Importing Kontakt NKI files?

[sporkles]

Can anyone successfully import an .nki file, as described in the manual (double-click in browser to import and create a Sampler)? When I try this, Live simply freezes; tried it with 8.3.3, 8.3.4 and now the latest Live 9 beta. Same result every time.

[darkenedsoul]

I don't know when I'd get to try this but what version of Kontakt/file (which one in particular would also be beneficial in case someone/I have it)?

Mike

[sporkles]

I've tried with files files I've created myself, as well as files from the Kontakt factory library. I did install the latest Kontakt update, which was released yesterday, and I did suspect this could be the culprit, but I can't verify that now.

[darkenedsoul]

Hi,

I have not put the latest update from Kontakt to my systems (both are at least 1 update behind). I could try but can't guarantee when I will get to this. So you are saying just grab a .NKI file and drag it into Sampler and see if it loads in and is playable?

Mike

[sporkles]

Thanks.

Well, I've actually never tried this before myself, but the way to do it, according to the manual, is to locate NKI file with Live's browser and double click it, which will import the patch and load a Sampler. For me, Live freezes when the import dialogue opens.

Thanks again for taking interest, mate.

[theophilus]

i've done it before, with older nkis. kontakt factory stuff should NOT work since it's locked. your own though should.

wonder if it's a version issue; they changed the format around 4.2.4? maybe to make them load faster.

[UCAudio]

This has been broken for a long time and looks like it was not fixed in 9.

[darkenedsoul]

Hi,

Running Kontakt 4 still (I have not updated the DAW to K8 still lmao....). So I tried something from Vintage->Orchestrator and it went south 2x and I sent both of the crash files to the Abes. I also mentioned fix ASAP as some may not be updating to Live 9 in the next few months. Hopefully they'll be able to find the issue and fix it asap. But I kind of doubt that since they are hot on beta testing Live 9. What version of Kontakt were you running and what were you trying to load?

Win7 Home Premium 4 Gb memory, 8800GTS 640MB video, Motu 828 Mk II FW, E6850 CPU, gigabyte mobo (like 5 yrs or more old I think for system specs haha).

Mike

[sporkles]

I had created some patches for Kontakt that I wanted to load in different chains in an Instrument Rack, so that I could use the chain selector to morph between them, but loading several Kontakt instances like that crashed Live, so I figured I'd try importing to Sampler instead. When this failed too, I grabbed a patch from the Kontakt library, just to see if there was a problem with my patches, but the same thing happened.

I've tried this now with 8.3.3, 8.3.4 and the Live 9 beta, and it crashes every time. This is the very latest version of Kontakt, BTW, but if it's happening even with K4, the problem is obviously with Live.

Cheers.

[theophilus]

I had created some patches for Kontakt that I wanted to load in different chains in an Instrument Rack, so that I could use the chain selector to morph between them, but loading several Kontakt instances like that crashed Live, so I figured I'd try importing to Sampler instead. When this failed too, I grabbed a patch from the Kontakt library, just to see if there was a problem with my patches, but the same thing happened.

I've tried this now with 8.3.3, 8.3.4 and the Live 9 beta, and it crashes every time. This is the very latest version of Kontakt, BTW, but if it's happening even with K4, the problem is obviously with Live.

Cheers.

use external instrument instead, and put them all in separate midi channels. might solve your problem for now at least.
i've never tried this for what you describe, but i have used it quite a bit for drum racks...

[sporkles]

Well, I sorted my problem for now, by simply setting up my patch in Kontakt standalone instead. Figured out how to set key switches and stuff, also most likely tracing the Kontakt crashes to a missing sample Still - trying to import a Kontakt patch to Live = crash.

[darkenedsoul]

use external instrument instead, and put them all in separate midi channels. might solve your problem for now at least.
i've never tried this for what you describe, but i have used it quite a bit for drum racks...

I remembered hearing about it or reading it in the manual but don't remember if I had done it in the past. As far as external instrument, why? Couldn't he just put Kontakt on MIDI track 2, then set up the instruments on different channels and set additional tracks to get MIDI from those channels? Is external instrument even needed to do that anyways? I don't think I used that in one setup saved off.

I suppose I would for my synthesizer if I wasn't using it to play any VSTi or would I need to as well with that? But as to his issue, he seems to have it resolved for the time being and I submitted 2 crashes to them the other night so they should have enough information/data to make a fix and hopefully put it in 8.3.5 as I mentioned some may not be updating to Live 9 right away. Hopefully they keep that in mind for this fix.

Mike

[prebentious]

I haven't been able to import kontakt patches for years. So annoying. Every few months I send them another bug report in hopes that they'll do something about it, but nothing yet. Don't hold your breath

[darkenedsoul]

Here is what I got back from Ableton, it isn't Live's fault (well it is and it isn't):

Dear Mike,

thank you for contacting Ableton!

Did Live crash or did it freeze and you had to quit it via force quit?
Native Instrument changed the Kontakt file format with 4.2.2. The new format is currently not supported by Live.

This issue is filed in our bug backlog. Unfortunately, at the moment I can't tell when the new Kontakt file format will be supported.


Sorry for the inconvenience and best regards,

So NI changed the file format with Kontakt 4.2.2 and beyond to this new format which Sampler hasn't been updated to work with and is currently backlogged. I am not sure if that means it is backlogged for both Live 8 and 9 or just Live 8. If they respond to my query I'll update the thread. I told them that I and others weren't able to do this because of this change and was disheartened that it hasn't been updated on Live's end by this time (hey, how long has K5 been out? A year or more?). So, we'll see if they do anything any time soon and if they'll update it for 8.3.x or force us to get 9 to get it in a 9.x update...if they pull that, I think I'm done with Live as that'd be some shoddy business tactics IMHO.

Mike

[doghouse]

It's not Live's problem, the file change was made by NI to make it more difficult to import .nki into other sample players.

The .nki files I've gotten over the years on music rag DVDs load just fine, but they are probably in the old format (both are called .nki, just to make it more confusing).