Native Instruments Kontakt 2 is favourably reviewed by Keyboard magazine. They write: “Only at version 2, Kontakt is arguably the most flexible, creative, and usable sampler to take up residence on our hard drive since software instruments first became viable alternatives to hardware.”

They describe the Kontakt Script Processor, which lets you program the way samples are played. This enables very complex behaviour; for example, Kontakt 2 comes with a guitar instrument that uses KSP to switch amongst the many samples to allow for things like fingering and strumming direction automatically. As they say, “it’s scary how well KSP works.”

The included convolution reverb function is predictably “fantastic”. The other basic functions of this sampler are also impressive. You can change a sample’s pitch or remove it entirely, timestretch, and slice beats all within Kontakt 2. The only cautionary note was to do with importing samples: “Non-native format conversion largely depends on the source material. In other words, your mileage may vary. But with over 30 formats supported, Kontakt 2 is still way ahead of the pack here.”

Overall they are impressed with Kontakt 2. “Whether you’re a sound designer, composer, producer, or synthesist, there’s a lot to love about Kontakt. No other software sampler puts it all together quite like K2. Combining cross-platform compatibility, multiple sample-playback modes, high-quality built-in effects, powerhouse multitimbral capabilities, support for a variety of non-native sampler formats, intelligent MIDI processing, and much more, K2 is in a class of its own.”

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