Revisiting Kontakt Factory - wow I underestimated this

bill5
bill5 Member Posts: 28 Member
edited March 2023 in Kontakt

I've been going through all of the instruments after a fresh reinstall....I have had my share of complaints with NI and Kontakt, but I was very surprised at how good this stuff is in general, including stuff I didn't expect, like the saxes and guitars. Sure, they are limited in articulations and in other ways, I'm not saying it's everyone's answer to everything, but the overall sound was better than I expected for many of these instruments. IMO if you like me had it but had dismissed it early on, try revisiting you might be surprised.

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Comments

  • DunedinDragon
    DunedinDragon Member Posts: 432 Pro

    I agree wholeheartedly. If your needs are relatively simple you can not only get by with Factory Instruments, but it will also likely load faster for you than a more complex plug in. But the more nuanced performance you want from your sound will inevitably lead to more versatile or deeper sampled libraries. There's definitely a place for both.

  • Gee_Flat
    Gee_Flat Member Posts: 906 Guru

    The addition of Vienna Symphonic Library to Kontakt 2 is what caught the world's attention, making it the most well known software sampler with a ton of great instruments.

    Then Kontakt 3 laid the foundation for what I consider the first 'Factory Library', offering an unrivalled set of organized sounds for 'a song and a dance'. Literally and figuratively, I guess. Haha!

    I still beleive synth waves are all the same, and with a complete understanding of how Kontakt works you can create pretty much any sound that is comparable to most stand-alone synths out there, using the old factory sounds combined with wabetables, effects and filters.

    It's an art.

  • DunedinDragon
    DunedinDragon Member Posts: 432 Pro

    That is until you hear the same instruments played in a cinematic score...then all the nuances of the techniques and articulation change dramatically at different velocities. That's why the deep sampling companies libraries are so huge.

    https://8dio.com/products/solo-studio-strings-cello

  • Gee_Flat
    Gee_Flat Member Posts: 906 Guru

    Firstly, I was talking about 15/16 years ago before any of those libraries existed.

    I didn't suggest that any of the factory strings, horns, pianos etc. could be compared to all the amazing independent and inHouse ones. I don't use Komplete, but I have Scarbee Pre-Bass and AR Drums and there are no factory sounds that come close.

    I said "synth waves", meaning anything that starts with a sine, saw, square etc. With the right know-how, it's possible to build instruments that sound as good as Massive, Super 8, et al.

    Reaktor in a different dimension.

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