Discrete plugin versions of Kontakt instruments
I don't mean to chuck a grenade into the forum with my first post, but 10+ years into being a Komplete user, it's still hard to understand why the Kontakt instruments haven't been moved out into discrete plugins. Kontakt crashes my DAW easily the most of any plugin on my Mac (and was even worse when I was still on PC), regardless of DAW (Reaper and Logic are my top 2), and gets worse if multiple instruments are loaded. Kontakt also has a particular problem completely dropping all of its saved-state data in comparison to any other plugin or plugin suite I use.
As a result, my expensive NI instruments and sample libraries end up not getting used, "imprisoned" by the Kontakt sandbox, because I just don't trust them with my projects.
I see other threads here regarding "should Kontakt be retired? What should we replace it with?" and nonsense follow-up comments like "Kontakt is a sampler, so if you think Kontakt is bad, you might as well say all samplers are bad!" fully ignoring the details of the problem and the obvious solution— replace it with nothing (and keep Kontakt and Komplete Kontrol around for people who really love them) and make the instruments their own plugins.
It's kind of amazing (bad amazing) that these perfectly good sample libraries and effects are still being held hostage (not to be dramatic, just using an apt analogy) to the Kontakt infrastructure, which is increasingly difficult to justify in 2024.
Breaking them off into plugins—as most people starting out with NI assume is what they're getting, and rightly so—seems to be the obvious move for NI to retain/regain relevance.
Discuss.
D
Comments
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it's still hard to understand why the Kontakt instruments haven't been moved out into discrete plugins.
Not really. It's a bit like saying, my car is constantly breaking down, why can't I take the steering wheel and all the pedals and levers (which I love) and run the car just with them. Kontakt is the engine which actually processes and produces the sounds of your instruments, and what you see on the instrument GUI is just the controls you have been given to implement the actions of Kontakt according to the authors' programming (of Kontakt).
These silly threads about "replacing" and "retiring" Kontakt are written by people who really don't understand what Kontakt actually does.
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"Kontakt crashes my DAW easily the most of any plugin on my Mac (and was even worse when I was still on PC), regardless of DAW (Reaper and Logic are my top 2), and gets worse if multiple instruments are loaded"
Not going to say that troubles are not possible - but if Kontakt is crashing like you indicate - you have much bigger issues that worrying why all Kontakt instruments are not standalone now.
What OS are you running? What version of Kontakt? What DAW are you running Kontakt in - AND - what instruments - specifically?
VP
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I can't imagine why you would have so many problems with Kontakt instruments. I haven't been running them for 10 years, but in the 5 years I have been using Native Access, Kontakt, and Komplete Kontrol in my Windows 10 environment using Ableton Live, they've been absolutely flawless and super dependable, even in fairly complex projects with both Native Instruments and non NI plugins. I currently have a total of 122 libraries listed in my Native Access. Of course I am very conscientious about maintaining my libraries and utilities with all the appropriate updates, and I actively use this stuff on a near daily basis around 6 hours per day in my studio.
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The 3 replies you have received won't have been much help to you, but this is an extremely helpful forum to which many clever and experienced people, including NI representatives, contribute. If you can provide more details about your setup, and what actually happens under what circumstances, there's a good chance you could get some useful advice.
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the reason most instruments ate not standalone is they are built using common scripting and gui tools for Kontakt, and when Kontakt is updated with new features, all the children get updated too. us old folk remember the standalone n.i. instruments from early days, but from company standpoint makes way more sense to have one mothership app and then child instruments are built with unique sample sources, custom interfaces and controls. most library child updates are only to fix a bum sample.
i use kontakt all the time on both m1 Mac ventura and windows 10 with zero issues. in my case both types of systems are highly optimized with fully working os installs and sample libraries all on separate ssd drives from boot drives.
if you provide more info on your system type, os, ram, drives, etc. we might be able to help. often on windows it is permission issue and reinstalling and launching as admin can fix things. running sfc /scannow from terminal can fix corrupt files. on macos never allowing system to go to sleep is advisable and some multi monitor setups are known to cause issues. getting a working system that can run kontakt in standalone should be your priority. standalone versions of kontakt instrruments is not going to happen.
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us old folk remember the standalone n.i. instruments from early days
Not really standalone. They ran on a cut-down version of Kontakt. Or the full version if you had it. Equivalent to Kontakt Player today.
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If you could run it without running Kontakt first, then it was arguably standalone. E.g., pianos, Prophet, etc. It could 'stand alone' without also launching Kontakt and loading inside kontakt.
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Depends which "old school" instruments you are talking about.
If it's Pro53 and FM7 and Absynth etc etc - none of those had anything to do with Kontakt in any way.
They were true standalone.
VP
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All true, but not really what we're talking about. And certainly not relevant to the question in this thread.
The point I'm making is that talking of "standalone" in the context of today's Kontakt instruments is misleading, and "standalone Kontakt instruments" is a contradiction in terms.
What I'm trying to do is in some small way to help remedy the widespread lack of familiarity with the basics of computer music and use of Kontakt. How apps and devices communicate with each other, how MIDI works, and even (as in this thread) what Kontakt actually does. Many of the questions that are asked on this forum would be unnecessary with a good understanding of these simple basics.
It seems to be the policy of software and hardware maufacturers today to dumb down the process, and to make no attempt to provide this elementary information so users can understand how their products work. Not helped by the recent tendency to lock instruments to editing, making the workings of Kontakt even more obscure.
So when thing go wrong Kontakt gets the undeserved blame. It's a fantastic programme, just badly managed.
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"All true, but not really what we're talking about. And certainly not relevant to the question in this thread"
The thing we should be talking about - in terms of relevancy to this thread is that the OPs machine cannot run Kontakt for 5 seconds without crashing.
Since the rest of us run Kontakt non-stop for years at a time without any issue - the focus really should be on what is wrong with his environment.
Once that is fixed and Kontakt runs correctly - this thread is complete.
VP
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Exactly. The classic early "standalone" sample instruments were not reliant on first launching Kontakt.
The OP should consider solutions for getting Kontakt to work properly. hence my request for more info on system setup and so forth so we could provide actual support to OP vs rambling on about provenance of the new vs old. My points are all valid in my original response.
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The OP seems to have checked out after his single post.
Hopefully found the reason and is in a better spot.
VP
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Perhaps you guys might like to read the original post again. Carefully this time. Then perhaps mine, if you can manage it.
(Let us know when you find the bit where he's asking for help.)
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As this is primarily a support forum - the first paragraph of the OP's post was relevant.
Anything after that sounds like a minor rant/complaint/typical *itch session that could have been sent to another post - or better yet - not notated at all.
All of the crew here is willing to help another user - right up until they go off on a tangent ("held hostage"?)
I mean cmon. Kontakt is fine. And has been fine for a long while for millions.
VP
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Maybe you want to read my original reply again, asking the OP for more details so we all could help him? Why pile on if you have nothing to add?
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