Installing Kontakt 4 and Service Center for old projects?

JustAnotherUSer · 2022-08-15T22:37:51+00:00

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I have some projects that use Kontakt 4. K4 got uninstalled on my computer in the process of installing K6.

When I open the projects with K4, it comes up in an expired trial or demo mode and gives me the option to activate. But activation of K4 requires Service Center, which no longer exists. And K4 does not show up in Native Access.

I would like to have K4 working so I can reproduce the settings in K6, which found the old K4 Library and runs it just fine.

I know K4 is no longer supported. What is the best way for me to get K4 working? Reinstall it from the optical media? Will that also install Service Center too?

Thanks.

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Jeremy_NI

@JustAnotherUSer Have you checked what @Blindeddie said? You didn't specify your operating system. If you are on Windows, Native Access should indeed activate Kontakt 4. Please note that Kontakt 4 is not officially supported on Windows 10 but should work. If you're on Mac unfortunately there is no way to activate Kontakt 4 since it doesn't run after MacOs 10.8.

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Blindeddie

Have you tried enabling “Show legacy products” in NA preferences… not sure if it will work or not, but worth a shot!

Service Center no longer exists, so you will never be able to register using that tool!

Jeremy_NI

JustAnotherUSer

Hi. Thanks Jeremy and Blindeddie. When I run Native Access, I do not see Kontakt 4 listed in any of the lists in the left side "Software" panel. Nor do I see any indications of how to install "legacy product."

In NA, I was able to add the K4 serial number, it said it could take up to 10 minutes to complete, it appeared to complete in just a few seconds, told me the registration had been confirmed, and that K4 should appear in the "Not installed" list. It does not. Even after waiting about 30 minutes, refreshing, signing out, signing back in, refreshing, etc etc etc.

K4 has been completely uninstalled. Should I reinstall it from the optical disk, now that it has supposedly been registered? Will I be able to activate it? The K4 program expects to see and and exchange activation info with Service Center, which as I understand it is dead and done with. So I'd rather not waste my time trying to install a dead app from nearly dead media.

I'd like to be able to open projects that used K4 and then replicate those settings with K6. But messing around with NI's convoluted registration and activation system and repeatedly having to sign into Native Access can be a bit much.

Jeremy_NI

@JustAnotherUSer What is your operating system ? As I said, it will only be possible to install and activate on a Windows system. If you're on Windows 10, I could post an installer.

JustAnotherUSer

Hi Jeremy. I am indeed on Windows 10. An installer would be much appreciated! Thank you!

Jeremy_NI

Here is the installer: Kontakt 4

Install it and then check these settings in Native Access:

That should work.

EvilDragon

Kontakt 4 is not supported by Native Access, and I'm not 100% sure if NA will even want to authorize it. Maybe it does, but I'm not sure if that's the case.

JustAnotherUSer

Thanks Jeremy. And thanks also EvilDragon. I have downloaded the iso. I will give it a try, probably. Will I need to update NA to NA2 to find out if it will work? My confidence in it all working could be higher. My experience with Native Access (as with Service Center before it) has been frustratingly unimpressive. With K6 installed and apparently working I might decide to leave well enough alone. Kontakt is the only NI instrument I own outright, aside from all the freebies and trials disguised as freebies that NI is always pushing on me, which neither NA nor SC have ever managed to successfully download, install, activate, and leave in a usable state. As it is, K6 is still barely usable without UI scalablility. So I'm pretty unlikely to even bother with the other instruments that NA says are installable, which is the main thing NA is designed to do, pull users into their ecosystem, which is why NA is the most important "program" NI develops.

Jeremy_NI

@JustAnotherUSer So, how did it go? Any luck ?

klub_sandwich

Did you figure this out? I am in a similar situation and have emailed NI about this and am waiting a response. Pretty sure there is no way to activate K4 instruments without the service center which sucks. I will post here if I get anything useful.

JustAnotherUSer

No. I never got that figured out. But I had upgraded to K6. That is working. But I am weaning myself from Kontakt. Its UI is primitive (and would be even if it were scalable.) Its sound quality is fine but nothing special. I'm totally off the NI train. Haven't even bothered to install it on a new device.

Lomacar

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/100350#Comment_100350

Did you get a response from NI? I supposedly activated Kontakt 4 by adding its serial number in Native Access 2, but it still just says it is in demo mode.

Lomacar

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/102453#Comment_102453

Update. I did manage to get it mostly working now. I re-installed Kontakt 4. Before doing that I backed up the .dll files in the 32 and 64 bit VST folders because I don't know if it is possible to get the last version of Kontakt 4 anymore, which I believe is 4.2.4. I then copied the backups back into the VST folder after re-installing. Now it runs without the demo restriction, but some things from the factory library don't load, saying that maybe it is from a newer version. So maybe I somehow have to update the Kontakt 4 installation, but how?

Jeremy_NI

@Lomacar Unfortunately I can't help for the activation side of things, since Service Center is discontinued now but you can find Kontakt 4 and the Kontakt 4 library updates on our legacy download section HERE.

I hope that helps!

Fots

I have been facing a similar problem myself recently. I found that libraries such as Alicia's Keys 1.2 and the old pianos would load fine on a fresh instance, but once re-opening my saved project that use Kontakt 4, they would show Demo Timeout and not produce any sound

The only workaround I've found is to save the multi and import it into Kontakt 5 or later. This seems to retain all settings from the patch as far as I can tell. The factory library seems to work, but other old Native Instruments libraries always seem to load in demo mode.

If there are any other solutions, please feel free to share.

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