• We recommend running our libraries on a secondary drive separate from the application drive. This frees up CPU power and eliminates drive reading & writing bottlenecks. IMPORTANT! To do this, move the A.I.R. library main folder to the desired location. Open Kontakt Player 2 and click on the info button in main browser window on the left. A new window will open allowing you to point to the new location of the main folder. Please note, this folder contains the instruments, multis, and .nkx file.

• Efficient ways to create compositions are based on the way you use the libraries. We recommend learning the library and becoming familiar with all of the sounds. This could take awhile. After this you can load multiple instances of instruments into one player, assigning different MIDI channels to each one. There are endless possibilities.

• There are many possibilities that lurk within the dark chambers of our products, but if you are just starting out, or in a hurry, we suggest trying out the provided combos and multi instruments for a true taste. These instruments will service all of your immediate needs!

• Most importantly! We recommend that you explore, explore, and explore the libraries. Each is flexible and full of surprises. We encourage you to audition every key and sample. In addition, stretch, layer, alter loop lengths, and apply effects to the instrument patches. This will personalize your library and ensure that it is optimized the way you like it. Your sounds, your way, right away! Slight alterations in instrument programming may improve sample playback for your software and desired effect.

• If your computer becomes bogged down with processing power and RAM allocation issues, you may consider purging samples or adjusting the DFD controls in the Kontakt Player 2 settings. For further information, please refer to these topics discussed earlier in the Kontakt Player 2 section of our manuals.

• There’s a lot of excellent material in our libraries, and you don’t have to look hard before you find something inspiring. However, an inspiring sound will only get you so far in a composition before you have to develop it and move to another sound. That’s when you encounter the big challenge to working with any library of effect-oriented sounds: finding an appropriate program to match your inspiration. Since these programs load in a couple of seconds, you can scroll to the next or previous one in the current list by clicking onscreen arrows. Here are some ideas to design your own custom instrument groupings, as explained by Nick Batzdorf of Virtual Instruments Magazine issue 8:
"First, if you run AIR inside Native Instruments’ Kore software (reviewed in issue 7), you can write your own descriptions and categories for its librarian. Whether or not you’re using Kore, you can save user multis of your favorite programs, which will load banks into the Kontakt 2 Player. That will at least give you a starting template; you can still browse for other sounds as needed. Yet another idea is to roll your own directories, using the computer’s operating system. You can simply create a folder and copy your favorite programs into it. This folder will show up in the Kontakt 2 Player’s browser, and you can then scroll through your chosen programs for auditioning using the above-mentioned arrows. Programs are usually mapped with the note that dominates on its respective key, although occasionally that isn’t the case.
But AIR also has a few “tonal” patches, so another application for the custom folder concept would be to separate the chromatically-mapped pitched instruments—i.e. the ones that play a C when you hit C on the keyboard. Examples include a variety of synth patches scattered throughout and a couple of lovely processed vocal sounds."