Import Trouble (Unity/Mach Five/Giga)

[TedWeil]

Just making the jump from EXS24 (by way of Mach Five, by way of Unity) as of today, so I'm still much the n00b. Begging patience, please.

Installed 2.0.0 and promptly updated to 2.1.0.006. Akai import seems to be working fine for me, as is EXS24 import of both the EXS factory content and EXS content that was converted from other sample formats. Pretty good so far - but! I can't for the life of me seem to be able to successfully import Giga (e.g. Dan Dean Solo Strings, Woodwinds and/or Brass), Mach Five content (in this case, simply the factory stuff), or Unity 3 DS-1 banks. As per the manual, I attempt to both drag 'n drop into the 'rack', and/or via the Files tab in the Browser window(s). There seems to be no recognition on Kontakt's end that I'm attempting to import a allegedly supporte file format.

From poking around I stumbled over the kconvert log. Can't tell much, past this error appears at the very beginning: '/Library/Application Support/Native Instruments/kconvert.ini could not be read!
Try to open /dev/rdisk1s0 Error opening'

All these were advertised as being supported, and from reading various posts it seems some folks -are- successful importing these formats while others aren't. I'd sure like to fall into the first category, so any help, advice or finger pointing would be appreciated.

Thanks!

- t

[BobTheDog]

Hi There,

I am also new to Kontack and am trying to import my Mach 5 stuff.

Some work correctly, some don't.

Here is an example of how to do it.

Open Kontack in standalone.

In browser select the File tab.

Find your MachFive sounds.

In the top window of the browser select the Folder under presets of the sound you are interested in.

As an example I am useing "MachFive Sounds->02-Electric Keyboards.M5b->Presets->01-Suitcase Piano"

Now in the bottom window of the browser you can see all the variations, grab one with the mouse and drop it into the main window.

This should work.


There are problems with some sounds, please see http://www.native-instruments.com/fo...ad.php?t=35772


I hope this is of some help

Cheers

Andy

[garth@chickensys.com]

TedWeil wrote: Just making the jump from EXS24 (by way of Mach Five, by way of Unity) as of today, so I'm still much the n00b. Begging patience, please.

Hey Ted, good to see you!

TedWeil wrote: I can't for the life of me seem to be able to successfully import Giga (e.g. Dan Dean Solo Strings, Woodwinds and/or Brass), Mach Five content (in this case, simply the factory stuff), or Unity 3 DS-1 banks. As per the manual, I attempt to both drag 'n drop into the 'rack', and/or via the Files tab in the Browser window(s). There seems to be no recognition on Kontakt's end that I'm attempting to import an allegedly supported file format.

With Giga you have to (for now) drag an Instrument, not a .gig file, over from the browser. You also can select a .gig file or a folder that contains .gig files and click on the Import button. This converts everything in the path you've selected. This is probably more efficient.

For MachFive I'm checking into some of the things BobDogAndy mentioned, but I did try some MachFive Preset conversions here and it seemed fine.

As for the Unity stuff, you and I know the story there! =) The Unity stuff had to be VERY reverse engineered, as the format was half in the file and the other half in Steve's head. Each data chunk is of arbitrary length that was hardcoded into Unity itself.

The hotfix that is coming has some rewrites that cover many more Unity files (ones made by Osmosis, old ones, etc.).

Keep in mind that Unity Session files aren't supported yet.

Best thing you can do is email me at nisupport AT chickensys.com and let me know what Unity files are screwing up on you. If they are custom ones, send them to me.

Lastly, everything said regarding Giga files appleis to Unity files, since theya re set up the same - bunches of programs and samples in one file (monolith).

Also, never mind the log things, some of it/most of it has meaning just for me.

[TedWeil]

Thanks for the helpful advice BobDog/Andy!

And, Garth! It's great to see you again (albeit virtually) as well.

Re: Giga and MachFive content - Thanks for the heads up! I'll give things another run through with the tips you and Andy have shared, and will buzz you directly if I encounter any further specific problems.

Re: Unity - I am working with the Unity Session .uty file format which I guess explains why things aren't working; it's not currently supported after all!

I did gather, after spending the weekend doing some manual reading, that the 'Monolith' conversion option rolls an 'all in one' file that's similar to the bulk of the Unity stuff (Steve did have that 'linked sample support' built in in an attempt to more gracefully handle SampleCell conversions, but most of the .uds and .uty files did indeed follow the Monolith model). Just more of a curiosity type question: Is a 'Monolith-esque' file more difficult to convert and/or work with inside of Kontakt 2? This would actually be my preferred format to convert non-Kontakt content into, but should I instead stick with the default 'linked sample' Kontakt files for performance or compatibility issues?

- t