[How To] Integrate User Library into Factory Library

I have known the ins and outs of how to do this for some time but have been hoping (for 4 years now) that a simple search function would be introduced to allow searching of both user and factory libraries. I have also been hoping for the volume control to be added into the user library but neither of these things appear to be on the release list any time soon so I thought I would share a couple of ways that you can get your user NKS
libraries into Komplete Kontrol.

A full rundown is Here

The basic and most easiest way is to use your sounds.com folder. This is especially good if you do not plan to use sounds.com. Place folders with your NKS files in this folder, find that in the Maschine/Komplete library (preferences) and scan it and you should now have your NKS within the factory. No modifications and the content remains "safe".

Now I have no idea if that affects people that DO use sounds.com, it may create a large delay when it scans for new sounds you download or something. I have no way to test that but for someone who is using sounds.com you could cautiously try it out and report back how it works.

The other way is to actually create a custom factory library path using a simple registry file (or plist on mac) and an xml file. Details on this in the link above but this allows you to create a folder wherever you like and have a custom entry in the factory library to scan. Some basic knowledge on how to create a reg file and xml file are needed for this. Do not even try and attempt if you have no experience with this at all.

Disclamer

This is just FYI information. There may be things I have not considered or tested for and if there are issues please report back. On my end it appears to work just fine and I can now search all files in a single library and FINALLY adjust the preview volume quickly. I would personally prefer keeping my libraries separate but 4 years of waiting for improvements in this department are just far too long so I figure the more people testing this out the more concrete we can say it does or does not work.

Also note that if you have a lot of custom tags this will create a bit of a mess in the tag browser and could actually slow it down significantly. If you find it does cause very slow performance, remove the files and consider cleaning up the tagging in the User Library first to get rid of a heap of junk. That is probably the biggest cause of slow performance I have come across.

Please note i'm not planning on doing support for this so please do not PM or email me because I will not reply. I may try help in this forum but it's not something I am interested to do, just dropping some info to try and help others struggling.

Will be interesting if it works as easily for others.

 

Worked for me. I don't know if the sounds.com folder was already in the factory library panel. I opened KK and it automatically scanned the folder.

 

Yes sounds.com is a new location which is available by default so an easy way to import NKS into factory without any modifications.

 

Personally, I would not do this, the separation of user content from factory makes good sense to me, even if the lack of a common search does not.

If you do this make sure you regularly backup as the whole point of having a separate user content location is it doesn't get touched by installs and updates whereas factory locations can.

 

Neither of these methods are affected by install or upgrades. I use to be happy enough but 4 years now waiting for simple search plus the latest releases seem to have a bug (for me) that triggers a large sound spike on the end of some preview samples but ONLY in user library. Move my content to factory and it is fine.

The great thing about choose is people can choose what they want. I’ve been testing this for years and have now moved my content over and find it to be much more efficient as it leaves the user library for doing updates and changes while I no longer have to switch back and forth and now I can actually adjust the preview volume too.

 

it is easier to change the providers settings in the db3 file using db browser : https://sqlitebrowser.org/

 

Except for the fact that if you reinstall or rescan you have to make the change again. I think for the average joe, just placing in an existing folder such as sounds.com is straight forward. Make a wrong more in a database and you can screw everything.

 

Does anyone at NI even know that the slider is missing for user libraries? They didn't seem to have a problem adding it to user loops and one-shots.

 

Oh, they know. They have known since sound previews were first introduced. They also added it to the new sample browser in user mode, but still not the user NKS browser. You have to really wonder why...

The thing is, NKS is not for users it's for vendors to sell their software. Problem is, vendors are not interested and I have spoken with many who just don't want to take up the strict requirements when signing up to be an NKS partner. Users could easily fill the gaps as we have been doing but there are many things deliberately placed as limits. We have all hoped that some time would slowly make things easier for users, it appears to not be the focus so we are forced to constantly pick apart the system and make it work how WE would like it too.

 

Hi JesterMgee ! This is a cool workaround, seems to work smoothly (I don't use sounds.com anyways). I'm on Windows 10 btw.

But - when you save a preset in komplete kontrol it automatically chooses the old username/documents/nativeinstruments/usercontent file-path and it ends up in the user content section in KK and Maschine instead of the factory library throught the appdata/.../sounds.com-folder.

It is kinda annoying to have to find all the right folders, copy the newly made preset to the sounds.com folder and then rescan it all - is there a method to change the default "save as"-location?




I'm also having troubles with removing User Content-folders in my library-pane in the settings in KK. I Tried changing the folder-location, but now I have two which I cannot remove...

 

Awesome, thanks alot for this workaround, I actually prefer this workflow Great work ! Now the same question as the user above.

 

Well when you add the content to the factory browser it is treated as other factory content so as you would see with official NKS plugins, you cannot edit the files anymore (tags) and if you choose to save it goes to the User folder. Normal behaviour and nothing you can do about it. if you want to maintain the ability to edit and save without having to copy files around, stick to User library, nothing you can do as it's locked down by NI.

Yeah no idea about that. You cannot remove the default location normally until you set another location.

 

One more thing - It doesn't seem to work with Reaktor User library ensembles either (like boscomac's) - usually you just copy the .ens file to the regular user content folder but it doesn't seem to work with the sounds.com-folder --> workaround there, I've just discovered, is simply to put the .ens file in the regular reaktor factory library folder (NI Content-folder), and then it shows up like any other in Reaktor - ofc you have to do this first with any ensemble you make: https://support.native-instruments....REAKTOR-6-User-Ensembles-for-KOMPLETE-KONTROL

 

Ahh ok - bummer! though I guess it's ok to copy around. If only there was a way to automatically copy the newly made presets to the other sounds.com folder upon creation !

 

Aaaand one more thing. If you wan't your Reaktor User Ensembles tagged in the Factory part of Komplete Kontrol you must tag them in the User part of KK before moving them to the Factory Part (Sounds.com-folder)

 

Forgive me if this has been covered, but is there a method for the reverse; i.e. placing all your factory content into the user library? Of course I can save them patch-by-patch, however that would turn my brain to Jelly. I find it Amazing NI does not create a single-repository feature in KK. P.S. JesterMgee, your library packs are fantastic.

 

Don't think the reverse is possible (easily).

Why would you want to move them to User?

 

My wish/fantasy is to be able to have everything in one search area, but retain the ability to customize the tags, which if I am not mistaken is not possible in the sounds.com scenario. I have Oodles of non-NKS libraries (Spitfire, 8DIO, IK Multimedia, etc.) and have created custom tags that are much more granular than the factory tags. I've only just started experimenting with moving non-NKS libraries to the factory side, but I assume any custom tags are not carried over once they are moved, correct? Thanks!

 

Custom tagging is carried over, KK doesn't care what the tags are and displays anything but it does have a specific set of tags for official tagging. Correct in that you cannot change tagging in the factory library. The issue with many instruments that NI offers (Battery, Reaktor, Kontakt) is the NKS files are not .nksf files but preset files for those instruments that KK recognises and displays as NKS so it's not possible to redirect these to the user library (or at least that I have managed to look far enough into).

If you have your own custom NKS files you need to add tagging too then you must more it back to the User library and then back to factory when done. I'm pretty use to shifting things around when needed but would be great if you could tag within the factory library.

 

Thank You!