Kontakt is a sample playback engine manufactured by Native Instruments. Sample library developers such as Spitfire Audio, develop sample libraries that run inside of this sample playback engine.
There are two versions of Kontakt:
- Kontakt
- Kontakt Player (FREE)
Click HERE to see how to tell these versions apart on your system if you are not sure which you have.
Kontakt Player
This version of Kontakt is available to download for free HERE. It works with libraries that the developer has paid a license fee for. It will not load sample libraries which have no serial number.
Kontakt Player gives you full access to all the sounds in the library that you have purchased, and all the editable parameters on the front panel.
When authorised with the licence, these libraries will also be available to load from the Kontakt Libraries pane.
Kontakt Full
If you want to go deeper into editing individuals samples in a patch you’ll need a full paid for version of Kontakt.
If the library you want to use is NOT a 'Player' library, then you need to buy the full retail version of Kontakt.
Non-Player library instruments will not appear in the Kontakt libraries pane and will not need to be authorized in Native Access as Player libraries need to be. Instead, these libraries will need to be loaded via the Kontakt files browser like this; you can also add the library as a favourite to the Kontakt Quick Load window. Instruction on how to set up Quick Load can be found HERE.
If you already own the free Kontakt player and have bought one of our 'player' libraries you will be eligible for a discount upgrade to Kontakt via the NI website. See HERE for more details.