Future of Kontakt?

Rotomot · 2024-03-29T12:30:56+00:00

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Continuing here the discussion started by @Simon_NI (Chief Product Officer)

I'm afraid I don't want to reveal anymore about what's coming at this
stage as it's still in active development with many decisions yet to be
made.
What I can say is that we don't think of Kontakt as "a sampler" -- it's an instrument development and distribution platform.
Yes
it started as "a sampler", but it really is a platform for developers
(including NI) to create and distribute amazing instruments. There's
nothing that says that should be limited to sample-based instruments. In
fact, there are many Kontakt instruments (example, example) that look and sound like synths -- even though under the hood they're being created using samples.
So,
more to come here in time - but I'm excited that we're working on ways
to increase the sonic breadth of the instruments that can be built in
Kontakt.
It's true that the vast majority of Kontakt users just
use it to load and play instruments. But the reason they do that is
because there's a (relatively) small number of (awesome!) builders who
create and distribute amazing instruments (and another group of people
who like to tweak them) -- and by building new capabilities into
Kontakt, instrument builders will have new tools to create new kinds of
instruments -- which will expand the catalogue of sounds that our
customers can find within Kontakt.

From a user point of view this does not make much sense.
NI and 3rd party developers are selling the same sampler/synth instrument, i.e. the Kontakt, over and over again, just packaged into a different dumbed-down GUIs. NI and developers are deceiving customers to believe there is something new in those instruments, when mostly it's just multisamples or wavetables through same old Kontakt effects. Typically the only real new thing is the sample/waveform/IR contents.
The linked examples of Kontakt instruments, Pro-OSC and Unity Nostalgic, "that look and sound like synths" are basically just workarounds for Kontakt's routing limitations and bad GUI. Those kind of instrument should not need to exist. Those should be sold as preset packs for Kontakt. And Kontakt should have a redesigned GUI and routing architecture that allows easy access to same features (as in Pro-OSC and Unity Nostalgic) out-of-the-box without any custom GUI/scripting.

There are definitely many complex Kontakt instruments that truly require a custom GUIs and advanced scripting. But there are also lots of basic Kontakt instruments that should be sold as preset packs using the Kontakt's native GUI, not as separate "instruments" with custom GUI.
That would be a big win for users. No need to always jump to a different GUI/workflow when loading different Kontakt sounds. Browsing, combining, and modifying sounds would be easier and faster.
Also sound designers and Kontakt instrument developers would win, because they wouldn't need to build all those awkward workarounds for Kontakt's limitations.
Development resources could be used on more important and innovative things, and support/maintenance would be easier because all those preset packs would use the same GUI already included in Kontakt. Which means less bugs, less questions from confused users, less handling of similar feature requests for all the different GUIs, etc.

So, whatever the "new sonic opportunities" are, those should be easily accessible for all users (not just for instrument developers) in a redesigned/modernized GUI and routing architecture, without requiring any custom scripting or custom GUIs.

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Comments

PoorFellow

Quote : NI and 3rd party developers are selling the same sampler/synth instrument, i.e. the Kontakt, over and over again, just packaged into a different dumbed-down GUIs. NI and developers are deceiving customers to believe there is something new in those instruments, when mostly it's just multisamples or wavetables through same old Kontakt effects.

It's a lot worse than that , some third-party sellers sells many 'instruments' with more or less same interface with few or no changes with different sample packs included (I will not single out anyone). But as you wrote then : "Those should be sold as preset packs" (or Preset and Sample packs !)

But generally speaking I do not see that as the fault of N.I. and if people want or like one packing over the other or think one product superior to another for whatever reason then I don't see the problem as long as no one is forcing anyone to buy.

Other than that then I don't see any reason to be negative upfront with respect to what any new version of Kontakt might bring or not ! At this point then it's only speculations anyway since we don't know much about the 'improvements.

DunedinDragon

I, for one, like the idea of a smarter programmatic sampler environment that can be adapted and interactive with external instrument libraries. That's simply the way of the world at this point. But it comes with huge benefits when you consider the potential interaction you can have between a sampler and external equipment and libraries. Consider for a moment a single track that can host and manage various instrument or preset changes by itself with no human interaction.

Rotomot

@PoorFellow wrote:
It's a lot worse than that , some third-party sellers sells many
'instruments' with more or less same interface with few or no changes
with different sample packs included (I will not single out anyone). But
as you wrote then : "Those should be sold as preset packs" (or Preset
and Sample packs !)
But generally speaking I do not see that as
the fault of N.I. and if people want or like one packing over the other
or think one product superior to another for whatever reason then I
don't see the problem as long as no one is forcing anyone to buy.
Other
than that then I don't see any reason to be negative upfront with
respect to what any new version of Kontakt might bring or not ! At this
point then it's only speculations anyway since we don't know much about
the 'improvements.

It might be, at least partially, the fault of NI.
Kontakt is still missing some basic and fundamental features that would allow easy updating/changing multi-sample contents in an existing Kontakt instrument. I think this problem is in both, in instruments using plain Kontakt GUI and in instruments using custom GUI. And this is one of the key things causing bad user experience in Kontakt.
To solve this, Kontakt should have ability to save and load multi-samples, like a file format for saving/loading all zones of a group. And maybe also another file format, one level higher in hierarchy, to save/load sound source in a group, which would include source settings + required sample/wavetable contents. And all those save/load features should have proper GUIs for easy access in Kontakt out-of-the-box. And changing the multisamples or sound sources in a group should work without changing any other parameter of the group.
Those are very basic things that should have been implemented in Kontakt already years ago. Instead, now we have world full of Kontakt instruments that have implemented scripted workrounds to those missing features. Those workaround solutions are based on pre-programmed and closed set of samples/sources inside each Kontakt instrument.

Regarding the speculation of possible new features in future Kontakt versions, I'm just worried the development is continuing even deeper into wrong direction where Kontakt becomes only a tool or platform for developers.

The current trend at NI seems to be to just add more effects to Kontakt, and maybe add some new sound source types. There has not been any kind of improvements to the architecture of Kontakt. The same major limitations are there year after year.
Here are some architectural improvements that would be great in Kontakt:

Allow easy changing of multisamples and sound sources in a group without changing anything in Group FX chain and Amplifier section. (like I described already above)
Allow multiple sound sources in a group, all routed to same Group FX chain
Allow modulation of Insert/Send/Main FX parameters
Add global modulators, i.e. single modulator controlling multiple groups and/or effects
Allow parallel routing inside effect chains. At least a basic dry/wet balance (a parallel path for dry + level control) would be very useful for compressor/saturation/distortion/amp effects.
Allow Zone volume and pan to be applied before Group FX chain
Allow cross-modulation (PM/AM/RM) between groups
Allow envelope follower modulator to follow the actual processed singnal at the input of FX where the modulator is used. Currently it seems to follow only dry signal from source. Even better if the envelope follower could follow signals from other groups (through a sidechain input) and would work also in Insert/Send/Main FX chains.
Add user-assignable macro controls. It should be easy to manage the macro assignments and there should be intuitive visual indicators in Kontak GUI to help users see and modify those assignments.
Add granular sound source which integrates to the Kontakt's existing Wave Editor

Many scripted instruments with custom GUIs contain workarounds to some of those architectural limitations. But there are many problems in those workarounds:

Unnecessary high CPU load
Inconsistent GUIs. Different developers implementing different dumbed-down controls for the same things, like envelope/filter/fx controls.
Unnecessary complexity in scripting
Forcing to use a predefined closed set of samples (importing user-samples is possible, but it's not really usable for managing multisamples or large sets of samples)

For example, the NI Play Series (maybe excluding the drum instruments) and Light Series synths are mainly just workarounds to those architectural problems in Kontakt.
If NI would have improved the architecture of Kontakt and modernized the built-in GUI, those instruments could be just preset packs for Kontakt. And all those problems related to scripted workarounds would not exist.
Like think about Kilohearts Phase Plant as an example of modern synth/sampler architecture and modern GUI where Play/Light Series instruments could be just preset packs without any custom GUI.

But maybe the worst thing is that all this has led NI to turn Kontakt into a "instrument development and distribution platform". They think it's ok to solve everything with some scripted workarounds. And this has alienated normal users from Kontakt's built-in GUI, i.e. the 'Edit Mode'. And now NI thinks it's just fine to completely block/lock the Edit Mode in many instruments because most users don't ever want to edit anything (of course users don't want to edit anything because Kontakt's architecture and GUI is so bad, and all power-users who would have liked to edit instruments have already moved to use other products).
Maybe thinking of Kontakt as an "instrument development and distribution platform" is just a bad excuse for not fixing the underlying architectural limitations and GUI problems.

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