Considering MachFive

jmc · Post by **jmc** » Tue Sep 04, 2007 10:42 am

Hello,
I am considering the purchase of Mach Five, but also looking at Kontakt 2. My primary interest is orchestral music, and I'm considering the sonivox orchestral library. I also currently own a couple of the Garritan Libraries as well as StormDrum and RA, but I don't believe they will work on an Intel Mac (which I'm also looking at--1 octo-mac machine would be enough, right?).

Does anyone know if these libraries will import? I noticed that the site mentions that Kontakt 1 and 2 files will, but I am not sure if this includes kompakt or any of the included loops in these other libraries.

Thanks in advance for any help.

carrythebanner · Post by **carrythebanner** » Tue Sep 04, 2007 12:47 pm

Encrypted libraries which use Kompakt or the Kontakt Player are not expected to work in MachFive. (Wild assumption alert: I'm guessing it's technically feasible to read them, but legal reasons may prohibit it.)

richardein · Post by **richardein** » Thu Sep 06, 2007 7:19 am

I own both, like several (many?) people on this forum. All things considered, I think - but I'm not sure - that Kontakt is the "deeper" sampler.

For example, Shoosie - one of the real guys around here - is going through the Mach Five 2 manual very closely and is very impressed with it. However, from what I can tell, Kontakt's scripting and some other features are not available on M5. OTOH, I have found Kontakt hard to learn, M5 2 less so.

Soundwise, both contain VSL orchestral sounds. In general they are excellent. Some are better in Kontakt, some in M5 2.

Copy protection on Kontakt is an elaborate, but automated, challenge response system. M5 requires an ilok dongle.

Both, however, are very powerful, well supported software so in a very real sense, you can't go wrong whatever you decide.

jmc · Post by **jmc** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 11:38 am

Thanks for all your comments! I'm still trying to figure out the technology that is required to make these systems and software work, and I'm kind of blindly stumbling through, so any advice you can offer is very helpful.

Shooshie · Post by **Shooshie** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 6:06 pm

jmc wrote:Thanks for all your comments! I'm still trying to figure out the technology that is required to make these systems and software work, and I'm kind of blindly stumbling through, so any advice you can offer is very helpful.

Pick one and don't look back. That's my advice. You're going to be happy with either one, and both require a time commitment to the learning curve. There are things that aren't easy to figure out about MachFive2, though I suspect that Richard is right and Kontakt2 is the deeper of the two, and harder to learn. Kontakt3 has just been released. I'd check it out as well. There may be some significant differences. I don't think it is shipping yet, so you'll have to either go by their PR at their website (Native Instruments), or just wait. Meanwhile, if you get the urge to buy MachFive2, I promise you that it has a LOT to offer. I prefer it to MOTU Symphonic Instrument even when using MSI's samples. It's just a much deeper interface, with many more possibilities. Chief among the possibilities are unlimited voices, 200 audio output channels, many layers of filters, LFO's, and plugins on every aspect of every preset, the ability to use Apple Loops (free Garageband loops just boosted your library by some huge %), big windows to work in, an easy and efficient workflow once you've figured it out, and the ability to save entire orchestras of presets in one click. Oh, also, it reads many (most) formats natively without need of conversion. I used to spend hours converting even modest old sampler disks. Save the disks as disk images on your drive, and you can put the physical disks back on your shelf for good. It reads the samples on those disks, by the way, but often NOT the programming of the sample player. Some may work 100%, others just become bare sample libraries. I'm content with that.

That's not to say that Kontakt2 or 3 lack any of the above features; I just don't know the answer to that. But I prefer to look at software in terms of what I need vs. what I'm getting, rather than in terms of what I may be missing elsewhere. (What I don't know usually doesn't hurt me, except when mastering digital audio

)

Hope this helped somewhat.

Shooshie

chrispick · Post by **chrispick** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 9:03 pm

To weigh in your decision: Kontakt 3 is soon to be released.

http://www.native-instruments.com/index ... r_id=54572

Gabe S. · Post by **Gabe S.** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 9:07 pm

Based on what you already own, you should buy Kontakt 2 now and get Mach5v2 when you have the money. If you have the money, buy both. (I have both.)

Since you have StormDrum and RA, then that investment is sitting useless on your IntelMac. Buying Kontakt 2 will enable you to use that investment right away. And it works GREAT with those libs---better than the silly Kompakt engines. Mach5v2 does not allow you to play those libs, so you'll have lost access to two very useful libs if you start with only Machv2.

Plus, if you buy Kontakt 2 now, you'll get Kontakt 3 free when it hits in October. Kontakt 3 is going to be very cool. No doubt. But, NI sometimes needs a couple versions/revisions to smooth things out on new releases, so I'd say that having Kontakt 2 as a safety net might be better than just getting v3.00 of Kontakt.

I would say that M5 is more user friendly at first. But once you dig into Kontakt 2/3, you will appreciate all that is hidden under the hood. The MIDI scripting possibilities in Kontakt 2 are incredibly powerful. And there's an active user base with them. It's just like anything.....once you use it, you start to get used to it.

But I'd say that the most important thing is to protect your Stormdrums and RA investment now. If you get Mach5v2, then those will continue to sit useless on the InteMac.

Cheers.
-gabe