Native Instruments has announced the release of Kontakt 6.2, an update to its industry-standard sampling platform.

The update includes a collection of new builder features that enables the creation of advanced instruments that allow users to drag and drop samples, MIDI files, and arrays onto an instrument’s user interface.

KONTAKT 6.2 has landed, with some fresh new features: You can now drag and drop samples into supported instruments to use your own sounds. There are new chorus, flanger, and phaser effects inherited from MOD PACK, and for instrument builders, Creator Tools has been given some love to make the creation process easier than ever.

Changes in Kontakt 6/2

  • Added: There are now three new state of the art modulation effects (Choral, Flair & Phasis).
  • Added KSP: There is a new type of zone that can be created and is fully accessible from KSP, allowing for dynamic mapping of samples, including end-user ones (set_num_user_zones(), set_sample(), set_zone_par(), set_loop_par() & is_zone_empty()).
  • Added KSP: All zone parameters can now be read from KSP (get_sample(), get_zone_par() & get_loop_par()); available for both user zones & standard ones.
  • Added KSP: New MIR functions to detect pitch, RMS, peak level and loudness of any zone (user or standard).
  • Added KSP: New MIR functions to classify samples based on their audio characteristics (e.g., Kick, Snare, Choir, Synth, etc).
  • Added KSP: New UI widget (ui_mouse_area), this first iteration of which allows dropping files from the system to an instrument’s UI.
  • Added KSP: New command to make handling asynchronous operations more convenient (wait_async()).
  • Improved: An instrument can now be loaded with missing resources (samples, NKRs, etc) without the references being completely discarded, i.e., one can load an instrument, ignore missing samples, save it and reload it without losing data.
  • Added: A new entry in the Mapping Editor’s Edit menu allows for manually removing all zones with missing samples.
  • Improved KSP: purge_group() is now returns an async ID, allowing for reliable tracking of the operations completion.
  • Improved: There were some performance issues with instruments with many automation assignments when running in Logic.
  • Improved: The scrolling and animation speed in the Libraries tab has been adjusted.
  • Fixed: There are no more conflicts between MIDI and Host automation in Logic.
  • Fixed: Kontakt would often crash when trying to run a Batch Resave operation.
  • Fixed: There were some audible clicks in certain cases involving looping samples played back with Time Machine Pro.
  • Fixed: Kontakt would crash when saving an NKI after assigning user automation to any of the recently added reverb and delay effects.
  • Fixed KSP: Switches and menus would get stuck in their hover states under certain circumstances.
  • Fixed KSP: In certain cases, when a control was within a panel, its position would be 1 pixel off of what was expected.
  • Fixed: Kontakt now works on Mac OS Catalina.

The update is now available from Native Access.

More information: Native Instruments