PavlovsCat Posted August 30, 2023 Share Posted August 30, 2023 (edited) Best FREE Kontakt Libraries - A Curated List of More Than 100 Reviewed and Recommended Free Sample Instruments for the Full Version of Kontakt and Kontakt Player (Updated June 2024) I am not in agreement the new policies and practices of BandLab, am moving away from their software. Consequently. I will not be participating in this forum moving forward and have removed this content from the Cakewalk Forum and will be providing it on my own site (launching mid August 2024; it's my user name with a dot com at the end) where I can regularly update it. You can PM me for information on the new location of this list. Edited August 1 by LinkedMusicians Added more libraries to the post. 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 post 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 May 7 by PavlovsCat 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 (edited) This space intentionally left blank. Edited May 7 by PavlovsCat 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? I find Ample Sounds guitar libraries to be superior to Impact Soundworks guitar libraries. I personally didn't find this, but an audio expert friend of mine told me that one of the Impact Soundworks Shreddage libraries contains a television on in the background if you turn up the volume on the individual samples. Dead serious. In any event, the developer and his employees engage in practices I do not believe are ethical, like his employees talking up Impact Soundworks on VI Control without mentioning they work for Impact Soundworks or attacking an Impact Soundworks competitor without specifying they work for a competitor -- and having their boss participate in the same thread. Consequently, I cannot, in good conscience recommend Impact Soundworks libraries or Impact Soundworks as a developer. Besides, Ample Sounds are superior guitar libraries to Impact Soundworks libraries. While they're not in the Kontakt format, they do come with a free player and it installed flawlessly on my machine and for many other users. I've always found the rep from Ample Sounds who posts in this forum to be a decent person (I don't know him, but he behaves as a very good community member -- a class act). IMO, the two sample developers who make the most advanced guitar libraries are Orange Tree Samples and Ample Sounds. I've disclosed it a bunch of times, but I've given consulting advice to around 3 dozen sample developers, including developers who make guitar sample libraries including Orange Tree Samples, Pettinhouse, 8Dio and others. I'm merely stating my personal opinion as a sample library user. For a free sample based guitar library, Ample Sounds is the best there is and the quality for their free guitar plugins is at a level that is beyond many other developers paid guitar libraries. Edited June 22 by PavlovsCat 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. 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 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 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...
PavlovsCat Posted May 7 Author Share Posted May 7 (edited) I just added several free KONTAKT libraries that I love to the original post (most of them have my highest recommendation). I put the newly added libraries at the top of their respective instrument categories. The newly added libraries include strings, synths, tuned percussion, vocals, and an organ. It's truly amazing how good some of these free libraries are. Some of these libraries were previously commercial / for sale libraries the developer has since made free. I hope you find this useful -- better yet, I hope you find a new sample instrument that you love. A reminder, if you have favorite free KONTAKT libraries you want to add, please share in a post. If I agree, I'll add it to my list too. Edited May 7 by PavlovsCat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
satya Posted May 8 Share Posted May 8 U Should also add Dreamer its really good i think , do check and give your suggestion @PavlovsCat https://www.dreamdatedesigns.net/pages/dreamer-instrument 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Please sign in to comment
You will be able to leave a comment after signing in
Sign In Now