Can I install / run Kontakt 6 while keeping Kontakt 5 unaltered?

[lingyai]

I've been clinging to Kontakt 5.5.1 as it works fine for me, while I've read subsequent 5.x versions have all manner of problems, including those relating to Native Aceess, too numerous to list here. My setup ain't broke, no need to fix it.

The only drawback is of course I can't use new libraries which require a later version of Kontakt.

I'm told that multiple versions of Kontakt 5 can't coexist on the same machine. But can Kontakt 5.5.1 and Kontakt 6? E.g. can I load an instance of 5.5.1 in my daw and then an instance of Kontakt 6?

Sorry for sounding timid, but as, at least according to so many people, NI f*cked things up so royally after 5.5.1 that I'm no longer willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. Shame, as the quality of Kontakt instruments is so good that it's the heart of my VI setup.

[jancivil]

Yes, it's two different programs. It's the same as it ever was, same as Kontakt 4 coexisting with Kontakt 5.

[EvilDragon]

Actually after 5.5.1 came 5.5.2 which you should definitely use as it fixes a pretty important bug that might impact a certain thing in some libraries (don't wanna go into too many details).

After that we actually got a lot of pretty nice improvements for developers - possibility of larger scripted interfaces, floating point math and math functions (after 10+ years of clamoring for them!), a new UI widget - XY pad... so no I wouldn't say they screwed things up royally - but I'm a dev so naturally a bit biased. What they DID screw up was the virtual keyboard coloring and font thing, but that was fixed in 5.6.5 and it's all good ever since (in fact the new keyboard coloring looks much better than the old one). 5.8.1 is one of the most stable versions of Kontakt in a while.


Native Access has also had updates since back then when all those issues showed up, they're all pretty much remedied now. Basically all it amounts to is that from 5.6.8 onwards, you don't add libraries from Kontakt, you add them from NA. That's all. Functionally nothing else changes in Kontakt itself.

[lingyai]

Yes, it's two different programs. It's the same as it ever was, same as Kontakt 4 coexisting with Kontakt 5.

Cheers Jan

[lingyai]

Actually after 5.5.1 came 5.5.2 which you should definitely use as it fixes a pretty important bug that might impact a certain thing in some libraries (don't wanna go into too many details).

After that we actually got a lot of pretty nice improvements for developers - possibility of larger scripted interfaces, floating point math and math functions (after 10+ years of clamoring for them!), a new UI widget - XY pad... so no I wouldn't say they screwed things up royally - but I'm a dev so naturally a bit biased. What they DID screw up was the virtual keyboard coloring and font thing, but that was fixed in 5.6.5 and it's all good ever since (in fact the new keyboard coloring looks much better than the old one). 5.8.1 is one of the most stable versions of Kontakt in a while.


Native Access has also had updates since back then when all those issues showed up, they're all pretty much remedied now. Basically all it amounts to is that from 5.6.8 onwards, you don't add libraries from Kontakt, you add them from NA. That's all. Functionally nothing else changes in Kontakt itself.

Thanks ED, but there have been so many complaints about 5.5.2+ (don't wanna go into too many details) from presumably unbiased non-devs that I hope you'll forgive me for thinking everything will be just fine. If I'm wrong, world keeps turning. My question here was the one in the thread's title. Do you agree with Jancivil's answer?

[EvilDragon]

Yeah K6 will run side by side K5.

Also, there's no such thing as "unbiased" regarding people's opinions In any case at least update to 5.5.2.

[lingyai]

Thanks.

(Re "biased" -- a) I'm referring to the reported facts about problems they had, not their opinions b) you did introduce the term here, so I'm just playing ball.)

[EvilDragon]

Majority of those reported problems were fixed eventually (from the top of my head: small fonts, virtual keyboard colors not being visible/prominent enough, global purge option that was removed was returned, Native Access library adding/activation got smoothed out - if there's anything else that I'm missing, please do go into more detail). 5.8.1 is really solid. But hey, whatever floats your boat

[lingyai]

Whatever floats my boat, precisely. I respect your knowledge of NI stuff but you do come across as a corprorate apologist sometimes; I'm just not ready to dismiss these complaints

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=konta ... e&ie=UTF-8

as fabrications or mass hysteria. Between the Kontakt updates and Native Acccess, looks like a right mess to me.

Forgive me but I've no interest in pursuing anymore the tangent you've injected ("tangent" here meaning anything which doesn't answer the simple narrow question in the thread title) so have a great day.

[jancivil]

I recently migrated my system to a new computer, and in addition bought first the Discovery Series on sale, and then the new Kontakt with some content. The one problem I had with NA was down to having activated it via a different email address than the others (Sonic Couture things, which at the time were the only two which needed serial numbers) and SC sorted me there. The way I migrated was via Time Machine which meant that I had to reactivate everything NI. There is probably a better way.

Before that I had a truly irritating problem: I wanted to install the parts of Kontakt Factory Library that I use (a smallish portion of the whole); and I wanted it on an external drive. I had nowhere near the space NA requires to download all that and it would not allow me to install it anywhere but the system drive. This is a fact. I don't know if this has changed, because on the new machine it's all on the system drive. The one thing which specifically replicates "When attempting to install a product from the Not installed tab," which wasn't a new install was KFL and there was no problem.

[EvilDragon]

I am no corporate apologist (and NI is far from being a corporation). Also nobody said anything about fabrications or mass hysteria. Some of those hits are over a year old, it's not that any of the software wasn't updated in that time. As I said, 5.8.1 is absolutely smooth sailing.

I had nowhere near the space NA requires to download all that and it would not allow me to install it anywhere but the system drive.

Download and application/content locations are adjustable in Preferences - not sure if this is what you mean. Although for unpacking of installers you do need to have some available space on the system drive, IIRC.

[jancivil]

Yes, "for unpacking of installers you do need to have some available space on the system drive," is, or was a fact for KFL, for certain. This is the only time I needed to use NA for an external drive.

There was no room on the system drive, therefore I was stymied. It has to land on the system drive - and it needs more space in addition to the size of the installation - in order to be installed. Establishing the preference had no effect on the situation described.

[DarkStar]

^^^
Indeed. And it's a silly constraint.

Oddly the Komplete 12 "Buy" page says:

Required hard disk space depends on how many products/libraries you want to install. To install all products and libraries, 170 GB free disk space is required.

Please note: The installation process may temporarily require up to 40 GB of additional free disk space on your system-drive – even if you're installing KOMPLETE on an external hard drive. This number significantly decreases for smaller products, or if products are being installed one by one.

But I could not find an equivalent statement on the Kontakt 6 pages

[EvilDragon]

It applies to any product you want to install via NA. In fact it might be that most installers work that way - I'm certainly noticing this pattern with many other installers as well.

[lingyai]

Some of those hits are over a year old, it's not that any of the software wasn't updated in that time.

Uh, sorry, you are glossing over the fact that others are a few months old. I've been seeing them for a quite a while in fact. I don't find the fact the fuckups are part of an long-term saga any kind of mitigation. I know this might come across as way radical, but the longer something f**ks up, over numerous updates, the less I trust the devs behind it.

On the DAW forums I frequent, they seem to have lost a lot of credibility. (Yeah, well, users are idiots). People are tiring of the update lottery. NI should get their shit together. I code, and if my stuff gave the same user experience, I'd heve been deservedly fired quite a while ago. They should hire someone who knows about computers and stuff.

Problem is, when you've a few thousand dollars invested in libraries, you can't just walk away.

Permitting manual library installs works perfectly fine. Never had a problem with it. Download, unzip, move to the drive of your choice, done. No real reason to have even invented Native Access. Nothing it was designed to do was broken. But they have, and then force you to use it. Well, then make it f**king work, you know? I remember reading on the NI forum the advice that it will go ok, *if* you know when to stop the wizard prematurely. Uhm, so, why not fix the wizard? Self-f**king evident.

I think you tarnish yourself by trying to dismiss / gloss over these shorcomings. But hey, whatever floats your boat.