NI's attitude to cracked software

hello - I'm new here. I've come to make a positive comment about NI. I downloaded the demo of kontakt 3 (I love it) but when I installed service centre I was very embarrassed to remember that there was a cracked version of battery on my pc. Now, I do have my excuses relating to someone helping me set up Cubase and I must admit to a very large amount of naivete.
Anyway, upshot is, and regardless of excuses, I had a piece of cracked software, I decided to come clean and wrote to NI to apologise and to ask how I remove it and verify that it has been removed. I got a very cordial email within about 12 hours with a simple explanation and it's all gone now! I explained to them that I want to buy the full version of Kontakt 3 and I hoped one stupid mistake wouldn't stop me getting it activated. I'm fairly confident there won't be any problems now - the demo was so promising! The only thing that puts me off spending so much money is the sheer number of problems I've seen on these forums - from software problems to problems contacting NI. I want it enough that I will probably just risk it but whilst I'm glad this forum is here, I hope I don't end up writing endless posts as I try to get the thing to work! The demo works (although I can't adjust the Leslie speaker speed on the jazz organ) so I'm hoping there will be no major issues.

 

That's good to hear. Personally, I've been considering whether to get hold of a cracked FM8 (which seems freely available). I should add that I have already bought and paid for the legitimate article but due to repeated, ongoing, activation problems, it looks like I'll need to get a cracked version so I can actually continue to use it! So indeed a strange attitude from NI, in a way.

Btw, I've not tried Kontakt 3 but I do use Kontakt 2 a lot. I hesitated about spending what for me was a lot of money, but I don't regret it - Kontakt is a fabulous product and by far the best of its type (despite what you'll read here).

 

I've been reading through the forums again and these endless activation problems with little or no support from NI are really off-putting. I'm like you in that Kontakt 3 is a huge expense. I'm not that clever with computers either and am not confident I could fix it myself. At the moment I don't want to risk it - maybe I will wait a while and see if these activation problems are sorted - perhaps they are working on a new version of service centre which will fix everything. I do want the Kontakt 3 library but maybe I should consider Halion 3 or Sampletank - they are cheaper anyway. Decisions, decisions!

 

Yes, that side of it is pretty crappy tbh. I'm not sure about a new Service Center, personally I'm really hoping they'll give up on copy protection altogether. After all, cracks of all their software are freely available so it's evidently not a very good way of stopping piracy - the only people it inconveniences are people like us who try to do the right thing and pay for the stuff we use.

FWIW, I looked at Halion and Sampletank, but I think Kontakt is miles ahead. Halion I found a bit counter-intuitive and I thought Sampletank sounded, well, odd. A bit rubbish next to Kontakt.

Just to let you know, I eventually fixed my activation issues myself, but what a palaver that was. I had to install another OS on an external drive, boot the computer from that, install and activate, then copy 5 different files that created to the computer's internal hard drive, then boot from the internal drive, then activate again, then let it find its database (took ages) and then finally it worked. It's not great, is it?

Good luck with whatever you decide!

 

I tried your method to fix Kontakt 3 activation problems--the same ones many users have been experiencing lately, but it didn't work for me.

 

Try your mod wheel...

ew

 

If you think Kontakt 3 is expensive, bear a thought for us sampler users from the past. Back in 1991 I bought an Akai S3000 for £3300 uk pounds. Upgraded the huge 2mb Ram to 16mb for another £850, bought an optical MO disk drive for the sampler which cost £1100 and a bunch of 128mb disks at £20 each.

Total cost around £5500. You can now pick them up on Ebay for under £60.

If you consider what Kontakt 3 does (when it's working at least) it's an incredible bargain. Admittedly the S3000 was 100% stable, but I have to say I don't miss the loading and saving times or working within a 2x18 LCD window. Working with Kontakt 3 on a 1920x1200 screen with a decent keyboard, mouse, and with all the built in tools of Kontakt such as convolution and customized envelopes and modulation, is incredible in comparison to the S3000.

If you've thought of buying Kontakt before but haven't taken the plunge, I have no doubt that K3 is the best incarnation, and there's no other software sampler that comes close except perhaps VSampler 3.5 for sound quality.

All we need is for Native Instruments to listen to some of the experienced users and implement some of the suggestions and bugfixes and there'd be no good reason to consider any other sampler hard or soft.

 

Thanks for all the advice and opinions given here. Basically, I have a laptop, soundcard, cubase studio4 and now I need a good instrument to complete the set-up. That's the very end of my budget for the foreseeable future so I really need Kontakt to work - It has to be sampler to facilitate the kind of music I do and If it don't work I'm kind of stuck.

It troubles me that the NI team don't comment here on these activation issues - it seems clear that they do exist but there doesn't seem to be any acknowledgement. They could just write a note saying:

"We are aware that some users are experiencing activation issues - we are working to remedy this and hope to have a fix with the next ? weeks".

Although I do love the sound of the Kontakt 3 demo, that won't mean much if it doesn't work. The dilemma seems to be between choosing an inferior sampler like Halion 3 that will probably work or a superior sampler that might take months just to activate - let alone getting whatever other bugs it has fixed.

Come on NI team - what is this activation problem all about and what are you doing about it?

 

Hi,

the NI forums are intended to be "users help users" forums. Our support team is monitoring the forums regularly, but please check the sticky post "Important Information ..." at the top of this forum.

Please file a support request via the support form, so that our registration support team can take care your issue.

Best, Henning

 

Hi. I appreciate that it's a user forum but the NI Team do contribute from time to time. I just thought that given the frustrations that some people are going through, an acknowledgement that there is a problem with activation and a quick note to explain that you are aware of it and are trying to fix it might be appropriate. I actually bit the bullet and ordered Kontakt 3 today and if it works and there are no activation problems I will be happy to say so here.

 

Herr Hoffman
I have reported the same problems trying to get Kontakt 3 to stop reverting to demo mode on my computer. This problem is being experienced by many users now, as reading through the forums will demonstrate. I sent requests for help to registration support. I waited a week for the first reply, which contained advice that did not work. I waited a similar amount of time for a second reply, which simply directed me to call customer support. This effectively withdraws free support from me, as calling that number costs me money. The last time I did that I was on hold for more than 20 minutes before I could even talk to someone, then it took a lot more time to find a fix. I think alexandralouise and others have a point. NI should be acknowledging this problem rather than putting its customers off. Poor customer service doesn't lead to a loyal customer base. I own 4 NI products and I love the sound, but I will think twice before buying another after the experience of trying to get Kontakt to work. Many other people are feeling this now, I think, and we would appreciate some help. Thank you.

 

The Kontakt 3 I ordered has arrived and I'm happy to say has installed and activated without any problems as far as I can see. The manual's understandable too - and that's a rare thing in music technology! There are some things I can't do like adjust the legato knob on the Irish bagpipes but I may work that out after a while.

 

I bought Komplete 4 in August and mine still doesn't work. I took it to the conclusion of NI's ability to help. They told me to buy a new computer.

The instruments work fine, it's just the Activation that doesn't. Crazy, huh?

I have this tiny flicker of hope that they'll end the service center madness sometime soon. I'm not holding my breath, though.

I have no idea how to find, download or install a cracked copy of Komplete, but seeing as I own it I would have no problem doing that. Any hints? I'm getting really, really tired of reopening and reloading my $1000 demo version.