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remles · Post by **remles** » Sat Jan 08, 2011 12:29 am

I have watched the Cantabile videos but still don't know how to load my virtual Pianos (a Native Instruments Grand and a SampleTekk Grand). The Sampletekk Grand for example consists of Two folders - One contains 10 each .nki files, .fxp files and .exs files, and the other folder contains multiple .wav files. When I click on any of these folders under "Plugins" in order to import, nothing happens. I have loaded a test .dll virtual instrument without a problem but despite a lot of research I can't figure out how to load more complex virtual pianos into the Sampler.

Thanks for your help!

codevyper · Post by **codevyper** » Sat Jan 08, 2011 7:59 am

I use Kontakt in Cantabile so I can tell you that .nki, .esx and .fxp files are not VST instruments in and of themselves. They are the instruments that are loaded into the VST plugin. You need to point Cantabile to the actual VST .dll file for the piano synth. For Native Instruments on a PC, this is usually in C:\Program Files\Native Instruments\VST or thereabouts. Cantabile wouldn't know what to do with the other file types since those aren't the actual VST dll file it needs to see.

Hope this helps.

Codevyper

TiUser · Post by **TiUser** » Sat Jan 08, 2011 9:04 am

*.nki files are meant to be loaded in Kontakt. If you don't own Kontakt full Version you can download the free Kontakt 4 player with NI here:

http://www.native-instruments.com/#/de/ ... kt-player/

When you have installed that you first need to load NI Kontakt 4 Player into Cantabile. Then open it and load the *.nki files into Kontakt.

*.esx files - I could not find any hints related to music instruments what this might be. Someone out who knows?

*.fxp files - these are instrument patch files, comparable to patch data for hardware synths. Usually *.fxb contains also metadate (vst id or alike) that makes it impossible to load a patch of softsynth A into softsynth B. These files are worthless without the appropriate synth.

*.fxb files - a bank of (*.fxp) patches

As codevyper already explained all these files need to be loaded into the appropriate instrument, not Cantabile directly. Cantabile has a manager to organize *.fxp patches but that just data management - Cantabile can not "play" these files without the appropriate VST

remles · Post by **remles** » Sat Jan 08, 2011 3:37 pm

I found the .dll file for Kontakt 4, loaded it into Cantabile and can now play my Native Instruments grand, thanks so much!! Since I have the free version of K4 I know that I cannot load non-Native Instruments samples into it; is there anyway to load non-NI samples into Cantabile (in this case the Sampletekk Piano that I bought)? I checked all the files in the Download folder and there are no .dll files included....

TiUser · Post by **TiUser** » Sat Jan 08, 2011 7:42 pm

Is it probably a typo any you mean "SampleTank"?

I think there is a free version of Sampletank - probably a bit odd to get...

See if you can find anything useful here:
http://www.ikmultimedia.com

remles · Post by **remles** » Sat Jan 08, 2011 8:25 pm

AUTO-ADMIN: Non-MP3, WAV, OGG, SoundCloud, YouTube, Vimeo, Twitter and Facebook links in this post have been protected automatically. Once the member reaches 5 posts the links will function as normal.

Sampletekk is a maker of quality virtual instruments (http://www.sampletekk.com/ (http://www.sampletekk.com/))- their Grand Piano samples are playable through hosts such as the full Kontakt 4 version (unfortunately can't play through the free player). I was wondering if there is any way to play their samples (no .dll included) through cantabile without having to use the full Kontakt 4 as the plugin. I have checked out SampleTank and it seems to have the same parameters as Cantabile. The download for the Sampletekk instruments are the set of folders I described in my original email.

TiUser · Post by **TiUser** » Sat Jan 08, 2011 8:58 pm

Ok.

Just to make clear again, Cantabile is a vst host programm, not a vst instrument.

VST instruments are the "plugins" that need a host to run. So you need to load these in any host before you can do anything useful with them

If a VST user interface looks like a VST host interface does not remove this difference. Some Hosts are also available as VST, so you can load it into itself or another host... before you continue digging you should understand this difference between host and vst...

Kontakt 4 is basically not a host but it may come wrapped in a simple host to make you get started easier... it's the same with SampleTank.

Cantabile can not directly play instruments and samples, you need to load the vst first - then you need to load into whatever the vst needs to make sound.

remles · Post by **remles** » Sat Jan 08, 2011 10:30 pm

I see! I thought that Kontakt and Cantabile were the same thing - but based on what I am understanding, Kontakt is the "Instrument"(and player albeit limited) and Cantabile is only a player. So the only way to fully explore the full range of quality Piano's available is to eventually invest in the full version of Kontakt or other $$$$ "Instrument" - no way around that. Thanks for your patience!

codevyper · Post by **codevyper** » Sat Jan 08, 2011 10:51 pm

Remles, you are correct. You need a sample player to play the sample sets from any sampler based libraries. Kontakt is one such player for nki files. You'll have to see if Sampletekk either provides a VST player for their libraries or see if there is a freeware sample player that can play SampleTekk's file format. Since your initial question asks about nki and esx file formats, I am assuming that the SampleTekk is in .esx format. I would search this site for sampler VSTs that can playback .esx format sample libraries.

Best

Codevyper

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