Where does the scripting part come in to play with this "front end"?

Every knob, button and slider you see in a custom Kontakt UI is defined by a script. You have to tell it what type of control to display, where to display it, what its parameters are and what it controls.

I guess I'm thinking/asking about the scripting stuff that chooses which sample is loaded when.

I always assumed that was where Kontakt was very powerful... being able to call up certain specific samples out of a stack of choices for more complex reasons than mere velocity relationships.

Do you get to fool with that stuff or is this just a filter bank?


best regards,
mike

  I wouldn't call it a filter bank. It's really just a "ready to go" GUI for your samples. Normally, if you just map samples via Kontakt, you don't have any knobs like that available to easily change basic synth-type parameters. It's really for convenience sake.

I haven't played with the Shell yet, but it's cheap and I might find a use for it. It's more than just filters, but it doesn't add anything that isn't already in Kontakt either. What it does is save you from having to script those controls yourself, and you'd have to script a Kontakt UI yourself to appreciate just how much of a convenience that is. And if the scripts in the Shell aren't hidden and password-protected (the norm for commercial libraries) then it'd be worth 10 bucks just to study scripts written by a pro.

mike_mccue


I guess I'm thinking/asking about the scripting stuff that chooses which sample is loaded when.

I always assumed that was where Kontakt was very powerful... being able to call up certain specific samples out of a stack of choices for more complex reasons than mere velocity relationships.

Do you get to fool with that stuff or is this just a filter bank?

Its not even a filter bank, just a scripted GIU that gives you direct access to some of Kontakts envelopes LFO, filters and effects. Just a nice little tool for very little money.
 
All the things you mention can be done in Kontakt but this GIU wont help you with that. Kontakt its very powerful, of course with power comes complexity. I know all that stuff is there but I have never got past mapping multi samples to notes and setting up velocity layers.

Hello chaps,

I'm late to the party again - you lot are quick!

The idea for The Shell was, as mentioned by others, to make it easier to make sounds...

Go into Kontakt's EDIT mode, drag and drop a sample (or some samples) into it. set the range, come out of EDIT and get tweaking the knobbage! No filters to assign, set up, no modulators to apply, no effects to assign and apply, etc.... just drag and drop your sample(s) and use a sexy panel scripted by one of the industry's top Kontakt scripters. Simple as that really

Primarily intended for people without knowledge of scripting, the work's all been done for you. That said, there's enough functionality in there for the more seasoned Kontakt veteran with groups and layering.

It's not just a filter bank but a fully functional subtractive synth...

OSCILLATOR > MULTI-MODE FILTER > OUT > DISTORTION > CHORUS/FLANGER/PHASER > ECHO > REVERB

The 'oscillator' is where your samples live.

The oscillator, filter and output each have their own LFO and envelope. 

Now, of course, if you're adept with Kontakt, that's all do-able without The Shell - easily so for the über-user - but for people who aren't so familiar with it (or maybe working on some soundtrack thing, whatever, to a tight schedule) and/or don't even know where to start with scripting, The Shell's a great way to lob some samples into Kontakt and get tweaking on a pretty and functional panel.

But if it's not for you, so be it. A lot of people seem to like it I am happy to report.

Cheers,


Stephen

It may even prompt me to get the old Korg Poly 800 out the roof and sample it to provide some material.

Do it Glyn - you know it makes sense! 




Stephen

"Go into Kontakt's EDIT mode, drag and drop a sample (or some samples) into it. set the range, come out of EDIT and get tweaking"




Thanks for explaining.




best regards,
mike

What distinguishes Kontakt from other sample players is its extensive scripting language. But that's also what turns off a lot of would-be sample creators, who find scripting obtuse.  

All true.


However, there is serious competition from Mach V ( http://www.motu.com/products/software/machfive ), something we are considering supporting because it's very good (better even than Kontakt!!) but there's a problem there with Mach V's market penetration.

It's a bit of a chicken/ edge situation - is that because there's very little library for it or is because developers aren't supporting it because (compared with Kontakt) the market is small (errmmm... perhaps because there's very little library for it)? Or is it (like Moog and their MemoryMoog) that MOTU were too late. Or all of the above?

There's also the little issue of it requiring an iLok. I understand why MOTU would want to protect their product that way but a lot of users seem to have a pathological hatred for iLok! A bit odd really but I can (sort of) understand their arguments (well... the rational ones, anyway!).

Also, of course, a lot (like a LOT) of people have invested in Kontakt and are loathe to move to something else.

But Mach V is a damned fine sampler with excellent scripting.


Stephen

Well, when I first bought into Kontakt it was not the leading sampler, either. A distant third, perhaps. There was little third-party interest. You pretty much bought it for the bundled content, which mostly sucked. Kontakt sat on my hard drive for years, unused, a reminder of why you shouldn't shop online while stoned.

Over time, the scripting got better, more independent developers took an interest, and by the time K3 came along there was a thriving cottage industry providing content for Kontakt users. As more users bought into the Kontakt paradigm, we started to see a proliferation of free and cheap libraries. Meanwhile the "free" player let developers bundle Kontakt with their own libraries. Which is how we got to where we are today, with Kontakt completely dominating the market.

I'm not sure which library started the Kontakt snowball rolling. It sure wasn't the factory content. What Mach V needs is either a killer do-all bundled library (won't happen; look how long it's taken IKM and still no ST3) or to contract development of a killer third-party library that's only on MV. Kind of like how Microsoft kicked off Windows NT (which nobody wanted at first) by buying a killer app (Sybase, renamed MS SQL Server) that needed NT to run. 

That, and of course lose the frickin' dongle.