Kontakt 7.7 Release Update

It's not a bug, it is an intentional change.

Perhaps an option to toggle old/new behavior can happen?

I can see it 🤨 When an update is not showing up for you, it usually means that your OS is not supported. Another reason could be that you're using the old/legacy Native Access 1 version instead of the new one. (NA1 tends to not reliably show updates anymore).

Without knowing your OS and Native Access version, it's hard to say what the issue is.

Please take another look at issue KT-6215, the bug that causes the DAW to freeze and has been around since 7.4 before you release any new major features.

@Adil_NI:

I can see that NI‘s efforts on improving the KT7 GUI are going in the right direction. However, I‘d like to request a few things for the next release which would make life easier for users:

Wouldn‘t it be a good idea to allow users to „save“ their preferred startup view for the standalone application as well? Why is this currently just an option available for the KT7 plugin? Some people would prefer to start KT7 in „Standard/Rack“ view while others prefer to see the „Browser/Icon“ view in the first place.

I‘m aware of the current option „Display fullscreen Browser when launching new Rack View“, but its behavior seems to be not related to what it actually does. At first — contrary to its description — the KT7 „Standard/Rack“ view will currently never fill up the „full screen“, no matter if this setting is ticked or not (as this is anyway a feature we are all still waiting for to be finally implemented). Instead, If this option is checked, the KT7 standalone app will rather start up in „Browser/Icon“ view (but unfortunately still not „fullscreen“, but at least it can be manually dragged to it), and if unchecked, it will suddenly startup in „Classic/Rack“ view (not „fullscreen“ at all).

In other words, it would be really helpful if the next KT7 application would make use of the current screen size/resolution and offer „real“ options to start up KT7 standalone…

…either using a specific window setting the user can predefine and save first (view, window size and position),

…or to enable users to start up KT7 in „real fullscreen“ mode if desired so, optionally in „Classic/Rack“ mode or in „Browser/Icon“ mode, depending on an „options“ setting to be implemented.

Would this be possible? Along with your current efforts to improve general „windows resizing“ in the forthcoming version anyway, such „customizable window settings“ I described would really be a banger. Thanks for listening.

• FIXED Intermittent CPU spikes on macOS (introduced in Kontakt 7.6.1)

Not sure why this has only been documented as a macOS issue, since it was ever so present using my Ryzen 5950x PC as well. A large amount of the Silence+Other Sounds DOJO library's Kumite synth presets were plagued by spikes and sometimes much higher CPU meter usage in Kontakt 7.6 than in 6.8, and was completely remedied in 7.7, although the CPU meter is about 3-4% higher than in 6.8 while playing the same patch in both engines simultaneously, but at least the spike problem is fixed. Engine optimizations should be the forefront of a major release, not absent. Maybe the ads are hindering performance? (yeah, I went there)

Also found the issue when using Symphony Series Purcussion. After a few clicks on any parameters, Maschine heard crashes.

Kontakt is a sampler/sample engine, and should be nothing more. Yes, we need easy management of the potentially enormous number of libraries, but the "explore" part DOES NOT belong there. There is already an across the board small CPU performance reduction versus version 6 on my system, adding any "features" that are outside the scope of the intended use of the program is the wrong move.

The panel would actually make practical sense in Native Access, much more sense than the vertical banner ad there does *cringe*. That's where products are installed and updated, not used, so it would in no way hinder our production. And that goes for everyone, seasoned and new users alike do not need such distractions in professional music software, ever. Show me one person who wants in-app ads and I'll show you someone not serious about making music, or a shill, lol. If am wrong, make a special consumer ad-ridden bloatware version to make those people happy. You have a website, email, and an installer manager to help with sorting through the options. The only real way to sift through the options is with detailed walkthroughs and side-by-side comparisons, such as the multitude of ones already on Youtube. Without taking the time to research properly, we risk spending our money on the wrong tool, there's no app suggestion that's going to help with that. In fact, it could lead someone just as easily to the wrong tool as the appropriate one.

As I described in my (too long) posting above, there‘s currently a quirks in KT7’s setup.

If you go to the „file/options…(f12)/interface“ tab and uncheck the „display fullscreen browser when launching new rack view“ option, KT7 will start up again in „classic mode“. It seems the developers have mixed up some things here. At least I informed @Adil_NI already about that discrepancy which is currently causing confusion.