German music software instrument maker Native Instruments used its appearance at The NAMM Show in Anaheim, Calif. to introduce several new products for professional electronic musicians and DJs, including Electronic Instruments 2 XT, Kontakt 2 and NI Komplete Sound. The new products will ship in February and March.
Electronic Instruments 2 XT is an extended version of the Reaktor instrument collection. It includes eight programmable software instruments: Photone, a hybrid master synth; Limelite, a beat composer; Metaphysical Function, a soundscape synth; Krypt, a granular drum machine; Akkord, a sequenced chord generator; Fast FX, for performance effects; Resochord, a polyphonic resonator; and cyan, a vintage chorus synth. The collection includes presets created by leading DJs including Photek and Junkie XL. Not dependent on Reaktor in order to work, Electronic Instruments 2 XT will work as stand-alone instruments through Mac OS X’s Audio Unit technology, and also works as a VST, AU or RTAS plug-in. It will be released in Feburary, 2005 for US$169.
Also announced was Kontakt 2, Native Instruments’ latest-generation sampler software. Kontakt 2 features a new sampling engine with unlimited polyphony and 64-part multi-timbrality; support for multiprocessor configurations and optimizations for G4 and G5 processors; support for multi-channel formats ranging from 3.0 to 16.0, including 5.1 and 7.1; the Kontakt Script Processor (KSP), a fully programmable processing engine that transforms and generates MIDI and control events using a scripting language; a new convolution effect unit, and more. Kontakt 2 is coming in March for US$579, and will be available as an upgrading for existing Kontakt users for $169.
Finally, Native Instruments announced NI Komplete Sound, a collection of ensembles, sounds and samples for Native Instruments’ own software instruments. Created to expand the capabilities of NI’s Reaktor, Kontakt, Battery, FM7, Absynth and B4 sound instruments, NI Komplete Sound combines eight of Native Instruments’ existing collections into one package. Included in NI Komplete Sound is Reaktor Electronic Instruments Vols. 1 and 2, Battery Studio Drums, Synthetic Drums, FM7 Sounds Vols. 1 and 2, Absynth Sounds Vol. 1 and B4 Tonewheel Set “Vintage Expansion.” It’s coming in March for US$339.