Output Releases Signal Free (NI Kontakt Library)

Output has released Signal Free, a fully functional free version of the commercial Signal cinematic sample library for Native Instruments Kontakt.

The full version of Signal was reviewed on BPB a couple of months ago, so take a look at that article if you’re interested in the commercial version of the product. Compared to the full version, Signal Free comes with several big limitations, most notably a much smaller sample pool and a limited amount of sound sources without the possibility of saving custom user presets. Even so, it is still a very cool instrument and definitely worth a look if you compose music for film or want to add a bit of that cinematic vibe to your music.

Signal Free comes with 2 GB of sample content (as opposed to 40 GB in the full version) and a set of 25 presets (or pulse instruments, as Output officially calls them). There are only four sound sources available (felt piano, muted guitar, gritty bass and detuned polysynth), as opposed to 50 in the full version of the product. On the bright side, all of the controls and on-screen parameters from the full version are also available in Signal Free, so the available presets can be fully tweaked and modified to your liking. Both “Pulse Engines” are included in the free version, as well as the effects and macro controls which provide a really quick and easy way to modify a patch while performing.

Although saving custom presets using the instrument’s built-in preset manager is not supported in Signal Free, you can always save your custom presets as standard NKI files and load them in Kontakt like any other NKI patch. The full version of NI Kontakt is required in order to be able to do this though, as well as for using the instrument without the 15-minute time limitation.

The instrument can be freely downloaded from the product page linked below, after submitting your name and email address. No other form of registration is required. The download link will be delivered to you via email and you will also be subscribed to the Output Sounds email newsletter. The download size is quite large, however the actual download process is not connected to the Continuata download app as is the case with the full version of Signal, so you can simply extract the downloaded ZIP archive and load the included NKI file in Kontakt. It’s also worth noting that WAV files are not included in the library, so NI Kontakt is definitely required in order to use Signal Free.

Video Demo

Check out the Signal demo video:

Download

Signal Free is available for free download via Output (1.3 GB download size, ZIP archive, contains 1 NKI patch for NI Kontakt 5, requires full version of NI Kontakt).