How to set up Komplete 15 in Ableton Live 12 on a Mac?

nareshbhatia

I am trying to set up Komplete 15 in Ableton Live 12 on a Mac. Tried to follow the Native Instruments docs (https://support.native-instruments.com/hc/en-us/articles/209593529-Plug-In-Administration-in-Ableton-Live), but it is not helping.

AFAIK, I want to install Kontakt 8 etc. as VST3 plugins. The plugins folder should already be in a standard location, so I should not have to specify any custom folders. Assuming this, here are my plugin settings in Ableton Live – I have turned on "Use VST3 Plug-In System Folders:

When I do this, I get the following list of plugins in the browser, but when I expand any item, there is nothing below it (I assume instruments should start showing here):

Also I don't see any NI instruments in the instruments browser:

What am I missing? Please help.

P.S. I even tried to specify a custom folder, but it is confusing where the custom folder location should be: a) /Users/Shared, or b) /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3

mykejb

That looks correct. You'll see the NI instruments/effects in the VST browser, not in the instrument browsers. The VST browser doesn't show the presets that are included with the various instruments/effects but it will show presets that you save in Ableton using the "Save Preset" button in the top right corner of the instrument.

Jeremy_NI

Yes, I guess the confusion is coming from this instrument section:

These are only for Ableton's own instruments and not for third party plug-ins like NI or other manufacturers.

Jeremy_NI

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/188156#Comment_188156

I think you are trying to apply the workflow of the Ableton instruments to third party plug-ins. For third party plug-ins you need to save your user presets in the plug-in itself. For Kontakt this is what you need to do:

More info here: How to Save Custom Presets in Kontakt (FULL and PLAYER)

mykejb

That looks correct. You'll see the NI instruments/effects in the VST browser, not in the instrument browsers. The VST browser doesn't show the presets that are included with the various instruments/effects but it will show presets that you save in Ableton using the "Save Preset" button in the top right corner of the instrument.

Jeremy_NI

Yes, I guess the confusion is coming from this instrument section:

These are only for Ableton's own instruments and not for third party plug-ins like NI or other manufacturers.

nareshbhatia

Thank you, @mykejb & @Jeremy_NI, I was able to make it work with your help. I had no concept of presets.

I have a couple of followup questions:

1. When I click "Save Preset", it creates a new preset as shown below. It appears that this preset does not include all the variations in the NI plugin, but only the current variation that is selected. Is this understanding correct? I then rename the preset to the exact variation as named in the NI plugin, e.g. "Rescue Mission Var 3". Summarizing it looks like Ableton Preset = NI Variation within a Preset.

2. In Ableton, it appears that I need to create a different track for each variation. I don't think it is possible to assign different variations to clips within the same track. Is that correct?

3. It appears that the Kontakt 8 tracks are midi tracks as shown below. However, how are the sounds loaded? I see that there are 3 items in the User Library, 8.7 MB each (see below). Are these the sounds?

Thank you in advance for clarifying my concepts.

Jeremy_NI

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/188156#Comment_188156

I think you are trying to apply the workflow of the Ableton instruments to third party plug-ins. For third party plug-ins you need to save your user presets in the plug-in itself. For Kontakt this is what you need to do:

More info here: How to Save Custom Presets in Kontakt (FULL and PLAYER)

nareshbhatia

Thank you, @Jeremy_NI. I will go through the article you linked.