SNAMM05: NI Releases New Sounds for Kontakt 2

US Kontakt 2 Experience 30/07/05

Jonathan Leonard demos Kontakt Experience

Buying Choices

Affilliate Links help support the site

As well as announcing Akoustik Piano, Native Instruments also showed a new sound set for recently-introduced software sampler Kontakt 2 - Kontakt Experience

Senior Product Specialist Jonathan Leonard was on hand to give us a run through - we pointed the cameras, of course - have a look at the video item.

There's an in-depth description on their website - the link is below, but here's a snippet to whet your appetite:-

KONTAKT Experience is the perfect complement to KONTAKT 2. This essential expansion pack is far more than just an arbitrary collection of samples. Using the new features of KONTAKT 2, like scripting, convolution, surround, its new filters as well as beat-, tone- and time-machine, KONTAKT Experience reveals a world of creativity that fully exploits the potential within this immensely powerful sampler. This exquisite sample library reproduces the characteristics of some of the most popular contemporary hardware synthesizers and offers a wide range of new scripts, loops, sounds and drum kits.
Expertly Crafted
KONTAKT Experience includes a total of 128 unique instruments divided into ten categories. All instruments have been expertly crafted by renowned artists and professional sound designers covering a wide range of musical styles. The instruments are structured so that they are all highly intuitive and easy to use. New KONTAKT scripts such as the loop designer and the drum computer afford incredible flexibility and inject new life into standard instruments. Specialized vocal sounds, animated drum kits, arpeggiated and modern lead synths as well as intricate construction kits form an inspirational collection of new sounds.
Ten Categories
01 - Performances
Offers musical building blocks that lend themselves particularly well to laying a foundation for a song. Full sets of loops anddrum patterns combined with a melodic or harmonic instrument are included.
02 - Motion & Pads
A huge selection of slow ambient pads, based on largely synthetic samples. Heavy use has been made of filtering, modulation and other effects, resulting in especially lively and dynamic sounds.
03 - Vocalized
As the name suggest, the "Vocalized" category is dedicated to all things vocal. Such features as the Time and Tone machines come into their own here and produce some unique results.
04 - Harmonized
This "Harmonized" group of sounds contains instruments, such as harmonized pianos, that make use of scripts such as "easy chord generator" or "constrain to scale". Typical house stabs as well as strummed chords are also included.
05 - Guitarized
Again, scripts come into play in the "Guitarized" category, for example simulating guitar strings being strummed. The convolution module is also used to layer the impulse responses from specific cabinets over the sound.
06 - Exotic
The Exotic section is an amazing collection of weird and wonderful sounds: strange loops, special effects and a whole lot more.
07 - Melodic Loops
The Loops and Rhythm section includes, amongst others, a Loop designer script to mangle a sliced loop and features samples that are processed using KONTAKT 2's Beat and Time machine features.
08 - Lead & Bass Synths
As the name implies, synthesizer-based lead sounds are on offer here. There is also the option of using the included "solo mode" and "legato" scripts to produce some interesting results.
09 - Arpeggiated
As well as several slightly simpler arpeggiators there are also some fairly intricate constructions that use more than one voice per key or which are harmonized in a special way. Again, some interesting and distinctive results are guaranteed with these instruments.
10 - Drumkits & Drumloops
The included drum computer script has been used to program these drum kits, allowing tempo and they like to be altered radically without suffering a loss in quality. Combining these 'pattern instruments' with some chords and the "Poly Step" script will also generate fairly unusual rhythms.