Kontakt 5 for a beginner?

[kalessin]

Hi everyone,

This is my first post, but I've been lurking around for a few years now.

I am just starting remixing and composing. I've read a lot, tested some DAWs, liked FL Studio best and bought the Fruity edition and now I'm learning and experimenting.

I've been using instruments that came with FL Studio and have been planning on getting more later, once I outgrew them. But now NI is having this incredibly looking 50% sale and I would like to ask for your advice:

I have no instruments and plugins, apart from what came with FL Studio. My understanding is, that if I buy Kontakt 5, I will get access to instruments (and other things, effects?) that I would set me up for months or years with almost everything that amateur would need to create OCRemix-quality remixes. I basically would like to buy a pack of instruments (and whatever else I would need) and have a good all-round selection of everything and not worry about buying anything else for a good while.

I've also been looking at Nexus 2 bundles, namely (NEXUS2 Bundle: Instruments). It's more expensive though...

What would you recommend me to do? Is getting Kontakt a good idea? Note: I'm not sure if I would be buying more packs for it in the future. I would like the pack that comes with it to last and give me a good amount of creative freedom for different music styles...

Thanks!

[Nabeel Ansari]

Short answer: Yes.

Long answer: YES YES YES FREAKIN YES

If you can afford it there's no reason not to get it. It is the best investment you can ever make in your musical career.

You'll have to learn to use the factory library though. You won't be able to make it sound realistic after the first day, but if you practice long enough with feedback from someone who can give you some direction you can definitely make it work. People don't give the factory library enough credit. However, the orchestral library is good stuff. It's the highlight of the library, along with the choir section.

As far as the synths, though, they're ok. I would use the synthesizers in FL Studio. They're better and give you way more magnitude of control.

If you get Kontakt and you need help setting it up in FL Studio (you don't just load it as a channel) just shoot me a PM or skype me at neblixsaber.

[Cash]

If you get Kontakt and you need help setting it up in FL Studio (you don't just load it as a channel) just shoot me a PM or skype me at neblixsaber.

I might take you up on that offer, if it extends to everyone, as I'm sure it does. I installed the Kontakt 5 free version as a plugin a while ago, but not sure if I did it right. Once the full version shows up at my house, I'll probably PM you.

[Dissidia]

So Neblix is the go-to for Kontakt 5 ;D?

[kalessin]

Short answer: Yes.

Long answer: YES YES YES FREAKIN YES

If you can afford it there's no reason not to get it. It is the best investment you can ever make in your musical career.

Well, I wouldn't spend $400 on it (especially as I'm just a beginner), but $200 I can manage. I just wouldn't want to miss such a sale, since I'll have to buy some pack at some point within the next few months after I've learned enough. But on the other hand if I were to buy Kontakt for $200 and then regret that I didn't rather get Nexus (or something else) for $300 for example, that's something I wouldn't be happy about. Glad to hear you are recommending it.

You'll have to learn to use the factory library though. You won't be able to make it sound realistic after the first day, but if you practice long enough with feedback from someone who can give you some direction you can definitely make it work. People don't give the factory library enough credit. However, the orchestral library is good stuff. It's the highlight of the library, along with the choir section.

That's great to hear, I've graduated musical school and played in an orchestra, and being raised on FF music, an orchestral library is one of the main things I'm looking for, and will be my main subject of remixing.

And learning is what I want to do, but good thing Kontakt will give me that opportunity, that's what I'm looking for. When I was reading some other threads in the forums it was as you said, people usually saying get Kontakt and then third-party packs, because the library is not too good. Glad to hear it's not the case (at least for my level).

As far as the synths, though, they're ok. I would use the synthesizers in FL Studio. They're better and give you way more magnitude of control.

Good to know. Won't be ready to shell out another few hundred bucks for some time after this. I want to play with synths too at some point, it's good the ones that come with FL Studio will give me that opportunity.

If you get Kontakt and you need help setting it up in FL Studio (you don't just load it as a channel) just shoot me a PM or skype me at neblixsaber.

Thanks a lot! Yeah, I was actually trying to set up Kontakt Player in FL Studio with no success yet. I've found some routing tutorials, but those sounded like more advanced stuff. I haven't been able to run it "embedded" in FL Studio as I think I've seen some people do.

One main question is: am I supposed to run it outside and route FL Studio output to it (as MIDI output)? Or is tighter integration possible?

[Nabeel Ansari]

One main question is: am I supposed to run it outside and route FL Studio output to it (as MIDI output)? Or is tighter integration possible?

Rather than me typing up the whole "how-to" here with screenshots and the works, it would be easier if we went on an instant messenger or skype so I could show it to you. It's a long process to explain, but once you know how to do it you can get it in less than 20 seconds. I might type up a mini-guide so I can just point people there.

Short answer is yes, there is a really tight, simple way to do it.

[ectogemia]

type up a mini-guide

DO IT. FOR ME.

please.

[Nabeel Ansari]

DO IT. FOR ME.

please.

X_Xbleargh

[kalessin]

Rather than me typing up the whole "how-to" here with screenshots and the works, it would be easier if we went on an instant messenger or skype so I could show it to you. It's a long process to explain, but once you know how to do it you can get it in less than 20 seconds. I might type up a mini-guide so I can just point people there.

Short answer is yes, there is a really tight, simple way to do it.

All right, pulling the trigger on Kontakt in a minute. If you haven't started writing the guide and don't feel like it, if you help me I can try writing it up myself for others afterwards

[kalessin]

All right, so Neblix helped me set it up, big thanks to him!

I was just following instructions, but here's what we did:

1. In FL Studio add Kontakt channel (Channels->Add one->Kontakt). I you don't see Kontakt on the list, go to More... in the same menu on top of the list instead, find Kontakt on the list and check them out. You should be able to see it in the "Add one" list now.

2. Kontakt will open in a Fruity Wrapper window (may take some time before it opens).

3. Click on the small gear button at the top left of that window ("Wrapping settings"). It will switch to a settings view. In settings tab, set Input port and Output port to 0 and 1, respectively. Go to processing tab and click auto map outputs.

4. Click on the gear button again to go back to main kontakt window.

5. In the middle of the window, there will be an "Outputs" area (the one with sliders). Click Add Channels there and add as many channels as you need. New sliders should appear, named "st.1", "st. 2", etc.

6. For each of those, below the sliders you will see for st. 1 a button with "1|2" on it. Others will have "-|-" on them. Click the first "-|-" button. A "channel output configuration" window will pop up.

7. Click on "not connected" lines in that window and choose outputs matching the name of the channel, so e.g. for channel name st. 2 choose Kt. st 2 [1] and Kt. st. 2 [2]. Click OK. Repeat for all the "-|-" buttons.

8. Add some instruments to the middle window (Multi Rack) in Kontakt main window. I just dragged a few there from the list on the left. When you look at the added windows, they will say "Output: st. 1", "Midi Ch. [A] 1" for the first one, "Output: st. 2", "Midi Ch. [A] 2" for the second, etc. You might need to change "st." for new instruments.

9. Add a new "MIDI out" channel to the Pattern window in the main FL Studio view. Left-click on it in the Pattern window and make sure the channel is set to the instrument you want for that channel (compare to channel number on each instrument in Kontakt window).

10. Click on "Kontakt 5" in the step sequencer again. In "channel settings" (the smaller window, not Kontakt window, the Kontakt window may be covering it up), in top right, there is going to be FX control. Set it to 1.

11. Now if you play on the mini-keyboard for each channel in FL Studio, you should hear the correct instrument. If you look at the Mixer, you will see the Insert 1 play for the first channel, if you switch to another channel, the Insert corresponding to it should show output. If not, make sure you selected FX for main Kontakt channel, assigned all instruments to separate "st. n" and auto-mapped outputs.

[Nabeel Ansari]

All right, so Neblix helped me set it up, big thanks to him!

I was just following instructions, but here's what we did:

1. In FL Studio add Kontakt channel (Channels->Add one->Kontakt). I you don't see Kontakt on the list, go to More... in the same menu on top of the list instead, find Kontakt on the list and check them out. You should be able to see it in the "Add one" list now.

2. Kontakt will open in a Fruity Wrapper window (may take some time before it opens).

3. Click on the small gear button at the top left of that window ("Wrapping settings"). It will switch to a settings view. In settings tab, set Input port and Output port to 0 and 1, respectively. Go to processing tab and click auto map outputs.

4. Click on the gear button again to go back to main kontakt window.

5. In the middle of the window, there will be an "Outputs" area (the one with sliders). Click Add Channels there and add as many channels as you need. New sliders should appear, named "st.1", "st. 2", etc.

6. For each of those, below the sliders you will see for st. 1 a button with "1|2" on it. Others will have "-|-" on them. Click the first "-|-" button. A "channel output configuration" window will pop up.

7. Click on "not connected" lines in that window and choose outputs matching the name of the channel, so e.g. for channel name st. 2 choose Kt. st 2 [1] and Kt. st. 2 [2]. Click OK. Repeat for all the "-|-" buttons.

8. Add some instruments to the middle window (Multi Rack) in Kontakt main window. I just dragged a few there from the list on the left. When you look at the added windows, they will say "Output: st. 1", "Midi Ch. [A] 1" for the first one, "Output: st. 2", "Midi Ch. [A] 2" for the second, etc. You might need to change "st." for new instruments.

9. Add a new "MIDI out" channel to the Pattern window in the main FL Studio view. Left-click on it in the Pattern window and make sure the channel is set to the instrument you want for that channel (compare to channel number on each instrument in Kontakt window).

10. Click on "Kontakt 5" in the step sequencer again. In "channel settings" (the smaller window, not Kontakt window, the Kontakt window may be covering it up), in top right, there is going to be FX control. Set it to 1.

11. Now if you play on the mini-keyboard for each channel in FL Studio, you should hear the correct instrument. If you look at the Mixer, you will see the Insert 1 play for the first channel, if you switch to another channel, the Insert corresponding to it should show output. If not, make sure you selected FX for main Kontakt channel, assigned all instruments to separate "st. n" and auto-mapped outputs.

This is good.

I'll be writing a full guide w/ screenshots soon.

[Cash]

This will be really useful once Kontakt 5 is delivered to me, thanks guys!

[Nabeel Ansari]

Mostly Done