Impact Soundworks

rainguitar · Post by **rainguitar** » Sat Jan 04, 2020 3:07 pm

I've now had Shreddage 3 Stratus since December 24th. I spent hours trying to install this and when I finally thought all was good it simply stopped working. The supplied video instruction don't work in my case. I have downloaded and extracted all the files, put them in the correct location, registered the serial number with Native Instruments Access and it shows the plugin to be installed and in the correct path HD>users>shared. Komplete Kontrol is not scanning the instrument and I get a samples not found message from within Kontact 6.

Scara · Post by **Scara** » Sat Jan 04, 2020 5:20 pm

Can you direct Kontakt to the correct location?

rainguitar · Post by **rainguitar** » Sat Jan 04, 2020 5:40 pm

The Shreddage folder containing the samples is in exactly the same location as all my other NI and 3rd party library files. And the path to them has been set in Kontact. They're simply not working. And I have reloaded the files and reinstalled the files 3 times. All my other recent Kontakt library 3rd party purchases have worked perfectly. This is a Shreddage issue.

Gamma-UT · Post by **Gamma-UT** » Sat Jan 04, 2020 5:48 pm

I don't have Shreddage but these things tend to work the same way.

How is the Stratus folder laid out in ~/Shared?

Do you have an Instruments folder (or a bunch of .nki files) and a Samples folder plus an .nicnt or .nkr file of some kind at the next level down in that Stratus folder?

ie ~/Shared/Stratus/Instruments
~/Shared/Stratus/Samples
~/Shared/Stratus/Stratus.nicnt or whatever that file is called.

Do you know if the samples extracted from the RAR without errors? Sometimes Keka chokes on RARs. I've found The Unarchiver to be more reliable and is worth keeping around in addition to Keka because of this.

Technically, it doesn't matter if the Samples folder is right there. It's just more likely Kontakt will find them there. If not, either move the Samples folder into place or do a batch resave from Kontakt's main menu. Hit yes on the warning, open up the Stratus folder (do not point it at the main Shared folder unless you want to wait a long time and potentially mess up other libraries - hence the warning). Wait for the missing files dialogue to appear and then direct Kontakt to the folder where the samples live or at the Stratus folder - it will then go find them if they are there. If it brings up missing samples after that, it may mean the extraction failed and you need to do it again (with something like The Unarchiver).

rainguitar · Post by **rainguitar** » Sat Jan 04, 2020 11:24 pm

Thank you, Gamma-UT. What I really want is an installer that just works, not one that I have to endlessly troubleshoot. At the moment this is a purchase I wish I had not made.

Gamma-UT · Post by **Gamma-UT** » Sun Jan 05, 2020 9:30 am

Oh, I thought you wanted to fix it not whine about it. My mistake.

EvilDragon · Post by **EvilDragon** » Sun Jan 05, 2020 9:35 am

Kontakt libraries don't really come with installers. You just need to unpack the archive, and in case of Kontakt Player libraries add serial to Native Access and point to the folder where the library is unpacked. That's it.

rainguitar · Post by **rainguitar** » Sun Jan 05, 2020 1:44 pm

Hi EvilDragon and Gamma-UT. In this case, unpacking the archive in the way designated by the software manufacturer, Impact Sound, results in an unusable product. I know where to put the folder--I have 46 NI and 3rd party libraries in that location. HD>users>shared. The previous nine purchases, all made within the last month, installed perfectly. Gamma-UT thinks I'm a whiner, fine. But I'm a senior citizen with the expectation that when I buy a product, that product and the process involved in getting it to run on my computer will simply work. In this case, it does not. I've tried it three times. I am involved with the support folks at Impact Sound and so far they have not come up with a solution. I thought I'd reach out to see if I'm missing something obvious. If it gets too technical I'm shy about attempting something because the rest of my system is working perfectly and I don't want to screw it up. Because of my age, I am not naturally intuitive with computer troubleshooting.

Gamma-UT · Post by **Gamma-UT** » Sun Jan 05, 2020 2:19 pm

rainguitar wrote: ↑Sun Jan 05, 2020 1:44 pm I thought I'd reach out to see if I'm missing something obvious.

That's simply disingenuous. I posted the two obvious things. Apparently, it wasn't what you wanted at all.

rainguitar · Post by **rainguitar** » Sun Jan 05, 2020 2:58 pm

Hi Gamma-Ut. I really am grateful for your attempts to help me. I did have some interaction with the support folks at Impact Sound yesterday. I had sent them several screenshots. They pointed out that the file ending .nicnt was in the wrong place and should have been in the Samples folder, that if I put it in there all should be well. So I dragged it into the folder and then opened up Kontact. I'm now no longer getting the samples-missing message but instead of the "instrument" choice normally available below the library listing I now only have a "browse" choice. This doesn't open anything, or a least I don't know how to use it to open anything. In the meantime, the Shreddage 3 Stratus library is still unavailable within Komplete Kontrol. The path is listed within the library preferences but it won't rescan it. I did download The Unarchiver as you suggested but the current version won't let me select .rar files extraction unless I make it my principle unarchiver tool. You may be right in suggesting that the problem may be with Keka but that is the application suggested by Impact Sound. All of this baffles me because I've used Mac's for years and this is the first time I've ever had to use such a tool. Previously Apple's own unarchiver tool automatically opened anything I downloaded. Either that or I just used Native Access. Please don't be offended if I don't understand all your suggestions as obvious. I haven't got deeply into Kontakt at all and use it primarily for sample playback.

ZekeNigma · Post by **ZekeNigma** » Tue Jun 08, 2021 1:40 am

Wow, so it looks like I'm not the only one whose frustrated with the installation process of Shreddage 3, huh? I'm having similar problems with installing Rogue myself. I've been looking everywhere for solutions, but I'm coming up short on any good answers. Currently waiting on support to get back to me on this problem as I'm typing this.

Y'know, if you think about it, you know there's a problem with the way your product has to be installed and operated if it is equally frustrating and confusing to both a senior citizen, and a 24 year old who has grown up with computers his whole life.

EvilDragon · Post by **EvilDragon** » Tue Jun 08, 2021 1:21 pm

Are you using the Pulse Downloader? Because the whole installation procedure is handled by it, for all ISW products now.

Create a Pulse account, add your Shreddage 3 serial number into it, and off you go downloading the library. Pulse handles downloading and unpacking too. Then in Native Access, you point it to the folder that contains the .nicnt file.

By the way, the .nicnt file needs to be OUTSIDE of Samples folder. This is how a properly installed Stratus library should look like:

ZekeNigma · Post by **ZekeNigma** » Tue Jun 08, 2021 7:30 pm

I don't know if it's obvious, but all of that is literally part of the installation process according to the instructions given by Impact Soundworks after buying it, and my library folder looked exactly like in the screenshot, but it still didn't load. I'm pretty sure Shreddage 3 not running despite being installed as instructed by the developer is the whole reason why this forum thread even exists in the first place.

The only difference for me is that Kontakt Player gives me an error message that says, "File not found. Please make sure external drives are connected", which makes absolutely zero sense because it was installed directly to my computer, so what external drive would it even be referring to?

So please, give me something that isn't a boilerplate statement or retelling me the installation process, because I've already gotten enough of that from Reddit when I posted the same problem over there.

zircon · Post by **zircon** » Wed Jun 09, 2021 1:55 am

To be 100% clear, have you registered the serial in Native Access? Does the library appear on the lefthand side of the Kontakt "Libraries" tab? How are you currently trying to load the NKI into Kontakt?

Rasco66 · Post by **Rasco66** » Wed Nov 17, 2021 4:35 pm

EvilDragon wrote: ↑Tue Jun 08, 2021 1:21 pm Are you using the Pulse Downloader? Because the whole installation procedure is handled by it, for all ISW products now.

Create a Pulse account, add your Shreddage 3 serial number into it, and off you go downloading the library. Pulse handles downloading and unpacking too. Then in Native Access, you point it to the folder that contains the .nicnt file.

By the way, the .nicnt file needs to be OUTSIDE of Samples folder. This is how a properly installed Stratus library should look like:

Hi EvilDragon, sorry to jump in the discussion but I think that my issue is somehow related to the topic being discussed in this thread. I have a question about how to correctly load a snapshot file in my shreddage 3 Stratus library. The file in question is the "Hyper Universe Clean.nka" snapshot, downloadable from the Shreddage Masterclass 4 Youtube video.

I am missing the precise instructions about hot to add the "Hyper Universe Clean.nka" snapshot within my Stratus 3 library, so that such preset is shown (and thus selectable) among the default sounds.

Thank you very much for the help!

Bests,

Rasco66

Impact Soundworks

KVR Audio

Shreddage 3 Stratus installation a nightmare