What is inNKX: read this thread first if you haven't yet.

I just discovered a very cool thing. "Total commander" plugins are just regular Windows on-the-fly-loaded-only .dll. Just like VST2 plugins but with other purpose/rules. Kudos to me for taking me like 1 year to discover that.

What does this mean? I could program an small app to use inNKX freely, including:
- Automating the conversion of individual wav/ncw samples to nkx containers including splitting into several <2GB files (2GB limit).
- Automating the embedding of wallpapers in the nicnt (pro style).

Ok, at this point I can see you all jumping to say "yesssss!!!!". Don't get too worked up. Cons:
- The last time I programmed Windows C/C++ (mandatory for this) was in college 19 years ago. No kidding. This would be easy for a seasoned Windows programmer. I'm not.
- I'm lazy and holidays are ending. I'd need one serious and patient super-beta tester to compensate the shitload of bugs I'd do.

The first thing I'd do would be a command line only application to embed wallpapers in the nicnt files. It's way easier. The final would have a nice but minimal GUI (if I don't die in the attempt)

Vote and be sincere. How much love for that? ask before voting if you have doubts.

 

Last edited: Aug 28, 2019

What can I say? I couldn't help it man...

 

What would really be awesome, though probably not possible and not useful for most, would be if it could convert .ncw to .wav since I can't use Kontakt itself. But InNKX has been very helpful once I got it to work, so I imagine it would simplify things for many users if it was a standalone app instead of a plugin within TC.

 

You're right. You absolutely need Kontakt to convert between wav and ncw. I thought about it and the possibility to automate this task (one program controlling other as if it were the user). It would be hard but perhaps feasible to do it but Kontakt doesn't even have the keyboard shortcuts necessary for this.

 

For converting a few hundred ncw files I'm just creating a new instrument, drag all files into the mapping window (e.g. with different velocities) and save the instrument as nki + uncompressed WAV. Then dump the nki.

 

Good one. I did this to convert impulse response files (cabinets, reverbs) in .ncw format to .wav.
This kind of files are found usually in .nkr (resource containers) files and don't get converted when you batch-recompress. Because technically, they're not part of the instrument and its samples.

Edited: in fact, there are keyboard short cuts for the wave mapper. It's probably still impossible to automate but I'll take a look.

 

Last edited: Aug 28, 2019

still no creator tools shared

 

Thumbs up to your thoughts and efforts!
Basically, everything can be automated. The question is how far to go though and how much you really gain by investing the time.
I don't think it's impossible for anyone to learn how to use Total Commander and the plugin.

 

I totally agree. The problem is the missing piece to convert between ncw and wav. You need Kontakt.
It only could be automated counting pixels from the windows corner and hoping to click the file icon. Then a few down keystrokes, then putting the paths in the new windows, counting pixels again to check ncw or wav checkboxes,.. and so on

Imagine you spend one week to do it and then you realize if you change the windows theme doesn't work... as you said, the question is, is it worth it?

 

Haha, good one!

I've done a number of automations using Autoit and AutoHotkey.
What's definitely possible using these:

• Find a window by its title
• Send mouse clicks with positions originating at the window client area (AFAIR that's independent from the Windows theme used)
• Send keyboard shortcuts wherever possible (although there aren't many, in case of Kontakt)

Another possibility would be to auto-build a dummy sampler program (Maybe SFZ also works with NCW files? Otherwise an old NKI creator) with all the WAVs/NCWs and drag-drop it to Kontakt with "view foreign formats" enabled, avoiding the tedious mapping-by-mouse procedure.

 

Exactly what I was thinking of in the case of automating "batch recompress" in Kontakt.
Which one would you recommend for automating GUIs without shortcut/keyboard support? I know the basics of both, but difficult question.

That would be possible even with Kontakt. There're even several useful keyboard shortcuts for that in Kontakt.
But the trade-offs vs the use of the batch recompress are huge. Many more steps, and the slow step of dragging a lot of samples to the Kontakt instrument. Of course if you just wanna convert a few hundreds it's the best approach. At least manually.

 

While this probably doesn't help, someone else told me it is possible to use some form of keyboard shortcuts and/or scripts to convert ncw to wav, but they forgot how to do it... I did some research but came up empty-handed. It is unfortunate that the ncw format could not be read by another program since unless I am wrong it is just another lossless audio format like .flac for example. But I guess NI would have to provide a CODEC for other software to play or convert the format and they don't have any reason to do that...

 

Sorry to reply somewhat late, back from holidays now
I had chosen AutoIt for my projects because I found its code clearer and more consistent. The advantage of using AHK tho is that there's an active forum and many examples, so it might have taken a bit longer to get familiar with AutoIt.
I don't know the latest developments but personally I'd choose AutoIt again, I guess.

New idea: Wouldn't this be possible by writing a script inside Kontakt?

 

Thanks for the info. I was getting the same impression.

I don't think it's possible.

 

Hi, I know this is an old thread but I was wondering if anyone knew if anyone decided to work on an nkx application?

Some people were discussing automating a batch compress program, and I already created a rudimentary python script for doing so. It's not good enough to really release, but the core component is a simple program I found on the kvr forum that can convert ncw to wav and wav to ncw pretty quickly. Just google kvr ncw to wav and it should pop up (Not sure If I can post links here for this since idk if it's a warez thing or not)

(It's entirely done with this third party command-line utility, no using scripts with Kontakt)

 

This is a really good idea. Anything that automates a process involving multiple steps into either a single script or click successfully is a good thing, for any user.

As for Kontakt, there is a registry #ID that sorts the way the libraries are laid out when not A-Z. Sure there is a Kontakt Library Organizer out there but it is only vertical and great if you have less than 50 libraries. If you have 300-1,000 it is not any better than manually doing it yourself inside Kontakt. If it had horizontal scrolling where it word-wrapped it would be great.
Maybe a feature that gives people a far easier solution to organising the order of their libraries too would be a great thing, even though I do not think it would be an easy thing to do, or it would have been done already.

 

Yep, that's an interesting tool. I got it though haven't used yet. Technically is possible to do ncw-wav-nkx conversion in every way now without Kontakt at all.

This falls under a different category but it'd be also cool.
Though I'm not sure how one would design it to work with hundreds libs. Even with something like "column wrap" it would be a mess. Well, perhaps not but GUIs are a bitch to program.
Perhaps with rules about company?

 

Don't laugh but I am actually half-decent in working with the registry. If I knew exactly what it sorted by, whether snpid, HU, JDX or something completely different and exactly which hive and location and registry DWORD or Binary value or string value it used as its primary determinator, I probably would take the time and work out exactly how. I'd then gladly forward you the results to add into your script automation. That is, once I worked out how to call up the relevant ID and shift anything you choose to any location instantly, no matter how many libraries.
If it is in the anticipated HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Native Instruments - I am hesitant without knowing exactly which identifier it uses.

Considering how LibOrganizer works by FN42 I would not be surprised if it uses the XML files in the Service Center.

 

Last edited: Nov 8, 2021

You're right. The registry work that would take to change the order is relatively easy. What is hard is a GUI to make it easier when you have a lot of libraries.

Of course I don't.
Well, I'm laughing my ass off but not for you. I just saw Fostiviera was banned yet again

 

Last edited: Nov 8, 2021