DX7 Piano

Nobody want them to give away the Sampler (i.e. library producer software).

Nor would I suggest that the sample player in fact needs to be completely free.

But
(1) there needs to be a very clear red statement on the website that the player can't play most of the 3rd party libraries available

and

(2) on top of "player, the full Kontakt features
a) the ability to create instruments and libraries
b) a huge library of readily playable instruments
c) the ability to play normal 3rd party instruments

Now there should be a decently priced product that just features (c) over the free player. (Maybe the library as a separate product might be nice, too.)

In fact I already bought four (non free) Native instrument sample libraries (which are great!) that all are to be used with Kontakt player. Now I am not amused that I can't purchase and use "normal" 3rd party instruments. I feel that I already should be entitled to do so, but I suppose I would think about paying a descend additional price for a real "Kontakt Player" product (say some € 20).

-Michael

 

You need to admit that this smells really fishy !
Even if you see the text and mentally assign it to the red cross, "unlicensed" is not self explaining, and there is no definition what this means (while the link on "Instruments Powered by KONTAKT" is dead, and the link on "3rd party KONTAKT PLAYER instruments" leads to an advertizing page).

I would take "unlicensed" for: "if you (the end user) don't have a license agreement with the producer of the library".

And thus this serves as a copy protection in favor of the 3rd party. Which in fact is a good thing (for them).

But obviously we are fooled, and "unlicensed" means that the third party did not pay a fee to NI - which completely is out of any control of the customer.

-Michael

 

If the PLAYER would play libraries that are not licensed by NI, the sales would drop with 70%. You bought four PLAYER instruments so NI maybe made €40. That's just over 10% of what Kontakt costs. The PLAYER has the exact same technology as the full version (must be compatible). Selling a library that works in PLAYER makes the library about €15 more expensive. As a full Kontakt owner I also pay the €15 extra, the PLAYER compatibility serves as copy protection.

I agree NI should make everything more clear, their publicity is always fishy. Example: "KOMPLETE 9 ULTIMATE delivers the entire range of 65 KOMPLETE Instruments and Effects in one package."
When you buy it and find out the latest products are not in there, NI will tell you: it's not the entire range of KOMPLETE instruments and effects, it's the entire range of 65 KOMPLETE instruments and effects". Like anyone is going to count.

The PLAYER is this limited because they want you to get the full version so Kontakt. If you want a deal on the full version, save for Komplete, it's only around a €100 more then Kontakt and that €100 gets you wonderful stuff. None of the other top samplers have free versions that can load cheap libraries.

 

$/€15 extra is really a conservative estimate - it completely depends on type and size of the library.

 

didn't know that. so the bigger/more expensive, the more I pay for Player compatibility. I stay away from it as much as I can, don't want libraries that only work in Kontakt.

 

That's a complete non-issue as far as I'm concerned. You're missing out on a lot, then.

 

Missing out on a lot? Isn't everyone Can you buy everything you like? I'm on a budget
The thing is, regular Kontakt instruments come with unencrypted samples. If NI goes out of business, Kontakt gets crippled or discontinued and I invested thousands of € in unencrypted samples and not in Player instruments, I could still use the samples. I don't want to be dependent on one program and can't stand to be forced to upgrade. I bought Kontakt 5 because I couldn't edit the latest Player instruments.
And of course I have Player instruments, sometimes there's no alternative.

 

Similar to Adobe Flash Player, Acrobat Reader (as the "Player" counterpart to Acrobat Writer), Windows Media Player and a Brower (which is a Player for HTML content), there should be free open source alternatives to the Kontakt Player, while it of course is decent, that the software that can create content to be sold needs to be payed for and appropriately professionally supported.

-Michael

 

I already explained this. The sales would drop, the developers couldn't get paid and the product would become unsustainable. The market for softsamplers is too small to compare virtual instruments to flash, pdf and mp3. If you want something free and open, get this:
http://www.plogue.com/products/sforzando/

Don't expect it to open Kontakt instruments though, or to be as advanced. This is what you get with the business model you suggest.

 

If NI goes out of business, all users get an activation key that will enable them to authorize any and all NI software they have without limitations. Read the EULA. Plus, all the Player libraries you have still have their serial number that is good to use pretty much forever.


Your investment of x € in Kontakt Player libraries will thus not be wasted. Until Apple ****s you up with an OS update that breaks all NI software, that is. But that will be Apple's, not NI's fault - and you signed up for that the moment you bought those overpriced non-backwards compatible computers

 

You're thinking short term. If I grow as old as my grandmother and my brain will function as well as hers, I'll still be making music in 6 decades. If I age like Elliott Carter you can add another 7 years. I don't believe I can still access my Kontakt Player libraries by then, meaning I have to spend money on replacing every necessary encrypted sample library. If they even can be replaced (think SC's Novachord, Array Mbira, Pan Drums, AR Drummers). That's not needed with unencrypted samples, they're like tools that don't age.
There are people that always want to have the new stuff and spend a lot of money on things that are similar and only slightly better to what they already had. I'm not one of those.

 

Of course I do know about Sound Fonts and do know that Kontakt is a lot more advanced.

Regarding my personal current need, the inexpensive Kontakt Library I bought in fact consists nothing but of some 300 wav files (61 Keys sampled in 5 velocities). It does not make use of any Kontakt effects or scripting features. This seems to be very appropriate for playback with sfz. Unfortunately the supplier does not provide a Soundfont script. Maybe it is easy to do same myself. Hopefully Kontakt and sfz can be loaded side-by side and Midi routing can be tweaked to make this combination playable by a master keyboard without needing to use keyboard and mouse.

I really don't see why this functionality - that is only a small part of what sfz can do and does not include encryption / license managing for the sample library - is not provided by the Kontakt player for free, at least for those user who already did pay for Kontakt by buying multiple "decent" licensed libraries (four in my case, adding to some €60 as a previous poster suggested some €15 a 3rd party would need to pay as a fee to NI).


-Michael

 

This is just great !

(I do hope same never gets hacked as long as NI lives ) .


Your comment on Apple is one of the reasons why I use NI software in Windows. I would love to use it in Linux as same is Open Source and thus much more secure on that behalf.

So one of my urgent requests to NI is to provide Linux versions of their software (of course including JACK drivers for their hardware) !!!!

I am certain this will trigger a great number of new customers, as there will be 3rd parties supplying decently priced versatile computer boxes that can be used as a "receptor" work-alike for these NI products.

(I was forced to do this with Windows, making the box a lot more expensive than exactly necessary.)

-Michael

 

I never made a sfz instrument but here are links to tutorials.
www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=3273434

If you make a file you could try selling it back to the developer, I got my money back once after fixing the starting times of an instrument

 

No, that would also cause a drop in the sales. You can get a €150 discount though if you own one of these products: http://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/synths-samplers/kontakt-5/pricing/crossgrade-offer/

These boxes are great. Why don't you run Kontakt in a windows simulation on Linux?

 

Increased latency.

 

d'oh

 

Receptor does this on Linux with very low latency.

Muse use some kind of Wine-library to run Windows VSTs (not exes !! ) in Linux. Of course this is a lot worse than native Linux programs or plugins would be.

But they install their own Audio hardware and driver.

-Michael

 

Dropping sales because something is offered for free that is available for free in other products anyway ??? This does not sound like a decent concept.

-Michael

 

Who said marketing is decent
The marketing strategy is working though: you want the free Player to do things that other free programs can. Why? Because it would fulfill your need. Your need is created by using the free Player. And your need will be fulfilled when you buy the full version. If the Player would fulfill your need (be SFZ compatible) you would have another reason to not buy the full version.

ED, why do you think so few music software companies release their programs in Linux versions?