Kontakt as sampler, not sample player

This has been brought up before, but a fundamental ability to *sample* live material and make it available for playback is a key feature of all hardware samplers, and it's just so daft that a powerhouse system like Kontakt (and in fact any other soft sample playback systems available) doesn't do it.

It's not enough to claim that there are other applications (wave editors etc.) that do it for you - that misses the crucial point of fast WORKFLOW in using a sampler.

I want to record, keyboard map and play NOW, not mess around with opening an external editor, recording into that, trimming it, deciding a file name, saving it under that name, waiting until OS X gets around to refreshing the Finder info so that Kontakt will acknowledge the file's existence when I do a Browser Refresh (and it can be minutes before that happens!), finding the newly recorded file in the Kontakt Browser, dragging it in, mapping it...a complete waste of time and a real inspiration killer.

Isn't this obvious?

You should be able to hit one button, and have it record material NOW, directly into the system, ready for use, just like the Akai, Synclaviers, Fairlights...when did this basic musical operation start to be overlooked? I really can't fathom out why this keeps getting passed over for more esoteric features...all of which are fun, no doubt, but how I wish for a back-to-basics assessment of what the musical workflow processes are when we use this stuff.

Please NI, consider this one a high priority. Old-school sampler users will love you for it, and you'll steal a march on your competitors too.

Adrian

 

I'm not an OSX user, but wouldn't it be possible to drag and drop a newly recorded sample into Kontakt? (not from the browser inside Kontakt, but from OSX's file browser)
I understand that you want something that's much easier to work with - I just thought this idea (if it works) might take you a little closer towards that goal.

 

i for one am super happy to be liberated from the microcosmos of oldskool samplers in the 90ies when i chopped and multimapped beats on a two line LCD display.

but i think i agree with you for this feature anyway. it would sometimes be very convenient, and most of all very creative, to be able to sample/resample within kontakt. i would also like to see the wave editor within kontakt a bit more powerful.

regarding your workflow: if it takes minutes before something appears in finder/kontakt you have a problem with your system - any file operation i do in OSX is instantly reflected in any Finder window. you can drag from the finder onto Kontakt like Nils suggests, and an even better tip: grab the document icon in any open sound file (the icon to the left of the document name, at the top of all OSX documents) , and drag this into kontakt. (note; does not work when kontakt is a plugin)

 

>>i for one am super happy to be liberated from the microcosmos of oldskool samplers in the 90ies when i chopped and multimapped beats on a two line LCD display.<<

I'm delighted too, but why throw out the baby with the bath-water?

>> it would sometimes be very convenient, and most of all very creative, to be able to sample/resample within kontakt. <<

..exactly. Creativity, after all, is the point of all this. To all music software designers: take a moment to remind yourselves that 'providing new features' and 'removing roadblocks to creativity' are not always the same thing..

>> any file operation i do in OSX is instantly reflected in any Finder window. you can drag from the finder onto Kontakt<<

Due to an OS X issue, the change isn't reflected instantaneously when placing files on the system from a remote machine (i.e. across a network).. I use SoundForge on a PC to edit files and save them directly on the Mac over an SMB connection. OS X takes a few minutes to recognise that fact unfortunately.. but thanks for the tip regarding the doc icon (if I get round to using a wave editor like Peak or whatever on the Mac itself)

>> note; does not work when kontakt is a plugin <<
So the whole thing becomes even more of a pain to use. One more thing I have to think about. As a software designer, I'm aware of the technical reasons for things like this, but it just reinforces the point; usability should never take a knock at the expense of features.

Oh, I know I'm moaning. I love Kontakt really. But there are times..(!)

Adrian

 

i used to do the same for quite some time. i changed from Soundforge to Wave Editor (www.audiofile-engineering.com) to avoid the network trouble, now i do all sound processing locally on the mac

i didnt have much trouble, but i used to do it in two steps instead of one; i had two finder windows open on a separate screen, where one Finder window was the SMB network share on the Windows computer, and the other Finder window the local folder on the Mac. usually the Windows share window updated instantly any changes on the PC, and then i dragged the material over to the Mac. this way the files appeared instantly to Kontakt.

this way i avoided any program (soundforge and kontakt) to deal with the network, they both related to local files, and i did the network transfer manually

but i agree that the SMB network between pc and mac is flaky at best. sometimes i had to "rename" a file to make Finder refresh the contents. so thats why i jumped the SF ship.. you might want to check out Wave Editor, it does some of the grunt editing work that SF does quite well