Kontakt 2 works great!

Hi,

Just wanted to say that I got Kontakt 2 days ago and have been using it very intensively for an orchestral score utilising the Vienna Symphonic Library, and it has performed perfectly, the sound quality is noticeably better, and the new layout is soooo easy to use.

I havent noticed any bugs as yet.

My setup is:

G5 Mac 2.5
4gig RAM
Cubase SX 3.02
Apogee Rosetta Sound card with the x-firewire card

Cheers!

Pete

 

hi,
good to hear that youre happy with kontakt.

i jus wana know how easy the GUI is. i mean, i use Reason Adapted Express Re-Drum to create my beats. i have a Samples CD also. The Re-Drum was pretty easy to make beats, so im thinkin of getting the full version reason, but i heard Kontakt is also a great program to create drums.
i jus want the interface to be easy enough like Live or Reason so that i can make beats straight away. Im also a little concerned abt the price too.

also, i wana know what exactly is Reaktor. is it a synth station ? can i use it with Cubase ?

 

I use Kontakt to handle my drum parts. If you're into electronic stuff, check out the Synthetic Drums libraries -- Vol II should be out shortly as well.

Don't confuse "making beats" and creating "drum kit instruments." Your workflow for "Making beats" depends on your host -- although the new Script Processor may cover some of your needs.

Reaktor is a modular synth -- tons of user "instruments" in the library on this site. It can run as a VST in Cubase, or DXi in other hosts. Check out the great info on this site too.

 

Not really. Kontakt2 creates 16 stereo outputs per instance and there's no way to get rid of the extra CPU/RAM this is causing. A real problem when using many instances in big orechstral project. So, no I would personally not say that Kontakt can run as VST in Cubase.

Lars


Hey, who's writing these new kind of "everythings great in Kontakt"-posts? Would it not be better with real answers in setad from NI?

 

I was actually talking about Reaktor -- as the previous poster asked about it ;-)

 

Kontakt for beats

Hey,

Reason and the redrum beat machine will give you great results very quickly, and I often use those to get initial ideas going, or for whole tracks if thats what the song requires.

However, Kontakt provides a lot more possibilities for creating new and different sounds, which you may want to progress to as you develop your skills. It has numorous effects that you can use to shape the sound, and it is also very easy to learn, but expect to take a couple of weeks to get the best out of it. However, you'll need a VST compatible host to run Kontakt and be able to record your work, ie Cubase, Sonar etc.

Reaktor is a modular synth, which sounds scary, but dont be afraid! Its really just a fancy VSTi that can load up synths/drum machines/effects from a list. And yes, as with all VSTi's (virtual instruments), it can be run in Cubase.

If I were you I'd ignore the confusing response about Kontakt in Cubase and 16 outputs, that doesnt relate to your question at all.

Oh, and to the previous responder, what is wrong with saying that I'm very happy with my copy of Kontakt 2?

I make music, simple as that, and Kontakt allows me to make it very easily, creatively and quickly, thats what technology is for, no more, no less.

 

thanks for the replies.

yes ive been gettin these confusing replies very often in other forums too... its jus great that ppl like fruitbat and torhan help newbies out in the very right manner. no offense to the other poster, its jus that i really want simple terms, and everything to be easy [unlike software manuals] lol.

likewise you say its easy to "make beats" in kontakt. thats taken, but im more concerned about the GUI, the interface. If its horrible i wouldnt mind ignoring it. but if its easy like reason`s re-drum, ill definitely be giving this a go.

and are there drum-kits packed along with the software ? or shud i buy them seperately ?

AND one more question, i have a good collection of softsynths but none has the Grand "ORCHESTRA HIT" sound. which softsynth has that ? im also in search of great synth riffs , im jus not able to find the right synth or is it all about me using the effects ?

 

Kontakt GUI

Hey,

No probs. it can be the most confusing thing in the world getting everything to work in the way you want.

Ok, I personally love the Kontakt GUI, its very similar to a windows browser, so you can see all your hard discs / sample folders on the left of the screen and can simply drop a sample or lots of samples into the main section and an nstrument will be created.

Obviously there are some really advanced editing/modulation things you can do to the samples you load in, but the good thing about Kontakt is that you can make it as simple or as complicated as you want, and as you get more into it, you'll naturally start expanding into other areas.

SAMPLES:

There are loads of included instruments and samples with Kontakt, about 15gig!!!! But its always best having as many samples as you can get, check out any good online stire, ie www.timespace.com for a selection.

However you should be able to get along very well with the included stuff with Kontakt. Also Battery synthetic beats is a good sample disc, check it out in the NI shop.


ORCHESTRA:

If you great string sounds/orchestra sounds, you could check out the NI online store, think they have a good selection of string sounds for Kontakt. But any decent soft synth should have a synthy type string patch which will sound ok, especially when layered with really good string saples.

I use VSL samples fro www.vsl.co.at , check it out!

Cool, hope thats answered a few questions, cheers!

 

well, that almost answered my question.
i love easy interfaces, and its great that its "us" who can make it as complicated as we can. thats a brilliant feature

however i use Sonar 4.02 nowadays as my cubase cd got busted. and someone said sonar`s not compatible enough with kontakt. is that true ? now that makes my budget even higher to go for kontakt.

and also, how different are samples from synths ?

i see string/bass samples and also synths, are they same ?

 

My setup is similar to Fruitbatlover's (Mac G5, 4G ram, Cubase SX3), and I'm also finding the new Kontakt 2 very user friendly. Unfortunately, Cubase seems to be a little taxed and I was wondering if anyone could offer advice on how best to organize accessing the VSL stuff to make the process as efficient as possible. I have the Opus1&2 Horizon series bundle, and wonder if Kontakt has an easier time converting from the Giga library or the EXS library, or maybe it doesn't matter which I use as the source. Also, in Cubase, when I try to save a project file with a Kontakt 2 multi loaded I get the message "Kontakt 2: the patch contains volatile samples from a previous import. Do you want to resave the affected samples?" How can I save these converted samples so they will load properly next time I open the project?

I have been working with midi for years, but the dinosaur way - external midi modules mostly, and am pretty green dealing with these VST issues. Thanks in advance for your patience, sorry for posting if this is more of a Cubase or VSL issue.