What are the advantages of Kontakt4 over ISP for the Imperfect Faz?

I'm leaning towards K4 because I've only been able to run ONE perspective at a time with ISP in Sonar. I'm I right?

Also, ISP and SAVIhost don't seem to work together to provide a standalone player, at least, not for me!

Any suggestions/solutions?

JG

It seems that Kontakt is the best option. However it's important to realise that it isn't a VST host. It's a full blown sampling software that can itself be used as a VST inside a DAW.

I never fully understood why Imperfect Samples needs the full version of Kontakt. There must be something that the free Kontakt Player can't do but I don't know what exactly.



This has me wondering, can't you simply use Sonar and load up the VST like any other library? Is this the ISP bit that you mentioned?

Kontakt 5 is the current version.

If you are thinking of buying it, I would strongly recommend considering to pay the extra and buying Komplete 8.

Komplete 8 contains the full version of Kontakt5 plus Absynth, Massive, FM8, Reaktor, Vintage Organs, new York Concert Grand, Vienna Concert Grand, Berlin Concert Grand, Upright Piano, Studio Drummer, plus a load more stuff.

The difference in price compared to what you get is very very minimal.

For example, to buy the following on their own (in Euros) would cost

Kontakt 5 (full version) 379
Vienna Concert Grand 69
Upright Piano 69
Berlini Grand 69
Vintage Organs 99
Absynth 179
Massive 179
FM8 179
Battery 3 179
West Africa 99
Abbey Road 60s Drummer 99
Studio Drummer 149
Guitar Rig 5 179

That lot alone equals 1927 Euros and I haven't included everything.

Komplete 8 which includes all the above (full versions) plus more, is 499 Euros, just 120 more than Kontakt on its own.

Of course if you've no interest in the other stuff its a waste of money, but if you like synths, would like the extra pianos, the drums etc, in my opinion this would be the way to go (and is what I brought)

If you just play piano and you've chosen a piano library (the OP chose Imperfect Samples), why would you go to the extra expense of buying the full Kontakt just to get other pianos and drums and guitars that you don't need?

The post above mine implied they needed the full version of Kontakt for some reason to run that package.

Was only trying to help

Yes, the full version is required to run Imperfect Faz. If I had any reason to believe that the piano samples packaged with Komplete 8 were in the same league as Garritan Steinway, EWQL, or Imperfect Faz I would look into it.

In any case, a host called "ISP" is provided (independently) that is supposed to run Imperfect Faz, but I can't get it to work for more than 1 perspective at a time within Sonar 8.5. I am running the 64 bit version of Sonar, but I don't think that should make any difference.

JG

John, have you contacted the Fazioli developer for support?

Lawrence

Hi Lawrence,

Yup... he's not available for the next while, and I'm impatient. 279.00 is what it will cost me to get the non-timed out version of Kontakt (now K5), which is odd in a sense, since a perfectly usable version of Kontakt was supplied with the Vintage D.

BTW.... you were right about this sample... it's the height of realism for my purposes (so far). I'm not sure how I missed that when it was launched in 2010. Could have been the demos, which were nothing to write home about (my view only). It was only when I heard it via a thread HERE and pianoworld that I realized what was possible.

Cheers,

JG

Did you check out his new Steinway? I thought you said you didn' like the Fazioli sound much.

Don't get me wrong... I'm not crazy about the actual, real Faz: played a few... sure... great piano.. obviously. But for that kind of money I could do with less "tin" in the tone. (I actually prefer the tone and the touch of my cheapo Chinese piano. (Sue me.)

But this sample is another thing altogether. Sure, some of the unisons are way off (deliberately), although I notice that's been softened with the update. And I wrote it off when it came out because all I had were the demos, which didn't do anything for me. But, as I say, I was kinda blown away by the Chopin rendering thread here, which featured the top samples with a Scherzo and a Nocturne: for my money, the Faz rendition blows away the others... and I own most of the others, so I could relate to the issues around playability and recorded end-result.

(It may be the "imperfect" element. But I'm starting to think that it has more to do with the mic positions and type of mics used to do the samples.)

Having said that... my ears may be changing with age. Or maybe its the planars I'm using now as monitors. What you listen through is (obviously) pretty important. Now the Garritan (player mic position... not the others) is starting to sound competitive, even though I had sort of started doubting it a few years ago.

It's a journey, that's for sure.

Forgot... the Walnut... hmmmm.... doesn't turn my crank initially ... but I can hear some nice elements .... more listening required, I think.

RE the focus on PIANO samples, question implied above, piano folks with ears know that there's a hugely important distinction between instruments and sounds which can be (given the current state of sampling) convincingly sampled and those which cannot. The piano (harpsichord, organ, clavichord, drums of all descriptions, harp, and so on) yield nice and useful results. Stringed instruments, on the other hand, can be sampled realistically, but with limited use once the sample is "translated" into music. Fake (sampled) keyboards, well-done, are impossible to pick out. Fake (sampled) strings (just one example) are a dead give away. I love the sound .... but only in the right context, which means don't try to pretend you're competing with a real band or orchestra when you can't or, more important, when you shouldn't be.

JG--digressing hugely....

suprised Melodial Works hasn't contributed to this thread- i think he acquired Imperfect Samples/Kontakt. If he's out there- what do you think Lawrence? (JG- maybe you should send him a private ping).

I sent an email to the developer a while back about the ISP he had made available vs full retail kontakt and he was adamant that you would be leaving a lot on the table with his samples if you didn't use full Kontakt.

let us know how this goes for you...

thanks!

I have contributed, but nothing further to contribute to the the question of K4 (or K5) v. ISP, since I already had K4. No need to ever run ISP, so no consideration for feature loss. I can state that no advantage of K5 or K4, in terms of running the Fazioli, according to Matt.

what is your quick recap on imperfect/kontakt? are you happy with it- big improvement over other samples?

Yes. I was having success running two perspectives at the same time, except that the unisons being off becomes too pronounced. I have wondered if there is a way to edit the samples and tighten up the tuning, since using two perspectives at the same time is otherwise quite appealing. I wouldn't want them tuned too perfecting, though. Once the warts are removed from this sample set, the magic is lost, as is demonstrated by Perfect perspectives.

Of course, that's the beauty of this sample, isn't it? Even in a tightly managed recording session, the instrument will go slightly out of tune. But some of those unisons in the first iteration were, well, pure heck (can I say that?). They've been resampled in the update, as far as I can tell.

Anyhow, OK I suppose I'll have to fork for K5. You only live once (that's what folks like me in my 50s say).

JG

I love Kontakt pianos - I went to K 5 recently