Will Kontakt Instrument Updates Break Kontakt 7 compatibility?

bydavidrosen

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/178296#Comment_178296

Yeah I mean there's always going to cut off with old stuff (I also came from sonar to Studio One and keep sonar install just in case). But it's crazy that a simple update can just break everything… and especially crazy when it's on purpose. All the same software is installed and activated and they just chose to make it not work anymore.

DunedinDragon

Not really. There's a TON of applications for Windows for Workgroups, Windows 7, etc. that no longer runs on current Windows and the same for Mac as well as pretty much any software that's been around for a long time. Technology advances to become more flexible and powerful and competitive, as was the case here, and there's a limit to what makes sense to support that is no longer sold nor reasonably supportable. I guess it doesn't bother me because I've seen it happen endlessly over the years and the alternative is to pay higher prices for new stuff in order to pay the costs to support the old stuff that very few people use anymore. That's been the case in every industry I can think of. Have you priced out a fuel pump for a 1949 Chrysler lately or a CRT or tubes for a 1968 Zenith console TV, radio and record player?

bydavidrosen

I work in a record store so yeah haha, but that's the thing. It worked just fine. They forced it to break with the update. It's not like it degraded. And as we see we can fix it with their own silly self inflicted fix. And also I don't and likely never will have the hardware necessary to make use of the MK3 updates which makes it even funnier.

Paul B

I've been using computers for a long time. What happened here with Kontakt is unlike any previous ‘this software no longer works and any work you relied on it for is lost’ situation I've encountered.

This one did not have to happen. And it happened silently and suddenly, without any indication it might. It didn't happen when installing a Kontakt library update. It happened months after that update.

bydavidrosen

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/178319#Comment_178319

the most frustrating thing is their social media manager acting like "what, didn't you read the release notes?" No, I haven't, and I have A hard time believing they say "Btw, no biggie But this will break every song you've ever made. Good luck."

tmpc

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/178249#Comment_178249

If you are on a Mac, how do you get multiple versions Kontakt to run on it? I thought that was impossible for some reason.

tmpc

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/178298#Comment_178298

The answer would be to unlock the protection on the old stuff and provide downloadable installers. I don't need the latest fancy stuff. I just want what I paid for to work on old hardware until I either die, or I can't get the old hardware anymore. This would make it more like what musicians had to deal with before electronics and software were used. If a key cracks in half on your 100 year old Steinway, you can get someone to make a replacement. But, if the metal harp cracks, you're probably out of luck.

Paul B

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/178321#Comment_178321

This had nothing to do with release notes either. Yes, the release notes said "requires Kontakt 7.x". In theory we could have not updated. But decades of using computers have trained me and others to expect that when software is not compatible, it won't install. I'm now realising this isn't always true. That's on me for trusting software vendors, I suppose.

But more than that… the libraries worked just fine in existing Kontakt 6 DAW sessions after they were installed. For months. What broke them was a change in Native Access. Not a change in the library. Not a change in Kontakt. Neither had been updated for months when the libraries stopped working. Meaning it was always possible to keep them working for as long as Kontakt 6 still worked.

The common way software developers do this kind of thing is how iOS works. There's a new version out this month. Some of the features are not supported on anything before the iPhone 15 Pro/Pro Max. Even the regular 15 doesn't have the right hardware. Instead of preventing the rest of their use base using an OS which in all other respects will work, they disable those features on models which don't support them.

This is done in other software as well. It's not a complicated thing to do, unless your code base is a real mess and you're continuing that tradition with the new features. A flag check around the feature code "is this Kontakt 7 version 7.X or higher?"

And, through a little configuration manipulation, I can get the Kontakt 7 version of those libraries to load again in my old Kontakt 6 sessions (no, you should probably not do this, because it is a system modification that is not officially supported so if you break something that's on you and you can't expect NI to help). This is not about compatibility. This is about a badly managed release strategy and an earnest but misguided attempt to fix it afterward.

I'm normally quite lenient with Native Instruments. I think much of the criticism they get is overstated. But in this case maybe because I am a software developer who knows that these are the kind of mistakes beginners make (as I have in the past) this pushes my buttons.

Paul B

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/178332#Comment_178332

Kontakt 6 and Kontakt 7 are different applications, both standalone and plugin versions.

bydavidrosen

Yeah after 30+ years of computers, what @Paul B said is all right and this compatibility did not need to be broken. Nothing broke by the act of updates. They clearly force broke it. Which is why I'm not going to let their support rest, even after I've gone in and manually fixed and finished all those unfinished songs I have.

Paul B

I think putting a lot of pressure on support doesn't necessarily help. I plan to send in my final findings which prove it's still possible to use the Kontakt 7 library version in old Kontakt 6 sessions with a configuration tweak, so they can pass it on to the devs who can maybe use it to inform a better approach next time, but support themselves can't do much else and aren't responsible for what happened. And for this time we're probably stuck with the situation. Though maybe the Native Access developers can reinstate Kontakt 6 access for DAW sessions only (reinstating it for new instrument access is probably more work that it is worth).

bydavidrosen

yeah i'm sure it won't do much. just my form of protest haha