Kontakt 4.2 public beta
Native Instruments has announced the release of Kontakt 4.2 public beta, the latest version of its flagship sampler instrument for Windows and Mac.
The upcoming free KONTAKT 4.2 update will bring a lot of enhancements, including a new and more efficient binary file format, zero-latency convolution, additional import formats as well as 64-bit VST and Rex file support under Mac OS X.
For this reason, the Kontakt team has decided to set up a public beta test. This means that, starting immediately, registered Kontakt 4 owners can download a fully functional 4.2 beta version, and submit eventual bug findings to the Kontakt team over a special “bug tracker” web page.
As a Kontakt user, your main motivation to join the public beta test should be to help make sure that version 4.2 is rock solid! This is a pre-release version and should be used with caution in performance-critical environments.
Registered Kontakt 4 owners may participate in the public beta by signing up at Native Instruments.
More information: Native Instruments / Kontakt 4.2 public beta
Native goes down the Abbey Road
This video was shot during the recording session of Abbey Road Modern Drums, a new Kontakt-based instrument that features highest quality contemporary drum sounds for modern pop and rock productions.
Native Instruments has released Abbey Road Modern Drums, a new instrument developed together with the iconic British recording studio.
Abbey Road Modern Drums complements the previous 60s, 70s and 80s installments, and is based on two renowned drum kits that are a staple of modern studio productions – a Drum Workshop Collector’s Series “White Kit” and a Pearl Reference “Sparkle Kit”.
Further expanded with various distinctive cymbals from Sabian and Zildjian as well as three snare drum options each, both kits were recorded in Abbey Road’s Studio Two and Studio Three, taking full advantage of the acoustic properties of these famous recording rooms.
Features:
- Utilizes both contemporary and vintage high-end recording equipment to achieve ultimate sound quality across all individual instruments of the kits.
- Over 40,000 samples, 24-bit, 44.1 kHz.
- 7.2 GB library size, using the new Kontakt 4 sample compression (17.4 GB uncompressed!)
- Up to 27 velocity layers for a single articulation.
- Up to 6 variations of drum hits at the same velocity for added realism.
- Additional compressed Mono Overhead and Mono Room samples for additional sound possibilities.
- Three snare options for each kit.
- Separate Right and Left hand samples for the most common Snare, Tom, and Hihat articulations.
- Snare Top/Bottom and Kick In/Out samples.
- Optional snare bleed samples for many drums.
- Includes a selection of different MIDI mappings accommodating the established layouts of various popular
electronic drum kits and third-party drum libraries. - Highly functional user interface offers convenient control over all articulation, sound shaping, mixing and routing functions. Advanced randomization can even add subtle nuances to the tone and timing to make it virtually indistinguishable from a studio-recorded drum performance.
Abbey Road Modern Drums is available now for US $119 / 99 EUR.
Holiday seasons means great deals
Here´s just one from Native Instruments
Native Instruments is running a limited time 50% off deal on their software:
Between November 25th and 29th, 2010, you can save 50% on all* individual KOMPLETE Instruments & Effects in our Online Shop! Choose from 70 professional products like our brand-new sound controlled synth – THE MOUTH, exclusive keyboard phrases with GEORGE DUKE SOUL TREASURES, the essential ABBEY ROAD DRUMS series, and even hardware like KORE 2 and GUITAR RIG KONTROL.
Sounds like a great deal – unless you bought NI software recently. Details at the NI site.
Machine will get AU and Plug-in support
Some good news from Native Instruments coming your way, that is if you are a Machine user of course
Hi all,
I can finally break the news to you about the biggest feature that will come to Maschine in the next free update – which is plugin hosting!
So, according to popular demand, the upcoming 1.6 version will allow you to use VST and AU plugins as sound sources and effects in your Maschine project. This includes both the whole NI range of instruments and effects as well as any third-party plugin.
Check the screenshot for an idea of how this will look like. Instrument plugins can be used in any sound channel, and effect plugins can be inserted on both the sound and group channels as well as on the master.
Obviously the addition of plugin hosting requires quite a bit of development and testing. Regarding the timing of the release – version 1.6 is about to go into internal beta testing this month, and we are currently planning to make it available to you through a public beta test in January, with the final release probably coming up around two months later. As always, these are projected dates that can still change a bit.
Plugin hosting is the most prominent feature addition in 1.6, but there will be quite some more useful things being added with that update. Look forward to the coming weeks when we will post more details about Maschine 1.6!
Regards, Thomas”
Native’s Maschine in action
David “Fingers” Haynes demonstrates his drumming skills on Native Instruments’ Maschine.
DHaynesakafingerrs playing the native Instruments “Maschine” live.
The Mouth from Native is here
Native Instruments has introduced The Mouth, a new Reaktor effect that can create melodies and sounds based on an audio signal:
Sing, beatbox or send a drum loop into it and The Mouth comes to life as a tweakable synthesizer, bass, vocoder or talkbox-like effect. A playful interface provides you with plenty of room to shape your results as you go.
NI’s The Mouth can be used stand-alone or as a plug-in. It retails for .
The Mouth for Reaktor and Reaktor Player is available to purchase for $79/69 EUR.
Preview below. See the NI site for more details.
Features:
- 118 synthesizer & multi effects.
- 4 generators: Input (with a choice of the raw input audio, or a ‘tuned’ version), Synth, Bass and Vocoder.
- Each generator comes with numerous different sounds easily selectable via a preset matrix in the interface.
- 5 faders in a simple mixer section, which also includes a master FX section for coloring the final mix.
- 8 Performance Control knobs alter both sound and amplitude envelopes at once, for easily shaping the character of the sound, and adding additional harmonies.
- ‘Beats Mode’ will process incoming drum patterns into interesting arpeggiated melodies.
NI´s Battery in action
New demo on how to use Native Instruments Battery for sound design. Erik Anton shows e.g. building a palette of sounds in the sampler, grouping sounds, tweaking them, assigning different trigger options, layering, etc.
This is a demonstration of how this software can be very useful for sound design work. I did it because I would like to return the effort that Miguel Isaza is doing in his blog “Designing Sound” that has been an inspiration to many of us.
Native Instruments are at it again with the legend of George Duke
Native Instruments today introduced GEORGE DUKE SOUL TREASURES, a new software instrument that makes the charismatic keyboard work of soul legend George Duke available for any music production. Based on advanced KONTAKT sampling technology, the instrument provides over 500 exclusive licks that can be easily tweaked and re-arranged to suit any musical context, providing an inspirational resource of royalty-free melodic elements for Hip Hop, R&B, Soul, Funk, Disco, House and similar genres.
GEORGE DUKE SOUL TREASURES captures the unique musical style of a living legend of the American jazz and soul scene, whose distinctive funky and soulful licks have been sampled relentlessly in recent and contemporary urban and dance music. Together with his sound engineer Erik Zobler, George Duke has recorded over 500 original keyboard phrases on his personal grand piano, electric piano, Wurlitzer and clavinet models exclusively for his signature software instrument.
GEORGE DUKE SOUL TREASURES can be used both with the free KONTAKT PLAYER and in the full-featured KONTAKT 4 software sampler. Due to the advanced slicing and time-stretching functions in KONTAKT, all loops automatically sync to the song tempo of the sequencer, and can be modulated, re-pitched, and even completely re-arranged in real-time via an intuitive keyboard trigger scheme.
For creative sound mangling, various multi-effect chains can be activated through the keyboard on the fly, with a flexible filter section and a studio-grade convolution reverb offering further sound shaping options. Every lick in GEORGE DUKE SOUL TREASURES is also available in an additional “Tubes & Tape” version that was processed through a sophisticated analog recording chain at George Duke’s studio, resulting in an even grittier authentic vintage sound.
GEORGE DUKE SOUL TREASURES is available for purchase in the NI Online Shop on DVD and as a download for $119.
Native Instruments feature Jeremy Ellis
Jeremy Ellis, an acclaimed master on the 16 pads, delivers a stellar Maschine performance from the rooftops of LA!
New sample library for Native Instruments Kontakt
TeamDNR has announced Ammunition, a sample library for Native Instruments Kontakt.
We’re getting ready to release our new drum library, called Ammunition for Kontakt 4+ and we’ve put together a few demos and a teaser video which we’ll post here over the next few days.
Our aim with this project was to create a package of fundamental drum sounds and focus on layering and building the sounds within Kontakt, all around a 10MB download.
TeamDNR is offering a chance to win Ammunition until 10 October, 2010.
Go to our Facebook page and post a message on our wall, or to our Twitter profile and retweet our last post, and you’ll automatically be entered to win a copy of our new drum library.
Check the KVR Audio for details.
DATAMASKIN
