# Why the heck did NI... ???



## Ben H (Mar 1, 2019)

... remove 3rd Party import support from Kontakt?!?
i.e. remove the ability to import files into Kontakt from other formats.



> *Kontakt 6.0.2 - 2018-10-01*
> 
> *REMOVED* 3rd Party format import is not possible anymore



https://www.native-instruments.com/...update-status-kontakt-6-current-6-0-4.336867/


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## erica-grace (Mar 1, 2019)

Wait - does this mean we won't be able to import wav files? That makes no sense.


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## Ben H (Mar 1, 2019)

WAV files and AIFF still work... They need to, so that you can still build Kontakt instruments.

It's just anything else like GIGA, or AKAI, or SF2, or EXS, or any other previously supported formats.


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## Josh Richman (Mar 1, 2019)

Ben H said:


> WAV files and AIFF still work... They need to, so that you can still build Kontakt instruments.
> 
> It's just anything else like SFZ, or EXS, or any other previously supported formats.



Ouch why? This would only mean less sampled instruments can be made for the platform...


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## dariusofwest (Mar 1, 2019)

-_- what.


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## JEPA (Mar 1, 2019)

is this true? link please, thanks.


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## Ben H (Mar 1, 2019)

JEPA said:


> is this true? link please, thanks.



https://www.native-instruments.com/...update-status-kontakt-6-current-6-0-4.336867/


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## JEPA (Mar 1, 2019)

what does that obbey to?


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## Ben H (Mar 1, 2019)

Josh Richman said:


> Ouch why? This would only mean less sampled instruments can be made for the platform...



I think the reason they have done it is to try and lock developers out of developing for other non-Kontakt formats.

Because people would originally create their libraries in other samplers first and then save them in Kontakt as a final format.

Now I think they're hoping that people wont develop in other formats because it is too much work to build separate non-Kontakt instruments.

Stuff can't be converted FROM Kontakt format because it's locked down, and now stuff also can't be converted TO Kontakt (with Kontakt at least).

They're purposefully trying to make it inconvenient and too much of a hassle for developers to release multiformat libraries, so that they abandon creating libraries for platforms other than Kontakt, IMHO.


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## hawpri (Mar 1, 2019)

Won't it always be possible to keep doing this in older versions of Kontakt 5, and then open that .nki in K6, which would circumvent this whole idea? Obviously as time goes on fewer and fewer people will be using older versions of Kontakt until most won't have this option available, but that will be years from now.


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## Quasar (Mar 1, 2019)

Just another example, like the malware Native Access, of monopolistic abuse of power. NI sickens me.


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## Ben H (Mar 1, 2019)

@hawpri, that is the whole point. Progressively Kontakt is becoming less and less open, but now people are too far invested in it with libraries and workflow and whatnot to be able to move away from it.

They slowly locked it down starting with 4.2 by making the NKIs use a binary non-human readble format, slowly closing it off, and now it's progressively aggressively becoming more and more proprietary.


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## Saxer (Mar 1, 2019)

That way they motivate other developers to create their own samplers. EastWest, VSL, Spitfire, Audiomodeling, Orchestraltools...


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## Ben H (Mar 1, 2019)

@Saxer, that's very true. They're trying to force deveopers' hands, thinking no one will resist, but they're pushing them away. Same as Steinberg, with this whole discontinuing VST 2 thing.


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## X-Bassist (Mar 1, 2019)

it's sad to say, but perhaps the time for separate VST samplers for bigger developers has begun and will continue to grow. It may make things more complex, and will probably make more people stick to less developers (driving out smaller ones). But I don't think NI cares, until their software sales start to take a nosedive. Than they'll have to start over. "We support more formats for Kontakt 9!"


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## EvilDragon (Mar 2, 2019)

3rd party sampler format import has nothing to do with developing libraries for Kontakt, really.



Ben H said:


> Because people would originally create their libraries in other samplers first and then save them in Kontakt as a final format.



When was this "originally"? 10 years ago? Most any Kontakt developer you see on today's market doesn't use any of the old sampler formats to do their development, at all. Not sure where you got this idea from.



Ben H said:


> They slowly locked it down starting with 4.2 by making the NKIs use a binary non-human readble format



NKI format wasn't human-readable even before 4.2, you needed special tools to unpack them. Kontakt's format was never really "open", in the true sense of the word.



Ben H said:


> They're purposefully trying to make it inconvenient and too much of a hassle for developers to release multiformat libraries



Incorrect. Plus, how many developers total are making multiformat libraries? Can they be counted on two hands? Out of, what, hundreds of existing developers? Let's be realistic here.

Also, you don't know how the decision was made so you cannot claim anything was done "purposefully". There can be any number of reasons that are more realistic than the one you mention.



hawpri said:


> Won't it always be possible to keep doing this in older versions of Kontakt 5, and then open that .nki in K6



Of course that will always be possible.


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## Lindon (Mar 2, 2019)

Ben H said:


> I think the reason they have done it is to try and lock developers out of developing for other non-Kontakt formats.
> 
> Because people would originally create their libraries in other samplers first and then save them in Kontakt as a final format.
> 
> ...


Honestly the audio file formats are the least of our worries when we are doing cross-product development.


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## thereus (Mar 2, 2019)

X-Bassist said:


> it's sad to say, but perhaps the time for separate VST samplers for bigger developers has begun and will continue to grow. It may make things more complex, and will probably make more people stick to less developers (driving out smaller ones). But I don't think NI cares, until their software sales start to take a nosedive. Than they'll have to start over. "We support more formats for Kontakt 9!"



Yeah...

...but which of those bigger developers is going to put the investment into proper memory management?


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## Lindon (Mar 11, 2019)

...memory management never goes away but thats not the big mountain at the start - that's stuff like disk streaming/buffering etc.


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## Desire Inspires (Mar 11, 2019)

All the more reason to use subscription-only libraries.


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## EvilDragon (Mar 11, 2019)

No, not really.


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## mouse (Mar 11, 2019)

Desire Inspires said:


> All the more reason to use subscription-only libraries.



Lol


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## Lindon (Mar 11, 2019)

Desire Inspires said:


> All the more reason to use subscription-only libraries.


wha?

-- we run a subscription library - with EVERYTHING in it... it's not that popular..


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## Tod (Mar 11, 2019)

EvilDragon said:


> No, not really.





mouse said:


> Lol





Lindon said:


> wha?
> 
> -- we run a subscription library - with EVERYTHING in it... it's not that popular..



...........


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## MartinH. (Mar 11, 2019)

Lindon said:


> wha?
> 
> -- we run a subscription library - with EVERYTHING in it... it's not that popular..



You should try to better explain to people what you're offering (maybe even to the point of giving it a different name). From a glance at your website your offering is almost the _opposite _of what I think of when I hear "subscription". 

Subscription means to me "you never own it, pay for life or stop using it". And on your site it says: 


> There is no authorisation process to go thru for the service or any of the products – unlike our “for sale” versions – instead we “pre-bake” your authorisation codes into your download, so you can get up and running straight away.
> 
> So one of the first thing people ask about E4E is “why wouldn’t I just subscribe for one month, download everything and then unsubscribe?” and sure you can do that, no problems. But we think there’s a whole range of reasons why you might not want to:


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## Fredeke (Mar 13, 2019)

Maybe they were just tired of maintaining that part of the code. Maybe they think most that deserved converting has been converted by now. Maybe that feature wouldn't agree with new features, from a coding perspective, without significant rewrites they thought were not worth it...

But as some pointed out, we'll still have versions 5.x for doing conversions - from older formats at least.


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