I’ve been looking forward to the next major update of Kontakt since it was first rumored in the latter half of last year. Of course, the rumor also purported that it would be out by the end of 2008, which has been a point of consternation among some in the blogosphere. I’m more of a “it’ll be ready when it’s ready” kind of guy – so I’m not too upset about the delays. I’d rather get my hands on a piece of software after the engineers are really comfortable with what they’ve produced. My 15+ years in IT (more specifically, software quality assurance) has taught me to be patient when it comes to software that sports a host of new bells and whistles.

Of course, I’m also a bit of a bleeding-edge technology geek – so now that the public beta for Kontakt 3.5 is out, I’m ready to jump on it. One of the main reasons I’m excited about the imminent release is the opportunity for some new 64-bit adventures. This means that I can *finally* get to the point of being able to load large orchestral templates without worrying about running out of memory on my computer. I’m also stoked about the promise of a much more efficient engine, which means being much more fearless about throwing a lot of voices and instruments into the mix.

Believe it or not, the deep “under the hood” changes can have a major positive impact on the creative options that can be explored, so even if the feature list looks a bit dull – the implications and potential for a new burst of creativity are certainly present.

Keep your ear to the ground for a new slew of demos and whatnot as I dive into Kontakt 3.5 along with a bunch of other new gear in the studio.