Kontakt 7

LittleFatBloke

Hi

Bear with me 'cos I'm old!

I've recently retired from gigging after over 50 years and now I want to get into 'bedroom studio' recording (I have Mac Studio and my DAW is Logic Pro).

I'm currently using the free Kontakt Player and I'm impressed, so much so that I'd like to buy Kontakt 7 but I need some advice first.

As an old guitarist I am not at all tech-savvy and I have been told Kontakt 7 is not the easiest of apps to download and use. Secondly, it seems the customer service is almost non-existent so if/when I come unstuck downloading it I'd have nowhere to turn to for help.

mykejb

My understanding is that the full Kontakt 7 gives you more editing and instrument-building capabilities. I think all NI instruments designed for Kontakt will work in Player, it's just some non-NI instruments that need full Kontakt. So depending what you want to do you may not even need the full Kontakt. If you're using it just to play virtual instruments Player is ok, if you want to create your own sampled instruments you'll need full Kontakt.

Some people have problems downloading stuff from Native Instruments, others have lots of problems. Support is hit and miss but there are lots of people who'll try to help.

-- Mike

mykejb

My understanding is that the full Kontakt 7 gives you more editing and instrument-building capabilities. I think all NI instruments designed for Kontakt will work in Player, it's just some non-NI instruments that need full Kontakt. So depending what you want to do you may not even need the full Kontakt. If you're using it just to play virtual instruments Player is ok, if you want to create your own sampled instruments you'll need full Kontakt.

Some people have problems downloading stuff from Native Instruments, others have lots of problems. Support is hit and miss but there are lots of people who'll try to help.

-- Mike

LittleFatBloke

Hi

Thanks for your response. Much appreciated.

I shall almost certainly take the plunge and buy Kontakt 7, but as I am primarily interested in song writing I'm thinking in terms of guitars, bass, drums etc. Synths have no interest for me.

Because I already have Logic Pro I am somewhat spoiled for choice when it comes to basic band instrumentation, but I'm thinking Strummed Acoustic, Electric Sunburst and so on can only expand my palette...as it were.

Once again, thanks for your response.

Jojo123

@LittleFatBloke

Welcome. NI have quite a selection of guitars now. They sound great. The accoustic guitars are really nice .

What I'd recommend though is if you have no problem with subscription model, why not try them out that way first.

Other than that, try and carerfully read the manuals of each. They are all on NI website last time I looked. I see you are a guitar player. You might want to consider how that will affect you actually using these instruments, like with a keyboard.

A caveat is a lot of people find they dont do what they thought. The main problem is the strummed instruments dont play melodically, but each instrument has 2 parts. Strummed and melodic. You choose one or the other or you cn load up two instances in your DAW. AFAIK the first strummed accoustic is the only one that doesn't have a melodic section. I own K 14 UCE so I have them all.

I play guitar as well as keyboard and Ive found playing the NI guitars effectively takes a bit of practise. They are limited in that you dont get all the nuances and theres been complaints they dont reach certain high notes.

Hope this helps.

LittleFatBloke

Hi mate.

Thanks for responding.

I don't play guitar much nowadays due to arthritis, that's why I've been trying the Strummed Acoustic on the free Kontakt Player. I really cannot fault it. It took me a while to get used to it but I'm glad I persevered. I think it's top-notch.

Because I'm only really interested in songwriting (AOR, Rock etc) I find the acoustic guitar more than enough just to build a basic rhythm track on, and when mixed you couldn't tell if it was a real player or not.

I'll buy Kontakt 7 and just add to it on an if-and-when basis, because I know what I'm like: every library I've looked at is "Wow! I must have that, and that and that..." etc!

Thanks for your reply

PoorFellow

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/114742#Comment_114742

Do yourself a favor and consider buying Komplete Standard instead at a/the sale ! Best investment ! You will get Kontakt plus so much more (see compare page for all content). Prior to buying anything then please always check specifications for hardware and software requirements !