Komplete Kontrol can't find the instrument

KarlKaos

Hi!

I'm trying to work on some older sessions and of course lots of plugins have newer versions now and I don't have the old ones installed. All I get is the following image:

There is no readout what Komplete Kontrol is actually looking for which is really sad. Is there any way I can figure out which instrument I actually gotta reinstall ?

JesterMgee

Unfortunately no and this is one of the largest problems using KK IMO.

Whenever an instrument is not available you simply get what you see, if you did not know what the instrument was (which is common since it is designed so you can browse without worrying about what instruments they are) then you have no help from the plugin to actually find it. Made worse when you reinstall an OS, have hundreds of plugins and want to know which of the 96 you have not installed yet you need to install for the 16 missing in your project!

I raised this problem at least 4 years ago along, now I just try and remember to either name each track after the instrument or add a track note as to the plugin and if possible, the preset also (which is luckily possible in Ableton).

KarlKaos

That is a lot of work for something KK should be doing by default

JesterMgee

Well, by a "lot of work" it's really just adding a label to a track so not exactly busting balls type stuff. It's something you just condition yourself to do, like saving a project at certain points, or making backups (like I know no one does)

I agree, it should be handled in KK better and the reason I have reported it directly to their team in the beta group BEFORE it even affected me (something I saw on the wall) but action around here on these things is slooooooow, you can actually see moss growing on things as they move.

It's all about making the best from the worst. There are many things I would love to see improved, some things which really do affect how I use the product but I also get a LOT of benefit from it so I will voice my disappointments here, report what I can to who needs to know and then work around it and press on as one does with life :)

KarlKaos

I just wanted to mention, that I still have this problem and it hasn't been solved

KarlKaos

All I ask for is a readout of what Komplete Kontrol is actually looking for. Which VST and if it was VST 2 or 3

KarlKaos

I put one of my project files in an Editor and was able to figure out that this project needs Pianoteq 6.7.3, but I still don't know if it needs VST2 or 3 but I guess for now that is halfway managable.

Kymeia

If it's 6.7.3 it would have been the VST2 since that's from before KK had VST3 support

KarlKaos

That is true, but a handfull of devs found a way to make the VST2 compatible with the VST3. In this session in 2020 I must have used VST2, because like you said KK couldn't load VST3 at that point, but still I only have the VST3 (of Pianoteq) installed and it works.

LostInFoundation

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/66323#Comment_66323

It works now or it worked then? Now vst3 are compatible. It would have been strange if it worked then, since it was not supported.

Your problem is that if you had used then a VST2 version of a plug-in that now you have installed only as VST3, the old version is not found anymore. And implementation of migration is not yet a thing

JesterMgee

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/66140#Comment_66140

It has been solved but only if you use recent versions of KK. Older versions only stored the PLID of the plug-in and not the vendor/plug-in names so it would not say what the plug-in was if missing. Now, even when using VST2 plugins the vendor and plug-in names are stored in the project so should now say what is missing, tho this was only introduced in KK 2.8 so anything created before then will be missing this info. Likely you need the VST2 versions of plugins installed, difficult if you are a Mac user tho.

Kymeia

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/66323#Comment_66323

Pianoteq does support migration - now - but it is on version 8. Not sure if it did back when version 6 was a thing, as it wasn't an issue in Komplete Kontrol as it didn't support VST3 till recently. Are you saying your project now loads with the VST3 then? I do know of a few VST3 developers who seem to have had the foresight to build migration in early, another example is the plugin Arcsyn - tbh I think this may simply be a consequence of adherence to VST3 development standards that many developers seem to have just ignored as it is part of the VST3 SDK

KarlKaos

Yes, the project I created with the VST2 of Pianoteq 6.7.3 now simply pulls up in the VST3 (I don't have the VST2 installed)

KarlKaos

I still want to say that this issue hasn't been resolved yet and hacking the project file with a text editor only sometimes helps

Kymeia

Have you updated Pianoteq to Piantoteq 8? That version supports VST3 NKS but unfortunately if you are still on 6 that was created before the change to VST3 so doesn't. What I would do, if you don't want to upgrade, is open the Pianoteq preset itself (not the NKS) in Pianoteq VST3 and then resave it as a NKS patch in Komplete Kontrol and use that in your project. I did that a lot with older VSTs that didn't have working NKS versions.

KarlKaos

Yes, I have updated. But the problem isn't limited to Pianoteq only.

To summarize again: The problem is that say you made a project in 2020 with a certain VST and then you try to open it again in 2023, you might not have that exact VST installed any more. Most often because there already have been 3 newer versions.

Instead of Komplete Kontrol telling you "Oh we we're looking for X.vst2 or X.vst3 but could't find it" you just get presented with an exclamation mark telling you that the instrument can't be found.

I have a very excessive library of probably 300 instruments and it can't be that I have to install each and every single one of them in both VST2 and 3 and hope it's gonna work then.