Kontakt 7 FAQ

Which libraries are available in HiDPI?

As a sampling-platform, over its 20-years history, there is a portfolio of literally thousands of Kontakt instruments - the vast majority created by third-party developers.

To enable developers to create modern, high-definition instrument user interfaces in Kontakt, we’re introducing a new user-interface language for products called the Native UI. This language is currently within closed-alpha and will be made available to developers over time as the language stabilizes. For now, the Kontakt Factory Library 2 and Choir: Omnia are the only products built on this technology but the number of instruments will quickly grow.

Why is only Kontakt's browser Hi-DPI? What about the rest of the application?

In order to modernize Kontakt's look and feel, and support high-DPI monitors, we’ve needed to transition Kontakt to a new graphics rendering technology. Given Kontakt's role as a professional tool for many music makers, we’d like to avoid major disruptions to workflows, ensure stability, and deliver benefits early. Thus, we’ve chosen to approach this incrementally and improve the underlying workflows as we go. The powerful new Browser is the first major example of this and based upon extensive user research and testing. Our teams are fully committed & invested into continuing this modernization with the rest of the product to bring it to the place that serves the needs of today’s music maker.

Yes! Installing Kontakt 7 will not automatically replace Kontakt 6 content in your DAW projects. If you have projects that use Kontakt 6, you will need to keep it installed. You can however use Kontakt 6 and Kontakt 7 in the same project.

Note for users of the VST plug-in of previous Kontakt versions in Cubase, Nuendo, Maschine or Komplete Kontrol:

If Kontakt 7 is installed on your system and the older Kontakt version has been uninstalled or is not available, the host will automatically replace all instances of the older Kontakt version with the Kontakt 7 VST3 plug-in when loading a project.

Kontakt 7 requires a graphics card that supports Direct 3D 11.1 (Feature Level 11_0) rendering or above. If your graphics card does not support this requirement, Kontakt will open with a black window and will not function.

You can toggle between the Library Browser and the Libraries rack view with the Library Browser button.

If you still don't see the Libraries rack view, ensure that the Minimize function is not enabled:

Also ensure that the Side Pane option is enabled in order to make the Libraries rack visible.

Kontakt 7 allows you to add Non-Player Libraries to Kontakt's Library Browser. Follow the steps in this article to learn how to do this.

The Preview function can be used when browsing presets from the Library Browser.

Clicking once on a preset will activate a preview. Double-clicking the preset will load the instrument.

Please note that most Libraries contain their previews already. If you are missing previews for older Libraries, please install them via Native Access:

You can find the Kontakt 7 manual at this link.

You can find the Kontakt Factory Library 2 manual at this link.

Kontakt 7 is available in the plug-in formats VST3, AU and AAX (64 bit). VST2 is not supported.

Mac: Intel Macs (i5 or higher): macOS 12, 13 or 14 (latest update).

Apple Silicon Macs (via Rosetta 2 & natively on ARM in Standalone or in hosts that support it): macOS 12, 13 or 14 (latest update).

Windows: Windows 10 or 11 (latest Service Pack), Intel Core i5 or equivalent CPU, 2 GB RAM.

Graphics hardware support for OpenGL 2.1 or higher and Direct 3D 11.1 (Feature Level 11_0) or higher.

4 GB RAM (6 GB recommended for large Kontakt Instruments).