Anyone Have Experience with Chicken Sys. Kontakt Assistant

I'm just curious... does anyone have experience with Kontakt Assistant, made by Chicken Systems?

I'm a little skittish about buying this program, as I can't find anyone online who seems to have used it and talked about it. Also, Chicken Systems has been very unresponsive to my emails and phone calls. There are threads on other forums that raise questions about the company's vaporware, that concern me a little bit.

I'm trying to globally apply CC information to change things like cutoffs, envelopes, etc. Anyone know of a way to do this, other than Kontakt Assistant (assuming it even does what it promises to?)

Best,

CT

 

I purchased Kontakt Assistant and I can't seems to make any sense out of it. The program claimed to be able to edit kontakt instruments, but I can't find any functionality of this sort. Like you, I also wanted to be able to add CC info to multiple instruments to control kontakt parameters. I went through all the menus and the manual and I can't find any features of this sort. In fact, I spent several frustrating hours trying to learn about the features mentioned at the website and as far as I can tell, the features don't exist. As far as I can tell, the program has one functionality, which is to display a list of the wave file associated with a Kontakt instrument and the attributes of the wav files... no editing capability.

It almost seems as if the application development was abandoned before it was completed and it has none of the functionality mentioned at the website.

I contacted Chicken Systems about getting a refund. They have not responded.

It would be great if the program did some of the things that it claimed to be able to do... but unfortunately it doesn't.

I am hoping future updates will add the stated functionality. The program is uselessl in it current state.

I am hoping Chicken Systems will prove me wrong about this app because I could really use the stated functionality

 

Hey man,

Like you I fell for it. I knew by buying the program, I'd be taking a risk, because I've seen a lot of other complaints about Chicken Systems on other forums (alleging vaporware, etc.) I took the risk, and was rewarded with a useless bit of software.

I was able to get it to fix file references, but that's it. All of the other functionality that they advertise simply doesn't exist right now.

Any luck getting your money back?

 

Best thing is to do is contact us at Chicken Systems - support AT chickensys.com. You can also try the Chat on our web site www.chickensys.com, or call us at 800-877-6377 or 320-235-9798.

I know Christopher's name (since it's in his email) but I don't know whom _delta_ is, since your post is unsigned, so I can't know whom you are and match up any emails.

We apologize for any unreplied email but as policy we always do reply AFAIK. We aren't perfect, things can fall in between the cracks plus we were gone part of the month last month. A phone call usually nails it, or a chat is also more direct.

Kontakt Assistant works great here (otherwise we wouldn't make it available). The Bulk Editor is not available yet; I think thats that what you are referring to, but that's about the lone exception. I can go into more detail upon direct correspondence.

Please contact us directly and we can directly address any specific problem and implement any stated function that you see isn't there. With possibly some exceptions, I'll guarantee you anything will be addressed and/or implemented within 2 days, and that includes the Bulk Editor.

I think that sounds like a solution. Let us know.

(Please also understand that Kontakt 4.2 files can't include editing of modulators, filters, effects, or scripts. It's just not available to us yet.)
---
_delta_, I think my associate found your email from a couple weeks ago, and he responded. Please let us know if that was you.

If that was you, our apologies, we missed your email. Otherwise, please contact us during business hours on Monday.

 

Thanks for the follow up, Garth. I'll give the office a call on Monday and mention your name.

Let me assure you, though, that it is not my intention to badmouth your company in any sort of way. I just paid for a product that had a certain set of features advertised (http://www.chickensys.com/products/kontakt_assistant/features.php?sw_name=Kontakt+Assistant) very few of which are actually functional. When you say that it's 'working great' over at your studios, that surprises me a little, because the version that I was sent has a number of windows, menus and buttons that simply do nothing.

I hope that your support staff will be able to address these issues, as I'll gladly post positive reviews about the software if it manages to do what it promises. It's in all of our best interests for your company to thrive, and I hope that you continue to turn Kontakt Assistant into a unique and successful product.

And when you guarantee that everything--including the bulk editor--will be addressed within 2 days, I intend to hold you to that, Garth! I'm not trying to get my money back... I just want your product to do what it advertises.

Thanks for the response, and I look forward to talking to your team this week.

Best,

Christopher

 

Garth from Chicken Systems responded. I would like to try to work through this. Perhaps future updates will improve the application. I would love to be able to apply Scripts, Modulation routings and CC info ti instruments easily.

To be fair to Chicken Systems, I have used Chicken Systems Translator pro for years and I am amazed at well in works in converting many format into Kontakt instruments.

 

Sounds good, we'll work through it will you guys today and this week; we can get the specifics from you and put heads and tails together.

It gives us a good reason to post some videos of Kontakt Assistant in action to show what it does and how it does it. Documentation is up at www.chickensys.com/support/software/kontaktassistant/documentation/index.php

 

Thanks, Garth. Just left a message on the company voice mail. I look forward to chatting with someone, and will let you know how it goes.

Best,

Christopher

 

Hi Garth,

It's been over two weeks since I last heard from you or anyone from your company. I was just wondering how progress was on getting Kontakt Assistant functional?

Delta... have you had any interaction with them in the past couple weeks?

Best,

Christopher

 

Give us a call or email; we don't do customer service on public forums unfortunately.

 

Christopher,
Did any of this get sorted? Is Kontakt Assistant working properly for you now?

 

Not yet. They're still working on it, but they've been giving me status updates, and it sounds like they're close.

 

it does not work at all! I want a refund.
---
Translator 6 doesn't work as advertised either, if you are considering that too. The have serious quality issues.

 

Issue

We've been trying to help Riley via email (started by him) for a couple iterations but he hasn't fully vetted his issue yet. His report is premature.

We've been trying to get him to report his issues correctly (we just get screenshots after we told him it doesn't help), perhaps today he can contact us properly and get the truth uncovered.

Riley, as our latest email to you says, please send us the .nki in question (no samples necessary) and we can help you. Perhaps better, call us at our support line 320-235-9798 and we are happy to help you.

We work with the program daily and have no problems.

 

Garth,

As you can see I started this post over a year ago, and none of my issues have been addressed either.

I went back and forth with you and Jeff Godbloch for months, hoping to get new editions of the bulk editor that worked. I have a long train of emails from you essentially saying "Not yet, but we're close." "Have patience." Frankly, after a few months, I just gave up.

CT

 

The person above was referring to simply getting nki's into the database, not anything else like the bulk editor.

I'm not sure why he cross-posted into an old thread instead of making his own.

 

So I take it that the bulk editor is still not working then?

 

The problem on this thread is the Riley cross-posted into it, when his issue had nothing to do with the original thread.

Riley's issue has been resolved in our Bug Reports system, he was attempting to import some K4.2 files and we had some issues with those - only on Windows, not Mac. He was using Windows - most KA users are on Mac.

We simply made available a private build that worked. It's through our customer service is how those issues get resolved, not on forums and cross-posting.

Now, regarding YOUR issue...

The bulk editor improvements have been delayed and you are totally correct. We have a clean schedule for the summer and we plan on finishing up the bulk editor and v1.1 this week. We apologize for the delays and we hope this covers your needs and then some. But don't believe it until you see it =) we don't believe in vaporware at all either. This should have been done a long time ago and we agree with your frustration.

 

Great. Like I said last year, Garth, I'm going to hold you to your word!

In one week, I expect to hear from you that the bulk editor is fully functional, and I'll be glad to report the good news in this thread.

Thanks.

 

So why wasn't it? This kind of behavior doesn't really pour confidence in your clients.

I wanted to buy Kontakt Assistant when it was on sale recently, but I didn't go for it because of previous user experiences, some that are laid out in this thread.

Taking over a year to fix things when you supposedly have it all working in your "in-house build" doesn't really help users, does it? Please, get your stuff sorted out, for your sake and the sake of your users. If one week passes and you don't have K4.2 support and bulk editor working, that's plain crooked and nothing you say will be able to fix the impression about your company that I have.