Which Kontakt version do you recommend for sales?

Hi

I'm making some cartoon sound-fx instruments in Kontakt. I will be selling these instruments to sounddesigners and audio-editors.

I am wondering in which version of Kontakt I should be making these instruments. What do you guys think? Is it safe to use the latest version or should I go with Kontakt 3 or 4? Problem with version 3 is that it won't run on windows 10. I don't have another computer to do this work on.
The instruments themselves are not complicated. So it would definitely be possible for me to have all functionality that I want for my instruments.

(I tried to run Kontakt 3 as administrator and I also tried all the compatibility modes for the Kontakt 3 exe-file. Also when I run Kontakt 3 it only shows up under precesses in task manager, not in the programs list. And it also is not listed in my installed programs in system configuration.)

Any thoughts and questions are welcome,

Thanks,

Jorgo

 

I don't think anyone uses Kontakt 3 seriously today, it was one of more buggier Kontakt versions. Even Kontakt 4 is probably in huge minority these days.

 

Thanks for solving my problem ;-) Okay, then I will just make the instruments in the latest version of Kontakt.

 

As you may know, Kontakt's policy is to not allow the loading of files in older versions. For example, if you develop in 5.5, but a user tries to open it in 5.1, Kontakt will refuse to open the patch because it was created in a newer version.

Therefore, there is a bit of an advantage to working with the oldest possible version. I agree with ED that Kontakt 3 is barely seen nowadays. Even Kontakt 4 is pretty old, because Kontakt 5 was announced in 2011. I think you're pretty safe to disregard those versions...

NI, of course, prefers that everyone upgrade to the latest, and being that Kontakt 5 is so mature, there aren't any massive systemic problems with the latest version of Kontakt 5, so feel free to use the latest, unless you really, really, just want to maintain compatibility with 5.0 or 5.1 for the few users who might be hanging on to those for some reason.

 

Thanks for your insight, guys. Really helps me to stay focused.

 

I'm still using Kontakt 4 (holding out for K6 )

I would agree with David - use the oldest version that allows you to provide the sounds that you want. That will give you the maximum possible target market.. If you don't need the features / bug fixes introduced in a particular version then use and earlier version. Some other sounds designers are still making new libraries for Kontakt 4, even after all these years.

 

On a related note can you use two different versions of Kontakt or Kontakt player and Kontakt. I'm getting Inspire and it requires 5.6.8 and i don't really want to update. That would make all my freebies I give away require 5.6.8 since I'm in the middle (OK the start) of a 1000 patch project and 'An Orchestra' project.

 

But not the same version of either. IOW, you cannot have Kontakt 5 and Kontakt Player 5 installed on the same machine. It's one or the other. You can have Kontakt 4 and Kontakt Player 5, though.

 

Thanks. I caved and got 5.6.8. Is it stable? I guess my legion of fan can live with it.

 

Could you have, for example Kontakt v5.6.1 and Kontakt 5.6.8 installed at the same time (provided the v5.6.1 editions were copied and renamed)?

 

Yes, you could by renaming the executables. Lookie look:

 

... but only if you know what you're doing.

Same goes for the (VSTi) plug-ins too, I would think.

 

Yep, pretty much - that one depends on the DAW, though. Some DAWs don't even look at renamed DLLs, AFAIK, so they would show just one version.

 

Nice picture! You can tell the pro in the room.

 

"rename the executables"
Very cool E.D.

 

Well I'm staying with K5.6.6 because 5.6.8 would require me to go to a higher version of OSX than I'm running now on a very stable system - OSX 10.9.5. There are a lot of people that are NOT running on the latest Kontakt versions for various reasons. To any developer - please don't box us out by developing on the latest Kontakt version.

 

Developers have no hold over this if they want their library as a Player library. NI is forcing using 5.6.8 for all future Kontakt Player libraries. Non-KP libs can be any version, though.

 

To put it mildly that sucks for those who use KP and what developer who develops for both will do two different versions?

 

Probably none. Expect everyone to go 5.6.8 eventually.

 

When that happens it'll be the end for me at least for that developer. There's no reason I should mess with a stable system. Yosemite was a nightmare when I tried it and ElCrapitan is one of the worst OSX releases ever.