Review of Kontakt 2
A Good Soft Sampler gets Better
I've been using
Kontakt 2 for a long while now and I am
very impressed and have dug down deep to really learn this piece in all its
depth. Kontakt 2 blows away Kontakt 1.5 tremendously. It rivals any
sample playback device on the market, hardware or software. Just scroll
down and look at it now. And believe it, there is a lot more you don't
see in the pic. Kontakt 2 is loaded with features. If you are
unfamiliar with Kontakt, or soft samplers in general, I suggest you read my
review of Kontakt 1.0 first to get the basics of what this product is all
about.
The programmers at Native Instruments clearly did some
hard thinking about what users need in a soft sampler with this upgrade.
Perhaps the most striking improvement is in the ergonomics of the interface.
I do a lot of sampling and instrument making here at the TweakLab, and I can
tell you this interface is a joy to use once you invest the time in learning it.
If you already have used Kontakt, you have a leg up, but don't think you're not
going to have to study the manual. Some of the new stuff, like the
new database functions and script editor, go beyond what clicking around can
teach you.
The Pros
The new database is an attempt to help you solve the
problem of access to your samples and instruments, multis and banks, which, if
your system is like mine, may cover several partitions on many local and
networked drives. Rather than browse all these directories looking for
that long lost choir sample you used in 1997, your database builds a single list
of every .wav, aif or Kontakt file you have filtering out everything else.
You can also create a "quickload" menu for those instruments, banks,
Multis you
use most often. (This replaces the old "favorites" list). The
database is also searchable, so "choir" for example, finds all the instruments
that have choir in the name. This is nice for finding the best instrument
you have when tracking a song.
Import Formats:
Here's the list from NI.
GigaStudio™,
Akai™,
S-1000™,
/S-3000™,
EXS24™,
HALion™,
AIFF,
WAV,
.S™,
.SND™,
Emu EOS™/E4B™,
EMU™ E3/ESi™,
SoundFont2™,
REX I & II™,
ACID™,
Apple Loops™,
Roland S-5x, S-7x™,
Akai MPC™,
Akai S-5000/S-6000™,
MachFive™,
Reason NN-XT™,
LM4™,
LM4™,
MKII, SDII™ (Mac) ,
Unity™,
Akai MESA™,
Pulsar™ + STS™,
Ensoniq™ EPS/ASR™,
Kurzweil™™,
Reaktor™ Map,
KOMPAKT™,
INTAKT™,
KONTAKT 1.x™,
BATTERY 1 & 2™
Quite an exhaustive list. But as always,
don't think they are all going to work flawlessly. I've tried EXS,
EOS, E4B, E3/Esi, and Halion. The Import modules just got an update
with Kontakt's 2.1 update (now available) and its better, but still,
probably one of the buggiest part of the system.
Native's updated
compatibility list
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In fact, regardless of your
sequencer platform, Kontakt2 vies to be a way to tie together all your
soft sampler instruments into one interface. The more high dollar
libraries you have, like the Quantum Leap Orchestra libraries,
StormDrum, Colossus, Quantum Leap's Rare Instruments, etc.,
the more you will want, no, need to have Kontakt2. You can
mix and match instruments from all these libraries in a single multi,
rather that calling up separate (and more limited) GUIs for each
instrument. Logic users who have trouble with Native
Instruments stuff will be happy to note that Kontakt 2 passes AUVAL in
Logic 7.3 and with OS 10.4, and will load some important NI powered
libraries that don't pass AUVAL.
Speaking of Libraries, Kontakt 2 comes with a really good
one. 15GB if you like to count. But it isn't just quantity.
You get an excellent selection of the Vienna
Symphonic Library, (known as VSL), and they sound beautiful. Lots of
other stuff, something to please everyone
You can get an idea from the
pic above of where I am on my World Cafe Bank, which is now at about 700
instruments and 1200 samples. I just ported the whole thing from my
e5000 to emulator X, and then from that to Kontakt 2 I took me one day of
making sounds in Kontakt 2 to realize its superiority over Emulator X,
which is also a very good soft sampler. What makes me say this?
In Kontakt 2 I can work
really fast and everything is right where I need it. It also allows
one to solo individual voices while you work on them--something emulator X
cannot do--a minor point for some, but for me, critical. Another cool
thing--getting new samples into Kontakt 2 is as easy an dragging them from
the finder on my Mac. That feature, coupled with Spotlight in OS X (10.4)
makes finding those lost samples on cavernous hard drives--including
network drives-easy and fast.
Like Emulator X you can go
really deep with Kontakt 2, with extraordinary layering, zoning and
grouping. There is also a new feature that lets you create banks of up
to 128 presets and you can call these up with program change commands
from the sequencer. These banks give you yet another way to organize
your libraries. You can put all your French horns, for example, from
every library, in one bank where you can quickly audition them, then hit
the "purge" function to remove the unused ones from memory.
Another huge feature in Kontakt 2 is you can create loops within
your samples really well. The program gives you audio feedback as you move
loop points, just like the hardware samplers do. So you can hear those
clicks and pops which are the roadmap to finding the perfect loop points.
Plus crossfade looping is fast. By the time you get done punching
in the value, its done! Its just as good as the Emagic EXS here but the
parameter is easier to access. There's also little niceties like a loop
tuner and a master reference tone is just a click away, making the hardest
job of sampling--tuning--much easier.
In Use: I use Kontakt 2 in Logic
Pro and in Cubase SX. Both work fine with Kontakt2. Have not
tried Sonar yet. One thing about SX, when you launch Kontakt 2, it
creates all the midi and audio channel strips automatically. In
Logic it works like all other software instruments. If you want
multiple outs, you have to create them in the environment. Its not
automatic.
Works with Kore: Kontakt
2 can save presets into Kore's database if you want to see them show up
in lists with the presets from your other software instruments.
Kore comes with the Kontakt 2 library already setup in Kore.
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The Cons
Of course every sampler has
drawbacks. Like many NI products, Kontakt 2 has a goodly share of
bugs, particularly on its new bold features like the Script Editor
(which includes some very cool things like arpeggiators, a drum pattern
sequencer, chord generator, glissando maker, and more) for the serious
tweakers among us. I know I am not the only one irritated by NI's
tendancy to release stuff chock full of bugs, but the features in this
case are so good I can forgive them (again). However, don't go
tweaking too deep running Kontakt 2 as a plugin. Do your heavy
lifting in stand alone mode, and just use Kontakt 2's presets and do light
tweaks in your sequencer for best results.
(Note: updates have improved Kontakt 2 stability).
Perhaps the most aggravating
(though not a deal killer) is that the import filters for emu format miss
a lot of parameters. But as usual the maps come out fine, filters,
velocity, and some envelopes come out strange. Loop points carry over but
with the loop turned off in many cases. Importing from EXS is much better.
So if you are a big user of emu cd roms, port over to EXS first with
translator, then drive it home to .NKI in Kontakt. Might save a few
thousand tweaks or so.
Finally, I have to mention the problem with font
size, which they enlarged in 1.5. Now they are tiny again.
C'mon NI guys, try to read these on a big 23" monitor at native
resolution. (ed note: they may have
listened, an update to Kontakt 2 again restored larger fonts).
Fortunately, you can drag and drop from your computer's
directories. So I made a huge fonted directory in the Mac's Finder
using a "saved search" in Spotlight. That made me happy!
Summing Up
So how does it work overall? Its great.
Fast. Deep. Fun! Great sounds, and if you like to tweak,
great possibilities. Hats off to the programmers at NI for bringing
us a great product.
Want to talk about Kontakt 2? Go to the
Kontakt 2 topic
at Studio-Central.
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