sarine

It'll all go on a sale again, it'll be discounted, you can get it cheap... Again and again. If you wonder what is all the fuss about, consider the possibility that the answer is "nothing". You're not a squirrel, winter is not coming, and iZotope's Music Production Suite is not the most enormous mountain of nuts you've ever seen. 👻

It's a very narrow definition though. That one's relationship with an area of interest or a domain of knowledge or skill is that of an amateur does not necessarily mean they lack "real" commitment or knowledge - it could merely indicate lack of formal education and professionalism. An amateur was originally somebody who delved into things out of love (literally), and perhaps most renaissance polymaths would identify more as being all-around amateurs as opposed to the single-minded narrow sector professionals of our time. The depth and breadth of our knowledge was that much humbler back then too, that "mastering" various different fields wasn't as gargantuan an effort as it would be today. The line between an amateur and a professional was likely rather arbitrary too, aside from certificates, recommendations and inherited baseline wealth. I think there is a useful distinction that can be made between a casual dabbler and an "amateur/dilettante" who is passionate about and self-learned in something where their activity is not rewarded with money, but personal fulfillment. I suspect the answer to your question is "quite a few"..!

Don't you think your jumping to conclusion that I'm new to virtual instruments is a bit unwarranted simply on the basis that I'm not familiar with a particular GUI which I've already explicitly mentioned not to use? You speak of the Kontakt GUI like being familiar with it was an indicator of level of literacy even with someone who specifically does not use them, at all. I already know about the difference between the Full and Free Kontakt versions because the inequality has been made very clear in text on various product pages. The GUI elements however are not always visible [enough] that I would've picked up on them simply by ending up on the pages, and my first instinct is to search for the text "Kontakt" and not inspect in detail screenshots of a product that I probably won't be using. In this thread we have two people who don't use Kontakt and out of that admittedly small sample size 100% didn't recognize Kontakt from visual cues. Maybe instead of ranting at length about how they should [recognize software they don't use], you might as well stop to think that maybe Kontakt is not as relevant outside the Kontakt bubble as you think, and adjust accordingly. Worth noting also; if the dependence on Kontakt had been made more clear on every ad/commercial/link, I'd have had even less chance at figuring out the visual cues, in light of which your arguing for our VI-illiteracy makes little sense. I also have AD/HD so even if I saw those GUI elements a thousand times, I might notice them only one or two times, because even when they are shown there are a million other little knobs, buttons and faders, not to mention the decorative graphics, in all the colors of the rainbow, competing for my attention. But now I do know indeed, so thank you for actually answering the question.

Alright, but I don't know "what Kontakt looks like" either. In the screenshot in OP what are the tell signs of Kontakt? All Kontakt instruments look different to me, mostly it's the toyish GUI design that gives them away, but I always have to guess (until reading the product page). I have a similar frustration with Kontakt instruments because I don't use them either, they're mostly not very interesting to me, I probably won't be getting Kontakt in the foreseeable future, and because it's so ubiquitous oftentimes I have to dig for the fact that what's being sold is actually a Kontakt instrument. Just saying.