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Larry Shelby

By Larry Shelby
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PavlovsCat

PavlovsCat

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I have a few of their KONTAKT libraries and they're all very good. However, I stopped buying from them when they stopped making sample libraries for KONTAKT and switched to their own proprietary sample player. I really don't want another proprietary plugin to install,  learn and maintain, especially when they're from small, one man sample developer businesses. The reality is, while I love small sample developers, they don't always stick around and it's not unheard of that one here today will be gone in the next 5 years. Now, if they make libraries for KONTAKT or UVI, it's often not a problem -- I have KONTAKT libraries from 10 years ago that still work fine. But if they're making proprietary sample players, it's a different story. Plus, having their own proprietary sample player means one more plugin to install, learn, troubleshoot, update, and maintain. Again, it's nothing against this developer personally,  I like everything I have from him and never had any issues whatsoever. I just stopped buying from him when he switched to only making libraries for his own player. If he went back to KONTAKT, I'd happily consider his latest libraries. 

Of course, I realize not everyone will agree with me, especially those who don't own KONTAKT.  I'm just stating my perspective, which I know is shared by many other KONTAKT owners. 

Edited by PavlovsCat
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kitekrazy1

kitekrazy1

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1 hour ago, PavlovsCat said:

I have a few of their KONTAKT libraries and they're all very good. However, I stopped buying from them when they stopped making sample libraries for KONTAKT and switched to their own proprietary sample player. I really don't want another proprietary plugin to install,  learn and maintain, especially when they're from small, one man sample developer businesses. The reality is, while I love small sample developers, they don't always stick around and it's not unheard of that one here today will be gone in the next 5 years. Now, if they make libraries for KONTAKT or UVI, it's often not a problem -- I have KONTAKT libraries from 10 years ago that still work fine. But if they're making proprietary sample players, it's a different story. Plus, having their own proprietary sample player means one more plugin to install, learn, troubleshoot, update, and maintain. Again, it's nothing against this developer personally,  I like everything I have from him and never had any issues whatsoever. I just stopped buying from him when he switched to only making libraries for his own player. If he went back to KONTAKT, I'd happily consider his latest libraries. 

Of course, I realize not everyone will agree with me, especially those who don't own KONTAKT.  I'm just stating my perspective, which I know is shared by many other KONTAKT owners. 

Proprietary?  They are VSTs.  

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PavlovsCat

PavlovsCat

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5 hours ago, kitekrazy said:

Proprietary?  They are VSTs.  

I'm pretty sure that you know what I'm referring to. The developer previously made libraries that were formatted for KONTAKT  (NI's fornat) and has since stopped creating and updating those libraries and instead is solely offering updates and new libraries in their own exclusive (AKA proprietary) format encased in their sample player plugin. 

For customers who are KONTAKT owners, there are very good reasons for buying from developers that work in the KONTAKT ecosystem. Consider the user with over 100 sample libraries having to deal with dozens of small sample developers making their own plugins instead of writing them to an existing standard,  in this case, KONTAKT . That means dozens of additional plugins to download,  install,  learn, adjust to and maintain. That's A LOT of extra time spent that could be better used. 

Now if there are strongly compelling reasons for a sample developer to create their own plugin to deliver their sample library,  such as, existing samplers lack functionality that is a key to using the library,  I can understand it. But I own libraries from this developer and some others that make very simple libraries that don't have very sophisticated scripting or functionality and there's no compelling reason in that regard for creating their own sample player. From my experience speaking with developers who take that route, they most often do it because they believe it will result in a greater market share (that's almost always not the case when they abandon the sample library format and create their own plugin; sales tend to decline), they're unhappy with NI for various reasons (they often cite insufficient anti piracy measures, licensing costs for the KONTAKT PLAYER,  etc.) -- it's rarely done for a concern to deliver customers a better experience/ product. Anyhow, I've seen a number of small developers go this route and I don't think it's a good idea from a customer perspective or from a business perspective. That's all. 

Edited by PavlovsCat
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Brian Lawler

Brian Lawler

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On 7/26/2023 at 1:25 PM, kitekrazy said:

The file sizes are much smaller. Are they no longer sample based?

Good question.  No.  They are still sample based.  The Mirage engine auto-downloads your libraries, so the installer is the only initial engine install (about 12 meg IIRC).  If you get the engine(free) you will get one or two free libraries that you can install to try it out.  Only a few of the old Kontakt libs are available in Mirage format.  Frozen Strings was one I had on Kontakt and the upgrade was free.  My "Slow" Konakt lib cost $5 for the Mirage version.

Edited by Brian Lawler
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