PavlovsCat Posted August 30, 2023 Share Posted August 30, 2023 (edited) I created a list of recommended free sample libraries that play on free sample player plugins to help those on a very limited budget. It led to a number of people asking me if I could do a similar list for KONTAKT libraries. But this list is a bit different. I wanted the other one to cover all of the bases so that someone who was flat broke could find a library they wanted of almost any kind. This list reflects the free KONTAKT libraries that I like enough that even though I own paid libraries for the same kind of instrument, I still find the freebie worth keeping. Most of these samples libraries are for the full version of KONTAKT. Libraries with an asterisk are KONTAKT Player libraries. I put this together quickly after @ralfrobert asked if I could put together a list with ten or so of my favorite KONTAKT freebie libraries based on the list I put together for free sample players. Consequently, I realize there are a lot of libraries that I have that I couldn't think of here that I will come back to add later. But these were the first that came to mind. I invite others to comment with their own favorite free sample libraries for KONTAKT -- I'll modify the title if others join so that it doesn't merely refer to me but states something like "OUR FAVORITE FREE SAMPLES LIBRARIES FOR KONTAKT." If you add your favorites in this thread, it would be great if you could tell people the reasons why you like a library. I haven't done that perfectly below, but will come back and update this thread, as I wanted to get this out as soon as I could. Hopefully, all of us will end up learning about new, inspiring, totally free libraries for KONTAKT as a result. PIANO 8Dio 1928 Scoring Grand - - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!! There simply isn't premium piano library with this quality and similar specifications for KONTAKT that is availabe for free anywhere else; the closest anyone comes is SonicCouture's Hammersmith FREE (which is also very much worth having). The 1928 Scoring Grand is deep sampled library (okay, I'm not crazy about that phrase, I'd say, a highly detailed sample library) with extensive velocity layers, round-robin based sustains and round-robin based staccatos, two mic positions, some very nice convolution reverb IRs, 23 presets. This extensively sampled 1928 Steinway grand piano sample library simply is unmatched when it comes to detail and capabilities for a free sample piano library for KONTAKT. Developers simply don't giveaway libraries with this amount of detail (if you have found otherwise, please post and provide a link). Commonly, a developer's free libraries are a cut down version of a paid library. This is a premiium, 10.7GB library the developer previously charged $249 USD for (I've seen it on sale for as low as $49 USD prior to this; it's also available for free in SoundPaint format). https://8dio.com/products/1928-scoring-piano?variant=41309999792328 SonicCoture Hammersmith Free (KONTAKT Player) - - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!! IMO, the Hammersmith Free is the other must have acoustic grand piano freebie (the only reason not to download and install this is if you own the full paid version). It's not as extensively sampled as the 8Dio Scoring Grand, for a free piano sample library, before 8Dio released the 1928 Scoring Grand, there was no other free piano sample library for KONTAKT -- or any other sampler -- at the same quality and detail level of the Hammersmith Free. The sampled piano is a Steinway Model D grand piano. It lacks real sustain pedal samples and multiple mic positions, but it sounds great, and if you're comparing it to other free piano libraries, you really won't find any others except for 8Dio, with this level of detail. 21 velocity layers and 4.8 GB. https://www.soniccouture.com/en/products/p322-hammersmith-free/ Heaviocity Foundations: Piano* - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!! Like just about all free pianos, there aren’t many velocity layers, but it sounds good and what’s really good about this are the snapshots and the effects, like the built-in arpeggiator. https://heavyocity.com/product-category/foundations/ Strezov The Creative Toolbox Piano* A lovely Steinway grand piano. https://www.strezov-sampling.com/products/view/the-creative-toolbox-piano.html Isolation Tubes and Tape Piano One of my favorite piano sample libraries on Pianobook. A Steinway Model O piano was sampled for this. https://www.pianobook.co.uk/packs/isolation-piano-tubes-tape/ Quarantine Piano A beautifully sampled Yamaha U3 upright piano. https://www.pianobook.co.uk/packs/quarantine-piano/ The Woodland Piano A Yamaha Upright piano with 4 articulations: normal, felt, muted and plucked. https://www.ockpii.com/instruments/woodland-piano Dan Keen The King’s Upright A lovely, soft upright piano. https://www.pianobook.co.uk/packs/the-kings-upright/ The Experience (Mason and Hamlin Grand Piano) Dore Mark has made a series of detailed piano sample libraries available on Pianobook that are at a very high quality level. But the character of this piano really just connects with me more than any of his others. https://www.pianobook.co.uk/packs/the-experience/ PREPARED PIANO Preparato Piano Free - - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!! This is an amazing prepared piano sample library. A reflection of how talented this young developer is. Great work and it’s truly surprising this is free. Try it and you’ll understand why I’m so fond of this developer (FTR, I don’t know him, I’m just a paying customer who loves his libraries and read about him at his site). https://www.xperimentaproject.com/preparato-piano-free/ Production Voices Death Piano - - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!! A superb prepated piano sample library. https://www.productionvoices.com/death-piano-le/ ELECTRIC PIANO Fracture Sounds: Blueprint Electric Keys (KONTAKT PLAYER LIBRARY) - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!! A beautiful, 1969 Rhodes Mark I Electric Piano library that's good enough to be a paid library. It allows you to adjust the key noise. It doesn't have a bunch of presets, but it lets you choose between direct input and amped and has controls for stereo spread, reverb, chorus, and atmosphere. It's pretty obvious to see the developer's rationale for giving this away free. Once you use it, you'll be interested in their other libraries. https://fracturesounds.com/product/blueprint-electric-keys/ ETI Roads A very detailed Rhodes MKII electric piano sample library. https://eti-roads.com/ Lo-fi Wurly Despite the name Lo-fi Wurly, this Wurltizer electric piano AKA Wurli/Wurly is a detailed sample library that sounds really nice, but unfortunately does have noise in it that a pro sample developer would have fixed. https://drive.google.com/file/d/15U99DL5BJdPAwj3SDOYvI2EPJ1_eaL8K/edit Premier Sound Factory Wurly G I want to put a caveat on this one, as I don’t love this sample library straight from the factory, however, I made my own user presets that I like a lot. So, if you spend a little effort, I think you can get some nice sounds of this, but I’m not in love with the sound straight out of the box. https://premiersoundfactory.com/wurly-premier-g/ ORGANS Sonuscore Pipe Organ “An E.M. Skinner pipe organ.” https://www.sonuscore.com/shop/free-pipe-organ/ Hunter’s Tonewheel Foundations A well-sampled and beautiful sounding Hammond organ with a controllable Leslie speaker (I grew up the son of a piano/organ/guitar teacher and played piano/organ/drums and we owned an organ and a Leslie along with a Wurli, piano and other instruments so I fell in love with these sounds very early on in life). https://www.pianobook.co.uk/packs/hunters-hammond-tonewheel-foundations/ The Leeds Town Hall Organ Take me to church. https://www.samplephonics.com/products/free/sampler-instruments/the-leeds-town-hall-organ Orange Tree Samples Melodica* Okay, this developer has been a client and is a friend, but Orange Tree Samples’ is also one of the most talented sample developers on the planet and is literally incapable of producing a bad sample library. If you like the sound of the Melodica, download this! https://www.orangetreesamples.com/products/indie-melodica GUITAR Heavyocity Nylon Guitar* A nylon stringed acoustic guitar. Very nice and delicate. https://heavyocity.com/product/foundations-nylon-guitar/ DRUMS & PERCUSSION Strezov The Creative Toolbox Drums and Percussion* A full drum kit with cymbals, a drum machine and percussion samples. The drum kit is nice, but it sounds really small like a picollo snare. It would fit well for R&B and hip hop, but I wouldn't use it for most rock situations. https://www.strezov-sampling.com/products/view/the-creative-toolbox-drums-and-percussion.html DS RCS Essential Demo It’s called a demo, but it’s a complete drum kit with cymbals and it’s a very good rock drum kit. https://www.redpackdrums.com/dsdrum-kontakt Heritage Percussion Assorted percussion -- shakers, claves, rattles, djembe… -- well recorded and highly usable. https://impactsoundworks.com/product/heritage-percussion/ 8Dio Cajon and Bongo I don't like a fair amount of the bongos sampled in this library, except for the bank labelled "Bongos 4." They sound really good and that is why this made my list. https://8dio.com/products/the-new-cajon Fruit Shake* - - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!! Contains four shakers. Very nicely recorded. https://insessionaudio.com/products/fruit-shake/ Red Room Audio Snaps, Claps, Stomps and Shouts I have a bunch of sample libraries of snaps, claps and stomps, but I most often use this one. It's epic! https://redroomaudio.com/product/snaps-claps-slaps-stomps-shouts/ ORCHESTRAL/STRINGS/BRASS Project Sam: The Free Orchestra* and "The Free Orchestra Part Two* - - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!! From the developer: "16 free cinematic instruments ranging from soft strings to thunderous drums; Includes sounds from our acclaimed Symphobia series." https://projectsam.com/libraries/the-free-orchestra/ https://projectsam.com/libraries/the-free-orchestra-2 Heavyocity: Staccato Strings* - - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!! Love it and it has an arpeggiator that's lots of fun. https://heavyocity.com/product-category/foundations/ Red Room Audio Palette Primary Colors - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!! Strings, woodwind, and brass ensembles. https://redroomaudio.com/product/palette-primary-colors/ Dan Keen: Soft String Spurs - - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!! Dan Keen creates some of my favorite sample libraries on Pianobook and this is probably my favorite of his. Really, it’s just beautiful. https://www.pianobook.co.uk/packs/soft-string-spurs/ Pocket Blakus Solo Cello - - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!! I own a bunch of paid solo cello libraries, but end up using this freebie a lot. One of my all time favorite freebie sample libraries. https://vstbuzz.com/freebies/pocketblakus-cello/ Dan Keen Solo Cello Spurs - - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!! I’m a sucker for strings, especially the cello. https://www.pianobook.co.uk/packs/solo-cello-spurs/ Strezov Afflatus Mimilist Violins - - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!! A beautiful violins section sample library, Excellent. https://www.strezov-sampling.com/products/view/afflatus-freebie.html TUNED PERCUSSION Frozen Glock A beautiful glockenspiel library. https://www.pianobook.co.uk/packs/frozen-glock/ Mister Rogers Celeste* - - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!! Yes, that trolly sound from Mister Rogers (if you’re an American and grew up in that era). But if you didn’t, it’s kind of a plain sounding celeste, but it has a certain charm. https://store.cinesamples.com/products/mister-rogers-celeste Toy Xylophone* What can I say, I love glockenspiels, xylophones and all sorts of tuned percussion. https://store.cinesamples.com/products/createseriestoyxylo Create Series Kalimba* There are a ton of free kalimba sample libraries on the interwebs. This is one of the good ones. https://store.cinesamples.com/products/createserieskalimba Tongue Drum* Beautiful tone. But I do wish it was more than 1 octave. Still, I love it. https://store.cinesamples.com/products/tonguedrum SonicCouture Music Boxes* - - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!! I’m a sucker for music boxes and this library contains two music boxes: one uses punched paper and the other an embossed metal cylinder. https://www.soniccouture.com/en/products/p43-music-boxes/ Soundiron Desk Bell - - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!! Don’t let the fact that they sampled a desk bell fool you into thinking this library isn’t special, it is. https://soundiron.com/collections/free/products/desk-bell Jonathan’s Glockenspiel A well sampled, very nice sounding one and half octave glockenspiel. https://vstbuzz.com/freebies/jonathans-glockenspiel/ Dave Hilowitz Reonator Glockenspiel It’s a different sounding glockenspiel that contains resonator bells, like orchestra bells and vibraphones have. https://www.decentsamples.com/product/resonator-glockenspiel-free/ 8Dio Smiley Drum This sounds like a tongue drum, and I think,technically, that it is a tongue drum. Noice! https://8dio.com/products/smiley-drum Deagan Vibraharp Vibraphone A beautiful sounding vibraphone that is nicely sampled by one of the most talented sample developers on Pianobook. It is as good as a commercial (paid) vibraphone sample library and I even like it better than some of the vibraphone sample libraries I've bought. https://www.pianobook.co.uk/packs/deagan-vibraharp-vibraphone/ Shulmerich Handbells A really beautiful set of Schulmerich handbells from samplist Jon Myer. https://www.pianobook.co.uk/packs/schulmerich-handbells/ Music Box DLX I'm a sucker for music box sample libraries and this is a very nice one that is as good as the paid music box sample libraries I own. https://www.pianobook.co.uk/packs/music-box-dlx/ Splash Sound Music Box The straight default music box sound on this is nice, but where this really shines is when you push the slider to double. https://splashsound.org/musicbox.html Spring Chimes - - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!! This library, which was created by combining 14 bells and metallophone libraries together (all free libraries from Pianobook) is pure magic. If playing this doesn't inspire you, I don't know what will. https://www.pianobook.co.uk/packs/spring-chimes/ VOCALS Heavyocity Emotive Choir* - - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!! “Evolving, sustained vowels and textures paired with a layer of our signature sound design.” https://heavyocity.com/product/emotive-choir/ SonicCoture Tape Choir* - - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!! They nailed the choir sound from 10CC’s “I’m Not In Love.” Yes, you can buy the real thing, fairly inexpensively from SampleTekk, but this free version does the job well at no cost. https://www.soniccouture.com/en/products/18-exclusive-free-content/p170-tape-choir/ Micah’s Choir by Cordaro Rodriguez - - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!! A beautiful, soulful solo male vocalist that you can play chords to make into a choir. I wish there was a commercial version of this. The developer (and musician) and singer are very, very talented individuals. https://www.pianobook.co.uk/packs/micahs-choir/ Embertone Arcane - - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!! This contains 5 small sample libraries, but the ones I like best are the vocal ones. https://www.embertone.com/instruments/arcane.php ALSO SEE Project Sam: The Free Orchestra under Orchestral SYNTH Various Retro Synths from Hollow Sun Like a lot of others, I suspect, I used to have these little friendly chats with Stephen Howell, the developer behind Hollow Sun. I was a customer, who sent him my bio and offered him free advice (not in exchange for NFRs, I just appreciated him as a developer I bought from and offered it completely free). Anyhow, we had a bunch of really nice chats and I thought he was a really nice guy who made some really nice synth libraries for KONTAKT back in the day. He gave away a series of synth libraries used by Gary Newman on his song "Cars." http://hollowsun.com/HS2/freepacks/index.htm ETHNIC World Color Clar Duduk* A well sampled and beautiful sounding duduk. https://www.evolutionseries.com/product/world-colors-clar-duduk/#:~:text=Welcome to World Colors Clar,a bit of worldly magic. TRONS Sinewavelab: Mellotron for KONTAKT I am a sucker for Tron sounds and I own the M-Tron Pro, Sonic Reality’s various Tron libraries (from Dave Kerzner), UVI Mello and a bunch of Tron KONTAKT libraries and this freebie is still worth having. It contains unlooped, 7 second samples of the following libraries: Combined Choir, GC3 Brass, M300A, M300B, MkII Brass, MkII Flute, MkII Violins, String Section, Woodwind 02 and Cello. https://sinewavelab.com/products/free-mellotron-library-for-kontakt/ SOUND DESIGN LIBRARIES KLANG by Cimematique Samples - - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!! Everything. I’ve downloaded all of their freebies and bought numerous paid libraries from the series and they’re just small sound design sample libraries that I think sound really good. https://klang.cologne/ An asterisk (*) denotes that the library plays in the free KONTAKT Player and does not require the full version of KONTAKT. Edited February 15 by PavlovsCat 7 6 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PavlovsCat Posted August 30, 2023 Author Share Posted August 30, 2023 (edited) Oops! I accidentally made this when trying to add some additional sample libraries to my original post. Oh well. For those who gave the original post a like, consider it a notification that I've added more libraries. Edited August 30, 2023 by PavlovsCat 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ralfrobert Posted August 30, 2023 Share Posted August 30, 2023 This is again epic. Thanks a lot. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niky Serrano Posted August 30, 2023 Share Posted August 30, 2023 1 hour ago, PavlovsCat said: Oops! I accidentally made this when trying to add some additional sample libraries to my original post. Oh well. For those who gave the original post a like, consider it a notification that I've added more libraries. Don't worry Is fine to have a new thread! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PavlovsCat Posted August 30, 2023 Author Share Posted August 30, 2023 This original song of mine features the following free instruments: (1) Pocket Blakus Solo Cello (it's the solo cello playing the melody during the intro) - Link in original post (2) Klang Guitar Harmonics - Link in original post to all Klang libraries. Direct link: https://cinematique-instruments.com/pages_instr_KLANG/instr_gharm.php (3) NI KOTO- This library was free for a limited time and not included in the above list because it's no longer available. (4) Spitfire Labs Mini Harp - This library was free for a limited time and not included in the above list because it's no longer available for KONTAKT, but I think it's part of their freebies in their own player. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niky Serrano Posted August 30, 2023 Share Posted August 30, 2023 4 minutes ago, PavlovsCat said: ... (3) NI KOTO- This library was free for a limited time and not included in the above list because it's no longer available. ... About NI KOTO, I think that the instrument is integrated now in a collection of Melodic and Percussion Instruments https://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/spotlight-collection/east-asia/melodic-instruments/ 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
audioschmaudio Posted August 30, 2023 Share Posted August 30, 2023 No Impact Soundworks Shreddage 3 Stratus Free in the guitars list? Is it not good? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fleer Posted August 30, 2023 Share Posted August 30, 2023 Great idea @PavlovsCat👍 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psionx Posted August 30, 2023 Share Posted August 30, 2023 Thanks @PavlovsCat for your time and effort. This is great 👍. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PavlovsCat Posted August 30, 2023 Author Share Posted August 30, 2023 (edited) On 8/30/2023 at 3:19 AM, audioschmaudio said: No Impact Soundworks Shreddage 3 Stratus Free in the guitars list? Is it not good? When comparing guitar sample libraries, I personally feel obligated to share my background. Because I have a lot of history in that space, having given several developers of guitar sample libraries advice over the years and having been closely involved in the ideation stage for the line as well as marketing strategy for Evolution, I feel the need to disclose my background and, understandably, some will write me off as to close with Orange Tree Samples (I'm also friends with other guitar sample library developers I've given advice to, like Andrea / Pettinhouse who has some freebies that should be on my list, but the truth is, I just haven't been using them, so I don't have them on the list right now). If you look at my other "Curated List" thread you'll find that both Shreddage and Ample Sound are on that list. Why? Because I wanted that list to be as comprehensive as possible to help someone who is completely without money find all types of musical instrument sample libraries. But, personally, I don't use either of those libraries. I've tried both and deleted them as I've found the comparable Orange Tree Samples (paid) libraries are vastly superior. So, as I'm very transparent about advising Orange Tree Samples and a number of other guitar sample library developers, I understand how many people will write me off as too biased to have a valid opinion. If that's how someone feels, that's okay, I would likely do that in the same circumstances. But here's why I think I still am able to maintain a level of balance in evaluating guitar sample libraries and remain as critical as if I didn't have that relationship. I've given advice to several guitar sample developers and count one of OTS' competitors (Andrea / Pettinhouse) as a friend. Andrea Aversa (Impact Soundworks, maker of Shreddage) and I even had a series of chats when in the early days of Shreddage and he told me that Evolution was his inspiration and considered it to be the best there is, but that he was never going to make a sample library as detailed; he wanted to focus on genre-specific guitar libraries that had things like chugs or recorded power chords that typified a genre that were easy to use and had the instant gratification factor as opposed to rivaling Evolution's level of realism/detail. And I think that Andrew has done that with Shreddage. I think it's decent for its intended purpose and market. But if you've been using Evolution libraries or Ample Sounds plugins and are a very discerning sampled guitar user -- and especially if you are a professional and comparing the various guitar sample libraries on the market, Shreddage will fall far short of the realism that you'll attain with Evolution or Ample Sounds; those are the two major players for ultra-realistic sampled guitar libraries. I think when you get to those two, the choice comes down to which workflow/plugin/scripting you find more intuitive and which guitar tones you prefer. Now, if you're just throwing a ton of distortion on the guitar and not paying attention to the details, that may not matter to you. Shreddage may work just fine for you. But I'm a critical enough user that it does matter to me. When I do use other guitar libraries in addition to OTS, it's for two reasons: (1) Rhythm guitar patterns. Evolution's engine is incredibly detailed. But when I'm in creative mode, I don't want to start using my mouse to click things and spending even 15 minutes to put together a realistic strumming pattern using an editor can really disrupt the creative flow, so instead, if I can't pull off a good enough performance playing Evolution live or using the strumming keys, I'll often turn to NI Session Guitarist Sunburst (a paid guitar library containing loops of rhythm guitar strumming patterns) for the rhythm guitar parts (not for single notes, riffs or leads). Sometimes I'll later replace them with a pattern using Evolution's strumming engine, but if they sound good enough, more often than not, I'll leave them in. (2) I'm looking for a very sound design guitar type library such as reverse samples, heavily treated samples; the kind of libraries that I've found Cinematique Instruments excels at that. There are other sound design guitar libraries I also use, including some freebies, but I want to go through them before adding them, as I only want the list to contain libraries I can strongly recommend. I included the Heavyocity Nylon Guitar even though Evolution's Nylon Acoustic library is incredibly more realistic because I just like the tone of the Heavyocity Nylon library and the arpeggiator and effects are creatively a real pleasure to play around with. IMO, Heavyocity is great at putting together inspiring libraries, so it made my list. In fact, every Heavyocity library I've ever tried has been really, really good. I love their libraries. Edited August 31, 2023 by PavlovsCat 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PavlovsCat Posted September 2, 2023 Author Share Posted September 2, 2023 I just added several additional libraries to my list, along with a track of mine I used the free libraries on as an example. 4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lionel Posted September 2, 2023 Share Posted September 2, 2023 Thanks so much for compiling this list @PavlovsCat I've never heard of a lot of these products. Can't wait to give them a go! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PavlovsCat Posted September 2, 2023 Author Share Posted September 2, 2023 (edited) 9 hours ago, Lionel said: Thanks so much for compiling this list @PavlovsCat I've never heard of a lot of these products. Can't wait to give them a go! That's great to know! There's a bunch more I'll be adding in the future. I know there's a lot of more obscure free libraries I like that I didn't put in. I tried to start with the more bread and butter stuff and plan to add the more unusual libraries in the near future. I again want to invite others to post their own favorite freebies for KONTAKT and we may find even more free libraries we enjoy. There's a ton of freebies out there. There's a ton of talented people out there. It just takes time to sift through them to find the real gems. While I don't have the patience or talent to make a great sample library, I do enjoy finding and using them and then sharing my experiences and what I've found inspires me with others. It's like finding a new great band or musical artist and sharing them with friends. It's truly enjoyable to share libraries that have brought me joy and inspiration with others in the hope that they'll also find the same. Edited September 2, 2023 by PavlovsCat 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott F. Thompson Posted February 14 Share Posted February 14 There’s a new FREE old or honkey tonk like piano at Dragon Magic. It’s also probably the only free sample library available that was recorded in a mid side fashion to really make options for spatial mixing…… It’s here: https://dragonmagicsamples.com/b/Alvqe 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PavlovsCat Posted February 14 Author Share Posted February 14 (edited) On 2/14/2024 at 4:18 AM, Scott F. Thompson said: There’s a new FREE old or honkey tonk like piano at Dragon Magic. It’s also probably the only free sample library available that was recorded in a mid side fashion to really make options for spatial mixing…… It’s here: https://dragonmagicsamples.com/b/Alvqe Hi, @Scott F. Thompson. I was listening to the demo on my phone and the piano sounded pretty good. There's not a lot of info about it. As you created the library, can you tell us a little more about it and tell us what version of KONTAKT is required? I'll download it and try it out when I can. Thanks, Peter Edited February 15 by PavlovsCat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starship Krupa Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 On 8/30/2023 at 9:06 AM, PavlovsCat said: spending even 15 minutes to put together a realistic strumming pattern using an editor can really disrupt the creative flow If you haven't tried the guitar strumming and picking patterns in Cakewalk's own arpeggiator, you should. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PavlovsCat Posted February 15 Author Share Posted February 15 (edited) 15 hours ago, Starship Krupa said: If you haven't tried the guitar strumming and picking patterns in Cakewalk's own arpeggiator, you should. I did use that a long time ago (literally probably 15 or so years ago). But I stopped using it after finding internal strummers in guitar VSTs -- first with RealGuitar and later with Orange Tree Samples Evolution libraries. I actually went to Greg (OTS founder) after he released his first guitar and bass libraries to share my thoughts on what I believe a virtual guitar plugin should do, greatly influenced from my experience with stuff like the Cakewalk CAL scripts, RealGuitar, Steinberg's Virtual Guitarist -- because I thought he could build a better version of that stuff and I wanted as a user, but as marketing strategy pro experienced in bringing products to market, I thought my expertise could help him in his business (that is, it would kill two birds with one stone; I'd get what was basically the product I wanted and he'd get a product for his company that was an innovation; at the time, I later chatted with folks from most of his competitors who tried to duplicate the Evolution line like Impact SoundWorks, Big Fish Audio and others that attempted to reverse engineer Evolution and privately acknowledged doing so to me. Anyhow, so flash forward and you'll find the strummer in Evolution libraries is light years beyond that Cakewalk arpeggiator. You can set the timing on a strum, you can use standard sustained notes, mutes, palm mutes, harmonics, chugs, scrapes... It's amazing, but the downside is that it probably takes 15-30 minutes to really understand what you can do with it, so it's not dead simple like starting with a loop-based strum player like Native Instruments Session Guitarists, but, of course, loop players are incredibly restrictive. That said, for someone where those libraries are out of their budget, I think the Cakewalk scripts are an option worth considering, although I still think the strummers connected to guitar libraries are far more realistic. I think the freebies from Ample Sounds include strumming. Edited February 15 by PavlovsCat 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PavlovsCat Posted February 15 Author Share Posted February 15 (edited) I've had a chance to check out @Scott F. Thompson's sampled honky tonk piano and wanted to share my thoughts. I really like the character of the piano that was sampled. It definitely has charm. This isn't a pristine sample library. There are some noises in some notes -- creaks (piano bench?), something mechanical -- but I don't really find that hurts the library for the intended style. The biggest downside of the library, IMO, is the lack of dynamics. I believe there are only two dynamic layers, so you can play this piano loud (forte) or really loud (fortissimo). The compressed (Zip) file for the library is 346MB. It's for the full version of KONTAKT. I don't know what minimum version is required. Hopefully, Scott will return and tell us. Edited February 15 by PavlovsCat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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