It is because the company that created the free Kontakt library paid a licensing fee to Native Instruments. So why do these particular third-party sound libraries work in Kontakt Player? Both are free and both will work in Kontakt Player. There’s also the Jay Maas Signature Series Drums Lite Edition by Room Sound. One such example is the Kontakt Factory Selection library that is provided by Native Instruments and included in the Komplete Start bundle.Īs for third-party libraries, one recent example is The Free Orchestra by ProjectSAM. Some (only a handful, really) free Kontakt sound libraries can indeed work without interruption in Kontakt Player.

However, the free Kontakt Player plugin can only load these free third-party libraries in demo mode.

It will work just fine in the full version of Native Instruments Kontakt. What’s important to understand here is that the Kontakt library you downloaded is free. Kontakt Player demo mode in full glory – notice the big red DEMO notification. After that, there will be no sound on the output, and you won’t be able to access the editing features. The “demo mode” means that you can only use the library for fifteen minutes. The majority of free third-party Kontakt libraries will work in “demo mode” in Kontakt Player. So, again, if you see the “demo mode” message in Kontakt, this means that you are using the free Kontakt Player plugin. If you bought Kontakt but you still see the “demo timeout” message when you load a Kontakt library, this means that you haven’t activated your Kontakt installation properly, and it’s operating as Kontakt Player. If you bought Kontakt from Native Instruments (or a different vendor), you are most certainly using the full version of Kontakt. If you downloaded Kontakt for free from the Native Instruments website or as a part of the free Komplete Start bundle, then you are using the free Kontakt Player plugin. It comes in two versions: KONTAKT 6 PLAYER (free) and KONTAKT 6 (€399). Kontakt is the flagship sampler plugin by Native Instruments. Sometimes you will see a “demo mode” message even though both the Kontakt Library and Kontakt Player itself are free.

Indeed, using the free Kontakt Player by Native Instruments can cause some confusion, especially if you pair it with free libraries. One of the most frequently asked questions we get is a deceivingly simple one: “Why is my Kontakt library working in demo mode if it’s free?”

Kontakt player 6 is a plugin