Originally Posted By: NigelSpiers
Hi,

I recently purchased Kontakt 6 and the Big Fish Audio "Crossroads Blues" library to improve the sound quality when playing BIAB Midi Only or mixed MIDI & Real Tracks Styles.

I did this because the Kontakt Factory Library Sounds are terrible - the sound quality is terrible (much worse than Coyote VST Synth) plus they don't play the Midi notes in the BIAB style either - just random rubbish.

I can get sounds out when using the Crossroads instruments but they also a garbled mess and not related to the MIDI Style I have chosen. They do not play the notes in the Midi Style at all.

I contacted Big Fish Audio and they said:

"Crossroads Blues is a loop-based product, not a multi-sampled virtual instrument. Were you looking for a VI or for loops?"

I'm new to all this Midi, Kontakt and 3rd Party Instruments?sound Libraries.

I want acoustic and electric Blues, R&B and Jazz instruments i.e. Upright and Electric Basses, Electric Rhythm and Lead Guitars, Pianos, B3 Organ, Brush and Pop Drum Kits, Blues harp, Horn Section and Saxes.

Please advise if I have bought the wrong Instruments Library (Crossroads Blues) to run in Kontakt and also please suggest what I should buy.

Thanks for your assistance.

Best Regards
Nigel



Nigel,

If you want Band-in-a-Box midi styles to generate midi patterns then you want virtual instruments to play the midi patterns.

As others noted, Crossroad Blues is not a virtual instrument. Crossroad Blues is a collection of a specific type of audio loops called a construction kit. A producer will record a band playing a song. For example the song might have drums, piano, lead guitar, rhythm guitar and horn section. The producer will take each instrument track and divide it into sections like intro, verse, bridge and ending. There usually will be alternate takes of some sections and usually there is a stereo mix of one way all the instrument parts can be combined to give you an idea how the end result sounds. Each musical section will be anywhere from one to eight bars.

Kontakt can play virtual instruments but it can also play the audio in construction kit sections which can be confusing. Why would you want to when they sound so bad? Because Kontakt can take the individual samples, cut them into much smaller samples and then modify them in ways they were not intended to be modified. Kontakt can playback the smaller samples out of sequence from the original sample. It can also drastically change the pitch or tempo of a sample. Kontakt is a powerful tool but an audio loop construction set is not the right instrument to use in this case.

The good news is all is not lost. You can use RealBand or another DAW to combine the construction set loops into a complete song project. Send me a private message if you would like to explore that idea in more detail.

I hope that explanation helps.

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