It would have been nice to see revitalised versions of the Chorus, Flanger and Phaser, one-trick ponies that haven't been improved upon since the earliest days of Kontakt. This composite screen shows Replica's five delay types, and the various parameters unique to each.The final new effect is Cry Wah, similar if not identical in tone to the one in Guitar Rig 5 however, unlike GR5 it sums stereo sounds to mono.
Three new algorithmic reverbs, Plate, Room and Hall, are good foils to the Convolution and legacy types the Room and Hall offer the additional luxuries of size, time, modulation and diffusion parameters. The stand-out algorithm for me is Diffusion, a combination of delay and the dreamiest reverberant wash - few things say 'to infinity and beyond' more effectively than this. Feature-wise, it sits somewhere between Replica and Replica XT, with a choice of five delay algorithms: Modern, Analogue, Tape, Vintage and Diffusion, each with distinctly different characters, aided by features such as modulation, saturation, bit-reduction and tape flutter, depending on delay type. NI's excellent Replica plug-in has long been my go-to delay its inclusion in Kontakt is a real bonus. The original Delay, workmanlike but a bit dull, now has a swanky new friend. So it's nice to see some newcomers that fall into the 'good' category. Kontakt's effects have always been a mixed bag of the good and, frankly, the average. If you're interested in creating your own wavetables, Serum appears to be one of the most popular wavetable creation programs, along with Waldorf's Blofeld Wavetable Creator. The wavetable's starting point is also being modulated randomly with each new note triggered.įurther experimentation layering two or more together, assigning them to independent groups and assigning various forms of modulation to their wavetables' positions, adding envelopes, filters and LFOs, produced some great results - not quite identifiable, yet eminently musical and very usable. The wavetable position is being modulated by a triangle-shaped LFO waveshaping (Form) is being modulated inversely by the same LFO, using the Bend waveshaping type. This example wavetable is not at concert pitch, so Tuning is set to -5 semitones to compensate.
#Kontakt guitar free#
Fortunately, free wavetables can easily be found online, so I downloaded a suite of them. The results were not pretty, although I'm sure someone somewhere would love the strangled, unmusical noise it made. It relies on having some ready‑made wavetables to hand, but as NI curiously don't include any in the package (why not?) I experimented by dragging in an 'ordinary' guitar sample to see what would happen. Wavetable ModuleĪ new component to the sample playback engine, the wavetable module expands Kontakt's potential for creating exotic and unusual synthesized sounds. However, anyone who creates their own sample material or simply likes to tweak and adapt (unlocked) existing libraries will find a handful of welcome additions.
#Kontakt guitar full#
People whose use of Kontakt goes no further than loading and playing libraries exactly as they come out-of-the-box (be it in the free Kontakt Player or the full version) will probably view the new features as inconsequential and not be tempted to splash out on the full upgrade. Visually, K5 and K6 are completely identical - the differences, though not numerous, lie under the hood.
#Kontakt guitar update#
So is this update a game changer for existing Kontakt users? Does K6 look any different - bigger fonts, cosmetic changes, or a new colour scheme? Well, no. Perhaps this is the last whole‑number revision of Kontakt as we know it, to be eventually replaced by a completely reworked product under another name? This is not a rumour, just to be clear - it's merely my febrile imagination running wild. Whether this suggests that subsequent updates will be incremental (and free) or that there will be future payable tipping-points is not clear. Although it's punted as 'Kontakt 6' by Native Instruments, the VST refers to itself in the plug-in list simply as 'Kontakt', with no number to signify the version. We explore what's new in the latest version of NI's flagship sampler.Īfter a considerable wait and much speculation, version 6 has finally acceded to the Kontakt throne. Clicking on the A or B waveform graphics presents a drop-down list of over 100 waveforms to choose from. The Macro knobs control predetermined aspects of the sound depending on the currently selected snapshot, and are freely assignable to any MIDI controller.
#Kontakt guitar series#
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