# Converting NKI



## derstefmitf (Apr 20, 2018)

Hi,

does anyone have experience with software solutions to convert .nki files to .exs or .sf? Chicken Systems Translator gets mentioned a lot, but I would like to hear if anyone on this forum got some insight. Thanks.


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## polypx (Apr 20, 2018)

I believe Chicken Systems is the ONLY thing that will let you do this.


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## charlieclouser (Apr 20, 2018)

TL;DR = Translator works, but it usually makes a mess, and you need to be a bit of a jock with the EXS Editor to clean things up after the process.

Chicken Systems Translator is the only software that does this on Mac. I use it quite a bit, and have for many years. There may be other software which can do this on Windows (like Awave Studio maybe?); I wouldn't know. Translator is Mac/Windows I believe.

EDIT - I just found that there is an "experimental" version of Awave Studio for Mac. I haven't tried it yet. Here is the link. 

http://www.fmjsoft.com/awavestudio.html#osx

The caveats with Translator are:

- It *cannot* convert protected NKI files - anything that is "Kontakt Player Compatible" and / or requires a serial number to be entered into NI Service Center / NI Access will not be converted.

- It cannot decode NCW audio files. You must first save your Kontakt Instruments *and* *samples* to a new directory with the samples in uncompressed WAV format. You can use Kontakt's "Collect Samples / Batch Compress" function to convert whole directories in one shot. Make sure you don't overwrite your originals - create and select a new folder in which to dump your converted files, and then point Translator to that folder. During conversion you can tell Translator to copy / convert the wav files to a new location (which I always do), but you still need to convert the source NCW files to WAV. I always wind up with three folders - the original source (which I leave untouched), the "Exported" folder (which is the result of my Save As or Collect Samples / Batch Compress operation in Kontakt), and the "Converted" folder (which is the result of the Translator operation, containing a duplicate of the WAV files in the "Exported" folder alongside the EXS Instruments that reference these samples which Translator creates). After the process is complete and I'm satisfied with the results, that intermediate "Exported" folder can safely be deleted.

-Round-robin sample group assignments will be preserved, but you may have to fiddle with the "Select Group By" parameters in the Groups view in the EXS Editor window, and re-set-up the order in which the Groups will trigger, since the methods that Kontakt and EXS use to assign the order differ significantly. Converted Instruments may sound and behave a little different in this regard.

- If the source Instruments contain legato transition samples, these will be converted, but EXS does not have scripting capabilities and can't deal with playing back legato transitions like Kontakt can. You'll have to clean out the resulting EXS Instrument by deleting all of the groups / zones that deal with these. Fortunately, these zones that point to those samples are usually in separate groups and can be located and deleted easily. But if you just try to play a converted Instrument with these samples / groups in place you'll hear absolute mayhem.

- If the source Instruments have multiple mic positions, these will survive the translation process successfully, and are usually assigned to separate groups, so these can be dealt with in a similar manner to the legato transition groups. Delete, assign to separate outputs, etc. But there is no real way to control the relative levels of individual sample groups from MIDI CC or front panel controls in EXS. The only practical solution to preserving multiple mic positions is to either assign each mic position's samples / zones / groups to separate outputs (and deal with the hell that this involves in EXS), or to create separate EXS Instruments for each mic position.

- Obviously, all of the fancy-shmancy stuff going on with custom-scripted user interfaces in Kontakt goes away. Step sequencers, front-panel effects controls, built-in reverbs - all gone. In some cases Translator may crash or refuse to convert the most complex Kontakt Instruments; if this happens you can try to strip out the scripts in Kontakt and save the stripped Instruments before attempting conversion. In extreme cases, I have exported each sample group from Kontakt as a separate NKI file and converted these.

- In any case, the resulting EXS Instruments will need pretty extensive massaging before they will be useable. Most of the mod routings and other controls on the EXS front panel are set to garbage values - even the Velocity > Sample Select mod routing is usually changed to nonsense. I use the Copy / Paste Settings function under EXS's Options menu to replace the settings in converted Instruments with a known set from a functioning instrument that was built from scratch in EXS and not the result of a conversion. There may be settings that you overlook which can produce unpredictable results; replacing the settings in a converted instrument with a known set from a functioning instrument avoids this possibility.

- The massaging must continue under the hood, inside the EXS Editor. I always inspect what's going on and correct any errors. Usually, the sample mapping (root / high / low key), relative zone volumes, and even sample start / end / loop points are converted correctly, but there are often garbage / out of range values in the parameters in the Groups view - so you'll need to be comfortable with what those values should be and be ready to cruise through everything and enter appropriate values. Relative Envelope Offsets in the Groups view are a big offender - these always seem to get set to wild values. Loop crossfade values usually do not come across and these must be set manually. But the important stuff, the mapping and group assignments, usually does survive the process okay.

To summarize - these days, I only use Translator for some conversions. I still have Redmatica's now-discontinued KeyMap software, and I often just export the WAV files from Kontakt, discard the exported NKI files, and just rebuild new EXS Instruments using KeyMap. If the source WAV files have decent names that include the root note and velocity range in the file name, it is often faster for me to just massage the file names with a renaming utility, then build new EXS Instruments in KeyMap since it can Auto-Map samples based on root key and velocity range information that's embedded in the sample file names, or even by detecting the pitch of the imported samples (amazing!). But KeyMap is a dead product, not available for purchase anymore, and can only run on MacOS El Capitan or earlier. So if you don't have spare computers or boot drives with older MacOS versions lying around, it's pretty much a no-go zone.

In short - Translator does / can work. But it's not a one-step process. If you understand samplers / Kontakt / EXS thoroughly, it's a good option - and the only one, at the moment.


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## dgburns (Apr 20, 2018)

Translator works ok, but it’s so finicky and I am SO bewildered by all the convert options.

Cdxtract v4 was a great and simple app that I used a ton, but it was not updated, even though the website promises it will be.

I’m pretty sure Translator is licensed into Kontakt as the converter to go TO Kontakt from EXS and Akai and Giga. I’m pretty sure that was what Garth told me at some point. (I think his name was Garth at Chicken Systems)


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## wst3 (Apr 21, 2018)

I'll speak to Windoze, since Charlie did a great job on the Mac side.

It really is Translator or doing it by hand. Awave does a fantastic job of converting sound files, but it falls short when you try to use it to convert instruments or more complex structures.

And Translator works pretty well for a computer program<G>! If you leave the default settings in place you will usually get a usable result. If you use it often enough you will start to recognize which settings are causing problems, and a second (or third) pass will get you close enough that you can finish with the sampler itself.

Not all conversions work, and very few conversions are bi-directional. For example, I still have a LARGE collection of EPS/ASR libraries, and converting them to Kontakt has been hit or miss. For grins I've tried to convert Kontakt libraries to the EPS, and that (for some obvious reasons) was a fail!

In the case of EXS, I'd be inclined to start with a directory full of wave files and build it myself. Not sure that's really practical, since it's been quite a while since I used EXS. But that's probably where I'd start.

Translator is a great starting place as well

Good luck!


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## derstefmitf (Apr 23, 2018)

Hi,

thank you for all the great information and help. Again and again, I am amazed about how well this community works. In the end I think I will build the EXS files from scratch. The products I would like to convert are no big, deep-sampled mulitple instruments/ensembles, normally just a basic instrument with some round robins, up to 3 or 4 dynamic layers and one mic position. Nevertheless, I am glad you guys shared your experience.


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## rrichard63 (May 1, 2018)

On two separate occasions, many months apart, I installed the demo version of Translator. Both times it crashed repeatedly on startup, before I could even tell it to do anything. Needless to say, I haven't bought it.

Like CD Xtract (mentioned above), Extreme Sample Converter has not been updated in a very long time. It claims to convert to and from Kontakt 1/2/3 but not -- at least not explicitly -- to and from Kontakt 4 or 5. I haven't used it for this, but it does a pretty good job at the tasks I have used it for.


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## Hebreww (Sep 16, 2020)

Hi, 
is what I read here correct? That I can convert kontakt libary sounds to wav, using translator, is that correct? I like to do this for west africa in kontakt. do i need a special version of kontakt or can use it with any other version to make A wav? I really appreciate your reply.

best regards,


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## d.healey (Sep 16, 2020)

Hebreww said:


> Hi,
> is what I read here correct? That I can convert kontakt libary sounds to wav, using translator, is that correct? I like to do this for west africa in kontakt. do i need a special version of kontakt or can use it with any other version to make A wav? I really appreciate your reply.
> 
> best regards,


If you have the full version of Kontakt you can convert ncw samples to wav directly, you don't need an extra program. This won't work for encrypted libraries though.


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## Hebreww (Sep 16, 2020)

d.healey said:


> If you have the full version of Kontakt you can convert ncw samples to wav directly, you don't need an extra program. This won't work for encrypted libraries though.


Hi, thanks for your reply!
Will this work with encoded and encrypted libraries ?
I like to convert nki files to wav. Is this possible?
Yes I have the full version.


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## d.healey (Sep 16, 2020)

Hebreww said:


> Hi, thanks for your reply!
> Will this work with encoded and encrypted libraries ?


Read the last sentence of my post.



> I like to convert nki files to wav. Is this possible?
> Yes I have the full version.


NKI is not an audio format, you can't convert NKI to wav, you can convert NCW to wav.

You can use the "Collect samples/Batch compress" tool to decompress the samples.


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## EvilDragon (Sep 16, 2020)

d.healey said:


> You can use the "Collect samples/Batch Compress" tool to decompress the samples.



Except of course it won't work on Kontakt Player libraries, just to drive that nail home.


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