Although I've found my way around many of the various synths, I've only really begun using Kontakt which was included in Komplete 8.

Consequently I'm having a rough time trying to understand the library/instrument structure. Hense the three following questions:

1: I recently purchased Hollow Suns wonderful Cognosphere and began by clicking on one of the nki files in my directory.

Immediately Cognosphere opened and I experimented with the various variations within the folder.

However, I never could tell Kontakt to load Cognosphere as a library so that it can show up in the left-hand panel along with the factory and other libraries.

I really don't want to always have to open my Windows folder to start Cognosphere especially since it always opens Kontakt 5 as a standalone and that won't do when I'm in Sonar trying to lay down tracks.

2: Through experimentation with the wheel (cog) I came up with a fantastic patch that I wanted to save. According to the Cognosphere instructions, I should save it as an nki. This amounts to saving an instrument instead of a preset, correct? I never was able to ascertain how this is done in Kontakt 5.
When I use the Save As feature, Kontakt creates an instrument below Cognosphere but that instrument makes no sound and the Cognosphere graphics are not visible, so I'm not sure what Kontakt is trying to do...


I've looked at the manual but couldn't make sense out of it for some reason.
There is a tutorial on YouTube, but it's for version 3.

Thanks for any help.

OC

I think publishers have to pay NI to enable their sample sets to appear as libraries. I've only got one third-party set that shows as a library, Steven Slate Drums. All the rest, I load through the Files menu. It is next to the Libraries menu within Kontakt. I browse to my instruments through that to load them in Kontakt within a DAW.

I haven't tried saving presets from standalone Kontakt like you're describing, so I can't speak to that, but I have saved them within projects in FL Studio. When you load the project the instruments get loaded with the settings you gave them. Should be the same in other DAW's.

Roy

Thanks rtkeeling.

Interesting about the libraries.

Regarding the saving as nki - here is a quote from the Congnosphere User Guide:

"And don't forget, if the thing creates some wonderfully mad sound you want to
keep and re-use, just save them as an NKI in the normal way. In fact, the
'Variations' folder contains 20 such NKIs as a taster."

I'll keep digging around a bit.

Thanks,
OC

You can also use Kontakt's own file browser instead of the one in Windows. This will work both in standalone and plugin version.

Hollow Sun currently does not licence the Kontakt Player engine, since it costs money, so the Libraries tab is not a possibility currently. You can use Kontakt's Quick Load feature, though, to make browsing non-Kontakt Player libraries (like Hollow Sun's) easier.

Read about the file browser and Quick Load in Kontakt's manual, sections 12.1 and 13.

Thanks EvilDragon,

Yes, I've been working with the browser so I've mostly got that down.


For some reason Kontakt hasn't been the most intuitive instrument for me...

Regards,
OC

One bit of weirdness I've noticed with Kontakt 5 (not with 4, though) is that if I play a sound with K5's keyboard (which isn't that often, but still...), I hear something that sounds like a Mellotron choir playing along with the loaded NKI. It doesn't happen when I play it from my controller.

As far as getting your NKI's to show up under the library tab rather than the browser, I found that if you put new things into the Kontakt Factory Library, then they will show up under that heading in the library tab.

Kontakt's GUI keyboard will play only the instrument that is currently selected (has an orange frame around it), or which is on MIDI channel 1.

It was doing that with only one instrument loaded. While I was at work tonight, I finally figured out what was going on; checking when I got home showed the problem.

In Kontakt's midi settings, it was sending to all the outputs on my interface, and one of them was sending to a module in my rack that was turned on, and set to a Tron choir patch. I shut off the midi outputs, and no more choir layered with Kontakt. I don't recall ever turning any of the midi outputs on when I installed K5, so I don't know if it did it, or I did and just don't remember doing it. Either way, it's working fine now.

Correct. And it's not a trivial sum of money.

You should be able to load any of my stuff by just double clicking on an NKI and/or dragging one of my NKIs onto the Kontakt 'rack'. That's how I do it here.

As for saving, not sure what that's all about in K5 (which I don't have ... yet ... sticking with 4 for now). Saving an NKI here opens up a window (typically the folder where the original NKI lives), I give it a new name and click on SAVE. And it's done.

If you're new to Kontakt, I guess it can take a bit of getting used to (I remember being a bit frustrated with it at first) but it's all fairly painless really.

Cheers,


Stephen

Thanks Stephen.

Sorry to say that so far I have not found a way to save changes to an NKI as a new NKI. I've saved it under the preset dropdown, but it doesn't save as an NKI and doesn't recall the settings. Too bad, too since I had a really great sound after spinning the cosmic wheel!

Definitely nothing negative about Cognosphere though! It's really great and I look forward to aquiring most of the Music Laboratory Machines collection (after recovering form the holidays!)

Cheers,
OC

I am not sure what you are doing exactly but I save Hollow Sun changes all the time as .nki's and I have Kontakt 5. When you make changes to any HS MLM instrument in Kontakt you use the disk icon (labeled FILES) at the top of the Kontakt window. A menu will come up and you select "save as," and select Cognosphere. Then go to the folder that has the Cognosphere instruments, give the file a new name and save it. Notice that below the window where you enter the new name is the file type extension. It should say Kontakt .nki. (I think it is the only choice)

Works every time.

Mr Crab....

Silly question...

You DO have the full version of Komplete and, hence, the full version of Kontakt 5....

And not to be confused with Komplete 8 Players or some other bloody confusing package NI have available?

Or maybe there's something else going on here.

Cheers,


Stephen

Thank you so much Bobbotov. I'd seen the Save As before but I was hesitant to select Cognosphere for fear of overwriting the original setting. Apparently Kontakt didn't display the folder window until after I selected Cognosphere.
Your directions worked perfectly!

Also to Stephen, yes I do have the full Kontakt 5. Sorry for being so much trouble.

All sorted out now, thanks for all the replies

Cheers,
OC

Glad to help. Incidentally, it works the same way with Kontakt 4. Now you should get all of the other MLM instruments:-) They work amazingly well together.

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