Kontakt vs Sampler

[Mister Natural]

Kontakt seems to be the industry standard - at least for those without LIVE.
Seems like there are 44 thousand third party "instruments" are out there specifically for K

However K is $400 and Sampler would be $99 for me

What think you ?

[Tarekith]

I think if you want an in depth and configurable sampler with a ton of content available.... Well, you already know that answer.

How much do you plan on using a sampler? Do you use a lot of other third party plug ins?

[Mister Natural]

mad respect for your work Erik

I always use in my projects Alchemy, Z3ta2, UltraAnalog2, DimensionPro, Geist, uTonic and occasionally Rapture. Native Operator also gets a lot of love here.
I kinda want to explore more "warped" sampled sounds and think that one of these Samplers might be total fun . . . but I'm a cheap bastard

[antarktika]

I'd say if you do go for Kontakt, spend the extra hundred bucks for Komplete 10, it's a bit more money, but an insanely better deal.

[Tarekith]

Not a bad bit of advice.

[TomViolenz]

If you want a sampler that plays lots of premade multisampled content with often great looking GUIs you want Kontakt (but for that use case the free Player would be sufficient).

If you want that, plus the ability to look behind the scenes in all these patches and remake them according to your wishes. Buy the Kontakt instrument.
(Seriously it's like owning a vst, that you can just look into how it's made and change almost anything about it )

If you want a great lightweight sampler, that has lots of really cool sound mangling options (an extra OSC section, a SampleSelector for use as 128s etc.). All of this perfectly integrated into Live and with full representation of (almost) every parameter on Push. Get Sampler.

Kontakt is also insanly good for sound shaping. BUT these sections of Kontakt are not very user friendly and accessible. But if you are into really advanced stuff Kontakt can get you even further, since it has its own build in scripting language, sound effects, audio routing options, step sequencer and Arp etc.

If it was me (always being tight) I would get Sampler plus Kontakt Player (for the great libraries) first and think about upgrading to the full Kontakt later.
I have both now and still use both samplers about equally, for quite different use cases.

[mrdelurk]

The issue with Kontakt Player is that a lot of sample libraries won't work with it, they require the full version of Kontakt 5. If Kontakt Player could play those, then buying something like this $49 Komplete Elements set on eBay would be an awesome deal, but - no such luck.

The full version Kontakt 5 first appeared in Komplete 8, so if you keep scouting for deals, perhaps it's possible to snag an older, full (Version 8 or 9) Komplete for less. As far as my experience, I have one of these older Kompletes and - after trying every single patch in all of its programs, I only use Kontakt of the whole shebang anyway because most of the other things sound unpleasant to my ears. I know, dubstep is the rage nowadays, but frankly, if I ever need to record a jarring screech, instead of d*cking around with software, I'll just turn on a $30 circular saw and solo a board in half. Yay!

About Ableton's Sampler, I personally avoid it. The last time I moved my Sampler library, it would have taken 5000+ hours to relink the sample files. I stopped using Sampler right then and there for my go-to sounds. I do play the occasional Ableton drum kit in it when I need extra options beyond Simpler (more elaborate pitch bending, reversing etc.) but by and large I don't use Sampler. So, all in all, the full version of Kontakt seems to be the name of the game, but it takes a bit of looking around to find a good deal on it.

[alba63]

So, all in all, the full version of Kontakt seems to be the name of the game, but it takes a bit of looking around to find a good deal on it.

There is no better deal than Komplete 10. I purchased first a used (and cheap) Komplete 90, with license transfer, than a used update to K10, now I bought the summer deals (-50%) on ultimate.

Yes Komplete Ultimate 10 is overkill, but noone needs to install everything. Komplete 10 (ultimate) is almost everything one needs for years to come. One can try out one VST first - say Monark or FM8 - then learn to use it. Add an effect like an EQ next, then go for Kontakt. I currently use Kontakt to load my 10 year old sampler sounds I first created in my EMU hardware sampler. Kontakt 5 has very interesting new filters. I also use a piano library sometime, plus one of the recent synths.

But I never get lost in those 17.000 sounds, actually more, because I also have Sylenth, Minimonsta and 1-2 more synths.

Basically one can do lots of things with Ableton 9 Suite alone, but sometimes it is fun to experiment with a new Soundpack etc. And fun is good for you

But everone is different and having loads of choices does not work for everyone. I used to prefer minimalism, and I still only use a handfull of sounds, and just don't browse through 3000 sounds when I look for something.

[beats me]

Also keep in mind you might want to try other DAWs in the future, although I see you’ve managed to avoid that since at least 2007. Sampler you can only use in Live. Kontakt you can use in any DAW.

[deva]

I'd say if you do go for Kontakt, spend the extra hundred bucks for Komplete 10, it's a bit more money, but an insanely better deal.

Why do people always say this? Sometimes a person just needs one more tool specifically. Going for Komplete gives you an overwhelming amount of options and filler material and can even be detrimental to your workflow. Sometimes you need less options and less of hundreds of thousands of sounds to go through.

Be wary of the rabbit hole that is Komplete is what I am saying. No matter how 'good' the deal seems. To many options can Kompletely murder your workflow.

Komplete was so cheap, that I purchased it. Then I only installed the bits that I wanted. Nothing says one has to just install everything.

[kitekrazy]

Not many sound libraries for Sampler compared to Kontakt. Sampler is not even in the same league as far a creating instruments.

[TomViolenz]

Let's slow down on the Sampler bashing. I think if you mainly work in Live it's still a good investment. I really quite like it.

But yeah, Kontakt and Sampler don't even really play the same ball game, so comparing their stats in the league doesn't make a whole lot of sense.