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Let's say, just for the sake of argument, that you were pretty disgusted with Native Instruments... or at least so disgusted that you regretted every purchase and wish to never give them another nickel, or dime, or whatever.

Is there a similar sampler - ideally, one that would use Kontakt libraries with the scripting intact? I have read here that some of you were were using Mach 3 this way, but I've also noticed briefly some concern about it's future due to the release a new sampler by the guys who developed Mach 3... is that right?

I could just use Kontakt 5 forever, but eventually new libraries will require Kontakt 7 or whatever.

So... suggestions, please.

If you want to be able to use Kontakt libraries, I think you're stuck with Kontakt. I resisted buying Kontakt for years. I find the interface a form of torture. Mach 5 can read Kontakt V4 stuff, usually, but can't deal with Kontakt 5 patches and their scripts. Looks like they have not made the scripting available to other sample players. But there are so many useful free sounds that need the full K5 app, that I finally bought it when it went on a no brainer sale price. Still it's the player of last resort here.

That said, EXS24 is pretty good if you're ready willing and able to use Logic or Mainstage and link it to DP. It can also import Kontakt patches like Mach 5, but not the newer patches for K5. I use it for some Kirk Hunter stuff because it's more efficient than Kontakt, even if you have to run another app to host it. There is a lot available for EXS24 and lot of inexpensive and useful stuff that comes with Mainstage or Logic.

And then there's this
http://www.chickensys.com/products2/tra ... index.html
which I've never used, since the demo version doesn't do conversions (what's the point of a demo?). Maybe some users could chime in here.

cuttime wrote:And then there's this
http://www.chickensys.com/products2/tra ... index.html
which I've never used, since the demo version doesn't do conversions (what's the point of a demo?). Maybe some users could chime in here.

I had a go at it. Couldn't get anywhere with K5 patches, or do anything I couldn't do with M5 or EXS24, but that was a while ago. Maybe someone else has had more success.

I'm on that same fence. There are some libraries that I want to use that require Kontakt 5 full version. MachFive no longer works for these. Raven from UVI does not have Kontact support.

What's the point of the Kontact free player if nothing works with it? At least current and third party UVI libraries work with the UVI player even if many no longer work in M53.

There's nothing I want from NI currently except to get some VIs working.

mikehalloran wrote:What's the point of the Kontact free player if nothing works with it?

You will find the odd sample set that works with free player, but for the most part, the point is to get you on the email list, to try out Kontakt, and buy the full version and the NI libraries.

Sometimes NI has a crossgrade price of about $100. The full version comes with a fairly large library that has a few useful sounds.

I'm relieved to hear that I'm not alone in disliking that UI.

It's long been on my To-Do list to conquer that UI and work out a workflow to get familiar with and build my own sounds in Kontakt, but I have avoided it.

stubbsonic wrote:I'm relieved to hear that I'm not alone in disliking that UI.

It's long been on my To-Do list to conquer that UI and work out a workflow to get familiar with and build my own sounds in Kontakt, but I have avoided it.

You can have a few frequently used sounds setup in V-Racks that can be imported or "turned on". Then you only have to work through it once.

I do things with mapping samples, tuning maps, velocity switching, and envelopes-per-sample-- and working out envelopes at either the sample level or layer level, as well has wanting to adjust start-times and release things. I learned the Kurzweil system pretty thoroughly, but it doesn't translate very well to any familiarity with Kontakt.

I'll admit that time-management (i.e., allowing time) and effort-management (enthusiasm?) have been focused in other areas.

stubbsonic wrote:I learned the Kurzweil system pretty thoroughly, but it doesn't translate very well to any familiarity with Kontakt.

Same here. I'd pay big for a Kurzweil VAST VI, especially if it could read in the .KRZ patches. You can figure out how to do some of the same things with Mach 5, and it can read .KRZ patches, good if you have a lot of Kurzweil stuff that's stranded, but it doesn't have algorithms like the Kurzweil. They always seemed to be to be the perfect starting place for a new patch.

Thanks, gentlemen. It sounds like it's Kontakt. Crumbs.

I don't mind the interface, but I am really pissed with the company right now. Not buying anymore NI stuff, although third party things that run under Kontakt are okay.

UPDATE:

Not an entirely happy ending, but a reasonable one.

After more than year of trying to get ROUNDS to work as advertised, and sending 10 screen shots and five videos of the plug-in failing in various ways, someone at NI finally figured something out.

For ROUNDS to work, the first note played into the sequence has to occur at the very beginning of a set of bars that relate to the number of bars in the ROUNDS cycle. Yeah, I know... gibberish, right? What that means is, if you have a ROUNDS cycle of four bars, IT HAS TO START on the first beat of bar 1, Bar 5, Bar 9, etc. If you place the first note played into the sequence at ANY other position, it will do what it has been doing. 8 bar cycle in ROUNDS? Then it has to start on bar 1, bar 9, bar 17, etc. Otherwise... sadness.

Like lots of sound-for-picture guys, I'm in the habit of starting DP projects that will synch to picture (commercial or video game) at Bar 2. So any project I opened that started at Bar 2 would cause ROUNDS to fail if the first note was placed anywhere, because I was always at least a full bar off.

Anyway, now it works just fine. But it took these knuckleheads a freakin' year plus to tell me this, even after watching many videos of me causing it to fail. Not 100% in love with their CSRs, there, but now I can at least update my stuff without feeling like I've been mugged.

Good to see.

As for myself, I got off the fence last week and bought Komplete 11. Couldn't get a price break but GC let me spread it over 18 months and matched everyone else's price (ate the sales tax). Spent last night installing.