Issues with Kontakt 5

[VmusicV]

Hi,
I have Cubase Pro 8 running on a brand new Windows 10 box with an i7 sixth gen Intel processor and 16GB of ram and using only SSDs.


I just bought the full version of Kontact 5, and I am just infuriated as to how [place choice words here] terrible this software is:evil:

I've had so many problems. For example: In my VST Rack Instrument choices, I have three versions of Kontakt, one came as a trail with Cubase 8 Pro, One is Kontakt 5 with 8 outputs and the last is Kontakt 5 with 16 outputs. **IF I create more than 2 instances of Kontakt in the VST rack, the third instance won't work unless I use the versions with multiple outputs. [It only took 2 hours of my time to figure that out]

Another problem is when I play or adjust the VST instrument's parameters where the Kontakt VST window opens up, I get one volume. When I record and play back a MIDI track I get a much software volume, even after going through and adjusting everything to assure it's up as loud as it can go.

When you first add the VST Rack Instrument, the instrument track has its Solo or Mute button defaulted to Mute.

Finally the sounds are just crap. The violins sounds like cheap trumpets.

Kontakt is a TOTAL waste of money. I've lost 5 hours tonight of recording trying to get it to work and sound half way decent. I am infuriated.

Has anybody else had so many problems with Kontakt 5 ?????

[Romantique Tp]

People buy Kontakt for the third party libraries. The sounds it comes with are horrible and a huge waste of space.

If you wanted a big collection of good, usable sounds at a reasonable price you should have gone with Halion Sonic 2 or Halion 5. IMO, they sound way better than either the stock Kontakt library or Sampletank 3.

[PeppaPig]

People buy Kontakt for the third party libraries. The sounds it comes with are horrible and a huge waste of space.

If you wanted a big collection of good, usable sounds at a reasonable price you should have gone with Halion Sonic 2 or Halion 5. IMO, they sound way better than either the stock Kontakt library or Sampletank 3.

Oh come on! "horrible"? Really? People do tend to exaggerate sometimes! I find the standard Kontact instruments to be pretty good - however it's can be difficult to find space in the mix for sounds that may impress individually because they are so big and rich. The difference in sound quality between the two sets is marginal at most. Certainly compared to the rubbish romplers we had to put up with 20+ years ago - and there were plenty of brilliant records made with that rubbish! Also there are far more available third-party content sets for Kontact.

I had the same argument in reverse regarding Groove Agent's perceived poor sound quality - well I find it easy to mix GA drums with any track with minimal EQ cuts - where as some "better" sounding alternatives take up too much audio bandwidth. Neither are bad, it comes down to personal preference and one may suit a particular genre over another..

[jamusic]

Has anybody else had so many problems with Kontakt 5 ?????

Many of us have had troubles with Kontakt. I'm afraid to say that it's been a bit more common than I would like to see, but there have been a number of posts here about it.

Hi,
...I have three versions of Kontakt, one came as a trail with Cubase 8 Pro, One is Kontakt 5 with 8 outputs and the last is Kontakt 5 with 16 outputs. **IF I create more than 2 instances of Kontakt in the VST rack, the third instance won't work unless I use the versions with multiple outputs...

What do you mean, '...one came as a trail with Cubase 8 Pro...'?
You should have the option of a single instance, and the other 2 that you've mentioned, and be able to load in as many of them as your computer will handle, which, by the looks of things should be very many.

You should see:
Kontakt 5
Kontakt 5 - 8 Outs
Kontakt 5 - 16 Outs

...When you first add the VST Rack Instrument, the instrument track has its Solo or Mute button defaulted to Mute....

This is completely unusual behavior, which I haven't seen or heard of before.

I'm starting to think you may have a corrupt install going on there. Although it can be a huge pain in the arse, sometimes it's best to un/reinstall.

If you do, there are a few files that may need to be done manually afterwards before you reinstall it.