So trying to come up with some plugin to talk about today, it occurred to me, that I have never really talked about the plugin that all of us use, probably more than any other. Native Instruments' Kontakt http://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/samplers/kontakt-5/ So what is a sampler? In basic terms, its hundreds (of not 10's of thousands) of short "performances" often in the form of single notes, that are recorded, cut, and then played back via a MIDI keyboard in a form called "samples". It is an inherently limited technology - since there is only so much space, and "trigger"-abilty to play back these recordings, and they are never a good substitute for the real thing, but they can come convincingly close. The art of Sampling has been around for quite some time (see mellotron, Fairlight, Synclavier, etc), and "software samplers" (such as Kontakt, Gigastudio, EXS24, MachFive, etc) have been going since the mid-late 90s. Sampling Process: I strongly recommend anyone that has a small recording rig try to make a sampled instrument. Take some sticks, or a flute, or whatever, and record one note at a time, leaving space for the decay of the room/instrument and being QUITE. Then chop them up into individual files, and import into kontakt. It sounds simple, but once you do it, you'll realize all the time and effort it takes to really build a sample library. It's all about consistency - in dynamics, articulation, timbre, cutting, etc... The more consistent you are the more "playable" the instrument becomes, however the more clinical you are and less "performance-based" your samples become, the library can become stale. It's a really tough line to balance between the two, and takes years of practice and listening. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mmGh5CqPWw Using Kontakt in your DAW. So Kontakt comes in two formats - Standalone and "Plugin". If you just want to have a performance based sampler, then that's what the standalone is for, but in this instance we are talking about using Kontakt in your DAW (Digital Audio Workstation). Each DAW handles the use of kontakt a little bit differently. Essentially, Kontakt is an "instrument" plugin track, not a MIDI track or an Audio track. MIDI is used to trigger Kontakt, and some DAWS will use a MIDI track to trigger the "instrument" plugin. It can get a little confusing because there are so many DAWS and terms to understand. Here are some videos that hopefully will help: Digital Performer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZcxAnngfRs Protools: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irZzib9VY0s Logic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3jQMzRbIbQ Cubase: (oddly enough can't find a good one) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ea0wn831WA Terms to get clear: -Single Track vs. Multi-Timbral Kontkat as a Single track, means that only the first midi channel will be used, and the other 15 possible loaded instruments cannot be accessed. This is a quick way of loading one track at a time for FX manipulation. The Multi-timbral loads will use extra MIDI tracks that connect to the same instance of kontakt. This is useful for loading your bread-and-butter instruments, strings, brass etc. That way you can load just one instance of Kontakt to access 16 instruments instead of 16 separate instances of Kontakt. MIDI vs Multi-Output setups So MIDI just the "triggering" mechanism used to access the samples, not the "audio" output of the samples. Kontakt can actually send individual instruments out different "audio" channels. So when you see setting up multi-output for kontakt, that's what this means. It makes printing stems (or groups of like-sounds) together. For instance say I have 4 tracks: Trumpets, Trombones, Flutes and Clarinets loaded in one Kontakt Instance. If I want to record the tracks as a "group" of brass and woodwinds. I would take the first two tracks and have them go out the first stereo group in kontakt, then enable a second stereo group for woodwinds and route the output tracks 3-4 out the second stereo group. This way I can record the audio from two tracks simultaneously for mixing later on. Encoded Library (Kontakt Player) vs non-library (Full version of Kontakt). Native Instruments allows for third party developers to create software in their instrument for free, however if the developer wants to "encode" their library for use in Kontakt's free Player, they need to pay money to have the process happen. When they have the library encoded, the library will show up in Kontakt's Library Tab, making it a lot easier to load. You can still use non-library (non-encoded) sample libraries, as long as you OWN the full version of Kontakt, but you have to load the instruments from the file browser. This also means that if you don't OWN kontakt, you can still use any library that has been encoded, but CANNOT use any non-encoded library. Please make sure to look a the specs of the developer's library to determine if they have encoded it or not. USE: So with any sample library you have access to most of the MIDI features that have been standardized since the early 80's. Learning how to "perform" or program back the samples from a library is really what separates you from the rest of the pack as a composer now a-days. Learn the art of synthestration or MIDI-Mockups and you can get a gig pretty quickly in this industry. Start first by performing with your MOD-Wheel (Midi Controller 1 or CC1) - learn how to use your Expression Controller (CC11) for volume shaping and volume riding, and CC7 for master volume trim (I would not use this to "draw" automation data. There are plenty of videos online showing how to use samples as well as books. I think one of the most valuable things is to learn the technology and its limitations to fully understand how to write with samples. Here is what you guys should be able to accomplish with samples: (track from my friend, and old assistant, Sebastien Najand) https://soundcloud.com/cinesamples/cinesymphony-set-flangers-to
Composing : Plugin Thursday - Kontakt?? by Samuel Estes
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Another awesome share. Remarkable information.
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Thanks RB!
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Very, very thorough summary you've given of NI Kontakt! I'm currently "still" using Kontakt 4 & additonally Kontakt 5 Player. I'm debating whether or not I want to wait for Native Instruments to have a 50% off sale they always give 1 time in a year; and then upgrade to Kontakt 5. To be honest, mostly everything that I need serves me fine with Kontakt 4. Unfortunately, there are some newer orchestral libraries I may be interested in as a film composer, and I can't get it because it takes Kontakt 5. Interesting how over the years Kontakt has become the dominate professional software sampler of choice for DAWs, replacing the once reigning champ Tascam Gigasampler/GigaStudio. Which reminds me, one of the most useful aspects of NI Kontakt is the huge list of sampler file format compatibilities it can import. For anyone starting out and getting their feet wet, having Kontakt is an awesome and cheap way of building up a sampler library. Browse eBay for some older Akai, E-MU, Gigastudio, Kurzweil, Roland S-series, NI Battery, etc for some older libraries, but still better quality than most freeware items. It's an economical way of having some high quality samples to get you started. Or, you could just save up your money, and keep a watch out for Native Instruments to have their 50% off sale during the year, and then you can get NI Komplete. With NI Komplete, you won't really need anything else for music production! That will cover everything for any type of pop/electronic/urban/commercial music. But if you want to seriously dive into doing film scoring, you'll have to invest into dedicated orchestral sample libraries giving you the professional sampling, sound, quality, and articulations of each ensemble of a real symphonic orchestra. For the most part, I've finally settled on using VSL Special Edition libraries for my main orchestral arrangements. And I'll mix and match orchestral Brass ensemble parts with Kirk Hunter Concert Brass 2, which itself runs in Kontakt 4. Oh, for anyone that doesn't know as well, NI Kontakt is also multi-processor enabled. Which means, if you are using an Intel or AMD cpu for your computer that has more than 1 processor, like 2(dual-core), 4(quad-core), or 8(Octo-Core-like Xeon), you can tell NI Kontakt to use all available cores for processing your sample libraries. And on top of that, Kontakt of course allows you to "stream" your samples, rather than having to load the entire library into your memory for playback. Okay, there's so much more that can be said, and I guess the most practical thing would be to just go on Native Instrument's website, or YouTube to see what all it can do. Whatever you decide, love it or hate it, currently NI Kontakt is THE DE FACTO standard in the music industry for software samplers.
Dana - you'll need to update if you want any new software, as every developer I know (myself included) has needed to move to K5 as of last year, because of OSX updates. Just a friendly fyi - I would highly recommend looking at some other 3rd party software library companies as well, what you have listed is a great start, and not to downplay the beauty of the VSL libraries, since they do great work, but I feel they boarder on the clinical... I would highly recommend looking at Spitfire audio, Cinesamples, 8Dio, Orchestral Tools (Berlin Series), Soundiron, Sonokinetic and many, many other companies out there that offer a breadth of great sounding libraries that (IMHO) have much more life than the VSL stuff, therefore giving a more realistic playback to your tracks.
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A great description for those not familiar. People should keep in mind that samplers will work with any software that 'supports' what is called a "VST". This means that other software may support samplers and not just DAWs/Sequencers. For example, the sheet music software like Finale or the one I use "Sibelius 7" (owned by Avid), can also play and generate scores the same way my DAW (I have Cakewalk Sonar Producer). There are four reasons I uses Sibelius over a DAW: (1) I can get my score reviewed in the composition class I am taking, (2) I can generate both an electronic score and sheet music parts to be played live from the same composition file, (3) both the DAWs and sheet music software have facilities for me to watch the film I am scoring while I am playing the score so that I can synchronize them together and (4) I am much better at reading fully annotated scores the old fashioned way rather than three dimensional piano roll rectangles. The question of what sampler to use is much like the eternal platform debate of windows versus mac or iPhone versus Android. It has something or a lot to do on ones prior investment (or whether you are starting from scratch). I started scoring around 2000 and back then the predominant sampler was Tascam's Gigastudio. During the many years it was around, I purchased many libraries of "Gig" files including those which I continue to use to this day - Miroslav (for orchestral ensemble) and Dan Dean (for solo acoustic instrumentation). Now Gigastudio was orphon'd many years ago when Tascam dropped support and sold the 'assets' to Garritan (which never really supported it in its own sampler(s)). I still continued to use it though when I moved from Vista to Windows 7, the hardware security key didn't work. Luckily there was a different sampler which has picked up the baton, GPlayer and does an excellent job running/using all the "GIG" files without a security key for both 16 and 32 bit libraries. In addition, the recent version of GPlayer supports VSTs itself so I can add things like convolution reverb (which was part of the Gigastudio product). In addition, Gigastudio required a certain type of sound driver called "ASIO" and Gplayer does not. Over time I plan to convert my GIG files to Kontakt if I can or replace them with equivalent sets such as the excellent ones from Cinesamples. The development team at Sibelius (Dan and company), some years ago left Avid (so Sibelius is no longer being updated) and they were all hired by Steinberg (the Cubase people) to develop a new sheet music software product from scratch. I am interested and eager to see what they create and hope they will find a way to push the envelop further so we can see a further integration of DAWs and sheet music software.
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? I use the pencil and line tools all the time, I DO NOT draw my cc7 (volume) data in, that's a static level at all times. A "trim" knob. I use cc11 to do all my volume automation, where i use the pencil. Lots of reasons for this, mostly that cc7 is a more global control and some sequencers use it to actually change the volume output, not just midi change.
Thank you, Sam! That's a lot of information to digest, and I still need to watch the rest of those videos to fully understand it all. And Joel brought up an interesting point; that both DAWs and Sibelius can be used independently in the film scoring process and each have their own benefits. I know they can also work together in order to take full advantage of your VSL, rather than relying on Sibelius' library. I have several pieces in Sibelius I would love to load into my DAW, but I'm not sure how to do it. Do either of you know any good tutorials on this, particularly using Logic?
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Simply look for Exporting MIDI files in Sibelius. Then Import them as tracks into your DAW of choice. Then assign the tracks to their perspective instrument patches (or better yet have a template and drag the track data to the corresponding track). Then RE-PROGRAM the midi data (CC1, CC2, CC7, CC11, velocities, etc) so it sounds good. I do this for nearly every project that comes across my desk that I need to synthestrate... pretty straight forward, but time-consuming process.
Hey Samuel, I hear and agree with what you've said about considering using other orchestral sample libraries for a more "livelier" sound than what you get from VSL. But to be honest with you, I'm on the side of the people that would rather have a really clean dry sample, so that I can manipulate the sound to my taste, even though it does take more effort to get the mix right that way. And event though I do like the sound that I hear from certain other libraries, like the Spitfire Audio libraries, I will say that VSL makes it pretty cut and dry with what to work with. And in a way, it forces you to have to concentrate more on the musical quality and correctness of your arrangement, rather than relying on the lushness of a sample library to cover up for a lack of musical knowledge, like Symphobia (although I'm still considering that as a future purchase). Some of my libraries for percussion & etc, are certainly from 8dio, Soundiron, ImpactSoundworks, Cinematic Sound Design, and some Native Instruments libraries, like Alicia Keys(which actually works VERY WELL for cinematic piano when mixed properly). And all of those run on Kontakt 4.
got east west quantum leap so and choirs back in 06, haven't found a need to upgrade since.
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Hi Jim, There are a few interviews I've posted to my wall that I've done explaining some of those experiences, and went into it a bit on our webinar on Stage32. Basically I've been doing "amateur" sampling since the early 90s, and professionally since around 2006. Really started doing the larger libraries when I managed Hans Zimmer's Sampling Department, and was cranking out about 1-2TB of sample data per film (along with sound designing and sample recording). Then managed Cinesamples for 2 years, updating and creating most of their catalog and then started a new company with my long-time business partner last July - mainly to get back to doing private sampling and sound design for all the composers in town here. We have one new sound design tool coming out next month.