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Kontakt 6?

Posted: Sat Oct 20, 2018 12:34 pm
by cuttime
So far, I haven't seen a single good reason to upgrade at the current price. Any users out there? Recommendations?

Re: Kontakt 6? Komplete 12?

Posted: Sat Oct 20, 2018 5:42 pm
by mikehalloran
There are three new instruments and the upgrade price of $99 goes up in November. Doesn’t appear as big a deal as 4 to 5 was. Since NI went to 64bit during 5 and upgraded the Native Access license manager and ironed out those problems over this last year, I think it comes down to if you want the new stuff or not. If not, I don’t see the point.
https://www.native-instruments.com/en/p ... kontakt-6/


I’m going through the same questioning about Komplete 12 with the same Oct. 31 deadline. That $199 upgrade gives more bang for the buck so I’ll probably do it. There are some additional libraries in Ultimate that I wouldn’t mind having but another $400? Yikes! On the fence regarding that one.
https://www.native-instruments.com/en/p ... 2/compare/

The 30 additional expansion packs and corresponding $400 up-charge to Ultimate Collector’s Edition hold no interest for me at all.

I included links so others can see what we’re talking about.

Re: Kontakt 6?

Posted: Sat Oct 20, 2018 7:33 pm
by Michael Canavan
Not to dog on any company really, but NI are losing the plot a bit.
Lots of content, but still some things are just not all the way there. I don't really see any major reason to upgrade at this point, maybe when they do their 1/2 off sale next summer, but not right now. I've owned Komplete since version 2, I'm on Ultimate 10. I generally skip a version to get a better deal, but it's likely I skip two versions this time.

You know what would have done it for me? some love to Absynth. That was the first plug in by them I owned, and if you've ever messed with MPE controllers like the Seaboard Rise etc. you would agree how fun it would be if Absynth at the very least was MPE capable with an upgrade. That and larger more legible GUIs for everything. 4K is becoming standard and touch screens are as well.

Re: Kontakt 6?

Posted: Sat Oct 20, 2018 11:15 pm
by monkey man
At least there's the Massive upgrade included, which will happen early next year.

Could play a role in many folks' decision to go to 12.

Re: Kontakt 6?

Posted: Sat Oct 20, 2018 11:32 pm
by mikehalloran
monkey man wrote:At least there's the Massive upgrade included, which will happen early next year.

Could play a role in many folks' decision to go to 12.
True that.

Nice to see you here again!

Re: Kontakt 6?

Posted: Sun Oct 21, 2018 1:00 am
by monkey man
Thank you, Mike!

Nice to see you too, brother. :dance:

Re: Kontakt 6?

Posted: Sun Oct 21, 2018 4:48 am
by nk_e
K6 has a lot of love for library developers apparently with new build tools, effects, and options, so we should be seeing some new K6 only instruments appear on the market soon. . The new K6 content is ‘meh’ IMHO. Not bad, but really rompler like with limited tweakability. One thing the update does is completely lockdown the format according to Chicken Systems. Their translators can no longer work with NI locked content at all.

I upgraded because my last Komplete was 8 Ultimate and I think it would not qualify for a discount if I waited one more version.

Re: Kontakt 6?

Posted: Sun Oct 21, 2018 9:42 am
by stubbsonic
nk_e wrote:K6 has a lot of love for library developers apparently with new build tools, effects, and options, so we should be seeing some new K6 only instruments appear on the market soon.

...

One thing the update does is completely lockdown the format according to Chicken Systems. Their translators can no longer work with NI locked content at all.
I like seeing new tools, effects and functions.

Sometimes I like to be able to export the samples from a sound to use in another sampler. I suppose this means that it will be more difficult to do this with newer libraries. Some sound developers allow it.

Re: Kontakt 6?

Posted: Sun Oct 21, 2018 9:48 am
by nk_e
stubbsonic wrote:
nk_e wrote:K6 has a lot of love for library developers apparently with new build tools, effects, and options, so we should be seeing some new K6 only instruments appear on the market soon.

...

One thing the update does is completely lockdown the format according to Chicken Systems. Their translators can no longer work with NI locked content at all.
I like seeing new tools, effects and functions.

Sometimes I like to be able to export the samples from a sound to use in another sampler. I suppose this means that it will be more difficult to do this with newer libraries. Some sound developers allow it.
You can find additional info here:

http://www.chickensys.com/k6.html

Re: Kontakt 6?

Posted: Sun Oct 21, 2018 9:58 am
by cuttime
Thanks for the input, all. Bad news for Chicken Systems, indeed. Does anyone have any knowledge of the CPU efficiency of K5 vs. K6?

Re: Kontakt 6?

Posted: Sun Oct 21, 2018 3:49 pm
by mhschmieder
I bought a new Kontakt library yesterday that requires K6, so Native Access cued me to upgrade, which confused me as I thought Kontakt Player had just been a license level thing for a few years now.

So now I have both, and was able to compare side by side. Kontakt Player 6 doesn't seem to have a way to get a keyboard for quick auditions of sounds when you don't have a real MIDI keyboard hooked up, but maybe that's only available in full-license Kontakt or got moved in their setup workflow. It seems faster overall, to launch and to load, but there might be efficiencies specific to any KP version.

It is not called Kontakt 6 (at least, the Kontakt Player isn't); it installs as Kontakt. So I'm wondering if this means future revs will replace and overwrite, as Kontakt 5 and earlier retain their version number in the app and plug-in file names.

Other than that, K6 on the surface looks almost the same as K5, but I didn't dig deep yet and also still don't know if Kontakt Player is a different GUI and feature set from Kontakt, or just a licensing cue.

Re: Kontakt 6?

Posted: Sun Oct 21, 2018 3:50 pm
by mhschmieder
Also, I was surprised as I thought it wasn't coming until FEB 2019 and also didn't know it was on sale.

I wonder if the end-of-month deadline at $99 also means it won't be on Black Friday sale? I was going to do that upgrade plus the new ethnic libraries over Thanksgiving, and wait another rev before doing a Komplete update.

Re: Kontakt 6?

Posted: Sun Oct 21, 2018 6:09 pm
by monkey man
I think it's likely the February thing that had stuck in your mind was due to the projection of the Massive update, Mark.

Hope you're well, bud.

Re: Kontakt 6?

Posted: Sun Oct 21, 2018 6:59 pm
by cuttime
Well, I DL'ed the Kontakt 6 player for excrement and jollity. Yes, the AU shows up as Kontakt (sic). I'm not sure this is a fair test, as I might be comparing apples to pomegranates, but I'm seeing a marked CPU improvement in K6 Player. A CPU-hungry Kirk Hunter patch in DP shows about 35% on the DP meter with K5 showing about 15%. K6 Player is showing the same patch at 25% in DP, and 9% on K6. I'm not noticing any sonic differences. If this comparison holds up for the full version, this could be a winner.

Re: Kontakt 6? Komplete 12?

Posted: Sun Oct 21, 2018 7:06 pm
by toodamnhip
mikehalloran wrote:There are three new instruments and the upgrade price of $99 goes up in November. Doesn’t appear as big a deal as 4 to 5 was. Since NI went to 64bit during 5 and upgraded the Native Access license manager and ironed out those problems over this last year, I think it comes down to if you want the new stuff or not. If not, I don’t see the point.
https://www.native-instruments.com/en/p ... kontakt-6/


I’m going through the same questioning about Komplete 12 with the same Oct. 31 deadline. That $199 upgrade gives more bang for the buck so I’ll probably do it. There are some additional libraries in Ultimate that I wouldn’t mind having but another $400? Yikes! On the fence regarding that one.
https://www.native-instruments.com/en/p ... 2/compare/

The 30 additional expansion packs and corresponding $400 up-charge to Ultimate Collector’s Edition hold no interest for me at all.

I included links so others can see what we’re talking about.
I too am on the fence. 399 from ult 11 to 12, or 599 for everything. I ind of like having “everything” in all my libraries but I’d like to see what black friday brings. Its strange being a music producer in a “black friday” world. We can do all our shopping while sipping or coffees or Johnny Walkers blacks with our egg nog..lol... Should I wait till black friday is the question.