Replacing older Kontakt instances with K4

Hello all:

If NI is listening, it would be really useful if a future update of K4 could be set to step into the shoes of older instances of Kontakt when loading up a project.

We have projects that we work on which often have instances of K2, KP2, K3 and K4 - it would be great to be able to remove the K2, KP2 and K3 plug-ins from the system and have K4 automatically be inserted in their place when loading up these projects. I understand that the AU specification allows for this contingency (I don't know about VST), and seeing as how NI keep releasing new versions of their plug-ins, it would be really great to be able to automatically consolidate them all!

Any chance?

Best wishes,

Pants.

 

+1 for VST

 

There's a very good reason for why that doesn't happen. What happens if your projects don't open with the new version? You'd be stuck.

ew

 

I have to admit I find it frustrating and time consuming opening up projects and "updating/replacing" instances of older versions. It would be really nice to have it be an option.

Do most folks just leave all the various versions active?

 

Hello ew:

Thanks for the reply. I'm not sure I follow you - are you suggesting that we should abandon a forward progression for the sake of a condition that would be simply resolved by popping the old version plug-ins back in and doing a manual update to the new release?

Thanks!

 

Maybe an "act as previous version" should be an option, to rule out such complications for users who still use previous versions alongside recent versions.
That way the user can descide.

Another big pro is that you are able to open projects made by others with a version you don't have. For instance, I have Kontakt 2 en Kontakt 4 a friend of me has Kontakt 3, although I have a newer version I'm not able to fully open his (Cubase) projects. Very annoying, especially because buying previous versions such as Kontakt 3 from NI isn't possible.

If you missed out one version, you could have a problem when working with others.

On the other hand, it is smart marketing strategy because you don't want to run in to trouble in the future so it keeps you buying. Although like my friend did, sticking to a good working old version is maybe the best option to avoid version conflicts in the future. And that consideration doesn't sell copies.

I hope there will be a solution for this though, because I would like to start working on some co-projects again without the hassle of exporting and importing multi's and mixer channels.

 

I, too, would be happy to consolidate all Kontakt instances to the latest one.

When upgrading to Kontakt 3, NI suggested me to not remove K2, because they where different products with different libraries.

Now, I wonder if all of K3.5 data can be found in K4, so that I can at least get rid of the 33GB taken by K3.5's library in my disks. By doing a comparison it seems they match, but I'm not yet sure.

Paolo

 

Just come across the same problem and pretty annoyed. I didn't even consider this would be a problem when getting a new system to be honest - I was much more concerned about 64 bit compatibility which is why I upgraded to K4 in the first place (I'd have stuck with K2 otherwise)! You don't find the newest version of Word not opening Word 97 docs or the latest version of Dreamweaver not opening HTML pages created a few short years ago. Why should this be any different? And why even call it an upgrade when it doesn't even attempt to replace the old product adequately in my previous projects? Am I being naive in thinking it should? I hope not, because, as I've said, other software doesn't behave like this.

So I have Kontakt 4 now, which I bought as an upgrade specifically because K2 doesn't work under 64 bit OS, but I can't open my old projects.

Damn.

So, can only echo the opening post; please consider this in future!

 

There's another thread running where I've explained how I eliminated the great majority of the duplicated material, so I won't say more about that. However, I do perfectly understand why NI makes the app itself have a unique identity at each upgrade. Apart from anything else, it makes sure that any existing usage of the app continues to behave exactly as before, rather than suddenly taking on new characteristics as a consequence of new features (or unintended code differences). I would much rather be in the position where I decide whether a given existing project should stick with the old app or use the new app, so that I can keep control of a given project's behaviour. The apps themselves do not occupy much space, so it is no great hardship to have them all installed. As far as I can see, the only time this becomes an issue is when you are migrating to a new OS, with which the old app is not compatible. The only way that I can think of to minimise the pain here is to open a project in question in the old OS, and switch it to K4 before attempting to open it in the new OS. Alternatively, exploit whatever facilities your host offers for handling "not found" plug-ins to allow you to make the substitution there. AFAIK, K4 is fully backwards compatible with K3/3.5 - any instrument or multi that was saved in K3/3.5 can be opened in K4, although you may have to "help" it find samples (including convolution impulses) if you have changed the library structure between times.