Ask Kontakt 8 creators anything

hey Paul. I use an ad-hoc location for saving because all theses presets/snapshots are temporary, and just created for a migration purpose. I will never re-use these presets because they don't have any sense outside of the session I used them : they're just a studio drummer preset with some hi-hat louder, or a British Drama violin with some specific output level. Nothing too fancy. But when you migrate an instance of Kontakt from vst2 K5 to vst3 K6, it's obviously safer and quicker to save/load presets than to copy by hand each parameter (and forgetting you changed this little tiny one about stereo or whatever).

Another reason is I need to do the same with Reaktor and Battery. In a basic session, this can accumulate and I better have the same location for all these plugins than searching and opening different folders located in different places. After the migration session, I just erase all these presets/snapshots.

Regarding my procedure in Kontakt, I just click the floppy disk, go to "Save as", this brings me to the default location for .nki presets of the specific instrument I'm saving, but I just choose another temporary location (for exemple in a TEMP folder on my desktop), then save, then re-load that .nki file in my new K6 instance…

It takes me 1-2 minutes per instrument (without accounting for the verification process : null test when possible and so on). In a crowded session, it accumulates quickly.

Each time I do the same procedure, Kontakt brings me to the same default save location, so (to my knowledge) I can't save an ad-hoc location for my Kontakt .nki presets…

I see what you mean now about how the preset saving works for you. I could not find the save icon you were talking about because it doesn't exist in Kontakt 7 (it's the ‘File’ menu in K7, icon in K6). It's also referenced in the manual as saving a copy of the instrument, not a preset, so I was looking for the wrong thing everywhere.

It uses a default location well suited to me, though, because it is on my external drive where my Kontakt libraries are installed, while snapshots are on my internal drive and I can't find a way to change that (again, asking the Kontakt devs to please allow this to be set in configuration so I can have it on my external also).

I still think you can simplify your process. You can use the central location and delete after migration. Why add the effort of the ad-hoc location? They are no less temporary no matter where they are saved. Anyway, you have your preference, no need to justify it to me, I only suggest trying without the ad-hoc location. Snapshots will also, to my surprise, work with being deleted after, at least in Ableton Live. I thought since they show up as user presets if I deleted them then reloaded my Live set the settings would be gone, but they persist. The preset/snapshot name shows greyed out, because it no longer exists, but the settings are there.

Native Instruments could probably make this easier. Mentioning Tokyo Dawn reminded me there is a better way. Yes, it's still a manual process to copy/paste, but easier and quicker and no temp files (in your case, since I intend to keep mine) needing to be deleted. And as years go by each new version takes longer if you wish to migrate all your old sessions (though keeping the saved instruments/snapshots will save time). I didn't think that Reaktor would be the same, but it has a version number also so of course it will be and now I need to go and save all those as well in case Reaktor 7 is ever a thing (please no reviving that debate, anyone who reads this).

Despite this I bought Kontakt 8 yesterday. I don't really need the new features. The only one that intrigues me is the phrase tool, for chords I have Scaler, and Leap doesn't seem to offer anything I would use. But I like to stay current where I can, and it looks like there are good usability improvements with more to come.

Routing UX for Kontakt, Battery and Maschine with a DAW is not great. While I get sound designers need work, the basics still need improvements.

I have completely moved from Maschine to Ableton Push 3 Standalone because of issues with Routing UX.

I do want to see Battery grid system tech support Ableton Push 3 and similar grid style player either in a new Battery version or as new tech in Kontakt.

Furthermore, I would like to know if there is an intention to include the search bar in the side menu without the need to select a library?
So that those who have several instruments can quickly search for the name in the same menu, without having to open the browser or scroll the side pane endlessly.

I'd also like to report that the previews of old libraries (Evolve, Symphony Series, among others) are not working in Kontakt 8, (But working perfect in Komplete Kontrol and Maschine)
In my case, the preview library is correctly installed, do you guys know about this issue already?

Thank you @Philipp_NI. I look forward to your expanded side-pane system wide search as it seems to be a logical and essential function. I have to say that the sidebar is still the most useful and elegant solution to finding content. Judging by the user input here it seems that we are all in agreement.