# Sampling analog synths for Kontakt - legal



## adg21 (Aug 8, 2011)

If I sample some old synths for Kontakt eg Jupiter 4, MS20, Oberheim etc am I aloud to sell them commercially? Would I have to ask permission from roland, korg etc? And native instruments?


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## Mike Greene (Aug 8, 2011)

As long as they're not sample-based synths, like the Roland D50 or Korg M1, then it's legal to sample and sell. Heck, you can even sample _virtual_ synths, so long as they're true synthesizers and not using any samples.

I'm not sure what the legalities of using the names are. In other words, it's fine if you advertise that the samples come from a Mini-Moog. But I'm not sure if can use MiniMoog in the name of the collection.


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## germancomponist (Aug 8, 2011)

But you can use NimiNoog. A different name, but all people will directly know what it is.... .


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## chimuelo (Aug 8, 2011)

They sound typically Native when this is done.
I am sure I could be attacked for saying that, but I use Kontakt and love it.
But a synth is a synth, and only lameness can come from trying to do another decades old Oberheim, Moog and ARP sample disc.....

No Offense.
Just year of experience sampling with hardware where this was like a beating a dead horse.


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## germancomponist (Aug 8, 2011)

chimuelo @ Mon Aug 08 said:


> They sound typically Native when this is done.
> I am sure I could be attacked for saying that, but I use Kontakt and love it.
> But a synth is a synth, and only lameness can come from trying to do another decades old Oberheim, Moog and ARP sample disc.....
> 
> ...



I agree, but with Kontakt you can do sum funny things. Listen to this: http://www.box.net/shared/2rk84gni64b62s5140xn
What you hear I did with only one stupid taiko-drum sample... .


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## adg21 (Aug 8, 2011)

As part of my research I guess....Has anyone used any Kontakt based synths that they think _are _good? Please let me know...Ta. Synth Magic are the only company who I've heard anything promising. Last thing I want to do is add to the clutter already out there...

@chimuelo - this is sort of why I want to do it, the existing ones suck and are outdated. Like _really_ suck - pad-like atmospheres drenched in reverb, awful delays which are never tempo synched, naff leads that sound like they were programmed by a deaf person.

@Mike Greene cheers for the info


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## germancomponist (Aug 8, 2011)

adg21, have u listend to Omnisphere? I think you will never get those good results via sampling old synth`s in Kontakt as they are in Omnisphere..... .


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## synthetic (Aug 8, 2011)

germancomponist @ Mon Aug 08 said:


> adg21, have u listend to Omnisphere? I think you will never get those good results via sampling old synth`s in Kontakt as they are in Omnisphere..... .



Well that's not fair, we don't know what his stuff sounds like. 

Many of the sounds in Omniphere started as synth samples, including the entire Tribute library. What makes Omnisphere (and Atmosphere before it) great is not the samples but the programming. They know how to layer sounds to make them sound like a million bucks. Even if you had a PPG and a Jupiter 8, for example, you might not be able to make them sound as good. 

To OP, there are a ton of examples of sample libraries made from synthesizers, I wouldn't worry too much about the legality of it. (I am not a lawyer)


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## germancomponist (Aug 8, 2011)

Oh, I never wanted to be unfair, but he wrote that he wanted to sample some old synths for Kontakt.

And we all know, that Kontakt has not the same envelopes, filters e.t.c., what the old synt`s had. So I think it is not worth it to be after the old sounds, because there is no way to do an 1:1 copy.
But, I think the idea is cool, because you can do very cool sounds in Kontakt via using snippets of old samples. I have experimented in this way and have found out that you can get very cool results, but they do not sound the same as the old hardware did. This means not that they sound bad..... . 

Kontakt is one of the greatest tool to built new sounds! When I listen to the instruments what I did by using only one taiko drum sample......, I only can say: WOW!


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## Ned Bouhalassa (Aug 9, 2011)

Actually, I know for a fact that some vintage analog synths just sound good no matter who plays them (based on jams in my studio). They usually have the name Moog, Roland, Korg attached to them.


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## TheUnfinished (Aug 9, 2011)

SonicCouture's occasional ventures into synth sounds (Abstrakt Bass and Scriptorium) have sounded quite good when I've heard them. Hollow Sun do some fun stuff too.

I think you're fine sampling an analog synth as long as you're not sampling the presets - pretty sure the manufacturer will have copyrighted any preset sounds.


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