stuck in demo mode

Can someone kindly advise me ...... I have seen many posts with this same problem, but as yet have not discovered a solution which works for me.

I have a registered Kontakt 3 full version, with its libraries, installed on my computer, and have no problems with it. But I just downloaded the latest Kontakt 5 player and find that it only loads my Native Instruments libraries (e.g. Kontakt 3 library) in demo mode, which soon times out. Meanwhile Service Centre wrongly lists Kontakt 5 as 'activated' ... so pressing the 'activate' button in Kontakt 5 only opens the Service Centre.

I have tried trashing Service Centre and its preferences; and have also tried reinstalling K5 player; but to no avail ... still in demo mode.

I am on a Mac Intel using Mac OS 10.6.8

The same thing happens whether Kontakt 5 is in plugin mode (Cubase) or as a standalone.

Any suggestions gratefully received.

 

No idea what might be causing this. Try calling NI's registration support on the phone. They are very helpful at sorting computer-specific problems like this.

 

thanks for your reply David. I tried calling NI registration support, but I am not very convinced with their reply! First, they sent an email with instructions to reinstall K5 player ... which had no effect ... and then they told me (very politely) that as far as they knew the Kontakt 3 libraries cannot be used in Kontakt 5. Because of a different registration system.

Please would you clarify on this? Many thanks.

 

That is very strange. Unless they misunderstood something, that statement is wrong. All Kontakt libraries can be used in Kontakt 5, including libraries that were created in the very original Kontakt 1. I myself have commercial libraries from Kontakt 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 all working in Kontakt 5.

Scratching my head here...

Can you clarify which libraries you're trying to use?

 

Hi David .... well, I thought they must be wrong. I am using the regular Kontakt 3 libraries from the supplied discs, i.e. Band, Orchestral, Synth, Urban Beats etc and also the Kontakt Experience Library.

All my other libraries - Garritan, East West etc, work fine. Only N.I. libraries only function as demos.

any suggestions?

 

I am PRETTY sure of what I'm about to write but may be corrected by others:

The Kontakt 3 factory library is not actually copy-protected like the other third-party libraries are.

So if Garritan/EW are running properly, that means those are authorized properly and will work in any version of Kontakt.

But if you launch Kontakt 5, try and load a patch from the Kontakt 3 factory library, and it comes up in demo mode, that means Kontakt 5 is not authorized. That's the behavior I would expect: if Kontakt 5 is unauthorized, everything will run in demo mode EXCEPT for Kontakt Player libraries that have been authorized (e.g. Garritan, EW).

 

...... ummm, well, how do I authorise Kontakt 5 in that case? I notice that it has a serial number, which I suppose was auto-generated ....

 

Well, that's the weird thing, if you say Service Center shows Kontakt 5 as authorized. If Kontakt 5 is truly fully authorized, it'll play anything.

If you own a legitimate Kontakt 5 serial number, and Service Center says it's authorized, but it's still in demo mode, I would call Registration Support back and tell them exactly that. They'll need to reset something, and I don't know how to do that.

 

When you say 'Authorised', is that the same as 'Activated'? And does K5 player normally have a serial number? Because I haven't paid for or ordered any serial number for K5.

Well, I shall try again with the Registration Support guys although they seemed to be in the dark about this ...

many thanks

 

I'm using "authorized" = "activated" (same thing).

Ah interesting. I can't remember if K5 Player has a serial number of its own. It may. If you haven't paid for K5, then that must be the reason. You must have a Player serial number, but not a full one.

So bottom line: this is expected behavior. You can play Garritan/EW as long as they are properly authorized. You can also play the K5 Player Demo content. But you could not play any other Kontakt patches, which would include the Kontakt 3 factory library.

 

thanks David, and I guess that closes the case! .... which is not going stop me from trying ! It seems unjust that I can't use my legitimate paid-for NI libraries but CAN use third party libraries in K5.

 

Yes, it's a weird loophole. The Kontakt 3 factory library was never encoded as a commercial library (I guess the thought at the time was that you needed a fully activated version of Kontakt 3 to use it, so why issue a separate serial number for its library).

The K3 factory library became the K4 and then the K5 factory library, and each time they made improvements and changes to the collection, so if you do eventually upgrade to the full version of Kontakt 5, you'll enjoy many improvements (as well as the ability to use that original K3 library if you prefer).

 

thanks David for your prompt and thorough replies. Unusual these days!

 

I am glad that I am not the only one who has been frustrated by this.

Maybe the general view is that once you've upgraded to Kontakt 5 you would not need the legacy material, but I have so many projects which use Kontakt 3 content and I may need to return to any of them at any time in the future.

Since Kontakt 5 player won't open them in 'activated' mode and the K3 samples are not mappable directly to the Kontakt 5 library there appears to be no solution from the user side. I must run a 32 bit bridged plugin and keep (at least) two Kontakt versions installed forever.

So I would ask this of Native Instruments - could the K5 player and future versions be made to recognise and accept use of K3 library, if it is the only library which suffers such a problem?

A change in a K5 player update to resolve this would be very helpful to those of us with a long-standing loyalty to NI.

Thank you.

Drew White

 

There is a method to the madness. If NI allowed the K3 factory library to work in K5 Player, then the end result would be that everyone in the world would be able to use the huge (and well-designed) K3 library without paying a penny for it. That, unfortunately, isn't fair. The library is part of what you get for the purchase price.

If you're an owner of K3, you can use the K3 library in K3 no problem (nothing is being taken away from you).

If you choose to do the paid upgrade to K5, you're free to use it in K5 too.

If you're an owner of K3 and upgraded your computer into a state in which K3 no longer works, unfortunately, that's a fact of life: software needs to be updated and upgraded, and nearly every piece of commercial software does require you to pay an upgrade fee if you would like the latest version. Kontakt isn't any different in this regard.

 

David,

Of course I wasn't suggesting they give unconditional access!

It's surely quite simple to add code to K5 player so that when K3 patches are loaded it checks whether K3 is activated on the machine and removes the demo flag if so.

The other point you make is interesting - are you saying that if I buy K5 then K3 patches will work correctly within K5 player?

 

On the first point, I don't think it's possible because the K3 library is unencoded, in other words, it's just a collection of Kontakt patches.

Regarding the second question -- you might be misunderstanding how it's designed. K5 and K5 Player are exactly the same application, but running in different license modes. The K5 Player will only play demo content, plus any authorized Kontakt Player libraries.

If you were to buy K5 (for which you would qualify for an upgrade discount, since you own K3), you would get the full version of Kontakt, which can play any Kontakt patch (including the K3 library), as well as give you full editing features for the instruments. You'd also get the new K5 library, which has a lot of improvements over previous libraries.

 

That's definitely clearer now. Thank you for explaining.

 

I'm stuck in demo mode too, i've got Kontakt player from Komplete elements in Maschine, and it says demo and my instruments disappear after a short while when i add soundfonts. Do i have to buy Komplete just to play some stupid soundfonts?

 

No. But you Soundfont files are not "licensed by NI" so they will only work for 15 minutes before switching to Demo Mode Kontakt Player. Similarly, loading a project with them in KP does not reload them.

To use the continually you would need to get Kontakt (or another SoundFont Player).