I'm using the Kontakt 5 Factory Library instrument sounds that comes with Kontakt 5. I bought it as a "Crossover" after buying the Galaxy Vintage D Sound Library, which is played through the Kontakt Player or Kontakt 5. Read Galaxy Vintage D.txt at jdmcox.com The Orchestral instruments (from the Vienna Symphonic Libraries) are excellent. All the other instruments are very good. I'm using a Creative USB SoundBlaster HD sound card and Grado RS-2 earphones. There is absolutely no comparison between the Windows instrument sounds and these sounds. These sounds could be used to write professional music. I have a laptop with a 2 GHz processor running 32-bit Windows 7 with 3 GBytes of RAM. This is probably the minimum required to play these instrument sounds. To use these instrument sounds with PianoRollComposer, you have to connect Kontakt to PianoRollComposer by using the excellent and free LoopBe (or another Internal MIDI Port program). In PianoRollComposer, select LoopBe as the MIDI Output, and in Kontakt, select Options, then MIDI, then choose Inputs, then on the LoopBE Internal MIDI line, and under Status, click on Off, and change it to Port A (or any Port). The only other thing you have to change in Options in Kontakt is Audio. The free program ASIO4ALL should be downloaded from the Internet and selected as the ASIO Device. If you have problems hearing anything through ASIO4ALL, there's plenty of advice on the Internet. Use the Kontakt Keyboard just to make sure you can hear the sounds of the instruments you select. To select instrument sounds in Kontakt, select Browse on the top menu, and click on Instruments under Kontakt Factory Library. Then double click on an instrument (or drag it to the Multi Rack area). That instrument's info will show up in the Multi Rack, which indicates that that instrument's sounds are loaded into Kontakt's memory. The Kontakt keyboard will play the instrument you select first (which will play in MIDI Channel 1). If you've selected Channel 1 in the Instruments window in PianoRollComposer, you should be able to enter a note in PianoRollComposer and hear Kontakt's instrument. When you double click on another instrument in Kontakt (or drag it to the Multi Rack), it will play in MIDI Channel 2. Select that same instrument in PianoRollComposer in Channel 2 to hear it. This works for all 16 MIDI Channels. However, MIDI Channel 10 is reserved for Percussion instruments in the MIDI Specification, so PianoRollComposer reserves that Channel for Percussion. Therefore you should only put Percussion instruments in MIDI Channel 10 in Kontakt. To change an instrument's Channel in Kontakt, find the instrument in the Multi Rack section of Kontakt, and then find a highlighted (A) 1, or highlighted (A) 2, or whatever, up to the number 16, which is the MIDI Channel that instrument will play through. Click on it to see choices, which should include Port A (LoopBe Internal MIDI). Then Click on the little pointer to the right of Port A (LoopBe Internal MIDI) to see the 16 Channel choices. Select the Channel you want that instrument to play through. There are three situations that require special solutions. The next paragraphs deal with them. Kontakt has some instrument sounds that aren't included in the 128 General MIDI instruments. So you can substitute your own list of instruments for the 128 General MIDI instruments in PianoRollComposer. This list must be named Instruments.txt; it must be created and edited with Notepad; and it must be saved to the C:\Program Files\PianoRollComposer folder (see *note). Put each instrument's name (as shown in Kontakt) on separate lines. PianoRollComposer will show it instead of showing the 128 General MIDI instruments when you select Choose Instrument in the Instruments window. If you want to see an instrument's lowest and highest limits when you open the Virtual Keyboard in PianoRollComposer, then add that instrument's lowest and highest MIDI numbers in this format: Cello Ensemble (36-76) If you want to use more than 15 instruments in music, you'll need to change instruments within the music. To do this, you'll have to add instruments to Kontakt's Multi Rack in a different way. Select Files on the top menu in Kontakt and then select New Instrument bank. Kontakt uses the word "bank" to refer to "MIDI Channel". You'll see something added to the Multi Rack. You'll notice that there's a highlighted (A) 1 in that new Multi Rack listing. This means that instruments placed in this "Instrument bank" are played in MIDI Channel 1. To add instruments to this listing, click on the crescent wrench at the left side of it. This opens up a blank listing from 1 through 128. You can select an instrument and slide it over to any of the numbered spaces. These spaces will correspond by number to the instruments shown when you select Choose Instrument in a Channel in PianoRollComposer's Instruments window; therefore you need to put an instrument in the numbered space that corresponds to the number of the instrument in PianoRollComposer. You can select up to 16 New Instrument banks, which will correspond to the 16 MIDI Channels. Of course, instruments in the same Channel can't play at the same time, so you'll have to decide which instruments to put in which Instrument bank (Channel). To change instruments in PianoRollComposer, right-click on a note to see a Change Instrument button. Kontakt's percussion instruments are different than the General MIDI percussion instruments. Kontakt has several percussion choices, some as individual instruments and some as groups of instruments. Since their groups of percussion instruments are different than the General MIDI ones, I enabled PianoRollComposer to replace the default ones with a list of Kontakt's percussion instruments in a file named Percussion.txt. Before you create this file, you need to know that each percussion instrument is assigned to a note, e.g. Bongos are assigned to middle C and C# in the General MIDI. Create Percussion.txt with Notepad, and enter Kontakt's percussion instruments on separate lines (beginning with the instrument at the lowest note), and put it in PianoRollComposer's folder (see *note). Since the default percussion instruments begin at the lowest Eb/D#, you'll have to enter empty lines in Percussion.txt down to the first Kontakt percussion instrument's note. Remember that down in the list is up on the staffs. For example, if the first percussion note is the C above the lowest Eb/D#, then there will have to be 9 empty lines before the first Kontakt percussion instrument. The Kontakt 5 Factory Library contains the following instruments: BAND Horns Alto Saxophone Baritone Saxophone Sax Section Tenor Saxaphone Trombone Section Trombone Trumpet Mute Trumpet Section Trumpet Acoustic Pianos Grand Piano Ragtime Piano Upright Piano Electric Pianos Clavinet Auto Wah Lead Clavinet Stereo Auto Wah Clavinet Wah Overdrive Clavinet Mark I Classic Mark I Crunchy Expressive Mark I Ringmod Mark I Suitcase Mark II Classic Mark II Phaser Ballad Mark II Soft Random Mark II Sparkly Chorus Wurly Crunchy Mellow Wurly EP Wurly Speaker Wurly Vintage Slapback Organ A Whiter Shade Born to C3 C3 Blues Curcus Cool Cats Disharmonica Francescos Trumpet House Plop Indian Ropemen Jazz Basic Jazz Je t aime Marquee Oye Como Va Preston Reggae Basic Rock Basic The Cat The Third Woodstock Guitar Akkord Guitar - Default Akkord Guitar - Large Akkord Guitar - (All Chords) Elektrik Guitar Funk Guitar Harmonic Guitar Jazz Guitar Nylon Guitar Rhythm Rock Guitar Rock Guitar Solo Guitar Bass Classic Bass Funk Bass Jazz Upright Pop Bass Upright Bass Drum Kits Bling Bling Kit Central Stage Kit Chocolate City Kit Crystal Kit Funk Kit Jazz Kit Platinum Plus Kit Pop Kit Rock Kit Rolling Ice Kit Street Knowledge Kit Studio Break Kit Urban Kit CHOIR Vowel Morph Choir Morph (a-e) Choir Morph (a-e-i-o-u) Choir Morph (a-i) Choir Morph (a-m) Choir Morph (o-u) Vowel Keyswitches Alto Vowels Bass Vowels Choir Vowels Soprano Vowels Tenor Vowels Choir Choir (a) Choir (e) Choir (i) Choir (m) Choir (o) Choir (u) Soprano Soprano (a) Soprano (e) Soprano (i) Soprano (m) Soprano (o) Soprano (u) Alto Alto (a) Alto (e) Alto (i) Alto (m) Alto (o) Soprano (u) Tenor Tenor (a) Tenor (e) Tenor (i) Tenor (m) Tenor (o) Tenor (u) Bass Bass (a) Bass (e) Bass (i) Bass (m) Bass (o) Bass (u) ORCHESTRAL VSL Strings Cello Ensemble Cello Solo Double Bass Ensemble Double Bass Solo Harp Solo Strings String Ensemble Viola Ensemble Viola Solo Violin Ensemble Violin Solo VSL Woodwinds Bass Clarinet Bassoon Combi Bassoon Clarinet Combi Clarinet Contrabassoon English Horn Flute French Oboe Oboe Piccolo VSL Brass Brass Ensemble French Horn Ensemble French Horn Trombone Ensemble Trombone Trumpet ensemble Trumpet Tuba VSL Percussion Bass Drum Celesta Cymbal half Cymbals a due Full Percussion Glockenspiel Marimba Snare Drum ens Snare Drum Tambourine 1 Tambourine 2 Tamtam Timpani (tremolo) Timpani Triangle 1 Triangle 2 Tubular Bells (metal) Tubular Bells (wood) Xylophone Orchestral Percussion [many] Keyboard Instruments [many] Legacy VSL Instruments [many] SYNTH Pad [many] Choir [many] Bass [many] Lead [many] Mallet [many] Synth Drums [many] Arpeggiator [many] Sequencer [many] URBAN BEATS Performances [many] Kicks [many] Snares [many] Claps [many] Hihats & Shakers [many] Cymbals [many] Percussion [many] SFX [many] VINTAGE Analog Machines [many] Digital Machines [many] Drum Machines [many] Electrone Organ [many] Electronic Pianos [many] Electronic Toys [many] F 100 [many] Mellotron [many] Memory [many] Mini [many] Mini 700 [many] Orchestrator [many] String Melody II [many] YC 30 [many] WORLD Flutes [many] Recorders [many] Reeds [many] Bagpipes [many] Accordions [many] Strings [many] Metallophones [many] Percussion [many] *note If you're using Windows 7, Instruments.txt and Percussion.txt will actually be put into this folder: C:\Users\[user name]\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\PianoRollComposer AppData is a hidden folder. Those files in the C:\Program Files\PianoRollComposer folder are just virtual pointer files.