Identifying instrument presets from an outdated project

neurobellum · 2025-04-06T21:30:37+00:00

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I have several projects that used Kontakt instruments and presets with an older version of Kontact. I cannot open them now as it says the instruments have been updated and are no longer compatible with the older plugin that is used in the older project. The instrument libraries still exist, and I have the newer Kontakt version to swap into the projects, but when I do that, the instruments default to the starting preset, not the one the original project instrument used.

How can I identify the preset from the older project? Or preserve that preset selection while swapping in the newer version of Kontakt/Instrument?

This is very frustrating that NI would do this, as it makes old projects completely useless.

Help!

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DunedinDragon

You can always install an older version of Kontakt in addition to your new version so the original libraries will still function and have all their settings. That's why I keep a version of Kontakt 7 installed on my system so I can still load older libraries and access my projects. Eventually I tend to upgrade them over time, but in the short term I often use the old stuff as is. The process will be different depending on your DAW as to how you handle such things.

This isn't an NI thing, it's an industry thing. I've got old Sonar Cakewalk projects over a decade old that still work with old virtual instrument libraries that will likely never be upgraded, but I can still access them and convert them if I wanted to.

neurobellum

I have the older version of kontakt, but the instrument was updated and now no longer works with the older version. :(

How can I install old instruments that are still compatible with old versions? I'm using Native Access to manage my instruments…

Jojo123

You dont say what older version of Kontakt your'e using. Have a look in the Kontakt forum and see a list of older versions that may help. Look for a thread near the top, Previous versions of updated Kontakt Libraries….

JesterMgee

Yeah I saw this complaint around for a while. The issue is the way the plugin or library change making it not load in the latest version and making it incompatible with the older version it use to work in unless you can locate an older version of the library, and NI do not offer versioning but as mentioned there is a thread to help with this issue, hopefully you can locate the older library version and reinstall it to work on updat8ing it…

This is one of the things we gave up for convenience of things like Native Access that manage all our updates, it now makes it impossible (or very difficult) to keep an archives of past versions, something I have always done before I update ANYTHING for 30 years

Not that it will help you, maybe someone new that has never considered things until now but users need to invest some time into keeping records and backups. When you learn video production and film making for instance one of the first things you learn is how to keep a ledger of every shot and take and how to correctly archive and duplicate the work which ends up being sometimes as much work as shooting the scene but highly important to save on any lost or unknown content.

Keep a text file or track notes of what plugins are loaded, what preset/instrument is used and even keep an exported (well names) snapshot of each plugins preset in your project. Hell, just label the track after the preset name or something.

Maintain backups and especially make an OS backup on regular intervals (I use Macrium). Do updates to software in batches every 6 months or so just after a backup. Learn from this situation and work on making a better solution to help avoid being stuck again in future.

neurobellum

Thanks, @JesterMgee - Great recommendations. I've been doing that for a short while recently, but didn't on these projects 3-4 years ago… :( Definitely a good lesson in archiving! Labeling tracks with preset names, rendering out stems, etc. Considering the dozens (hundreds?) of VSTs that seem to require compatibility updates and become incompatible with DAWs on a regular basis, music projects are the most fragile archives ever… Seems every time I boot, I have to update SOMETHING… :/

Jeremy_NI

@neurobellum Some while ago, there was a bunch of updates for a lot of libraries that broke compatibility with Kontakt 6. Maybe that's what affected you. Maybe you can check this thread, if these ring a bell. You can find installers to downgrade the libraries:

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/21349/previous-versions-of-recently-updated-kontakt-libraries-compatibility-with-k6-older-libraries

neurobellum

Thank you! This seems like it should help! It was specifically Analog Dreams 2 and Schema Dark.

I'll check those out and let you know if they work.

Can I have both new and old versions installed locally simultaneously?

Jeremy_NI

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/221104#Comment_221104

Unfortunately you can't. You would need to uninstall the library in Native Access first and then launch the installer.

The old version of the library should work for your old version of Kontakt and the new. Just don't update the library in Native Access.

Also worth noting but you didn't mention which DAW you were using, there is now an auto-migration possible for Kontakt instances, only for Logic, Cubase/Nuendo and Maschine at the moment, so that you would only need the latest version of Kontakt installed: Notes about Auto-Migration of Kontakt Versions in DAW Projects

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