I have used Kontakt just handful times. There are many plugins for it. I have heard a lot about huge libraries sounding very good. They are sample packs that can be imported into Kontakt.
My question is: isn’t it just a sample player or a rompler? Or even knot because without its extensions it doesn’t do anything. Or it does? What makes it so popular or unique?
If the new synth comes out people brand it as a good synth with its own synthesis engine or it is another rompler/sample player so is Kontakt. Why are Kontakt plugins not released on its own synths (romplers) as VST/AAX plugins?

 

Last edited: Nov 28, 2023

It's great if it fit your need. You can use it without library, because it is technically a sampler (a great one, but a bit intimidating at first to use with your own samples) but its strengh is in the large choice of library (so technically, like a rompler).

If you're into synth, synthesis, or old synth emulation, that's probably not the best, as it will have its limitation (like Nexus for exemple but with more options), it still good, and there's some good library.
But if you want real instrument "emulation" it's one of the best (it's not really emulation, its multiple sample of an instrument, more or less complexe depending on the library brand).

People usually use it for the orchestral stuff, Spitfire library are great for that. Native Instruments library are less complete but more easy to use and can quickly give great result (a mix between a rompler and a midi pattern player).

The big inconvenient is the disk space (some library can take up to 150gb), if you don't have a big SSD, it can take a long time to load, also as it's sample based, it have its own limitation. So if you only want something that sound like a synth, maybe not the best option, but if you want some realism in your sound without real musician, it's a good thing to have if you have enough storage.

 

I cant answer all of your questions, probably only NI can do that, but I can say that in SOME cases yes it is worth it, while in others, hell no it is NOT worth it (e.g., sound quality, the SSD space used up, dumb gui, annoying workflow). Some are amazing sounding while others are total garbage. Really only you can decide this by trying a few libraries yourself. I most definitely would not buy any of it without tryin it and if you do decide to buy, read the fine print as far as resale goes as some can and some cant

 

With a little bit of effort and not masses, you can create your own libraries with keyswitches.
Is it worth it? - Only you can answer that if it fits your needs.
There are some great libraries for composers built into Kontakt that do not fix you to sounding like every man and his dog has already used it. That is, it will sound however you use it with style, genre, MIDI controllers and more.

Some people go right into the scripting. That's fine if your focus is creating libraries potentially for sale or distribution, but for composers you do not need that much input to create libraries that work well. PLUS - the sample quality of name libraries available for KONTAKT is very high.
If I was to name the biggest negative, it would be the sheer hard drive size you will need if you decide to amass a lot of libraries.
I avoid drum libraries in KONTAKT. Not because they possibly are not good, but because Superior Drummer does all of it and with a massive MIDI library that Kontakt does not have, and it's only focused on one thing, drums and percussion.

 

My recommendations: ProjectSAM Libraries, LA Scoring Strings & Orchestral Tools.

 

The last part is a fact. But I'd be interested in how SDrummer libs compare in terms on size. Aren't they also huge?
Good post ;)

 

Its almost a onion article
the main Lib is 20 and the expansions are 10-130GB
Space saving is a farce with this tool
and ni has midi export+Presets too fyi

ps.
since i dont use real kits all that much
Addictive drums standard with 8gb was enough for my needs
and less complexities as the big dog SD

 

Kontakt is a sampler, an advanced one, but a sampler.
Any good synth will do better than kontakt for synth sounds, because they are generated in real time and with much more flexibility.

 

yea Kontakt is just a glorified sampler, with fancy wild GUI,

because it's easier to crack Kontakt (on Win or Mac), and then use whatever libraries you find,
from developer's perspective it's basically same - you stick to NI APIs and don't bother with OS/platform dependencies,
also it may be easier/cheaper to publish+sell Kontakt libraries this way,

of course proper synths like Audio Modeling SWAM are technically way more advanced, or something like Fabfilter Twin 3 synth way more versatile...

 

This is very subjective.. depends on what you're doing, I'd say. There are better options even for orchestral type stuff, but I do like it for that, for example.

In all honesty, I own NI Komplete.. an older version now - 11 Ultimate. I don't think I'll ever upgrade, as I've found that I really don't use anything in the bundle anymore.. except maybe super 8 on occasion. Most of the music I make is retro-synth type stuff, and there's other VSTs I'd rather use for that kind of work. But again, it's subjective.. I like Kontakt for strings and choir stuff and a few other things like Damage (drums).. but even that (drums), I'd rather do another way now.

For synth based stuff, Kontakt and other samplers/romplers are the last thing I'll reach for (and by 'last' I mean I won't).

 

Last edited: Nov 29, 2023

Always good to hear you
Yes, you are 100% correct. I have a dedicated Partition on large 7200rpm HDD for SD libraries. This is also why I see no point in having masses of Kontakt drum libraries. When any of us do a track, we all have a go-to for plugins, vst's and mix/composing techniques. The more we add to the project, either the more confusing it becomes, or more likely, we end up regularly not using several libraries/plugins..... For only me, I made a conscious decision about a year ago to uninstall everything I am unlikely to ever use, including KONTAKT libraries. The latter was more messy because of registry and Common Files\NI\Service Center\*.xml's to delete... but it was the smartest thing I may have done as a composer\musician.

LAST - The mixdown facilities and capabilities in SD3 leave AD, Kontakt and most other drum l;ibraries out of the race. The newer separate out's in Kontakt are fiddly by comparison. SD3 works like an audio engineer would request it. Possibly because audio engineers had a hand in it?
@Xupito - To answer is it worth it? I've never looked back. But as someone above said, Addictive Drums (AD) do the job for them. It always comes down to personal choice. Mine was fully knowing to have EZD + Superior libraries, I'd probably need to allocate at the least, 50% of the size I would for Kontakt lib's. I have not looked back because as a single plugin, it also loads WAY faster than Kontakt, even with masses of kits.

P.S... I was anticipating your usual left-o-center humour when I saw you quoted me

 

Last edited by a moderator: Nov 28, 2023

It's all about inspiration, personal taste, then drive size - and money. Not necessarily in that order.

 

I think it's good to fill in gaps where you might be missing instruments or effects .. if your doing orchestral work it's kinda a necessity... not really but it helps .. the more money you got the less work ya gotta do.. but that's with anything

 

I think it is great, but I wouldn't spend money and build a computer over it's demands. A lot of people take their Kontakt use into account when they are buying or building a new machine. I like it, but I wouldn't go that far. I make lo-fi electronic music. If I made tracks with conventional "real" instruments, I would care more about using the most realistic samples I can get. Suffice to say, I do not use it that much; there are other better synths which are way less resource consumption. They know that though; it's why they have added wavetable functionality into K7.

 

i wasnt even aware wavetable functionality was introduced.

the OP doesnt quite understand though, that there is nothing inherently wrong with ROMplers, but the majority of them are a bad sounding bunch of samples locked up in a VST, waste of ssd space.
Kontakt (when cracked) is fully open, editable, exportable, remixable sampler, you can extract almost anything from libs,

 

Seems like you are totally misunderstood nearly everything. Kontakt is a full fledged sampler with full fledged scripting engine that allows not only to sample, but also create your own libraries and pack it with custom gui and scripts. And sell it/share.
It's not just "another tool", it's the industry standard with entire eco system around it. It's not about "is it worth it", it's about "Does my production require a sampler?". Which is weird question on it's own.

That "extensions" are called sample libraries. You can't release sample library without the actual sample player. Because it's just a samples. Music doesn't do anything without the thing that can play it. Same as you can't run .net/java apps without netframework/jvm installed on your pc.

Synths != Samplers. Samplers != Romplers. You have a long road.

 

Last edited: Nov 29, 2023

OK. Thanks guys for enlightening me about Kontakt. Where is then the generic sampler’s gui to operate it and sample my voice? Is it one of the extensions to load? I have found two different ways to load instruments. One way was very awkward. It wasn’t nkc or nkt if I am right. Confusing architecture, anyway.

 

if you want to sample your voice, record it first, go to file->new or drag a wav file into the kontakt GUI and it will create a new instrument
click the spanner icon, edit samples, zones and sends, fx etc. the sample can be mapped across the keyboard there

 

That statement is neither wrong or right - Like any style or genre it has dependencies. For example, you'd be 100% correct if a film, TV, documentary, game or advertisement writer who never used real musicians. You'd need an arsenal variety of sounds.
However, if you are into using real musicians who use real instruments, the samples are generally demonstration mode in readiness for real people to play their parts so they have an idea what it is supposed to sound like. So quantity is less important than quality.

It seems like semantics, but it is like saying Techno, HipHop, Trap and all EDM are the one thing with the same requirements. I am not into any of those but I respect their subtle differences and definitely different needs for each.

 

I'm not sure how I could possibly be wrong saying something about my own tracks. They can be whatever I want.

But, let's say I want a "classic house" track to feature a number of real instruments. Saxophones, horns, maybe a guitar player, an upright bass, and other parts like that. Should i use a 80's synth, let's say one that is 16 bit PCM? Should I expect that to sound anything like a real instrument the way a sample will? Will it sound anything like using a SWAM instrument, or something from a Kontakt library? It won't even be close. If you want "real instrument" parts that sound purely synthesized, have at it on your own tracks. That has nothing to do with anything but the sound source.