#Kontakt 6 player review mac os x#
#Kontakt 6 player review install#
#Kontakt 6 player review full#

The InterfaceДЄs before, the Kontakt screen is divided into two main windows - the Browser and the Instrument Rack, and the Browser still provides the means to navigate your computer's drive directories. The Browser, showing the drag-and-drop Effects. Even when Kontakt is addressed through only one physical or virtual port, all 64 parts can still be used to layer sounds - although only 16 MIDI channels are available between them. When run as a plug-in within a host sequencer, you will need software capable of supporting virtual MIDI ports to access all 64 channels. It is also 64-part multitimbral, having four 16-part banks, or Multi-pages, each of which is addressable on its own physical MIDI port when run as the stand-alone version. The polyphony is theoretically unlimited, depending on your PC's capabilities. Version 2 employs a 192kHz, 32-bit sample engine able to replay samples up to 24-bit resolution. This can be done on line (via any computer) or by snail-mail.

#Kontakt 6 player review full#

As is now customary with current NI products, you have full functionality of the program for 30 days, after which you must authorise the software using NI's key code system.

#Kontakt 6 player review install#

For reasons I'll explain later, if you are a Sonar user (like myself.) and would normally install the DXi plug-in version, it is advisable to install the stand-alone, DXi and VST versions. This is very reassuring if you wish to return to using the earlier version for any reason. Note that version 2 of Kontakt installs into its own folder, so anyone nervous about upgrading from version 1.xx can relax - your old installation remains unharmed. The program is provided in stand-alone, DXi, VST, RTAS, and Audio Units flavours, and installation proved straightforward. Mac users can apparently get away with 800MHz G4 processors, although my test was carried out on a PC, so I can't comment further! NI recommend a minimum spec of 512MB of RAM on both platforms, and that Pentium PCs should have processors no slower than 1GHz (Athlon XP-based machines have a suggested minimum speed of 1.4GHz, though).

#Kontakt 6 player review mac os x#

Kontakt 2 is a cross-platform application, although it only runs under Windows XP and Mac OS X from revision 10.2.6 and up. Version 2 has had a major cosmetic overhaul, with loads of new features and a much improved interface. Samples can be streamed directly from disk and processed by a large variety of effects: time-stretching, filtering, modulation, looping and beat-slicing are just a small selection of the armoury of tools on offer. To recap briefly, Kontakt is a sophisticated software sampler, offering sample creation from compatible file formats, sample manipulation and performance capabilities similar to programs such as Tascam's Gigastudio, Steinberg's Halion and Emagic/Apple's EXS24. Version 1.0.2 of NI's Kontakt was reviewed back in SOS August 2002, and has since become a major player amongst software samplers. Native Instruments' Kontakt has become one of the most popular software samplers since its release in 2002, and the new version, with its many excellent new features, should keep it near the top of the heap.