Converting Kontakt 6 Patches to Kontakt 5, EXS to Kontakt

[Kalen Smith]

I was reading through a post and discovered people are distraught by certain libraries functioning only in Kontakt 6 (meaning it cannot be opened by Kontakt 5).
I know that some amazing people have been converting libraries on their own from Kontakt 6 to 5, to allow greater access to these libraries.

I have access to Kontakt 5.6.1, and would be willing to have a go at converting some libraries.

First things first:
Who can and is willing to help? (comment)
What libraries should we convert? (comment)

EXS
I don’t have access to Logic (windows user), so anyone who has it, would it be possible to convert from EXS to Kontakt?
I know there is an interesting Timpani library that functions in EXS only, on this site.

K
:]

[Darren Prescott]

Kontakt 6 to Kontakt 5 requires a manual build as there is no conversion software (that I know of) that can do this automatically. It helps if you have both versions so you can manually copy the settings with both open side-by-side.

Kontakt 5 (and K4) will import EXS instruments (after a few hoops have been jumped through – see below). I’ve had some good results doing this, although it’s not always a completely perfect conversion. It still usually requires further careful tweaking to ensure the sound is faithful to the original EXS version.

Unfortunately, I have read that due to a bug in a key software component this feature broke in about Kontakt version 5.2 and it will crash K5 and/or your DAW if you try to import EXS files in K5.2 to 5.8.

Fortunately there is still a way (Mac instructions only):

In order to enable the EXS24 to Kontakt conversion feature again you will need an older “kconvert.bundle” file. This is the file that does the converting and in later Kontakt versions it contains a bug.

If you have Kontakt 4 then you can find a working “kconvert.bundle” file in:

HD>Library>Application Support>Native Instruments>Kontakt 4

If so, go to Step 6 below…

Or, if you own Kontakt 5 then you should be able to download an older version here:

https://www.native-instruments.com/en/support/downloads/update-manager/?q=kontakt&t=updates

Just login and type Kontakt in the search field, then find “KONTAKT 5.1.0 Mac OS X Update”.

Once downloaded do this:

1. Expand the “Kontakt_5_510U_Mac.dmg”.
2. Right-click on “Kontakt 5 5.1.0 Installer Mac.mpkg” and choose “Show Package Contents”.
3. Navigate to Content>Packages, Right-click on “Kontakt 5 System Extensions.pkg” and choose “Show Package Contents”.
4. Double-click on “Archive.pax.gz”
5. A new Finder window should open up (in your Downloads folder) with folder “Native Instruments” and in that folder is a Kontakt 5 folder. In there is the file you need called “kconvert.bundle”.
6. Navigate to: HD>Library>Application Support>Native Instruments>Kontakt 5 and back up the newer “kconvert.bundle” (version 3.1.0.4) by copying it somewhere else.
7. Copy/replace the older “kconvert.bundle” (version 3.0.0.14) into HD>Library>Application Support>Native Instruments>Kontakt 5

Then it is simply a matter of dragging the EXS file from the Kontakt browser window into the Multi window. It should load and then you can save it as Kontakt instrument.

Going from K5/6 to EXS is more problematic especially if heavy scripting and effects have been applied.

There is also a format conversion app called Translator 7 by Chicken Systems, but this costs $150.

There are a few guys that are starting the long process of converting these cool instruments for wider use in the community. Bob Ellis has done a great job, as has Keith Theodosiou. I have started to look at doing some myself over the last few weeks and got a bit too bogged down in fine details. It’s harder than it first seems.

But yes, I’d encourage more help with this. I’m sure many people would be grateful.

[Kalen Smith]

Thanks for that. :]

It would be awesome if we could get a list of libraries people want to have converted. I’m guessing the more popular ones have already been converted to Kontakt 5.

It would be nice to have the Kontakt version the patch was made in available on the website. That would take out some guess work for people downloading the Kontakt libraries (only to find it requires a new version).

[Eddie Breeg]

As a person who doesn’t have access to any of that software, I use SFZ format for my librairies. As far as the samples are correctly named and organized, it’s fairly easy. So, if anyone here is intersted using in that, I can offer my help for converting the kontakt/EXS librairies. It would be really great if we could have a place to send the converted versions to, so that people can just go and grab them!

[rohan]

Hey Eddie Breeg, much like you I also use sfz.I tried using direct wave for exs24 but doesn’t seem to work . So I would really appreciate your efforts to convert to sfz.
And you can try to ask the donor of the sounds to put up the sfz version on the piano book page itself rather than taking the converted ones anywhere else .

[Keith Theodosiou]

There is one instrument i would love converted to Kontakt and that is LORENZO’S DRUMS V1.

It sounds pretty amazing and well sampled so if anyone could convert that from EXS that would be fantastic 🙂

[sK3LeTvM]

‘@ Keith, well I’ve tried to load the Kit into Kontakt 4 and it only partly works in that way that Kontakt maps the samples in the keygroups in a totally wrong way and thus to much work to get that straight. Sorry. Lorenzo’s Kit is a good kit but I use Battery and boy, those Yamaha 9000 and DW and many other drum kits rock as hell ! (so I’m not really keen on remapping something I will probably never use… sorry again.

[Kiko]

I have 5 and 6 and would be happy to help convert some things, However for me the issue is time, Having a comprehensive list of things that need conversion would be nice.

As for EXS, the TX16Wx loader loads them as does Ableton, so there are options to use them on PC and for free. Also seems not to much an issue now that we just had the EXS to DS conversions. It seems there are a few options for free from DS to SFZ to Hise, But each still has it’s limitations, DS is young, and Dave is active in the community, so that I expect will be the real game changer as time goes on, SFZ is kind of inconsistent and everything is manual in the mapping and routing, so it’s not even an option for someone who is not script literate or has a deep sampled instrument unless they have a lot of time to waste, and Hise is powerful, but requires some real scripting knowledge, and not just the basic KSP stuff someone like me can do.

[Sid]

There are some conversion tools (exs to sfz):
https://github.com/AudioKit/SamplerDemo/blob/master/Sounds/exs2sfz.py (requires python)

https://www.bjoernbojahr.de/exs2sfz.html (mac or windows, website in German)

[Kiko]

Very cool, I don’t know jack about Python, But I will check out the one in German.

[Author]

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