Are you new to Kontakt and want to try out some of the sounds?

With Top Music Arts today we are going to help you use Kontakt 5 player, the Factory Selection Library sounds, and choose the best ones.

In this guide right here we are going to show you a simple beat that I made entirely with Factory Selection sounds, a quick review of each sound and were you can find them in the library. 

The Kontakt Factory Selection Library is free and you can find it in the links below:

https://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/samplers/kontakt-5-player/free-download/

In the same link you can download the Kontakt 5 Player for free too! You just have to:

1. Give your email and the country you are from.
2. Then you are going to receive an email with the links to download kontakt 5 player, download it.

The size of the file should be of 500MB for Windows and 522 for MAC, with minimum system requirements.

Below there you can download the free library the same way. The file size you will get in the email should be of 622MB for Windows and MAC. And you should install the library AFTER you install Kontakt. If you already have it, you have nothing to worry. I recommend to install all your libraries in the same folder.

Kontakt 5 player ONLY opens kontakt based libraries, for using other libraries you have to buy the full software.

It has some really cool sounds. I ticked them a little and used some of ableton´s native plugins to help with the mix.

Free Kontakt Library has 5 different folders:

BAND

This one contains all standard band instruments for many styles. 13 instruments are taken from the Band collection, which contains all standard instruments found in genres like rock, jazz, funk, pop, r'n'b and hip-hop, covering e-guitars, basses, acoustic drum-kits, a drawbar organ and various e-pianos and more.

SYNTH

It has Drum kits that also include a pattern sequencer for instant, tweakable rhythm. 12 instruments are included from this category, putting a wide range of contemporary synth pads, basses, leads and drum kits at your disposal.

URBAN BEATS

In this folder you will find some ready-for-action drum loop kits. Five instruments from the Urban Beats collection complete the free KONTAKT FACTORY SELECTION. Urban Beats contains drum loop production kits, consisting of drum loops, single loop tracks (snare, hi-hat loop etc. separated) and the individual slices.

VINTAGE

This folder offers the legendary sounds of analog synthesizers, classic drum machines, organs and string synths from the seventies and eighties. 13 instruments of the Vintage Collection, which handles the sounds of many known analog synths and keyboards.

WORLD

The much-requested World Collection, uniting some of the world's most diverse musical cultures. Six world instruments are culled from the World Collection, which contains many exotic instruments from all over the globe, including flutes and reed instruments, bagpipes, plucked instruments and percussions.

In each folder you will find many good sounds, I recommend you to try them all and find your favorites.

Top Music Arts did this beat with the ones we liked the most and found useful to each other. 

Let´s start with the bass.

BASS

This sound is in the Band folder, the first one. It has a little vibrato going on, I choose it because I wasn´t looking for a clean bass sound. And I was planning to change it to a more synth like bass sound.

These folders have different modules, but they all share some features in common. To know how to control them, I suggest you to find a sound you like, then record something simple, and then play with the settings for a bit and see where that leads you.

Most of the modules share this Solo button, where you can change between having one note at the time or multiple notes when it´s off.  So you can do chords, or let notes ring.

They also share a Master fx section, where you can add different reverbs, change the cabinet and add some room signal (air knob), and do some basic eq inside of the module.

MAIN DRUM

For the drums I used 3 different kits, Ultraviolet for the main drums, you can find it in the Synth folder.  I picked this kit for the clean kit sounds and made it sound a little fatter with the sound knob. I added some reverb from the master fx section.

In the Instrument section, you can select each sound and change the settings of them, individually. Also in this module you can change the Volume Envelope, where you can set the attack, hold, and decay, making a better cut of the sound you pick. It also has a Filter section, with the most common knobs features that you usually find in every synth vst.

This kind of features not always are available in libraries that are not Kontakt based. So I would say that is very complete for a free library.  

TOP DRUM

 Funk kit for the Top Drums, you can find this one in the Band folder. I added some glue compressor to get them both up and tight. And some reverb, to help them blend in the mix.

In most of the drums module you will find an ARTICULATION knob, where you can choose an articulation for the selected drum instrument. It has many options to choose: Alternate, Release, Flam, Drag, Ruff, Roll, Buzz, Muted, Speed, Geiger, and of course you can choose to turn it Off. They are different types of grace notes, and changes to the notes you are playing. Some of them help your notes to sound more humane played or to just do some sound tricks with the notes and add some flavor to the loop like in my case here.

FX DRUM

Then I also added a Street knowledge kit, to add a little effect to the drums, a flanger to keep them off the center, and some reverb and delay as well. You can find this one in the Band folder.

Then I started adding some melodic instruments, most of them are complementing each other.  

BELL

This one is called Phuture Bell, you can find it in the Vintage folder. I added some reverb and delay to it and used on the intro part. In the vintage module you will find different fx features in the master fx section.

OUD

Next we have this instrument called Oud, the sound is similar to a harp. This one is in the world folder. You will find many good sounds in this folder. I think which you choose, depends mostly on the style you are trying to achieve. You can always try to copy the sounds used in songs you like, it also helps you train your ear.

And as you can see some of the features are repeating themselves. We have the solo switch, the master fx section, and among others, here is another feature that is very useful, the sound knob. It changes through a variety of eq settings, it doesn´t work like a filter, so you can get different results in each instrument. I use this knob in most of the sounds I choose, just to try different variations.

I added some reverb and delay as well.

SHAKUHACHI

Then I added this flute sound, called shakuhachi. It´s in the world folder too and has the same module than the oud. I found a very cool trumpet sound in this library but I choose this one because It worked better with the other instruments. I Used it pretty much as the preset is from factory.

For all of the melodic instruments I tried to keep some reverb and delay going on, so they blend in with each other more smoothly.

LESOTHO

Then we have a pad sound, called Lesotho and it works quite well in the background, like a pad sound should. This module has much to offer, depending on which style you work, you can try to shape it in many different ways. I found it very simple but at the same time very useful.

FLUTE

For the last part, I changed the pad and used this synth flute sound, with some reverb and delay. You can find it in the vintage folder. The preset sounds pretty good for itself, I turned the sound knob a little and turned the volume down a little too.

SUB BASS

And last but not least, for this part I also changed the bass to this sub bass synth. To this one I didn´t add any return effects. Because it replaced the bass signal, and it works better in the center and dry like the other one.

So you see, you don´t need all the libraries in the world to make good music, you just need to pick the sounds you like and work around them. There is much to experiment in this library. If you are experienced with midi controllers, you can route some knobs to your controller. In Ableton it is really easy to do.

Remember, in music production, most of the time less is more.

We would like to know, which one you like the most?  

You can leave us a comment below if you have any doubts about the subject.

Don´t hold them! As soon as you have a doubt write it down and let us help if we can.