Creating NKS files for 3rd party plugins for Mac

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AlluringSkull
AlluringSkull Member Posts: 29 Member

I am attempting to create NKS files for 3rd party Serum presets. I was able to get serum factory library working with komplete using https://freelancesoundlabs.com/index.php library. Unfortunately this doesnt do much for 3rd party Serum plugins. I know people use Preset Magician https://bunker8.com/download-preset-magician-for-creating-nks-presets/

But I am unable to install the software on Mac. Does anyone have a solution to this issue?

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  • Sunborn
    Sunborn NKS User Library Mod Posts: 2,409 mod
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    Unfortunately Preset Magician is for Windows only. There is no Mac version.

    However you can join us and find a lot of information of how to do things, plus a lot of NKS libraries here:


  • Sunborn
    Sunborn NKS User Library Mod Posts: 2,409 mod
    edited June 2023
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    Also, if you are familiar with scripts you can find a lot of useful stuff on the links below:



    Finally, check the link in my signature and go to the Xfer folder, i have NKS for some user banks, hopefully what are you looking for might be there :-)

  • JesterMgee
    JesterMgee Member Posts: 2,639 Expert
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    I personally don't use PM as it's unfinished, clunky and limited in what it can do, I just File>SaveAs but automate it with a number of tricks. Issue is mac is not very well suited to easily do this kind of automation at all so best bet is to just load each preset and click file>SaveAS

    Hopefully the ones you have converted have the authors permissions since they can be loaded without the library being installed and basically are copies of the original. This is a reason I don't offer many expansions without either authors written permission or verifying it cannot be easily used without the original expansion being installed as I have been requested to remove things in the past. Last thing we want is to unfairly distribute others hard work.

  • Sunborn
    Sunborn NKS User Library Mod Posts: 2,409 mod
    edited June 2023
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    Actually no, because i always avoid uploading commercial presets, so i am 99% sure that all those are user presets, freely shared. Usually i keep all my non-factory works for my self and never upload them (even the free ones), however i did it this time, only for those specific banks because, while what you said is very true (for .fxp, .fxb presets) for the most plugins, the case of Serum is different. In most cases, presets are based or specific "Noises" and "Wavetables" which are usually offered with the bank. The NKS presets can not include those, so, even if a user try to use them without having the original presets, he will not get the real sound. So, no harm is done.

  • Kymeia
    Kymeia NKS User Library Mod Posts: 3,856 mod
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    Tbh I installed preset magician on an old win laptop just for this - it works well with serum

  • Sunborn
    Sunborn NKS User Library Mod Posts: 2,409 mod
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    Indeed it works well and very fast, not just with serum but with many other plugins who still use the .fxp - .fxb presets... it can be annoying on some cases (you can not move/delete presets from one bank to another massively for example, only one by one) and it misses some basic windows commands that should be there, but it is still a great tool! And for me one of its best features is the automatic creation of previews.

    And for 5th or 6th time i will repeat: Since it is an open source software, why nobody is willing to evolve it? It can't be that hard.

  • Kymeia
    Kymeia NKS User Library Mod Posts: 3,856 mod
    edited June 2023
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    The simplest solution of course is just to put the time aside and save them one-by-one. Even with something like Preset Magician you would still have to tag them by hand anyway, which takes longer than saving. Saving one-by-one can be tedious but I find if you break it up into smaller chunks you can get it done. The other alternative (and one I use a lot) is not to be so attached to the idea of importing whole banks - in all honesty I have never found an entire bank where I like all the presets - so just import those you want to a 'favourites' bank, and that way means you also have a more useful and less cluttered library ultimately.

  • AlluringSkull
    AlluringSkull Member Posts: 29 Member
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    Thank you for all the responses, alot to consider. I have a couple questions regarding some of your guys posts.

    1) Am I able to tag my 3rd party librarys using preset magician on a windows machine and just transfer them to my mac?

    2) Iv seen people recommend just loading and saving my presets one by one but I tried this and it does not give me a preview when browsing. Is there a way I can manually save presets one by one and get them to preview?

  • JesterMgee
    JesterMgee Member Posts: 2,639 Expert
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    1) no idea, don’t use it. I tag with KK.

    2) no, previews I create using a simple midi pattern and Maschine, just step through each preset and export then clean up the preview name, convert to ogg. No matter what you do it’s always a bit of messing round, time and patience, there is no real alternative.

  • Sunborn
    Sunborn NKS User Library Mod Posts: 2,409 mod
    edited June 2023
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    1) Yes absolutely. You can.

    2) Follow Jester's method or find your own. For me, previews are the most tiresome and boring step of the process, one i left out many times, since tags are more helpful to me plus i have an "elephant's" memory and it is easy for me to remember small details. I can not remember of course saw bass 1, saw bass 2 etc. but i can clearly remember a bass named "thunderstorm"! Plus, when i make music i want to hear the sound together with the rest of the track, so definitely previews are not my thing. I even find them annoying, always this "pling-plong-beep" while i am focused on my project. But... that's me. Whenever it is not much of a trouble, i make them too. :-)

  • Kymeia
    Kymeia NKS User Library Mod Posts: 3,856 mod
    edited June 2023
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    Preset Magician can actually generate previews - anything you generate on Windows with PM will work as well on Mac (just slightly different locations). The main downside apart from it being Windows only is it doesn't work with most plugins but with Serum it works very well and I used it myself for all the third party Serum banks I have


    But the tagging I did in Maschine - you can't really leave that to PM

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