# Importing EXS into Kontakt - A FIX!



## charlieclouser

A while back, Kontakt's ability to import / convert incoming EXS Instruments broke itself. After a lot of Googling, I came across a post by EvilDragon on some NI forum, and his knowledge pointed me in the right direction. After a bit of fiddling and scrolling through old boot drive backups, I managed to get it working on my system (MacOS Yosemite / Kontakt v5.6.8). Here is the situation:

Kontakt's import function relies on a small file called kconvert.bundle - this is possibly (probably?) a third-party chunk of code from Chicken Systems - a small fragment of the always-troublesome Translator codebase.

That kconvert.bundle file was changed somewhere around Kontakt 5.2, and from that version until now it does not work. BUT. Earlier versions DO work, and you can simply swap that file with an older version and it appears to work correctly and not affect any Kontakt operation other than importing / converting outside formats (although I have not rigorously tested this).

I did not have a virgin install of Kontakt v5.1, but I did have some old boot drives with Kontakt v4.x installed, and I found the bundle file, moved it over to my current machine, and BOOM. EXS import works now. Here is the skinny:

The file kconvert.bundle lives at: 

HD>Library>Application Support>Native Instruments>Kontakt5

The version that was installed on my system with Kontakt 5.6.8 was 3.1.0.4 - and this version does NOT work. The version I found in an old Kontakt v4 install was 3.0.0.7 - and this one DOES work. I simply swapped out the new one and dropped the old one in its place. 

You can find the version of your kconvert.bundle by just doing a Get Info on the file, and the version number is displayed in the resulting window.

Make SURE you keep your various versions of kconvert.bundle safe and well labelled - I made a little subfolder in my Applications folder to keep them all separated, with subfolders called "kconvert.bundle v3.0.0.7 from Kontakt v4" and "kconvert.bundle v3.1.0.4 from Kontakt v5.6.8" etc. This way if other problems crop up I won't need to re-install Kontakt.

Thanks to EvilDragon for figuring this out, and posting on whatever forum I found his post on! Hope this helps.


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## thesteelydane

As someone developing a new library for EXS and Kontakt simultaneously, I'm immensely grateful for this. Thanks Charlie!


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## X-Bassist

Thanks Charlie! Will check this out...


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## EvilDragon

charlieclouser said:


> this is possibly (probably?) a third-party chunk of code from Chicken Systems



That IS entirely Chickensys code, yeah.


Original post was here: https://www.native-instruments.com/...broken-solution-provided.325128/#post-1628253


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## charlieclouser

Thank you EvilDragon for figuring this out - or just intuitively knowing it somehow! I'd spent the afternoon battling with Translator, having it continually ask me for my installation CD (wtf?) on every launch, so it was a welcome surprise to actually triumph over some misbehaving software for a change.


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## ehausler

Thank you Charlie and EvilDragon - need this to mix a song today. BTW love your work Charlie, keep it coming


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## ehausler

charlieclouser said:


> A while back, Kontakt's ability to import / convert incoming EXS Instruments broke itself. After a lot of Googling, I came across a post by EvilDragon on some NI forum, and his knowledge pointed me in the right direction. After a bit of fiddling and scrolling through old boot drive backups, I managed to get it working on my system (MacOS Yosemite / Kontakt v5.6.8). Here is the situation:
> 
> Kontakt's import function relies on a small file called kconvert.bundle - this is possibly (probably?) a third-party chunk of code from Chicken Systems - a small fragment of the always-troublesome Translator codebase.
> 
> That kconvert.bundle file was changed somewhere around Kontakt 5.2, and from that version until now it does not work. BUT. Earlier versions DO work, and you can simply swap that file with an older version and it appears to work correctly and not affect any Kontakt operation other than importing / converting outside formats (although I have not rigorously tested this).
> 
> I did not have a virgin install of Kontakt v5.1, but I did have some old boot drives with Kontakt v4.x installed, and I found the bundle file, moved it over to my current machine, and BOOM. EXS import works now. Here is the skinny:
> 
> The file kconvert.bundle lives at:
> 
> HD>Library>Application Support>Native Instruments>Kontakt5
> 
> The version that was installed on my system with Kontakt 5.6.8 was 3.1.0.4 - and this version does NOT work. The version I found in an old Kontakt v4 install was 3.0.0.7 - and this one DOES work. I simply swapped out the new one and dropped the old one in its place.
> 
> You can find the version of your kconvert.bundle by just doing a Get Info on the file, and the version number is displayed in the resulting window.
> 
> Make SURE you keep your various versions of kconvert.bundle safe and well labelled - I made a little subfolder in my Applications folder to keep them all separated, with subfolders called "kconvert.bundle v3.0.0.7 from Kontakt v4" and "kconvert.bundle v3.1.0.4 from Kontakt v5.6.8" etc. This way if other problems crop up I won't need to re-install Kontakt.
> 
> Thanks to EvilDragon for figuring this out, and posting on whatever forum I found his post on! Hope this helps.


Hi, 

Thanks again for your research and sharing it. I've been searching in vain through all my old drives looking for a legacy kconvert file and K4 (Mac) though. You wouldn't happen to have one at hand? If you revisit the thread. Best /Erik


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## Petter Rong

charlieclouser said:


> I did not have a virgin install of Kontakt v5.1, but I did have some old boot drives with Kontakt v4.x installed, and I found the bundle file, moved it over to my current machine, and BOOM. EXS import works now. Here is the skinny:
> 
> The file kconvert.bundle lives at:
> 
> HD>Library>Application Support>Native Instruments>Kontakt5



Is it possible to get a free legal copy somewhere of that kconvert.bundle file without purchasing an older version of Kontakt? I came late to the game at Kontakt 5.*something*, so I don't have the old file...


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## EvilDragon

Since you own K5, you can go here and download Kontakt 5.1.0 update and just extract the kconvert.bundle file from the .dmg.


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## charlieclouser

Hey @EvilDragon - I haven't installed Kontakt v6 yet, but I read somewhere that third-party instrument import is no longer there. I'm assuming that this means that importing EXS, and the kconvert.bundle situation is dead on arrival, right? Still, we can probably do the importing into Kontakt v5.x, then save as .nki and then import those into v6, right?


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## Petter Rong

EvilDragon said:


> Since you own K5, you can go here and download Kontakt 5.1.0 update and just extract the kconvert.bundle file from the .dmg.



Thanks!


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## EvilDragon

charlieclouser said:


> Hey @EvilDragon - I haven't installed Kontakt v6 yet, but I read somewhere that third-party instrument import is no longer there. I'm assuming that this means that importing EXS, and the kconvert.bundle situation is dead on arrival, right? Still, we can probably do the importing into Kontakt v5.x, then save as .nki and then import those into v6, right?



Correct on both accounts!


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## Kirk A.

EvilDragon said:


> Since you own K5, you can go here and download Kontakt 5.1.0 update and just extract the kconvert.bundle file from the .dmg.



I just did that, but can't find the file:






EDIT:

Found it. It's inside the system extensions.pkg


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## whinecellar

@charlieclouser and @EvilDragon - you guys are immensely helpful around here. Thank you!

As for Chicken Systems stuff, it’s been a love-hate relationship for me... it’s always felt like a very PC app: not at all pretty or intuitive, often incredibly frustrating to use - but once you get it working, it can really be a lifesaver. For the life of me, I cannot comprehend why Apple hasn’t fixed the ability to move/relocate/relink EXS libraries & samples, especially since absorbing Redmatica. The only thing that has got me working is Chicken Systems Instrument Manager. But man, it’s not intuitive.

The point is, I can’t say enough good things about the man behind it - Garth Hjelte is a great guy and has even built custom versions for me to solve some really weird translation issues. Hit him up - he’s quite a resource. 

Anyway, cheers, fellas.


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## gsilbers

awesome. it worked!


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## Dewdman42

Thanks for this heads up. Sad to hear K6 won't import any libraries anymore. Granted I don't have to do that but once a decade, but good to know.


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## charlieclouser

whinecellar said:


> For the life of me, I cannot comprehend why Apple hasn’t fixed the ability to move/relocate/relink EXS libraries & samples, especially since absorbing Redmatica. The only thing that has got me working is Chicken Systems Instrument Manager. But man, it’s not intuitive.



Interested to hear what issues you have with moving/relocating/relinking EXS libraries? On my system I store all the EXS stuff on a 4tb Samsung SSD in a MultiDock, and I just place an alias of that drive's Instruments folder into the default location on my boot drive. EXS has no problem seeing those Instruments, and as long as all drives have been indexed by Spotlight, all samples are found no matter what drive they're on. 

If I move, reformat, or do other tomfoolery with the samples drives, then on the next load-up EXS will throw the "multiple copies found, which do you want to use" dialog, indicating that it's found the correct samples in more than one location - which are often project backup drives, my backup server, or any of a dozen other locations. So Spotlight is finding the samples needed by the EXS Instruments wherever they may lie, with no interaction from me.

Back in the Logic v9 era I used Redmatica ProManager to re-link EXS Instruments to the samples they needed, but since the rise of Spotlight I haven't had to do this once - so I haven't needed to mess with Chicken Instrument Manager even though I own it.

What issues do you have?


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## whinecellar

charlieclouser said:


> Interested to hear what issues you have with moving/relocating/relinking EXS libraries?...What issues do you have?



Oh man, I wish I could say it's been like that for me. One of the main problems is when I've bought new machines; even after Spotlight indexing, a whole bunch of EXS insts won't find their samples, even when they are all in the same respective locations (I always recreate identically named file structures on all my machines). It's maddening, because I can be staring them in the face and EXS won't see them. And as of Mojave, it won't even bring up the 'can't find...' dialogue box sometimes - you just get no sound until you realize it didn't find the samples.

Garth is a wealth of knowledge about the underpinnings of how this all works, and how things got really picky a few versions ago with respect to file names, special characters, etc. Part of the issue for me is that so much of my custom library is based on ancient Roland & AKAI CD ROMs I converted eons ago - Roland stuff is especially problematic.

So, I have two new $5000 MacBook Pros sitting here for mobile work that can't use half of my massive custom EXS library until I have the time to deal with Chicken Systems. It's infuriating that Apple hasn't found a more eloquent way - heck, any way at all - to fix this. But then there are other issues with these machines too... another story for another day. Hey, at least they're .05mm thinner...


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## wva

Kirk A. said:


> I just did that, but can't find the file:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> EDIT:
> 
> Found it. It's inside the system extensions.pkg



Kirk How did you find it? I tried to find using Show package contents on Kontakt system extensions.pkg but it is not there. Can you tell me how you did find it?


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## Kirk A.

Hi, I already deleted the install file so I can't check at the moment, but I think there were more pkg files inside the sys ext pkg and it was in one of them.


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## albertmar

wva said:


> Kirk How did you find it? I tried to find using Show package contents on Kontakt system extensions.pkg but it is not there. Can you tell me how you did find it?


Is in the System Extentions.pkg, inside Archive.pax. The Archive.pax is inside de Archive.pax.gz.


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## HadiRo

Hi Charlie and Dragon, I just registered to say thank you!! Your tips worked right away and I am more than happy, that I can now play my EXS samples in Cubase.
Strangely some of the self made EXS samples are refused. The were made inside Logic 16 years ago.
I get " Error could not load sample (operation not allowed here) " and the samples are .aif
Does anybody have an idea what to do in this case? 
Your tips made my day!!!
Thanks Hanno


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## Loïc D

I've got to pinpoint this thread !

Thanks to the new Sampler, I'm back in the sampling world and I'd like to share my instruments by making Kontakt version also. 

Prrrrecious ! :D


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## planist

Hi, could someone with an EXS-enabled Kontakt version convert this EXS file into Kontakt NKI?






The Rose Piano – pianobook







www.pianobook.co.uk





this would be very nice

Thank you!


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## NoOneKnowsAnything

EvilDragon said:


> That IS entirely Chickensys code, yeah.
> 
> 
> Original post was here: https://www.native-instruments.com/...broken-solution-provided.325128/#post-1628253


Thanks for letting people know about this 🍾🍀☝️


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## rennmusic

I can not find it in the system package. Is it hidden? 
Thanks for any help.


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## Syncopator

Kirk A. said:


> EDIT:
> 
> Found it. It's inside the system extensions.pkg


…which is inside the document "Archive.pax.gz," which also has to be expanded (by double-clicking).

C'mon, guys! More complete instructions would be helpful. 😊 Thanks!


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## grayedout

charlieclouser said:


> A while back, Kontakt's ability to import / convert incoming EXS Instruments broke itself. After a lot of Googling, I came across a post by EvilDragon on some NI forum, and his knowledge pointed me in the right direction. After a bit of fiddling and scrolling through old boot drive backups, I managed to get it working on my system (MacOS Yosemite / Kontakt v5.6.8). Here is the situation:
> 
> Kontakt's import function relies on a small file called kconvert.bundle - this is possibly (probably?) a third-party chunk of code from Chicken Systems - a small fragment of the always-troublesome Translator codebase.
> 
> That kconvert.bundle file was changed somewhere around Kontakt 5.2, and from that version until now it does not work. BUT. Earlier versions DO work, and you can simply swap that file with an older version and it appears to work correctly and not affect any Kontakt operation other than importing / converting outside formats (although I have not rigorously tested this).
> 
> I did not have a virgin install of Kontakt v5.1, but I did have some old boot drives with Kontakt v4.x installed, and I found the bundle file, moved it over to my current machine, and BOOM. EXS import works now. Here is the skinny:
> 
> The file kconvert.bundle lives at:
> 
> HD>Library>Application Support>Native Instruments>Kontakt5
> 
> The version that was installed on my system with Kontakt 5.6.8 was 3.1.0.4 - and this version does NOT work. The version I found in an old Kontakt v4 install was 3.0.0.7 - and this one DOES work. I simply swapped out the new one and dropped the old one in its place.
> 
> You can find the version of your kconvert.bundle by just doing a Get Info on the file, and the version number is displayed in the resulting window.
> 
> Make SURE you keep your various versions of kconvert.bundle safe and well labelled - I made a little subfolder in my Applications folder to keep them all separated, with subfolders called "kconvert.bundle v3.0.0.7 from Kontakt v4" and "kconvert.bundle v3.1.0.4 from Kontakt v5.6.8" etc. This way if other problems crop up I won't need to re-install Kontakt.
> 
> Thanks to EvilDragon for figuring this out, and posting on whatever forum I found his post on! Hope this helps.


HI There , I am trying to Convert some Logic Sampler instruments to K5 , can you share the working "kconvert.bundle" ? I cant find my old copies Thx Andy


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## berto

sorry to resurrect this old (but useful) thread.
i have been using @charlieclouser @EvilDragon trick for many years.
After upgrading to *Monterey*, i am using kontakt 5.8 to import exs24 and again it does not work. The kconvert.bundle disappeared from my system. probably the latest Kontakt 6 update has removed it. So i went in my backup and found kconvert.bundle 3.0.0.4. it does not work. So i dowloaded kontakt 5.1 as evil dragon suggested but it is again the convert.bundle 3.0.0.4. it does not work. @charlieclouser suggests to use 3.0.0.7. i dowloaded kontakt 4 (@charlieclouser mentioned he found it there) and found a very old version 2.0.0.7. it does not work.. the message i receive is that first the developer is not recognised, trash the file, i press cancel, and kontakt opens, but the exs file is not recognised.
i also tested some older exs files i made a few years ago but they still are not recognised. will translator pro 7 help?

thank you.


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## EvilDragon

It's probably due to these being 32-bit binaries, and macOS did away with those at some point...


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## berto

EvilDragon said:


> It's probably due to these being 32-bit binaries, and macOS did away with those at some point...


it's definitely Monterey.... i revived my cheese grater with high Sierra and installed K5.8.1, added Kconver.bundle 3.0.0.14 and it works!!! why Apple? Why??!!!


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## polypx

You can run 32 bit apps in OSs up to and including Mojave.


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## Ned Bouhalassa

Hello friends!

Is there an app out there now for quickly converting exs to kontakt?

PS: ask ChatGPT to write it for me in… 😛🤣


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## AndrewS

Ned Bouhalassa said:


> Hello friends!
> 
> Is there an app out there now for quickly converting exs to kontakt?
> 
> PS: ask ChatGPT to write it for me in… 😛🤣


Translator is still supported even if the site looks ancient.


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## Ned Bouhalassa

Thanks Andrew. It's about 80 US: 








Translator 7 Special Edition


Mac and Windows Compatible NOTES FOR TODAY This product is a Version 7.0, 64-Bit product. If you would like the older 32-bit version, please select the "Legacy" version in the drop down. This product is iLok protected, either via dongle or online authorization. There is no shipped product...




samplerzone.com


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## raidmarji

AndrewS said:


> Translator is still supported even if the site looks ancient.


Honestly, nothing from Chicken Systems work. I bought 2 software namely translator 7 and kontakt assistant and both does not work, My support ticket is there for more than 1 year and no response at all


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## berto

raidmarji said:


> Honestly, nothing from Chicken Systems work. I bought 2 software namely translator 7 and kontakt assistant and both does not work, My support ticket is there for more than 1 year and no response at all


does not work in what way? does it not translate from exs24 to kontakt at all?
even the simplest patches?


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## berto

raidmarji said:


> Honestly, nothing from Chicken Systems work. I bought 2 software namely translator 7 and kontakt assistant and both does not work, My support ticket is there for more than 1 year and no response at all


well.... i bough translator 7 on BF, but did not try it. Now since you mentioned it does not work, i wanted to try it. *it does not work.* it crashes all the time, i press translate and does nothing ... it crashes... waste of money... i remember asking them a question months ago and never got a reply... but i was a naive question... so i thought they disregarded it... go figure..


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