Phoenix Keys won't load

Jim Rogenski · 2025-07-23T18:11:56+00:00

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Phoenix Electric Keys will not run in Kontakt 8 plugin. I get the error message "Your version of Kontakt is too old to load this file, which was saved with Kontakt 8.4.0000. Please update to the latest version of Kontakt!"

I used Native Access to update my Kontakt 8. However the plugin version of Kontakt 8 is only version 8.1.0. If I want to use Phoenix Electric Keys in a DAW it needs to load in the Kontakt plugin. What do I do?

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Matthew_NI

It says you're on Windows 11, so you're on a compatible OS.

But just in case; be aware that for macOS users, Kontakt 8.2 or higher requires a minimum version of macOS 13. I mention that only as some macOS 12 users won't see higher than Kontakt 8.1 available to install.

You mentioned Native Access, but not which version. Please ensure you have the latest version of Native Access 2 installed from here https://www.native-instruments.com/en/specials/native-access/?srsltid=AfmBOoouaF1_80pfERZFaNZPJWSKu83g_8Tow6hlsS5qMt4synkV4YHB

Jim Rogenski

I guess the simple question is, How can I use Phoenix Electric Keys in a DAW? Which plug-in will work?

Matthew_NI

Phoenix Electric Keys is an instrument that opens inside Kontakt 8, so you need to use Kontakt 8 in the DAW.

And you need to install a more recent version of Kontakt 8 (free or paid versions, doesn't matter). The current is 8.5.1, soon to be 8.6.

Jim Rogenski

I have installed Kontakt 8.5.1. However in order to load a plugin in my daw, I need to use the plug-in version of Kontakt. The current version number of that is 8.1.0. How do I get the Kontakt plug-in version 8.5.1?

Notice Version 8.1.0

You shouldn't have a different version for the Kontakt application and plug-in. What DAW are you using? If you moved some plugin files after installation before, when you update a plug-in you'll need to move the files again. By default the installation location for vst3 plugins is the following:
C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3

Since you didn't mention which DAW you're using, I can only post examples of our knowledge base articles for several DAWS, you can look for your other articles, see if your DAW is covered there:

Plug-In Administration in Ableton Live

Plug-in Administration in FL Studio 20 (Windows)

Plug-in Administration in Reaper

And just in case this is needed:

You can find the previous versions of Kontakt 8 here: https://www.native-instruments.com/account/downloads

How to use the NI Download Manager

Unfortunately, this library can't be downloaded from there at the moment. Here is the zipped previous version of this library: Electric Keys 1.0.2

You'll need to first uninstall the library in Native Access, unzip the library, place it with your other libraries, then use the add product add content function in Native Access:

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