all said in the title
Didn't get past the intro module so maybe this review isn't a fair one. All the same. 2 things bugged me: 1: I dislike the cheap "fiver style" growing graphics. Totally unnecessary filler, designed to fill a visual void with animated irrelevance. Kinda lazy approach, and v distracting when trying to listen to the voice. 2: I specifically wanted detail on the new mixer output menus, which are different to Kontakt 4. I couldn't find any of this info.
I am a: Hobbyist
Mark Cruthers may have a considerable knowledge in this field, but I'm sorry to say, his robotic annunciation in this, and all his videos make me want to go elsewhere for in depth tutorials. Please Groove 3, for the love of sanity, stop using this guy!
I am a: Hobbyist, Producer, Beat Maker, Sound for Film/TV, Cubase
This is the first Groove3 training that really was disappointing. Content is "OK" - not great , but still useful. Learning efficiency is low - the tempo is soooo slow , way too much time is wasted on showing the obvious and giving uninteresting examples. (Tip : skip the first 6 video) Worst part however is the audio - the voice's rhythm (editing ???) made me wonder I was listening too a computer generated voice instead of a real person. I really had to focus actively to avoid falling asleep ... BTW : Ratings given are for this training only !
I am a: Musician, Producer, Ableton Live, Logic Pro
I sometimes forget how deep you can go with the editing and processing in Kontakt alone. It's an extremely powerful VST and these tutorials reveal the possibilities in an easy to understand fashion.
I am a: Hobbyist, Semi-Pro, Musician, Producer, Beat Maker, Audio Engineer, Sound Designer, Logic Pro, Pro Tools
The content is purely a course in the new types of filters that have been added to Kontakt 5. No other changes from v4 to v5 are mentioned so the filters appear to be the only difference, which is surprising. BTW, if you don’t know how to use Kontakt already, I highly recommend viewing Kontakt Explained first, which is an extensive and interesting tour of v4. Kontakt 5 Update won’t help you because it’s so limited in scope. I gave the content a "3" because the series mostly describes how to use selected filters, which is fine, but there are better tutorials on using filters. Also, there are too few examples; e.g. the first audio isn't heard until video 4(!), and the examples are often single notes or a few basic chords that aren't played very well, which makes them uninteresting and even annoying at times. And I can't remember any filter demo that uses more than one type of instrument. My biggest complaint with the series is the presentation style. I've watched 20 to 30 Groove3 videos and I've really enjoyed most; a few were okay; but this one bordered on unwatchable. The presenter spends an incredible amount of time talking but not saying much.For instance, he repeatedly talks about what he’s going to be talking about rather than getting on with it, especially in the early videos. The style is extremely formal and wastes a lot of time stating even the most obvious details such as he is playing the same not each time as a filter parameter is varied so we can appreciate the effect it has. Duh! My "favorite" line is “…and I declare these are their new standard filters because they are very clean sounding.” Who talks like that? He also justifies why he explains something for noobies and wastes time with the justification. If you’re going to explain something basic, just do it and move on. Don’t waste time explaining why when the reasons for doing so are so obvious. I also get the impression the presenter is reading a script by the flawless pace and perfect enunciation but the result is similar to the pain of listening to someone reading a speech, i.e. it’s just dead and lifeless. To make matters worse, the script seems to have casual lines thrown in to make it sound “live” but the pace never varies. There are lines such as “actually, I think I’ll skip that…” which sounds very scripted. Sorry, I hate to complain so much but it was painful. Give me Eli K. any day!
I am a: Hobbyist
This does a good job of demonstrating the features. While the visual portion of this update is nicely edited, I'd have to say the audio is quite difficult to tolerate. The narrator certainly has some form of British accent, there does not seem to be any smooth unspliced sentences. The choppy nature from what sounds like excessive splicing of multiple words in every sentence gives the audio a very robotic and halting / jerky delivery. In many chapters I found the audio content disturbing to listen to negatively affecting my ability to learn. The question below asking about the 'viewing quality', is going to get a bad rating even though the video portion (only) I thought was put together well. This is due to the very poor audio editing.
I am a: Professional
I don't understand why this course is divided in two: this and the first one that is very old. It should be only one course covering Kontakt 5 IMHO.
I am a: Semi-Pro