If you only have Kontakt 7, don't update the Noire and Ethereal Earth libraries or they won't work!
@mykejb
Nice one. Hope everyone notices this before the threads start flyin (as they usually do)
Installed both updates here - all good.
VP
And if you did update and nothing works anymore because you didn't read the release notes:
I appreciated the fact they pushed out the Kontakt update a few hours before the Noire and Ethereal Earth updates just to make sure the Kontakt update was at the top. Made it very easy not to screw things up.
What Kontakt update?
I installed v8.6.1 about 10 days ago….
That was 8.61. I was away from my computer due to vacation so I updated it when I got home then later in that day I saw the other updates and did them.
IMO this whole update thing is programmed in a very unfortunate way. What the user sees - in the first place - is an UPDATE button and even an UPDATE ALL button. Nowhere is any indication of which requirements have to be met prior to clicking on the three dots and opening the release notes.
Can´t this just be changed so that people are not fooled into an update being available which they then cannot use? And even more so: NI Access knows which products are installed, so why not issue an additional warning if Kontakt 8 is not present?
At the moment this all looks like a neat way to push users into buying the most recent upgrade…
Yep, I agree it needs some warning, even if it's a "Have you checked the release notes" the first time you hit the update button after starting Native Access. Or "The products you're going to install need this version of Kontakt" together with a list of required versions for each updated product.
Adding the required Kontakt version in the product list would help, but there would still be people who wouldn't read it.
NA could avoid suggesting updates you can't use but i's not as simple as "can this be used". For example, if I have 20 projects using a library in Kontakt 7 but I also have Kontakt 8 Player installed, the "can the update be used " check would pass, but it'd break my existing 20 projects. Not good.
Ultimately, it'll still need the user to be sure the updates are usable, but NA could help a little more.
Perhaps it's time for NI to allow users to remove updates from Native Access that will be of no use to them/they do not wish to update?
Or the user can simply ignore any updates that do not apply or they do not wish to update. Just do not press Update All.
Do remember that Native Access is simply a mirror of your NI account. So if you really want a product to be "removed" from NA - you need to go all the way and have it dropped from your account.
I have 10 updates in my Native Access at the moment, Vocalpoint. 2 are sound pack updates to Kontakt 8, another 2 to items I do own but will not work without Kontakt 8, which I do not own. Another 5 are over 45gb of updates for products I own that I rarely use. Why should I remove Ethereal Earth from my owned items just because I have not updated to the latest version of something else? Why should the user have to trawl through meaningless (to them) updates? Updates that keep piling up & up. It would be easier to allow users to hide/remove unwanted updates from their Native Access accounts rather than forcing the user (owner) to have to remove the whole item from their account.
"2 are sound pack updates to Kontakt 8, another 2 to items I do own but will not work without Kontakt 8, which I do not own"
No need to buy Kontakt - simply consider installing Kontakt 8 Player (free) and that solves these first 4 items.
"Another 5 are over 45gb of updates for products I own that I rarely use"
So you have installed these products - but rarely use them. And then updates for them come along and you do not want to update them? That does not makes a lot of sense. If you don't want updates showing for products you rarely use - don't install them in the first place. That would take care of these 5.
FYI - that "45GB" you are quoting applies only to a new install. "Updates" these days usually only ever download a small delta update that is in many cases - very tiny. You should be able to update these very quickly.
"Why should I remove Ethereal Earth from my owned items just because I have not updated to the latest version of something else"
I am not saying you need to actually remove a product from your master NI account - I am simply answering this question:
'Perhaps it's time for NI to allow users to remove updates from Native Access that will be of no use to them/they do not wish to update?"
Because this is the ONLY (albeit nuclear) way to achieve what you are asking. I did not say you would like the answer - only that it IS possible to have a product NOT appear (removed) within Native Access.
FWIW - NI is well aware of changes needed to make NA behave a bit better for update purposes - but until that comes to pass - which is almost certainly not to be soon (we have been asking to hide updates for years) - you can either manually (and carefully) manage your updates like the rest of us do. Or don't use NA
Those are the choices for the short - and probably long term.
Wish I had a better solution for ya.
Thanks for the reply, Vocalpoint. I agree wholeheartedly that NI need to seriously think about how NA works for us, the end user. I am always careful with updates, check the release notes etc. It is, in my opinion, a very user unfriendly experience 🤪
We should probably all read release notes for Native Instruments releases, for sure. We also shouldn't need to for something like version compatibility of currently working software. I can't speak to how much effort it would be, but it would certainly be feasible to have Native Access block updates not supported by your system. The installation manager knows what you have installed. It can be made to skip incompatible updates during "Update All". Individual update buttons can be disabled. This way the user knows there is an update, but that they need to upgrade a base product first.
Companies can put all responsibility on the user for everything. They can also work to make a user's life easier where it is reasonable (which includes "this is a good thing we should do, but there are other priorities at the moment, so on the roadmap for later").
That said, I don't believe this update to be a problem. I updated today. I had a recollection that, unlike the issues with Kontakt 6 and updated libraries not loading at all, when updates came out with additional features for Kontakt 8, there were problems in Kontakt 7 only in that the new features showed in the UI but did not work. Otherwise the libraries were fine. The UI was later fixed so the unsupported features did not show.
This update seems to be the same. I opened Kontakt 7 and loaded Ethereal Earth 2.0—I see there is also an Ethereal Earth instrument which must be an older version—and while I did not test beyond playing a few notes, it worked. So did the other instrument version.
Therefore I think the "requires Kontakt 8.x" note means "for these new features" only, and it will continue to work in both 7 and older versions of 8—I already had the latest for Kontakt 8, which was released before this, but if it works in 7….
This could, of course, also be made clearer in the release notes, so that people do not avoid installing updates that will work with their version.
Depends what instrument it is. Ethereal Earth may be able to get away with "psuedo-straddling" the line between K7 and K8 but Claire will not. Neither will the new updates for the Session Series, Noire etc.
Without question - any user needs to read Release Notes and if they stipulate a specific version of Kontakt - you can be sure you probably need it.
I don't own those so cannot confirm myself, but I am curious: have you actually tested that they do not work in an older version, one with which they were previously compatible?
Ethereal Earth isn't "pseudo-straddling". It is evidently cross-compatible.
