S9 Sampler vs Kontakt 8
S9 Sampler is built for making beats from your own samples: auto-chop by drum hits, vocal phrases or transients, editing and branching every chop, local stem separation down to single chops, drum kits from songs and Remix, in one plug-in. Kontakt 8 ($299) is Native Instruments’ platform for playing instrument libraries, with a factory library of over 900 instruments.
Why choose S9 Sampler over Kontakt?
- Start from your own samples: chop by drum hits, vocal phrases or transients and play the chops in minutes.
- Edit and branch single chops, and separate stems from the whole sample or from single chops.
- Build drum kits from songs, rearrange with Remix and shape the sound with ten Magic effects.
- Pay less than Kontakt 8’s $299, with a 7-day free trial and a monthly option.
S9 Sampler and Kontakt 8, side by side
From each company’s own product pages, checked on 19 October 2026. “Not stated” means that page does not mention the feature.
| Feature | S9 Sampler | Kontakt 8 |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Sampler plug-in for chopping, stems, drum kits and playable instruments | Sampler and instrument platform from Native Instruments |
| Plug-in formats | AU and VST3 (Mac), VST3 (Windows). No AAX yet | Standalone, VST3 and AAX; AU on macOS |
| Systems | macOS 13.3 or later (Apple Silicon and Intel); Windows 10 or later, 64-bit | macOS 14, 15 and 26; Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit |
| Price (USD) | $149 launch price (standard price $199), lifetime version 1 licence or $19 per month | $299. The free Kontakt Player runs NI Kontakt instruments. Included in Komplete 26 Standard and above |
| Free trial | 7 days, all features, no card | Not stated on the product page |
| Chopping and slicing | Auto Chop by drum hits, vocal phrases or transients; beat grid; equal slices; manual cuts | Not stated on the product page |
| Editing single chops | Pitch, reverse, envelope, filter, Half-Time and effects on each chop; edit several together | Not stated on the product page |
| Variations of a chop | Branching: variations of any chop, each with its own pitch, direction and processing | Not stated on the product page |
| Stem separation | Built in, runs locally: vocals, drums, bass and instruments; Fast, Balanced or Best Quality | Not stated on the product page |
| Stems from single chops | Yes: select chops and choose Separate Chop Stems; replace, insert after or append | Not stated on the product page |
| Drum kit from a song | Yes: Extract Drums from a song, pick the hits and build a playable kit | Not stated on the product page |
| Time-stretch and tempo | Match Tempo (DAW or manual BPM), Bar Lock to bars, Warp inside a chop, Half-Time | Not stated on the product page |
| Pattern rearranging | Remix: up to 64 blocks, eight blendable styles, locked blocks | Phrases, Chords, Patterns, Arpeggiator and Scale Lock among nine listed tools |
| Built-in creative effects | Ten Magic effects plus filter, EQ, modulation, space and compression | Conflux sound-design instrument with PPG wavetables |
| Included sounds | Works with your own sounds; browser filters by folder, key, BPM and length | Factory library of over 900 instruments and 12 Leap Expansions |
Kontakt’s product page describes its library and tools rather than its sampling engine, so several engine rows read “not stated”.
Try S9 Sampler in your own DAW: the 7-day free trial includes every feature and needs no card. S9 Sampler is currently in paid beta; the release notes cover the current version.