Any way to determine what instrument was used in Komplete Kontrol in a Logic Pro track, if missing?

IvoryKeys88
IvoryKeys88 Member Posts: 31 Member
edited October 22 in Komplete Kontrol

Hi there…

It seems at least one instrument has become inaccessible to my installation of Komplete Kontrol. I don't know which one it was, although I can tell from my track name that it was a piano. I am not aware of uninstalling any piano instruments in KK, as they are what I use the most.

From the Logic Pro project file or by some other means, is there any way to access data that would indicated the instrument assigned to this track and instance of KK?

All I see in KK when I launch it in Logic is this (for a possible non-piano instrument, assigned to another track):

image.png

And I see this for the missing piano instrument …

image.png

Perhaps another approach would be if KK keeps some kind of log of instruments that failed to load, or used to load but then went missing?


Thank you.

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Best Answer

  • JesterMgee
    JesterMgee Member Posts: 2,967 Expert
    Answer ✓

    Yeah you would think it would be a thing since DAWs can tell you this, the plugin loaded is known to the host and people have asked for this feature for 10+ years now, but it's never been a feature and yes, track notes are the only way to be safe

Answers

  • IvoryKeys88
    IvoryKeys88 Member Posts: 31 Member

    Okay … well, that's odd.
    Even though all the instruments I recall having were visible in the Instrument library in KK when those exclamation marks were showing up, and the assigned instrument was supposedly missing … fixing it was as simple as closing the project, and opening it again. Turns it the piano was Alicia Keys (which was sitting right there when I took those screenshots), and the other instrument with the present name "Bowed Cloud" was Noire. That was also sitting therein the library. I guess it was a momentary glitch in KK.

    This has, however, made me realise that if an instrument did in fact stop working, got corrupted, inadvertently deleted, etc., I would have very little chance of figuring out what was assigned to any tracks that used it. So, my question still remains … I'd like to know if there's some way to determine what was assigned in KK.

  • IvoryKeys88
    IvoryKeys88 Member Posts: 31 Member

    Going forward, I'm now using track notes to keep a record of the instrument assigned to each track.

  • JesterMgee
    JesterMgee Member Posts: 2,967 Expert
    Answer ✓

    Yeah you would think it would be a thing since DAWs can tell you this, the plugin loaded is known to the host and people have asked for this feature for 10+ years now, but it's never been a feature and yes, track notes are the only way to be safe

  • IvoryKeys88
    IvoryKeys88 Member Posts: 31 Member
    edited June 20
    https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/160963#Comment_160963

    Okay, so I’m not the only one thinking it seems like a no-brainer for that info to be available.

    And, I gather from your comment, it’s not just Logic Pro that omits to provide info on what was assigned to a track, if the underlying instrument becomes unavailable.

    I am now dutifully taking track notes. I didn’t even realise I could take track notes, until now. I didn’t have a need for it, but now I do.

  • JesterMgee
    JesterMgee Member Posts: 2,967 Expert
    edited June 20

    No, not just Logic. It is KK itself which lacks the intelligence to keep track of what you loaded in it. Been a complaint since day 1 because it's not something people are aware of (or that you would figure would even be an issue) usually until you need to setup a new system and have hundreds of plugins to install and find opening a project yields dozens of blank KK instances.

    Gets even worse with the whole VST2/VST3 situation since if you have been using KK for a long time and have many old projects with VST2 plugins you may setup a new system, install the latest versions of plugins and perhaps skip the VST2 install and now you have no clue if the plugin is completely missing, VST2 or VST3 (or even AU on mac) or what the deal is and if you kept no notes, you are kind of screwed.

    In old versions of KK the actual plugin name was never actually stored only the plugin ID so KK had no clue what plugins were used. As of 2.9.4 tho, the actual plugin name was stored in the data along with the vendor name so it should be possible for projects after this time to say what plugin is missing:

    image.png

    The issue is tho, we appear to have people programming KK that don't actually use it in the real world, because if they did it would not be the way it is in many cases for so long. Nothing worse than opening an old forgotten project you want to try resurrect only to find 90% of the plugins are just blank without any idea what the hell they were.

    However, with instruments like Kontakt tho, it may be able to tell you that Kontakt is missing but no DAW stores the library or preset used so this is reason enough to keep some basic notes of plugins and preset sounds used on each track.

  • IvoryKeys88
    IvoryKeys88 Member Posts: 31 Member

    I couldn’t agree more.

    Yes, it’s now dawning on me what a nightmare it would be some years away, trying to open old projects on new systems (which is inevitable) a few years from now.

    And yes, I can see it’s two-fold.

    1. In my situation the plug-in (Komplete Kontrol) Logic Pro was looking for did exist, so LP did it’s part and opened the plugin. But then it was KK that lost the plot (thankfully, only temporarily). It seems to me any plugin that is a container for a changeable library of other plugins (like KK), needs to be tracking what instrument (etc.) was assigned, and the settings it had, and to provide a way for the user to see that data, even if the instrument is no longer available.
    2. The DAW itself should also be tracking what plug-in was assigned to a track, and making that info available. This would apply to instruments and I imagine all manner of other plugins.

    Yes, it does give the impression those programming the software don’t use it. Although, whoever is instructing them on what to program is obviously not considering this important issues.

    Take notes, notes, notes.

  • JesterMgee
    JesterMgee Member Posts: 2,967 Expert
    edited June 21

    The DAW itself should also be tracking what plug-in was assigned to a track, and making that info available. This would apply to instruments and I imagine all manner of other plugins.

    Almost every DAW does this, however the DAW only knows the immediate plugin loaded on a track which will be Komplete Kontrol, it does not know what is loaded within KK, that is something KK has to be able to keep track of itself. It is always an issue when using wrapper plugins, it is up to the dev of the wrapper (which KK is a wrapper plugin) to handle tracking and error reporting of the plugins it loads within its container. And KK has the added complication of being able to also host effects plugins too.

  • DunedinDragon
    DunedinDragon Member Posts: 971 Guru

    I'm not sure it's true that KK is keeping track of the different configurations of a plugin that's in use by a DAW on a project by project basis. Given that ANY plugin in a DAW is a unique instance to that project whether it's an NI plugin or not, I would assume each DAW retains the configuration info of the various objects being used on any given project.

  • JesterMgee
    JesterMgee Member Posts: 2,967 Expert
    https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/161022#Comment_161022

    No idea what you are saying specifically but fact is, if you are missing a plugin that KK needs to load, you will not be told what it is, unlike most DAWs where they will state what plugin is missing, KK does not state this and a DAW can only say that KK is missing, not what is loaded within because it has no control over it.

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