It supplanted Gigastudio, the original king of the softsamplers, and for a while it was nearly the only game in town (particularly if you worked with orchestral sample sets). There was a time when Kontakt was the de facto standard format in which sample libraries were developed.
#KONTAKT LIBRARY REVIEW FULL VERSION#
The full version of Kontakt offers access to a far wider variety of sounds. Many developers do not go through Native Instruments due to the costs involved in obtaining the license. It is worth noting that not all libraries that work in the full version of Kontakt are available in the Kontakt Player format. Once you realize all the ways you can improve the instruments you own, or tailor them to your workflow, you may find it hard to go back to more restrictive sample players. It is easy to pick up the basics, and there are many resources available for those who wish to learn the deeper intricacies. You don’t have to be an expert to benefit from these tools. It offers a full-fledged suite of tools for you to edit existing instruments or create your own from raw sounds. Kontakt 5 performs all the functions of its little brother, the Kontakt Player, and goes far beyond that. You can get good mileage out of simply buying instruments that come with their own playback engine, but what you will miss out on is the deep customization and sound creation power that a full sampler offers. NI’s Kontakt Player (which is a separate but related product) is among a strong pack including EastWest’s Play engine, Vienna Symphonic Library’s Vienna Instruments, Best Service’s Engine 2, and a whole lot of others. There are a lot of sample playback engines on the market. It delivers tremendous value for its price, but how much you get out of that depends on your musical goals and willingness to delve into the guts of the sounds you are working with. Native Instruments Kontakt 5 is a robust and versatile softsampler that operates as either a standalone or as a plugin within your DAW.