Native Instruments has released Kontakt 4, the latest version of its mega sampler, featuring a larger sample library, expanded convolution effects and new “authentic expression” technology.

Details below.

KONTAKT 4 will be availble on October 1st, 2009., priced at $399 / 379 €.

New features in KONTAKT 4:

• The new Authentic Expression Technology sees KONTAKT 4 radically redefining the authentic reproduction of acoustic instruments with all their dynamics and articulations, while adding completely new options for creative sound design. In addition to the traditional way of sampling different volume levels of an instrument statically, AET is able to capture specific spectral characteristics of samples and gradually apply them to another samples in real-time, allowing you to seamlessly “morph” between different instruments’ characteristics. This breakthrough allows for a new level in expression and realism when playing a sampled instrument.
• An extra 10 Gigabytes of new material enrich the KONTAKT library.
• Expanded Convolution Effect Library – KONTAKT 4 comes with more than 300 new and professionally recorded impulse responses from a wide rang of rooms, concert halls, churches, speakers etc, to add super-realistic reverbs to your instruments or the sonic characteristics of high-quality hardware equipment (amps, speakers, hardware reverbs etc.). The new impluse response samples are provided by Echochamber, Studiodevices and Acousticas.
• IMPROVED PERFORMANCE VIEWS provide custom control panels, that make Instrument-specific settings available without having to switch to Edit mode. In KONTAKT 4, a much larger control panel is available so each instrument has more important parameters accessible, as well as giving each instrument a distinctive feel through the easy-on-the-eye graphics.
• The enhanced KONTAKT Script Processor gives many more options for designing custom Performance Views and for controlling other KONTAKT areas such as the master section (when writing ‘multi scripts’).
• The complete KONTAKT 4 library has been pre-tagged for your convenience. You can also create custom attributes to tag your instruments according to your own criteria. Attribute-based browsing works for Instruments, Multis, Banks, Groups, Presets, and Samples.
• New Lossless Sample Compression format ‘NCW’ with real-time encoding – reducing the size of samples by up to 50%. Instruments with high disk streaming load, such as Grand Pianos, benefit from the fact that less data has to be read from hard disk. Note that the complete KONTAKT library is delivered in uncompressed WAV format – the Lossless Sample Compression is just an option for your choice when you save instruments.