pretty much the same GUI, the latest efforts are like giving a granny a facelift. They need to start from scratch.

 

I may be nostalgic for Kontakt 5-6 but since the libraries of that time still work with 8, it’s about embracing the ways to make the newer libraries memorable so they can stand equally with other classic libraries while letting Kontakt learn new tricks, like it has been technically a wavetable synth since 2018

 

Nowaday I'm finding myself escaping from Kontekt as soon as I can, I'm converting them to SFZ

Kontakt is such a pain, the only reason to care about it is its ecosystem is already too big to not use

 

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

And if it is broke, well just like it or lump it basically

 

I deleted my NI Kontact a long time ago! I use UVI - Falcon instead!

 

No reason to upgrade just because you can. The corporations are doing everything to possible to brainfuck us into believing that we MUST have the shiny new precious or we will be left in the dust. It works on a LOT folks...particularly younger people that born with a smartphone attached to their umbilical cords.

That being said, I'm not at all a luddite either. If new tech comes along that offers something I find personally valuable I'm down with it. I jumped on convolution the minute it escaped the university labs. Amp profiling and capturing is way cool too IMHO. But when it comes to software, too often, as has been mentioned, new versions are often nothing more than a new paint job and added bloat on top of old code. The latest versions of Cubase/Nuendo are prime examples. Various flavors of Cubendo were my DAW of choice for years before switching to Studio One but just looking at the current versions damn near triggers an epileptic fit!

This may be appealing to kiddie "producers" that don't want to do their own homework....and will likely soon be "producing" everything with AI, but for actual musicians that play real instruments.....I say FEH!! Which is why I'm still on Kontakt 7 and Guitar Rig 5, it's amp sims blow chunks but it still makes a fine multifx rack and is integral to my live acoustic rig.

I like Falcon a lot too and it has some great libs but I'm way to invested in Kontakt to stop using it. I've got some goto custom libs that I spent too much time making to just dump 'em.

 

Last edited: Mar 5, 2026

I think you pretty much need to upgrade Kontakt if you want to use the new banks, I've been told my version is too old when it's like the semi newest version. So that's annoying with the none backwards compatibility but. You gotta hand it to Kontakt for just having seemingly infinite numbers of obscure instrument banks

 

That is quite true, but, personally, I haven't seen any recent Kontakt libs I felt I needed to have. But, yeah, you got to hand it to NI. Damn sneaky and clever way to keep the money flowing. I'm not sure tho that their reliance on an unending stream of library releases will be enough to keep them afloat in the long run.

 

Last edited: Mar 5, 2026

Yeah not when we keeps stealing em all

 

foster

 

sfz works alright for press-key-to-play-sample type instruments (but then you might as well just use any old sampler), it doesn't support more elaborate instrument features like scripting, pitch bend, legato, fake round robins, or many algorithmic fx for that matter.

(Garritan may have extended the sfz format to that end, idk)

 

I’ve never used Kontakt but have used/tried basically every other plugin. Sometimes I think I’m missing out. Is it a good or bad idea to get into Kontakt now if I’ve been fine without it?

 

Kontakt 5.5.2 forever.
The rest = garbage.

 

It's both, If you ask me, it's good. If you ask pretty much anyone else on the thread, it's bad.

Although I'd hurry up because us pesky pirates are ruining not only music (home recording with our cassette tapes for clarity) but also Native Instruments' profit margin, so it is soon to be extinct probably

 

Last edited: Mar 5, 2026