Advice on kontakt 5 libraries.

First off, before you go buying a lot of libraries get to know what's inside the Kontakt Factory library. There are pretty good strings, guitars and a basic choir there. But if those do not meet you're requirements then here's a few suggestions.
 
1. Sonokinetic Da Capo (https://www.sonokinetic.net/products/classical/dacapo/): It's not really a string library, but for basic articulations with good sounds it's hard to beat.
 
If that doesn't tickle you then Strezov Sampling has a wonderful string collection called Cornucopia Strings (https://www.strezov-sampling.com/products/view/cornucopia%20strings.html). They're smaller in section size, but the sound is very, very good.
 
Then you have LA Scoring Strings Lite (http://audiobro.com/la-scoring-strings/la-scoring-strings-lite/), which is a bigger set of stuff, articulations etc.
 
Also a decent choice would be London Symphonic Strings by Aria Sounds (http://www.ariasounds.com/kontakt_london_symphonic_strings_sample_library.html). Kirk Hunter Studios has sal -50% sale going on right now (with the code 50OFF) so you could get their Concert Strings 3 at a reasonable price (https://www.kirkhunterstudios.com/products/concert-strings-3/)
 
But if you're willing to invest a bit more on strings you could get Spitfire Audio's Mural Ensembles (http://www.spitfireaudio.com/shop/instruments/strings/symphonic-strings-ensembles/).
 
 
 
2. Ilya Efimov has good choices for acoustic guitars: http://www.ilyaefimov.com/products/acoustic-guitars/nylon-complete.html and http://www.ilyaefimov.com/products/acoustic-guitars/acoustic-complete.html. Both are priced at well under 200$.
 
 
 
3. Now, choir. This is a bit trickier.
 
An allrounder choir would be SoundIron's Requim Light (http://soundiron.com/products/requiem-light-kontakt-player-edition). It's big but the price is pretty fair and you have a wealth of stuff there to use. They also have a very basic choir Olympus Elements (http://soundiron.com/products/olympus-elements-kontakt-player-edition). It has it's uses, but is very limited. Have a big cinematic style to them.
 
If an operatic style choir would do then Strezov Sampling's original Storm Choir is really freaking awesome (https://www.strezov-sampling.com/products/view/STORM-CHOIR%201.html). But like I said, it has a distinctly operatic style to it.
 
If more solo voice style collections are what you need then SoundIron again has some fantastic bundles. First their Voices of Gaia (http://soundiron.com/products/voices-of-gaia-bundle) which is a bit ethnic sounding and their classical Voices of Rapture (http://soundiron.com/products/voices-of-rapture), which does cost more. Personally I Love the Voices of Gaia series.
 
Also Realivox does have their Ladies collection (http://realitone.com/realivox/).
 
And if you'd only need ladies voices then 8Dio has their Studios Sopranos (http://8dio.com/instrument-category/solo-vocals/#instrument/studio-sopranos-vst-au-aax-kontakt-instruments/).
 
 
 
Well, there's a few options.

Although I don't have this (yet), NI's Strummed Acoustic does sound good and apparently very easy to use within Kontakt 5. It's on my "to get" list.
 http://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/guitar/session-guitarist-strummed-acoustic/
 
A very inexpensive ($46) and quite good acoustic strummer is Strummaker IV from Indiginus......I do have this and it's very easy to use.....very easy to get good results quickly.  
http://www.indiginus.com/StrumMaker4.html  
 
 

dcumpian
I would somewhat mirror Tapsa's suggestions, but I'd also recommend that you take a look at these as well:
 
1) Strings - EastWest Hollywood Strings and/or Kirk Hunter's Concert Strings
 
2) Guitars - Ilya Efimov's Nylon Guitar is quite good, and I highly recommend Orange Tree's Steel Strings Acoustic
 
3) Choir - What Tapsa said, although EastWest's choir library is also quite good.
 
Regards,
Dan

At the moment Eastwest is good choice since they're selling their boxed stock at low prices. I only recommended Kontakt libraries since it was stated that he just got Kontakt5. :)

Kuusniemi

dcumpian
I would somewhat mirror Tapsa's suggestions, but I'd also recommend that you take a look at these as well:
 
1) Strings - EastWest Hollywood Strings and/or Kirk Hunter's Concert Strings
 
2) Guitars - Ilya Efimov's Nylon Guitar is quite good, and I highly recommend Orange Tree's Steel Strings Acoustic
 
3) Choir - What Tapsa said, although EastWest's choir library is also quite good.
 
Regards,
Dan

At the moment Eastwest is good choice since they're selling their boxed stock at low prices. I only recommended Kontakt libraries since it was stated that he just got Kontakt5. :)

Agreed, but there are deals around like you pointed out...:)
 
Regards,
Dan

dcumpian
 
 
Agreed, but there are deals around like you pointed out...:)
 
Regards,
Dan

I know. If I hadn't spent money on a lot of things I actually need, I'd jump on the Eastwest collections myself, even though I loathe the PLAY engine. But luckily I don't need another orchestral collection since I've already trodden that path with Spitfire, Vienna, 8Dio, Strezov Sampling, Sonokinetic, Orchestral Tools and Kirk Hunter... :D

dcumpian
 
Play gets a (mostly deserved) bad rap because it used to suck donkey balls. It is much better now, though I still run across strange stuff once in a long while. As a matter of fact, just this last weekend, my viola articulations stopped playing. Only the violas, and only when I pressed "play" in Sonar. If I reloaded the patch, it played fine, until I hit "play" again. The track played fine with violins articulations.
 
I investigated for about 45 minutes to try and find the problem and finally just copied the midi data to a new track and re-recorded the CC data. Must have been something I couldn't see in the event viewer causing it. I hate those times because it took me another 30 minutes to remember what it was I had been trying to do in the first place, lol.
 
Regards,
Dan

Going a little off topic here, but for me PLAY has always been some what counterintuitive to use. Can't really say why, but it's always stuck me as a fairly useless tool. Then again if it would be possible I'd take every single Kontakt library I have and convert them to be used with the Vienna Instruments Pro player. Now there's a fantastic tool... :) But opinions, opinions, opinions. :)

If you subscribe to TrackSpark you can still get the May bundle including Pettinhouse's Acoustic Guitar for $2.99 at http://trackspark.com

So much information... .. will take me a while to check stuff out, thanks to everyone for the information so far.

Another question about Kontakt libraries : Is all Kontakt libraries " full offline installers"  ?

By that i mean like " 1 time download " with full Library and installer, so i can store it on an Hard drive
where i have all my software, and then install it later on if i should reinstall windows or buy a new computer ?

An example : btw, this is not a Kontakt library ( this is like 45Gb )

I have Synthogy Ivory 2 American Grand D :

As i can see so far it is not a " full offline installer " but an  " online installer ". I have to make a library folder
then run the installer and point to the library folder i created, then it downloads the library and it writes
the registry entries, after that i'm asked where to install the .dll to install the VSTi. 

I certainly will avoid things like that, imaging having no internet connection...

dcumpian
 

Agreed, but there are deals around like you pointed out...:)
 
Regards,
Dan




Damnit, succumbed, Amazon had too good prices on them... :D

Kuusniemi

dcumpian
Agreed, but there are deals around like you pointed out...:)
 
Regards,
Dan

Damnit, succumbed, Amazon had too good prices on them... :D

Lol!
 
Dan