Native Instruments Kontakt 8

Kontakt 8 is Native Instruments’ sampler and virtual instrument platform for playing and building Kontakt instruments. It is for producers and composers who use Kontakt libraries, including those from independent developers, and for anyone who wants to build their own instruments. It runs standalone or as a VST3, AU or AAX plugin on Windows 10 or 11 and macOS 14 or later.

What is Kontakt 8?

Kontakt runs instruments from Native Instruments, official partners and independent developers. Version 8 comes with a Factory Library of over 900 instruments and adds creative Tools that work with any Kontakt instrument.

Full Kontakt vs the free Kontakt Player

Native Instruments also offers a free Kontakt Player. It runs Native Instruments’ own Kontakt instruments and many official partner instruments. This page is for full Kontakt 8, which adds:

• The instrument creation tools
• The Factory Library of over 900 instruments
• Instruments from independent developers that need full Kontakt (non-Player libraries)

Browse Kontakt libraries to find instruments to use with it.

What’s new in Kontakt 8

• Tools: Phrases, Chords, Patterns, Chord Builder, Velocity Curve, Humanizer and Scale Lock, plus an Aftertouch Tool (from 8.10.0) that creates polyphonic aftertouch from any MIDI input
• Leap: fast loop playing and manipulation, launched with a dozen Leap Expansions
• Conflux: a hybrid instrument that layers samples with a wavetable oscillator, including original PPG wavetables
• Real-time wavetable, FM and ring modulation oscillators for instrument building
• Traktor effects (Beat Masher, Beat Slicer, Gater, Reverse Grain, Transpose Stretch) and new amp and stomp effects
• Nearly 30 stereo outputs by default and up to 64 external modulators per group
• Faster loading of large libraries and wider high-DPI support

What’s included

• Factory Library with over 900 instruments
• Conflux
• A dozen Leap Expansions
• Hybrid Keys (Play Series)

System requirements

• Windows: Windows 10 or 11 (latest Service Pack); Intel Core i5 or equivalent; graphics with Direct 3D 11.1 (Feature Level 11_0) or higher
• macOS: macOS 14, 15 or 26 (latest update); Intel Core i5 or equivalent, or Apple Silicon
• RAM: 4 GB, 6 GB recommended
• Disk: 2 GB minimum, over 50 GB for the complete installation
• An internet connection to download and install

Kontakt 8 installs as a separate application, so it can sit next to Kontakt 7, and both can be used in the same project. See more from Native Instruments.