Questions about the Komplete 13 ecosystem

Foldyman

Hi,

I've just got a Maschine and upgarded to Komplete 13.

I've only jus got around to messing about with all the VSTs that are now availble to me in my DAW.

I don't think I really understand the whole ecosystem, and hope someone would be able to explain in simple terms...

• So there's a bunch of synths and things (like Massive, Super 8 etc.) that can just work as a VST instruments on their own.
• Then there's Komplete Kontrol, which seems to be like a conatiner for all the other instruments that can exist on their own (which leaves me thinking why would they need to exist on their own?), but also includes other instruments that don't exist on their own (like The Gentleman etc.)
• Then there's Kontact, which seems to be able to (again, like Komplete Kontrol) kind of host other VST instruments, but then Komplete Kontrol can kind of have Kontact inside it as well. So why does it exist?
• I think I understand why Battery might exist outside of the Maschine VST, but that's about it.

Seems like Russian Dolls. Does Komplete Kontrol do everything Kontact does? If so why are there two things? I'm sure there's a purpose - is there a simple way to explain it? Then I can understand the best way to use it!

I only started out wanting a drum machine and now I've got like a lifetime of toys to play with!

Cheers😀

A

JesterMgee

Basically:

The Komplete bundle consists of a VST instruments (as you have identified these are things that you can physically load into a DAW such as Massive, Kontakt, Super 8, Battery, Reactor, Absynth and I am sure I miss a couple)

It then also consists of expansion instruments, kits and content that loads within these VST plugins. For instance Kontakt is a multi-instrument player that has a large library of instruments and sounds you can load (it is basically a big sample player). There are also whole synth based instruments that load into Reaktor/Absynth and many kits that load into Battery

Then there is Komplete Kontrol which is designed to be a browser of sorts allowing all this content (and even 3rd party VST instruments, Or These) to be searched and browsed and loaded with the extra benefit of having the most useful controls "auto mapped" in the software on load so an attached KK keyboard (or even a r3d party one) can instantly start controlling the loaded sound and tracking to your DAW. It cannot actually load any of these sounds/presets on it's own, it simply manages them and loads the associated plugin.

For instance you saw "The Gentleman" in Komplete Kontrol which is actually a Kontakt instrument. When Kontakt instruments load up they may display a "simple" GUI to hide Kontakt away in the back but if you press this button you will see some Kontakt controls appear:.

And if you go to the View menu and select "Edit View" you will see the whole Kontakt player and browser

Then you have Maschine which I am guessing you know about already so that's basically the eco system in a nut shell.