Hi guys,

Like the title, I'm looking for partners to create our own Kontakt Libraries.
If we succeed, we will be better than 8Dio, better than Cinesamples or Sample Logic and all the others.
What we need is motivation.All of us is specialized in an instrument. We will need a designer for wallpaper and a person knowing the script for realize it. The samples will be in wav format. Then they will be converted via Kontakt into ncw format.The nkr files and nkc will be made with Photoshop.
An NKI is a KONTAKT Instrument file which contains samples of an instrument or other sounds that were pre-recorded for use in the sampler. It can be modified with effects and other presets to make custom sounds. We should also have this format for each Instruments. The hardest part will be choosing the name of the library. This will be subject to a vote. What now ? We have to give us a date for the first library, and the time that it will be distributed. It will be in beta testing on AudioZ and also here of course.

Thank you for taking the time to read this message. I wish this whole thing, this makes in a friendly.

Best Regards,
Jeff Dahlgren

 

If it may be about horror and suspence sounds (sound design), I'm in. Something I made for a couple of short movies:

 

Saying "we'll be better than sample logic etc" is not a good start. I understand you are excited and feel determined to work hard or harder than current releases but be humble. Sampling instruments is not as easy as it sounds and requires a lot of time.

Having said that, what instruments are you looking to sample? Be a little more specific. What's your budget? Do you own a studio to record?

 

good idea, you mean we want to do a free library and distribute it on audioz?

like the audioz samples?

cool idea, since here is alot of creative potential around!

 

I have a studio in LA, a bunch of vintage synths, world instruments, a pretty decent piano, and I'd be interested in being involved.

 

maybe we could talk @Baxter into making us some sylenth/spire/massive pres...

cool idea tho. I still want to make a library for the Herr Durr Drumkit

 

Last edited by a moderator: Aug 12, 2016

Sounds great...until i join.

 

Yeh we were all once young ! and love to dream, Some of the big names you named off, just so you know, travel the world, with the most expensive microphones capturing sounds of all to create a lot of these libraries, included recorded in some of the worlds top studios,
So my question to you is ! Do you have the funds to support this theory? Well do ya ? Good Luck

 

I am here to give you two thumps up . I have always thought of doing something myself and distribute it for free but never had time and resources. So, from me.... keep your spirit high and buck up

 

Wouldnt it be best to start a project whereby each of us multisample some of our fav patches from our synths as wavs then its up to us or someone with time on their hands to put together a kontakt template and upload it next to the samples, basically whoever gets there first could save the rest of us the time.

 

So we do the work and you sell it, right? :D

 

LV4-26 Count me in for more sounds.

 

If anybody records anything, I will totally be down for mapping the recordings. I've always dreamed of making a high-detail sample library (3-5+ round robin, at least 5 velocity levels, preferably with one sample for every key). I could try looking into Kontakt's Scripting language. It isn't nearly as complex as C++ (according to a customer service rep for a company I emailed, asking about developing Kontakt libraries), and I took a class in that. Learned a lot.

I just finished playing Shadowrun: Dragonfall (a steampunk rpg/strategy game), so I'd like to pitch the idea of an electronic bank with a dystopian theme. It'd cover horror, suspense, and ambiance, etc.

How does that sound?


As for contributing sounds myself, I have a few software synths I could sample.

 

This is almost like saying:

I am going to create this kick ass song ...
but first I need some people to play the instruments,
and a vocalist,
and someone to write the lyrics,
and someone to write the music,
and someone to record it,
and someone to mix and master it,
... and I will make a fortune off it!!!
​

You (or anyone else here) will not likely write better scripts than any of the well known companies. Your samples will probably be recorded with inferior hardware, not the top of the line microphones and studio gear they use. You will not have access to the studios, top of the line instruments, or the talented session musicians they have access to either. It will take significantly more time than you are envisioning it will also, and likely will never reach completion. At the very least only attempt one instrument if you seriously make a go at this, as trying to tackle multiple instruments at once is doomed for failure.

 

Fixed that for you.


Not every library requires a musician, a single person could mic a piano and play the keys one by one. And if we just use what we have that Is of quality, then we could make something worth downloading.


This didn't sound like a business proposal so much as an idea for a project. You are right, it will take a while to make anything worthwhile, but I'm game.


PS - Most companies outsource the code. A producer finds a concept for a library that they like, then they oversee the recording of the library, making creative decisions such as to include this or exclude that, then hands the recordings to a third party to program the gui and whatnot. The people who design these things are composers, not software developers.

 

Last edited: Jul 30, 2017

Thank you.

Even creating a Kontakt library for a digital piano or a synth is rather annoying and difficult, as I can personally attest to. I can't even fathom how much time (think days to weeks not hours) and how many takes it would take to record an acoustic instrument. Most companies use a machine to play the keys when recording a piano also as the precision needed (to strike notes at the same velocity) as well as the patience needed (many hours of mind numbingly striking notes) is difficult for a human. I have played poorly sampled piano libraries that were most likely recorded manually by a human and there are often annoying discrepancies in the velocity range making it unplayable.

That and most of us don't have a studio with nice acoustics to record in so all the samples are probably going to have computer fan/air conditioning/traffic/etc... noise on them. All those samples will have to be manually trimmed and that noise will have to be manually removed from the samples or it will build up while playing and render the library useless. As time consuming as the recording of the samples will likely be I can only imagine the editing phase will require a multiple of that time.

And then there is the matter of the hardware and microphones used to record the piano. Using a Behringer audio interface and microphones, or what ever other budget to mid-range gear the majority of members here have access to, is not going to be the same as using the best microphones, concert halls, preamps, and converters money can buy.

Recording a cheap baby grand by some unknown company that hasn't been maintained or tuned in years won't likely create a good library either. There is a reason why companies time after time choose those top of the line $100,000+ pianos.

LV4-26 made reference to commercial libraries and used the terminology "distributed" and only "beta testing on AudioZ", so I assumed he implied some sort of business proposal.

That and I would have liked him to offer something of value in his request instead of trying to recruit all the members to do all the work. Perhaps if he said he already recorded the samples for an instrument and needed people to help him create a working sample library from those samples, or if he said he wrote this kick ass script that would revolutionize piano sample libraries and needed members to help him get samples to apply it to, then it would have been different. He seems to just want to oversee the project and then reap the benefits from it.

Unless this is only a intellectual venture, to understand how a library is created or something, or you want to make a career out of this then why waste your time? It is very unlikely that you will create something better than anything that already exists and that time could be better spent creating actual music instead.

Based on my experience with sample libraries I would lean more towards thinking the individuals involved in their creation are actually software developers, or maybe sound engineers, and not musicians.

Sample libraries would be something difficult to outsource also. It isn't really like C/C++ or Java programming where everyone in India and China are experts in it. It is a rather niche field.

 

Last edited: Jul 30, 2017

What is your vision to supply something that either doesn't exist or is significantly better than existing libraries? Even if I had a large amount of cash to spare, a start up company creating Kontakt libraries would not be somewhere I'd spend my money.

 

Well that's a good idea and cool. There's no problem and it's a vision you can realise with a good degree of effort.

Whilst I admire the vision and ambition that is rather a bold statement A little presumptuous maybe?
These companies are the best in the world at what they do. Have you looked at a library scripted by say Klaus Beatz & Sample Logic?
The scripting is immense & very specialized & individual.
Who do you have in mind to script the project?
As stated it's rather a specialist area and most script writers know of each other. If they are too busy to complete the project they normally pass it on to someone else.
Scripting is individual and can be as simple or complex as you like. you can also develop your own or say utilise pre-made engines but scripting can be very complex and take a lot of time - Sometimes years to develop an engine etc?

What wallpaper do you mean? The project itself or a display wallpaper for Kontakt. This is one area you have to think about - If you intend to develop a commercial library, "better than Sample Logic" then you have to think about whether you are going to make a player library etc. If so you need lots of cash up front and someone to supply that cash. You need great samples and a script. Contact NI & they will charge a fee up front depending on the number of licenses you want - Costs are I think in the region of say 200 licences will cost roughly £6000 UK pound up front. The cost per license then drops later on. Samples will be encoded to NKX & NKC and you get a library tab and say inclusion of NKA snapshots etc i.e Standard Player Library. Of course this significantly increases the price of the library - approximately 30-40 UK pounds per license. Encoding has the protection of when the library is pirated as it always will be then NI will administer some sort of financial recoup etc -

It's ALWAYS gonna be pirated as that's what people do and there is NO inherent protection system that prevents this process - All in all not a lot of benefits for a large sum of money which is why the MAJORITY of libraries are not encoded.

Simply, You need good quality samples and vision. Think about watermarking, distribution of product, price per license, profit margins, marketing and a whole load of other hassle - However nothing whatsoever to stop it being done.

All you need is some really great quality samples, an idea to develop and a person in mind to create a script. They probably of course want paying. If you want player etc put aside at least 10,000 to start with for development and about 200 licenses. Half the cash is supplied up front & the other half on completion and supply of licenses etc.

Forget votes, that's not important Lead the project in the direction you want it to go
Of course do your market research and find a suitable idea that you can explore but then you need to lead & delegate.
Date for the library? Make it rough and double your initial timescale as it's harder than you think and problems always occur.

Beta testing? When do you ever see beta testing for Kontakt libraries?
You really gonna give someone your hard earned samples in a library format with no protection scheme implemented for them to upload & distribute on certain sites? - You do need to test but beta testing etc not really a great idea with kontakt libraries Not unless you trust those who test 110%

Good luck with that but kudos for the vision
It's a load of hassle & a lot harder than you think and it's almost impossible to make any decent profit once the library is pirated which it inevitably will be.
Good idea though & no reason why it can't become reality with a lot of hard work

 

Last edited by a moderator: Jul 30, 2017

You raised some good points, I'll grant you that. But I still think you're missing something - there are some libraries out there that resample other products. As long as you do some serious processing to the original, this is completely legal, actually; most User Liscenses that I've read just say you cannot re-distribute in whole or in part. And if that's too much of a gray area for you, then there is still using digital products to generate sounds. That would naturally lead to a product that's more "sound-design" than "instrument," though.

 

You should definitely talk with Michael Sax. He already has lots of experience to do this
Michael Sax

see his RSS, He has lots of reworked libraries and original libraries :
Michael Sax RSS

Also KLoud. He has done script writing :
Kloud

And probably this Kontakt GUI maker is usefull :
Kontakt GUI maker


First work can be as simple and great as sampling the "Pianet T" in "Keyscape" to be used outside of the trouble maker keyscape software. The recording will be also easier because it will be an internal computer recording. like this in the video:

 

Last edited: Jul 30, 2017