Kontakt 2.1 Sample Cell Import problems

Hello

I tried to import SampleCell CD-ROM "WILL LEE BASS Library"
With batch option it didn't work at all. But Kontakt 2.1 was able to import the single instruments.
Then I tried to import the SampleCell CD-ROM PETER ERSKIN Living drums. Here the batch option did not work too.
The import of the single instruments did not work with this CD too.
I tried now to import some SampleCell Instruments, witch I had recorded myself years ago. Kontakt2.1 could not load them either, but I could see them all in the browser window.
Pardon for my bad english
Greetings from Germany Nordhorn
Jörg Moeken - dukili

 

You did better than I did. After many attempts at DL'ing 2.1 I finally got it last night (still no demo instruments...). Every time I try to import Sample Cell instruments, Kontakt crashes.

Man, even trying to post here gives me "error 500" half the time these days. ;-(

 

Thanks for the reports.

dukili; when you say "doesn't work" or "could not load" what do you mean by that?

I can try Wil Lee and Peter Erskine here. Could you email some of the original SC instruments to me at nisupport@chickensys.com? (Along with the samples is nice, but not necessary.)

Selig; same as dukili. Email a couple examples to the email address above. (Again, with the samples is nice, not required)

Just a note; most of the time, you'll get a "Samples Missing" dialog and you'll ahve to find the samples yourself. I hope that's not the problem you are referring to.

We are following up on all reports and will address and report back personally via email quickly.

 

Hi Garth

Thanks for your prompt reply.

I'm importing (loading) SSII library files (starting simple) and get an "unexpected quit" message. I'll see "getting samples" for a few seconds and then the crash. When trying to load custom instruments, I get the "sample not found" message and show it the folder (didn't work) then found the sample but it was grayed out (.wav files, work in Reason NNXT).

I'm leaving my internet connection for the day, but will be happy to send you instrument files if that will help (if you can wait until tomorrow).

Thanks for your help.

 

Yeah, I can wait - thanks!

To send files, here's a couple options.

FTP to ftp://ftp.soundcentral.com/incoming
Go to www.yousendit.com and submit the file that way
Email to nisupport@chickensys.com

The last is least recommended unless what you have is small, not that our server can't handle it but probably yours can't.

With all files, included a .txt file that has your email address on it - it isn't my intent to crowd the forum with all this.

 

Garth and others,
Here are some of my problems with SampleCell import, as well as some of my feeble insights (Garth I sent you an email to this effect yesterday, but have not heard back):
1) Loops are NOT imported. Any SampleCell samples, which after all
are just AIFF or SD2 generally, do no have there loops either turned
on or preserved in any way when imported into Kontakt. This is a big
proble and renders most SampleCell instruments unusabel. Thankfully
it seems the tuning problems have been fixed. By the way, Peak DOES
see the loops and play them, so why Kontakt doesn't is amystery to me.
2) It is unfortunate that when you click to load an instrument, it
does not automtically look for the samples in a simlarly named other
folder with "Samples" at the end. This is how all factory libraries
and most commercially available libraries for SampleCell were
organized on CD, so it requires a few extra seps. Just a nuisance
really.
3) Kontakt does NOT import any instruments that reference SD1
samples. Of course neither does CDExtract or Peak or anything else,
so this is not surprising. I find when I want to use any samples from
my old Lightware CDs (some of which are pretty good) I have to use
SoundHack to open the sample files and change the header and then
resave them. But what would be nice is if you could JUST open the
instruments that reference SD1 samples, and have it ignore the
samples. Then the mapping, tuning, etc. would be done and all you
would have to do is open the samples, resave them as SD2 or AIFF, and
then, with one click of a button, Kontakt would assign the samples
automatically. Then I could save the new Kontakt programs and ignore
my old CDs. As is it now, when you click the instruments, it goes to
look for the samples and then crashes,. Perhaps there is a
workaround, and if you could tell me, I would appreciate it.

I believe #2 above my be part of the problem with the old Will Lee Peter Erskine libraries. I spent over 3 hours yesterday with CD Extract and my old G4 which could read old SD1 samples porting them over.
Kinny Landrum

 

I too, have been having problems with my SC disks.
The factory SC FX disk, for example, as well as others, will mount in the K2.1 browser but is non reactive when clicking on the disk. It does nothing.
Just in case, I cleaned the disk well so it's clean and smooth and scratch free. It was already in good condition.
Additionally, like others, my SC disks mount and I can access the directories but K2 quits with "unexpected error" dialog.
Furthermore, I too, can't batch import. I've been able to import successfully by dragging patches, one by one from the "program" folder into the K2 window. Note, the batch does create all the directories for the entire disk but nothing else.

Hope this help iron out the problems.

Regards,
Rabdaddy

 

Got your email, thanks.

Good insights. Most if not all the problems listed relate to the Mac import not bothering to find the samples during the conversion process and leaving it for the end, after the file is finialized. This leads to other issues; see below.

Kontakt 2.1 PC doesn't have these issues, as it has to do everything manually, which in this case is a GOOD thing.

So if you can use a PC to do this, that might be a good workaround for now.

See above, if the samples aren't found, the loops are defined in there, so thus they aren't there. This doesn't happen in every case, but some, I think.

See above. We just don't look for them automatically, period, and thus the problem.

Actually K2.1 PC and Translator www.chickensys.com do convert and deal with SC1 and SD1, per the reasons stated above. The SD1 files are converted on the fly to AIFF, so we treat the Mac CD and files like an Akai one, just another proprietary drive.

So we'll finish the rest of this import function, and my apology for the hassle.

 

I'm not sure I really understand Garth. If Kontakt does not find the samples, then why are my samples there, correctly mapped and tuned, but not the loops? That makes no sense. As far as Translator, maybe I should buy that if it works with SD1. But that's your own product, why can't you put that implementation in Kontakt? Isn't that why they subcontracted you? And why, for goodness sakes, since SampleCell was only ever really a Mac program, does SampleCell convert work in the PC version and not the Mac?

 

Ah, Watson... =)

K2 just doesn't bother finding or referencing or getting info off the sample files at all. The SC file gives us the sample file name, but not the location of it. (It actually does, sort of, but it's in such a convuluted OS9 sort of way that we didn't have time to insert that locating in.)

So the conversion process just writes the file name in the Kontakt file, so when it loads it into memory at the end it'll either give the Samples Missing dialog, or if they just happened to be in the default locations the dialog won't appear.

So K2 is being completely passive about it (right now), thus looping info may be missed and K2 doesn't have any opportunity to convert evil SD1 files.

Ok, OK ALREADY. =) It's a time issue. Even Napolean conquered the world (or tried to) one country at a time.

This isn't really an answer, but I think it is:

Since Mac's force you to do things Apple's way or no way, and sometimes that way changes, it becomes more difficult (or a hassle) to do than just doing it yourself form the ground up. K2 has code that reads Mac HFS volumes and has it's own locating mechanism, all encapsulated up into something tidy. This is what got in the PC K2, but not the Mac K2, because on the Apple, you really should do it their way.

(Actually, I checked today to see if the PC code would work on Mac, and it does, but it's not implemented properly, so that isn't a solution.)

As for why even make SampleCell available for PC people - why would they have SampleCell CD's anyway? You'd be surprised - many do for a couple reasons. EastWest spent lots of time blowing SampleCell CD's out for a song, so many PC people just bought them because the were so cheap. Also, some people who use PC's used to be on Mac and had a OS9 with a NuBus or whatever card, and they still ahve the CD's.

 

Well thanks Garth. While I don't exactly understand why, you write in such an entertaining fashion (I particularly like the reference to Napoleon, although Alexander the Great might be more apt) that I won't worry about it and will just wait. Besides it would just take up more of your time that should be put to work solving the problem However, I did go to the web site to see about Translator, and couldn't find one for the Mac that will do SampleCell to Kontakt. Maybe I'm missing something. CDXtract does OK for now, though not with SampleCell 1. Now I think I'll got see if I can find any more blowout CDs on EastWest
Kinny Landrum

 

Hey guess what, there is a GREAT blowout happening coincidentally

http://www.soundsonline.com/clearance.shtml

Grab them while you can.

 

Maybe I should have been more politically correct, gotten as far away from Germany as possible and said "Kublai Kahn" or something. =)

You're right about Alexander The Great; if you had to pick out one person who occupied the most territory in sheer land mas, it would have had to be Alex, wouldn't it be?

It's the PC ones, sorry, I shouldn't qualified myself. That is changing shortly.

 

Hello Garth,

with "doesn`t work" or "could not load" I meant that Kontakt2 quitted my try to load the instrument with an error info.
I can inform you now, that Kontakt was able to konvert the whole Will Lee Bass Library CD-Rom on my PC. This CD-Rom ist a Macintosh one (yes many years ago I used one with a sample cell).
But: the CD-ROM "Peter Erskine Living Drums /Macintosh Version" did not be konverted in that way with kontakt2.
I only was able to see the instruments and samples. After the try to konvert them, Kontakt gives me an error message.
You know I use a PC and I do not have a programm witch would allow me, to send you some of these Peter Erskine Living Drums samples. Kontakt was not able to konvert only one sample of this CD-ROM. Sorry.

Greetings from Germany

dukili - Jörg Moeken / Nordhorn

 

What was the error message? And, was this with bulk converting, or dragging an individual instrument off the CD into the rack?

 

Hello Garth,

here are the error messages:

by dragging an individual instrument off the CD into the rack the error message is:

"Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime Library
Program: C:\Programme\Native Instruments\Kontakt2\Kontakt2.exe
This application has requested the runtime to terminate in in an unusual way. Please contact the applications's support team for more information"
After this Kontakt2 crashes!!

by bulk converting a instrument the error message is:

"Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime Library
Program: abnormal programm termination"
Then Kontakt2 crashes!!

Greetings from Germany

dukili / Jörg Moeken Nordhorn

 

I am having the same problem with importing sample cell into Kontakt 2.1, except I'm running on a Mac 10.4.3. The problem occurs in stand-alone mode and the dialogue is "unexpectedly quit".

According to your answerbase sample cell does import in Kontakt 2.1. Not in my experience!

Reading this thread in more detail, I am under the impression that, essentially K2 doesn't actually support importing sample cell.

 

The current version of Kontakt imports SampleCell. If there's a problem, it may be a couple things related to your setup and/or the specific SampleCell CD/files you are converting from.

Email me at nisupport@chickensys.com with 1) what CD/files you are trying to convert, 2) if you are doing this in Bulk (Import button) or via drag, and 3) what specific file does this crash occur on?

 

Garth,
I can't get Kontakt 2.1 to import SampleCell instruments, either in bulk or from the browser. It just doesn't see the instrument in the browser at all. It seems I used to be able to do this, but now, on a mac with system 10.4.8, I can't do anything. What am I missing?
Kinny Landrum

 

I suppose make sure that "Show Foreign Formats" is enabled, when you click on the VIEW button.

Otherwise, SampleCell instruments will appear when either 1) the extension is .ins or .in, or 2) if the file is typed correctly (SCin or SCsi, if I remember right).