Making Music
  Computer Music Software and Hardware

Pressing the trigger

The final section is the Keyboard which you can use to trigger the samples but, more importantly, it shows the keys and zones the samples are assigned to. These are neatly colour-coded so you know at a glance which sample modes (Sampler, Beat Machine or Time Machine) have been used for the samples under each key. Creating zones on the keyboard is neat, easy and intuitive once you know how but unfortunately the instructions aren't terribly clear about how to do it. Or maybe we were having a bad hair day.

If you've used Native Instruments software before, the interface will have a degree of familiarity. Although the 'one window' interface idea has ease-of-use appeal, it also has drawbacks. The main Loop Editor, for example, would benefit from opening in a larger window of its own, and while you can create loop points, there are no looping aids such as zero crossing point finders or fades to crossfade the end of a difficult loop into its beginning.

NI has taken to designing its own menus and Intakt even has its own browser (similar to the one in Kontakt) to 'unwrap' the large 'container files' used by the sample libraries.

It would be nice if it remembered the current folder when you close the program. While the Windows and Mac menu systems may not be perfect they are, at least, a standard and you know where the menus are. If you're going to redesign a feature you need to bring something new and better to the party. Apart from being scattered around the interface, the pop-up windows can't be moved and they're dull, more reminiscent of DOS than a modern hi tech state-of-the-art design. The program is not as immediately intuitive to use as it would like to be and the manual could have helped enormously here, but use will bring familiarity.

Operational niggles aside, the program has vast potential to totally transform existing loops and samples and create new ones from the ashes. If you're more a loop tweaker than a loop creator, the 1.2Gb of samples may prove particularly tempting and the program will give you immediate access to more killer loops than you can shake a beat slicer at!