kontakt 2, is it worth getting?

Hi,
i'm currently using kontakt 1.5.3 and was wondering whether it is worth upgrading to version 2?

I have been using cdxtract to convert samples from sdf, wav, and giga to ni format but now I understand that kontakt 2 does this on the fly?

Also can someone confirm with me that kontakt2 comes with the following ssound libraries?:

01 - VSL Kontakt Orchestra
02 - KSP Instruments
03 - Grand Pianos
04 - Electric Pianos
05 - Organs and Harpsichord
06 - Acoustic Drums
07 - Electronic Drums
08 - Percussion
09 - Guitars
10 - Basses
11 - Synthesizers
12 - Loops
13 - Surround
14 - Banks
15 - Multis

What are the drum and percussion samples like in terms of the number of differnent instruments and quality? The instruments I am most interested in are:

1. traingles (open|closed)
2. brush hits/shots
3. toms (lo|mid|hi)
4. rim hits/shots
5. hand claps
6. hi hats (open|closed)
7. hi hat foot
8. cowbell
9. cabasa
10. cymbal (splash|crash )
11. ride cymbal (cup|edge)
12. conga (lo|mi|muted)
13. tamborine
14. conga (hi|lo)
15 claves (hi|lo)

Does the kontakt2 library include any or all of the above, and if not is there a kontakt 2 library available where I can access all the above instruments?

regards

beya

 

Dont Upgrade!!!

Kontakt 2 Is Big Bullshit.

Doesnt Work

****ed Up Hours Of Work
Because Dfd Doesnt Work Properly

 

I was using 5 instances of Kompakt (maximum 8 instruments loaded at once for each instance), and tried to replaced by a couple of Kontakt2 instances...

It kills my CPU and memory!!!

I guess I can't use it properly, but what a pain to configure!!!!

 

DAM!!
what's up with the email notification on this site. I never received any emails and have gone and purchased the blasted thing!

What machines are you guys running Kontakt 2 on? I'm running and Apple G5 2.5GHz machine and OS X 10.4.1.

Are other kontakt 2 users having the same problems?

 

yes i am still with K 1.53

best

Cyril

 

Yes,
I to am currently using 1.5.3 on a G5 2.5 setup.....

On another note, can anyone tell me how you can amend your profile on here as I wish to add a signiture to all of my posts?

regards

beya

 

Just click "Quick Links" on the grey navbar at the top and select "EDIT PROFILE".

I too am not going with Kontakt 2 until they get some stuff sorted out.

 

As you can tell there appears to be a love/hate relationship with the K2. For my particular purpose, using it to completely redo my former hardware sampler Theater Organ setup which just didn't even come close to having enough memory I feel like I'm in heaven. I have had no problems with it since getting through some of the initial learning problems. I am now using samples I had taken at least 15 years ago that I hadn't even heard. It's as close as I am ever going to get to the Detroit Theater Organ clubs 34 rank Wurlitzer.

 

Well, this thread seems to be a collecting place for the "nay sayers" indeed!

I must report totally the opposite feeling about Kontakt 2. Not only is the CONTENT simply **terrific**, but the product itself is miles ahead of HALion 3 (which I've had since the update). Much more intuitive, though the manuals for BOTH are lamentably short on "hand-holding".

I've commented in several other threads that there needs to be a LOT more "Tutorial" content to make these complicated beasts truly useable. To date, I've had 298 "hits" on my home-brew tutorial on constructing KeySwitches (that I ddocumented from my guidance by Christophe Caouette) -- it's HERE -- hosted on my music site where I have lots of extra bandwidth.

In closing, I would rate Kontakt 2 a definite 9 (no, it's not perfect) whereas HALion 3 would only get a 5 or 6 (imho).

another $0.02 no one asked for ... KevinKauai

 

Hey, I'm glad to hear positive reviews, that's great. My gripes with Kontakt are rather specific and won't affect many users at all. I just don't think NI realised how much work it would take a Cubase user like myself to transfer from K1 to K2 and as it stands I can't spend $200 for all that work; no way.

But it's still the best sampler out there! I got a little pissy when K2 got released, and I debated jumping ship - but the other samplers are just jokes compared to K. So I'll just "1.5" it for now.

 

You should stay on 1.5.3 for now,
because Kontakt 2 eats lots of power.
Even if you don`t use the new features in Kontakt 2.
I just loaded a Samples that I was using in Kontakt 1...
I don`t know why they can`t make this thing lighter..
Maybe programming skills for OSX (Unix) ?

 

If you want a great Lib (and other great features) with your sampler get K2.
If you want to import an EXS lib with K2, because the feature list says so, don't.

 

i'm looking around here for answers to problems with kontakt 2 -- this is the first thread I see -- for now, I regret buying it. Maybe will come to like it better one day.

 

FAO Kevin Kauai

**mini-hijack**

Kevin - is your tutorial available as a PDF, by any chance? The problem is, as amazing as it is I can't use it( the tutorial), as my music machine has no internet or network connection... is there a work around for this desperate-for-guidance-kontakt-newbie?

cheers
markoos

 

Have been using K2 for a few days and so far so good. I've had no problems at all. My only gripe is the amount of time it takes to load an Nuendo 3 project which has instances of K2 associated with it, instances of K1.53 loaded far quicker!!

 

markoos -- excellent idea! (Why didn't I think of that!)

I have free PDFPrint utility that makes PDFs (as I've used it for online score illustrations in the past) so I've made one (biased for printing) and it's now available for download via a click on the top of this page: http://kevintweedy.net/K2T/K2_KeySwitch.htm .

Look for the spinning "NEW".

There is some unfortunate pagination which results in a slight waste of paper -- but it's there.

KevinKauai

 

you are a Very Good Man - keep an eye out for some Good Karma coming your way!

 

I'm using Windows XP Service Pack 2 on an AMD Athlon 3000+ with Ableton Live 4.1, and Kontakt 2 works just fine. This is one of the reasons I'm happy that I switched from Macintosh. Sorry to hear about any problems any of you may be having. - Orbit-50

 

There are some issues but quite frankly:

Yes, it's worth getting very much!

 

Well, I use a G5 2.5Ghz 2Gig ram OS X 10.4.1 (Tiger), Nuendo 3, Altiverb 5, HydraTone, Kontakt 2, Reaktor 4........ and have had absolutely no problems at all. Best computer purchase I have ever made!! ;-)