NKS User Guides

Kymeia · 2024-04-07T15:38:38+00:00

There was an error rendering this rich post.

The great thing about NKS is it enables you to control pretty much any plugin Komplete Kontrol can host, and with a lot more precision and detail than using MIDI cc. Although a lot more plugins and companies are ‘NKS ready’ out of the box than there were when we got started, there are still many more that are not, which is why we decided to create our own and share knowledge of how to do this and to encourage and empower others to also create and share NKS templates and patches.

These guides are created to help people get up and running - firstly to know where to put downloaded NKS content, but if you are feeling adventurous we also created guides on how to make your own NKS content. Once you have done that feel free to share your creations here (but please follow the community code of conduct)

How to install user created NKS?

Creating your own NKS - starter guide (very basic)

Creating your own NKS - Advanced Guide by Mercury - English - French

Find more posts tagged with

Tutorials

NKS

Comments

Kompletely Mad

Hi, I have questions and commentary about your guide to installing user created NKS templates.

I apologize if this all sounds dumb but I have just had a couple of days of trying to get my whole NI setup to get the images back so, yeah, I need a version of instructions for dummies. I am using a Mac btw.

Step 1

Put all image thumbnail files in:

Users/Shared/NI Resources/image/synthmaker/synthname (Mac)

-----

In the download folder (I downloaded NKS for Korg Wavestate) it has folders like you have specified above (NI Resources/image etc) I am not sure how deep to go in that folder as far as what to drag and where to put it. For example, do I drag the whole thing, starting with the first folder NI Resources and drag that to shared, or do I, as another example go to the end of the folder chain and put korg/wavestate native into the image folder that is already there?

My other questions are essentially the same regarding the other folders.

I guess my struggle is, I put the items in the last folder in the chain for each thing listed in the instructions and I see no thumbnails or brand name (korg) in the upper part of Komplete Kontrol.

Any ideas? Thanks.

Sunborn

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/146443#Comment_146443

synthmaker/synthname are just example names, and you should never use them!

Put all image thumbnail files in:

Users/Shared/NI Resources/image/korg/wavestate native

Put all meta files in:

Users/Shared/NI Resources/dist_database/korg/wavestate native

;-)

Kymeia

Users/Shared/NI Resources/image/synthmaker/synthname (Mac) means

Users/Shared/NI Resources/image/a folder with the name of the company/a folder with the name of the synth/plugin

these should be the exact names Komplete Kontrol uses for them - however all the NKS we have provided are already Zipped with the correct folder names and paths to save confusion

ClickOct

Would have been so much convenient to have at least basic keyboard text edit functions such as Tab or ALt+-> etc etc. I woud be much faster than a macro or a program 😁

Kompletely Mad

Let me thoroughly apologize for everything I am about to say in advance but I am writing this in case anyone else overthinks things too much/or is dumb like me, depending on how you look at it...and had a similar confusion...hahaha

synthmaker/synthname are just example names, and you should never use them!

Put all image thumbnail files in:

Users/Shared/NI Resources/image/korg/wavestate native

Put all meta files in:

Users/Shared/NI Resources/dist_database/korg/wavestate native

-------------------

I do get that part, and your instructions were exactly that...however...

-------------------

Users/Shared/NI Resources/image/a folder with the name of the company/a folder with the name of the synth/plugin

these should be the exact names Komplete Kontrol uses for them - however all the NKS we have provided are already Zipped with the correct folder names and paths to save confusion

-----------------

This actually where the confusion was for me. I could unzip them and simply drag everything to its location. But if you drag the whole path it is not the same as dragging the last folder, or the next to the last folder in that path, into a path that looks just identical to the way you had it saved. It appeared there was more than one of some of those folders like maybe dist_database (I am not looking at it currently) so I was not sure whether to drag the whole path or just the very last part, and your path was really the breadcrumbs to get me to the right place. I think that's where I got into trouble before, because I believe the full path copied over something and I lost the images.

Anyhow I believe all is well with it currently.

Again...this is for any possible benefit for anyone that is at my level of intelligence...not saying it's higher!

Kymeia

and your path was really the breadcrumbs to get me to the right place

That's the idea, the way the folders are structured in the zip leads you to the correct location, the text descriptions of paths are intended more for people making their own NKS ad wanting to know where to put the respective files for database and thumbnail resources

Sunborn

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/146623#Comment_146623

Really dude i can not understand the confusion, things are extremely simple :-)

for example, if you drag the whole Resources folder, then obviously you drag it to Users/Shared/ and not to the full path!

if you drag the whole dist_database or image folders, then obviously you drag them to the Users/Shared/NI Resources/ and not to the full path!

So, it depends on what exactly you drag.

Personally, i never drag. I export, then copy each folder to its right place.

pranaearth

I have the opposite problem, when I'm trying to remove my custom NKS installs, Komplete Kontrol will still show a blank grey box where the plug in used to be. I'm on a Mac M1 and I've hunted through plists and user files galore and I they never seem to go away.

Kymeia

It has nothing to do with plists as we don't provide any- just remove exactly the files you added in the first place. If you are seeing grey boxes that suggests you have removed the graphics but not removed all NKS files, right click on one to see the location and delete them

Vagus

A small update - Kontakt 8 has started using a new file - NKS2_software_tile.png - which is 420x136.

This image is used for the standard browser, and although these files aren't used for KK at present, given KK and Kotakt uses the same framework, I will be amazed if that's not the standard browser image size in a future update.

Kymeia

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/182353#Comment_182353

Thanks - I did actually have that file in my instructions on how to make a NKS template amended for NKS2 as that image was used in some of the early examples such as Diva but the dimensions for those were different (264 x 198) - I guess the update is for higher res versions of that thumbnail

Mercury

I found a way to import tagging data from xml files.

It can be useful with large libraries and when copy of an existing tag requires more than 5 minutes.

Tutorial link :

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/uzy0oxhoao1zeygcjmvuq/How-to-speed-up-nksf-tagging-from-xml-informations.pdf?rlkey=4rv9oevj4uwcr8b6i48dmub5t&st=vdf11o1j&dl=0

Quick links

Unanswered questions