Undocumented Feature: Load Kontakt Instruments on Kronos!

SeedyLee · Post by **SeedyLee** » Mon Jul 11, 2016 12:04 pm

Today whilst playing around with loading some samples on my Kronos Icame across a feature I never knew existed - apparently it's possible to load some Kontakt instruments (NKIs) directly on the Kronos and convert them into User Banks!

Firstly, a word of warning - as far as I'm aware, this is an undocumented feature and I experienced a fair amount of funky behaviour when using it. I've had about a 50% success rate with it so far.

To start the import process, use Disk mode to select an NKI file to load:

<img src="https://zksgvg.bn1301.livefilestore.com ... pmode=none" width="660" height="495">

A prompt will be presented asking where you want to store the resultant combinations and programs. There are also three additional options - Pack, Overlap and Parameter. I don't really know what these options do, but Overlap seemed to clear previously loaded samples.

<img src="https://z0sgvg.bn1301.livefilestore.com ... pmode=none" width="660" height="495">

You'll then be asked to specify the directory containing the samples. I tried both wav and ncw files, and only had success with wav files. Protected samples aren't supported.

<img src="https://aksgvg.bn1301.livefilestore.com ... pmode=none" width="660" height="495">

The result should then be one or more programs, as well as a User Sample Bank created in the directory containing the nki file. In some cases I found that the program didn't correctly reference the user bank, but this was easily fixed.

So far I have tried this using OS 3.0.4 on four different free Kontakt libraries and had success with two of them. It mostly seemed to be the larger, more complex ones that failed.

Anyway, hope this is of some use and perhaps someone with more experience with Kontakt can do some more testing to see how well it works

QuiRobinez · Post by **QuiRobinez** » Mon Jul 11, 2016 12:13 pm

nice!

definitely undocumented, i had no idea this was possible. Thanks for sharing this with us

amit · Post by **amit** » Mon Jul 11, 2016 12:29 pm

WOW: Grreat!!!!

btw in case you don't know you can also load the Korg multisamples (kmp files) into Kontakt.

Hint: Try Saving instrument (ncw) in kontact and make sure you select patch + samples option. Where possible kontakt will write the samples to disk as wav or aiff.

This will make it very easy for bringing timesliced loops into kronos.
(I have asked and am waiting for chicken systems to add that midi export feature to korg creator, but if this works out then it's as good)

amit · Post by **amit** » Mon Jul 11, 2016 8:04 pm

tried a few nki files, didn't work for me

everything did show up but no files were written or program created.

SanderXpander · Post by **SanderXpander** » Mon Jul 11, 2016 8:19 pm

Huh... Definitely have to try this.

coyote144 · Post by **coyote144** » Mon Jul 11, 2016 8:24 pm

Definitively to be tried, but great, great new, even as a beta-hidden feature.

SeedyLee · Post by **SeedyLee** » Tue Jul 12, 2016 1:22 am

If it were ready for prime-time, then I'm sure Korg would be actively promoting it. Still, it gives some insight into what might be in store for us in the future, and if you have a Kontakt library to convert across it's still worth giving it a try before attempting other methods.

amit · Post by **amit** » Tue Jul 12, 2016 5:22 am

It is a very good find indeed, I'll revisit it later, maybe I was doing something wrong. Agree that if Korg and Kronos Opens up for some other formats (sfz, nki, exs , giga..) it will be a huge plus.

I am in the process of converting some of my old Sampler Content discs to Kronos (thanks to Garth/Jeff at chicken systems for taking care of the critical bugs off korg creator). Kontakt is already a major part of my workflow, so every bit helps.

Broadwave · Post by **Broadwave** » Tue Jul 12, 2016 6:27 am

I presume it will only load Kontakt files if the base samples are WAVs, and not NI's proprietary (and protected) NKX format.

Great to know though. I'll give it a try later today

SeedyLee · Post by **SeedyLee** » Tue Jul 12, 2016 7:02 am

I only had success getting it to work with WAV files. I had success with loading Pettinhouse's free guitar library, as well as a speak-and-spell sample set, but experienced failures with 8dio's free Glass Marimba and Impact Soundworks' free Stroh Violin pack, both of which had a large number of samples.

amit · Post by **amit** » Tue Jul 12, 2016 7:56 am

It might just be kontakt version issue for the nki's as I use version 5

methusala · Post by **methusala** » Tue Jul 12, 2016 1:56 pm

Does this mean that any 3rd party sample library that is on Kontakt with a nki file can potentially be brought into the K? There are 100's of them. The reverse of this is, why would you want to when you use them on your DAW anyway?

Patrick

SanderXpander · Post by **SanderXpander** » Tue Jul 12, 2016 6:52 pm

Errrrr to use them live?!
Would be a huge boon to me.

SeedyLee · Post by **SeedyLee** » Wed Jul 13, 2016 1:39 am

methusala wrote:why would you want to when you use them on your DAW anyway?

The Kronos IS my DAW

EvilDragon · Post by **EvilDragon** » Wed Jul 13, 2016 8:21 pm

I believe this will work for NKIs saved in Kontakt BEFORE version 4.2, when the NKI file format completely changed (and NI didn't document it at all, so no 3rd parties can create any tools for creating or loading those files).