Native Instruments Kontakt
Native Instruments' Kontakt is a software sampler, and one of the most consequential of its generation. The archive's own fact sheet on the original release is empty, so what's documented here comes almost entirely from period reviews of the versions that followed. Those reviews run from Kontakt 2 in 2005 through Kontakt 5 in 2013. The pattern is consistent: Kontakt kept getting better at the two things software samplers live or die by, file-format compatibility and workflow.
Mix (August 2005, p.108) reviewed Kontakt 2 as a significant software update. It highlighted the surround support and improved workflow, and singled out a new convolution processor in the effects suite. The processor loads impulse responses captured in real concert halls and echo chambers, for reverb and other effects. Sound on Sound (July 2005, p.82) noted that Kontakt had become one of the most popular software samplers since its release, and referenced version 1.0.2 in the lead-up to the version 2 update.
Kontakt 3 was priced at $449 list, with a $149 upgrade path from Kontakt 2. EQ (November 2007, p.17) summarized the update as a high-resolution audio engine, sound-shaping capabilities, NI's KSP script programming for custom instrument behavior, and universal sample-format compatibility. It also noted that Kontakt 3 shipped alongside Guitar Rig 3. A Sound on Sound test (January 2008, p.124) placed Kontakt 3 at "over five years" from the original's arrival, which puts the sampler in circulation since the early 2000s.
By the time Mix revisited the line (September 2013, p.41), Kontakt 5 was described as dominating the software sampler field. It was bundled in Komplete 9, with the Ultimate edition priced at $1,099. The exact launch date of the original Kontakt 1.0 is not pinned down in the sources here. The documented record starts, effectively, with version 1.0.2 and the version 2 update cycle.
Known from period reviews:
- Kontakt 2: surround support, improved workflow, convolution reverb with real-hall and echo-chamber impulse responses (Mix, Aug 2005).
- Kontakt 3: $449 list / $149 upgrade from Kontakt 2; high-resolution audio engine, KSP scripting, universal sample-format compatibility, bundled Guitar Rig 3 (EQ, Nov 2007).
- Kontakt 5: described as dominating the software sampler field (Mix, Sep 2013).
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