Kontakt 3 for $74 - Recommended

I see that NI is selling Kontakt 3 upgrades for current Kontakt 1 & 2 owners for $74 (64 Euros) through the end of the year. That seems like a good deal - if the benefits of the upgrade justify it.

So my question to folks who have upgraded from K2 to K3: what did you get out of it? What can you do now that you couldn't do in K2?

I own a Kontakt license but have very little experience with it.

One obvious benefit of the upgrade is that library and sample set vendors are converting stuff originally made for competing engines to the Kontakt3 format. So for example one could now more affordably upgrade from Kontakt 2 to 3 in an effort to rescue their Giga Studio library collections that are being updated to Kontakt 3 format but may be unavailable for Kontakt 2. I heard many people who have Giga Studio and Kontakt 2 complan that they were effectivly forced to upgrade to Kontakt 3 to continue use of the GigaStudio Libraries they own.

best regards,
mike

Perhap's PM Jim Roseberry... he's spoken knowledgably about the new features and what makes Kontakt 3 substantially different than 2.

Sorry I can't say anything pertinent... I'm gonna study Kontakt in depth this winter.

best regards,
mike

Dave, seeing as it's you and you asked so nicely..haha.. just kidding.. errm I bought komplete like Mike, but didn't upgrade from 2.. from what I gather the browser was improved (for a start)

ORIGINAL: mike_mccue
I own a Kontakt license but have very little experience with it.

Shame on you hehe.. I was expecting to type in a phrase and you'd tell me the page number as you know it so well .watch the videos for it also, actually something Dave might find interesting.

the Library for it is the bit that took ages to install though.. so plenty of hard drive space is nice.

EW is another person who I bet had v2 that would know more. I'm messing with it currently and although the video looks straight forward, I seem to get all my slices of my loops wanting to sit on the same key . I guess I'm doing something wrong and of course I'm new to it and it's really a question for their forum (where you can't see how silly I am really.haha)

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZHnQl7v3jo

an more videos.. although I'm pretty sure I downloaded the tutorials off NI myself.

but $74.. lets face it isn't really that much and in reviews it's not had much challengers.. although yellow tools has a better library of "real" instruments (according to a certain mag I read) , but isn't as straight forward to use. I guess Kontakt is like akai was back in the days of the 950.. the main one.

The komplete thing, well for the synths I wanted worked out a lot cheaper buying it that way.. the intial ouch on my wallet wasn't great, but saves me a few £ in the long run.

as for the giga thing.. well I got a very good indication of how users are about that, Beagle is quite reserved 95% of the time. So for him to be that errm *coughed* about tascam playing silly sausages say a LOT.

Thanks for that, ew. How's the guitar sample set? With the new distortion effect, can you get anything close to RealStrat out of it?

Duh, I guess it was a lame question, then. Kind of like asking me if Kontakt is a suitable replacement for a Hammond. Wouldn't have a clue.

I've decided to just chance it and spend the $74. If it doesn't work out, it won't be the most expensive mistake I've made this year.

Thanks, Fog, though it's not a Hammond I'm really looking for (as I already have an actual Hammond). But you're right, the NI B4 is a fantastic emulation. What I'm always on the lookout for are some usable faux-guitar voices and exotic percussion. I'm really just trying to justify the upgrade. I think I will go ahead and get it.

EDIT:
Placed my order. I will post a review here next week when it arrives.

Where do you go to find second-hand sample libraries?

Back on-topic: Kontakt 3.5 will be a free upgrade for K3 users. This $74 upgrade is looking better and better.

Here's what NI says about 3.5:

- Full 64-bit compatibility and 64bit-memory adressing on Windows and Mac
- New DFD engine with drastically reduced memory footprint
- Optimized sampling engine with substantial performance increase
- Advanced multiprocessor support
- New browser feature for Kontakt Player libraries
- Direct MIDI Learn for all sliders and knobs, including performance views

(Don't care too much about DFD (I prefer to buffer everything in RAM), and I don't run 64 bits -- but the part about "substantial performance increase" is very welcome. The 3.5 update was announced in October, so is probably close to release.)

ORIGINAL: bitflipper

Where do you go to find second-hand sample libraries?

well thats an interesting one, as obviously there are ones on certain websites which aren't legal or just not by the maker. So that angle you have to be VERY careful with, one such person posted on here and it was basically a collection of some other companies re bundled (without permission etc)

the one I mentioned to MGH (mark) was sound classics volume 1 (it's an ejay thing) .. I bought it new ages ago and saw it on play for £8 2nd hand, which is just under a 3rd of what I paid for it, but that would be classed as software as empire who make games make that.

years ago I used to go to a record exchange, yep they had samples on records at one point also, the obvious sound effect libraries, but also drum beats that DJ's could use for mixing. The audio cd's I think i bought 2 , this is going back 18 years or so..haha

but things like the OLD akai cd's probably can be picked up cheap and just imported.. same with the Roland 760 etc.. it's just a case of finding them. Since the demand for them is low now. There was a cheapo set zero-g did which was creative essentials, as audio / wav cd ... they were cheap from new.. one was called "spices of india"
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=c7cHjEhL9Io

features it at the start.. it's a loop.. the guitar sounding instrument.

but I picked up all of the creative essentials in a bundle for reason, 21 or 23 volumes for $200.. but by that time they were quite old.. maybe 8-9 years past.

you have to be careful esp regarding the licenses on them though, esp if they say royalty free, BUT they disclaim themselves from any liability for usage. The amen break from amen brother/winstons has featured on load of sample cd's .. technically its (C) but mr cooper never chased/sued people for it. My friends got a big bill from a vocalist who was on a sample cd...and they used it in a record, as well as paying for the sample cd itself it turned out if you used the voice you had to pay the singer also.

Bit there is sampling.. and blatant ripping though

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=NiLbE0HJe8I

fast forward to about 4 minutes, not got a sound card on this pc here (long story)

basically he's triggering on ONE key whole sid tunes.. that belong to others.. still it's great as the c64 people have identified them, and we know if they appear in future tunes by him, it's beyond lazy.If he is stupid / greedy enough to use them without clearence, he'll get a VERY nice surprise. By all means take a VERY small chunk , but to totally plagiarize something just annoys me. Heck my speaking voice was sampled with out my permission and used in a tune, the author thinks I don't know , but do. I didn't mind , but more funny that he thinks he got away with it although a credit would have been nice. He only got away with it because one of the other band member is a cool guy, while the guy who sampled me is a ****. If it wasn't for the other band member I'd have taken it further.

I wouldn't be so quick just to use game music or sounds, since well esp. with games they are still (C) , someone recently used Jereon Tel's (a legendary game music maker) drums ripped out of a game, and used in a tune. he took legal action. Maybe you know, there was a sound test menu in certain games, because of people sampling, lots of companies removed that option so it was tough to sample stuff.

same again with David Whittaker and the game lazy jones.. zombie nation uses it and kernkraft got a nice seize and desist order

some people sample and it's more the way/intent they go about it. If it's for music sakes I get it, but if it's the same and money is the motivation than thats weak and I'm sure they'd be the first to moan/sue about people jacking their own music.

it's a bit like the dangermouse / grey album thing.. he did it not to make profit initially , but apple heard about it and clamped down on it.

as for the amen break: well mr cooper who died recently never got a penny , $ from the original amen brother by the winstons recording. Stopped making music, as a result and never bothered chasing people about it. Record company couldn't as they owed him also. Although I'd like to think that most people who use that and other breaks know the history behind em as well.

ORIGINAL: bitflipper

I think when K3 arrives I'll do a song entirely in Kontakt - guitars, keyboards, bass, drums - and see what comes of it.

you watched the video's while you waited for it? I think there was a download link of NI itself also. so no messing about reading manuals.. well cut a bit of it out anyway. the fun(?) part was installing the sample dvd's.. eeek.. put the kettle on is all I'm saying.hehe

UPDATE: I said I'd add my impressions of K3 here in case anyone else is thinking about grabbing the $74 update deal (which expires 31 Dec). Unfortunately, K3 hasn't arrived yet. It wasn't even shipped by NI until 10 days after the order was placed.

So if you do place the order with NI, expect to wait 2 weeks for the product. I'd really be angry if I'd paid a premium for overnight delivery, but I elected for free shipping so I can't complain.

ORIGINAL: bitflipper


So if you do place the order with NI, expect to wait 2 weeks for the product. I'd really be angry if I'd paid a premium for overnight delivery, but I elected for free shipping so I can't complain.

.

They must have temporarily run out. I ordered K3 and FM8 together (also free shipping) not quite 3 weeks ago and received the package about a week later. (I'm in Los Angeles).

JD

ORIGINAL: bitflipper
...
So JD, you've had K3 for two whole weeks now, so that makes you the expert. Tell me: were you able to trim the K2 library after installing K3? My understanding is that much of the two libraries overlap, including the VSL portion, which is huge (8GB, half the library). It'd be nice if NI offered some instruction on trimming the combined libraries.

Wish I could help here, but I'm staring at the unopened K3 box as I type this. Between work and family, I haven't fired up the DAW in almost 2 weeks (and this weekend ain't looking very good either).

When I do eventually get to it - given the scarcity of free time - I suspect I'll just leave the libraries to their separate folders, and sacrifice the disk space to keep things simple, even with the redundancy.

JD