Amazing video, I have actually organized everything using this method now, but i tried to copy and use the libraries from other system(mac) and I am not able to find the tags any ideas?
This is brilliant! Just what I need. And I like your approach of giving yourself a certain number of folders to work through each day, to make setting it all up manageable. Thanks!
Thank you David, brilliant work around for something that Kontakt should really have a better internal solution for being the biggest sampler in the world. I used to edit sounds in the old days on my Kurzweil K2500 which had a brilliant V.A.S.T. editing system which I found way easier to use than under the hood on Kontakt. I digress. Thanks again!
Great ideas, thanks. I'm wondering too about the best "place" to keep the libraries and instruments I buy. I feel like I want them in a directory backed up on iCloud, and I also keep a backup copy on a very large thumb drive. Your thoughts?
Interesting system, thank you! I would really love to be able to get my Kontakt libraries show up in the order I last put them in in the Libraries Tab, but I haven't found a way since Kontakt 6. If you know how to do this on Mac, could you please do a video about it?
Hi David, thanks a lot for this smart and helpful video. I'll start right away to tag my libraries! Just one observation though: it seems to me that the only drawback is that (compared to the old method) you cannot use the "Instrument" folder of a library (in order to reduce the columns to be browsed). Of course you could tag the "Instrument" folder of libraries, but since you cannot rename it you'd loose reference to the pertaining library. I'm I right or did you find a way to overcome this little quirk? Thanks again for your time
Windows has tags for files (not folders), but it's certainly not as powerful as the Mac os tagging. NI has hinted of updates to kontakt for exactly this though. So it would be worth waiting a little
Thanks a lot for this video which I have found very interesting. I am wondering if a similar system to yours for PC's on Windows 10 is possible at all. Kind regards and blessings, MaxT
Good question. Unfortunately I don't know Windows well enough to answer your question, since I'm Mac-only. I suspect there must be a similar solution for Windows.
Great video, very much appreciate! As you say, an excellent way to get to know better your libraries. Only after literally following the steps you suggest, I found out about Samplism & Sononym! Do you use those helper programs by any chance?
Ok. You intended to cover Kontakt, and that's very well accomplished. I was actually looking for some tool, which would recognise any VSTi. For inventory purposes, as a preparatory step for templates, I can tag and use Smart Folders with f.i. Vienna or EW, but with a format like Orchestral Tool's Sine, all is completely hidden away behind numbers. I'm afraid the Spreadsheet is our only friend for now, if we want to have an overview of every VST in one place. Samplism is sold via Apple's App Store audiohelperproject.com/products/samplism/ Sononym here: www.sononym.net I messed with both (lite & trial) for about two hours & indeed, as far as I can tell, both don't work with NKI's. Samplism seems great for getting at the bottom of what's in your DAW. All the best!
@@norpfl That's great to know. I figured those apps might not work as librarians for Kontakt. Still useful for organizing sounds, though. (There are others I've heard of too -- AudioFinder rings a bell?)
To be able to apply multiple tags to one smart folder in Monterey when you are creating a smart folder, instead of clicking just the regular + to create the next tag to be searched, hold down the Option Key and you will see where it will be 3 dots to the right of that. That's where you can get the if/or and be able to look up multiple tags at once. For the if/or to work you have to use "Any" [of the following are true] choose "Tags" and the [matches] and then input your tag, and do this as many times as needed.
I just wish the library browser tab wasn't 10foot wide and take up so much real estate for so little use. They could halve the width of the libraries and put two in side by side. That would be a million times better. Well... twice as good
so basically the search function with the new K7 browser got worse right ? Because you can no longer write : Violas, CSS and get the CSS violas, instead it shows no result. It cannot combined folder names and nki names. (it was a paid upgrade btw)
That is a smart way. I wonder if using tags could run you into problems in the future if Apple decides to change the tag system in future OSX, i hope this doesńt happen bit with Apple tou never know :) Quick question: after upgrading kontakt some of my libraries show in diferent order in Kontakt. After moving them back as they supposed to be , closing and opening kontakt again they show up again in the wrong order I placed them. It is driving me caray. I wonder if you know if there is a way to fix this. Thank you in advance.
I doubt Apple would remove a functionality like this, so it should be safe. Hopefully in a future version of Kontakt, NI will give us a better way of organizing our libraries. Regarding your ordering question: not sure. I just use A-Z and that has always worked for me.
@@daviddas I organize my K libraries by family groups. I have a lot. I start with the piano-keyboards familly on top. Following down orchestral ww., brass and. Strings. On top of every orchestral group I have the solo instruments libs. Then under come all the choirs guitars percussions and ethnic stuff at the bottom. I don’t follow A to Z order at all. With the latest montante update some of my libs got scrambled and I wasn’t able to reorder them again because after moving them manually to the right places the next time I reopened K they will show up scrambled again. Weird
It seems to be an usefull video. I began to have a serious quantity of .nki stuff and I'll mabe try your method. 👍🏻 Furthermore, because of the poor and out of date tiny tiny GUI of Kontakt it's always better for our eyes to reach what you need quicly 😬 (Please, Native if you read this, update you GUI! It's terrible, It worked fine on a 2005 monitor but now we've 4k ones...)
i need help regarding my kontakt 6/7 my libraries changes its position while i organise and then restart kontakt like all my piano lib i keep them on top but when i restart my logic pro x it changes it position and i have organise them again which is hectic everytime any help please let me know
Works for me using the method above. I use both internal and external drives (and the location of the drives shouldn't matter). It's hard to troubleshoot without knowing more details besides "do not work."
@@daviddas the only useful info that I can think of right now is that it's formatted in exFAT. Is there anything else that you might need to help me diagnose the problem?
@@lol473 I have heard multiple significant problems with using exFAT for Kontakt **while on a Mac**. I don't believe there are any problems if you're on Windows.
Windows users, I spent some time searching for the solution and I belive I found it - it's free and quite an elegant one! Here's a link to the developer's youtube channel: ruclips.net/channel/UCgn6Zqh1L3UV9tbB2r5LJnQabout . Take some time to explore it's features - for example the Smart Search, tags within tag groups and more. I am pretty sure this is the best we have at the moment.
I think this is great - but, so, so fast. May slow down a bit my friend - though I suspect you wanted to aim for a 10 min-only video? I guess I will come back to this and watch it a couple tunes. Curious where you are putting your smart folders...
Re: pacing: try slowing RUclips playback by a bit if it goes too fast. :) Re: Smart Folders, you can put them just about anywhere. They occupy microscopic amounts of disk space so it doesn't matter too much.
this is too long. Just copy and paste or directly download the third part libraries in to the kontact library/instruments folder, move the folder up where you want it. problem solved
I partially agree. From a UI perspective, Kontakt isn't elegantly designed. However, it's supremely good at the core job it does. I've been a user of Kontakt since Kontakt 1, so I've seen each of these tabs get added on like band-aids to solve new problems that have come along over time. I don't really mind that I manage my full library outside of Kontakt; in fact I like the control that it gives me. Perhaps a future version of Kontakt will consolidate all this and offer a better way to organize a library.
@@daviddas Perhaps... I guess if you aren't an avid user or a full on NI user (ie: don't use their hardware) - the system is just really confusing and non-user friendly.
Amazing concept. David, I know your previous method of using aliases was not advisable because of it not being future-proofed (as I realised myself recently when upgrading my mac!) Does this new method get around this computer-upgrading problem? Issues I can envisage would be new Mac OS no longer supporting smart folders.... or user-created tags not transferring to a different machine. However, if these issues do not arise then you may well have created an absolute work of genius! Would love to know your thoughts on this. Thanks for your hard work and effort creating this technique and the video for it. Great service to the audio community :)
Yes, exactly. The older technique was not very portable, and hence not a good long-term solution. This system should be portable to future machines and drives. Finder tags seem to be embedded in the file's metadata, so when files get moved to different drives, their tags stay with them.
![[OLD - SEE DESCRIPTION] Ultimate Kontakt Library Organization (2019)](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/qwv-X625ohI/mqdefault.jpg)
![[OLD - SEE DESCRIPTION] Ultimate Kontakt Library Organization (2019)](/img/tr.png)
This man deserves a medal 🎉. Thank you for this!
Great update to your older system
Amazing video, I have actually organized everything using this method now, but i tried to copy and use the libraries from other system(mac) and I am not able to find the tags any ideas?
This is brilliant! Just what I need. And I like your approach of giving yourself a certain number of folders to work through each day, to make setting it all up manageable. Thanks!
Finally a sensible use for Smart folders!
As always, no fluff, just solid useful info. Thanks for taking the time David, and thanks for the KM script.
All fluff edited out.™
great method David, thanks.
Fantastic idea, David. And very timely for me, as I'm setting up my new machine!
Thank you David, brilliant work around for something that Kontakt should really have a better internal solution for being the biggest sampler in the world. I used to edit sounds in the old days on my Kurzweil K2500 which had a brilliant V.A.S.T. editing system which I found way easier to use than under the hood on Kontakt. I digress. Thanks again!
Thanks David! Good work!!
Very impressive 👏 thanks David!
Thanks, David. I might try this
Wow! Just brilliant! Thank you!
Really useful, actionable information. Well done again, and thank you for sharing, David!
Great ideas, thanks. I'm wondering too about the best "place" to keep the libraries and instruments I buy. I feel like I want them in a directory backed up on iCloud, and I also keep a backup copy on a very large thumb drive. Your thoughts?
This is a fantasic video. Thank you David. Your channel really made some huge improvements to my organisation and workflow.
Smart, articulate and extremely helpful:) You sir are a gentleman of the highest order. Thank you:)
Thanks David .. awesome !!👍
Interesting system, thank you! I would really love to be able to get my Kontakt libraries show up in the order I last put them in in the Libraries Tab, but I haven't found a way since Kontakt 6. If you know how to do this on Mac, could you please do a video about it?
Hi David, thanks a lot for this smart and helpful video. I'll start right away to tag my libraries!
Just one observation though: it seems to me that the only drawback is that (compared to the old method) you cannot use the "Instrument" folder of a library (in order to reduce the columns to be browsed). Of course you could tag the "Instrument" folder of libraries, but since you cannot rename it you'd loose reference to the pertaining library. I'm I right or did you find a way to overcome this little quirk? Thanks again for your time
That was awesome! Thank you!
Brilliant David!
Thank you David , Brillant trick to organize our mess !! :-)
Great system David, too bad there isn't a tagging system on my Windows PC, or if there is, I'm not aware of it.
I'm sure that something equivalent would exist for Windows, but unfortunately I don't have the Windows expertise to know what it is.
Windows has tags for files (not folders), but it's certainly not as powerful as the Mac os tagging.
NI has hinted of updates to kontakt for exactly this though.
So it would be worth waiting a little
Thanks, very effective way.
Thanks a lot for this video which I have found very interesting. I am wondering if a similar system to yours for PC's on Windows 10 is possible at all. Kind regards and blessings, MaxT
Good question. Unfortunately I don't know Windows well enough to answer your question, since I'm Mac-only. I suspect there must be a similar solution for Windows.
@@daviddas Thanks David for your kind reply! I need to investigate further how to achieve what you have shown on a PC. Blessings, MaxT
Question, when Native Instruments updates an instrument will the tags remain?
와 미쳤다 이런 꿀팁이 있었다니 정말 고맙습니다 정말 감사드립니다. 당신은 나의 영웅입니다.
Great video, very much appreciate! As you say, an excellent way to get to know better your libraries. Only after literally following the steps you suggest, I found out about Samplism & Sononym! Do you use those helper programs by any chance?
Interesting; I wasn't aware of them. Can you provide links? I found Sononym, but it's not clear whether it works with Kontakt NKI's.
Ok. You intended to cover Kontakt, and that's very well accomplished. I was actually looking for some tool, which would recognise any VSTi. For inventory purposes, as a preparatory step for templates, I can tag and use Smart Folders with f.i. Vienna or EW, but with a format like Orchestral Tool's Sine, all is completely hidden away behind numbers. I'm afraid the Spreadsheet is our only friend for now, if we want to have an overview of every VST in one place. Samplism is sold via Apple's App Store audiohelperproject.com/products/samplism/ Sononym here: www.sononym.net I messed with both (lite & trial) for about two hours & indeed, as far as I can tell, both don't work with NKI's. Samplism seems great for getting at the bottom of what's in your DAW. All the best!
@@norpfl That's great to know. I figured those apps might not work as librarians for Kontakt. Still useful for organizing sounds, though. (There are others I've heard of too -- AudioFinder rings a bell?)
@@daviddas Thanks for the suggestion. I like that one. Looks more like a Finder indeed.
Молодец, Браво. Благодарю!
AWESOME !!
To be able to apply multiple tags to one smart folder in Monterey when you are creating a smart folder, instead of clicking just the regular + to create the next tag to be searched, hold down the Option Key and you will see where it will be 3 dots to the right of that. That's where you can get the if/or and be able to look up multiple tags at once. For the if/or to work you have to use "Any" [of the following are true] choose "Tags" and the [matches] and then input your tag, and do this as many times as needed.
I just wish the library browser tab wasn't 10foot wide and take up so much real estate for so little use. They could halve the width of the libraries and put two in side by side. That would be a million times better. Well... twice as good
so basically the search function with the new K7 browser got worse right ? Because you can no longer write : Violas, CSS and get the CSS violas, instead it shows no result. It cannot combined folder names and nki names. (it was a paid upgrade btw)
Any pointers for Windows based Kontakt?
That is a smart way. I wonder if using tags could run you into problems in the future if Apple decides to change the tag system in future OSX, i hope this doesńt happen bit with Apple tou never know :)
Quick question: after upgrading kontakt some of my libraries show in diferent order in Kontakt. After moving them back as they supposed to be , closing and opening kontakt again they show up again in the wrong order I placed them. It is driving me caray. I wonder if you know if there is a way to fix this. Thank you in advance.
I doubt Apple would remove a functionality like this, so it should be safe. Hopefully in a future version of Kontakt, NI will give us a better way of organizing our libraries. Regarding your ordering question: not sure. I just use A-Z and that has always worked for me.
@@daviddas I organize my K libraries by family groups. I have a lot. I start with the piano-keyboards familly on top. Following down orchestral ww., brass and. Strings. On top of every orchestral group I have the solo instruments libs. Then under come all the choirs guitars percussions and ethnic stuff at the bottom. I don’t follow A to Z order at all. With the latest montante update some of my libs got scrambled and I wasn’t able to reorder them again because after moving them manually to the right places the next time I reopened K they will show up scrambled again. Weird
It seems to be an usefull video. I began to have a serious quantity of .nki stuff and I'll mabe try your method. 👍🏻
Furthermore, because of the poor and out of date tiny tiny GUI of Kontakt it's always better for our eyes to reach what you need quicly 😬
(Please, Native if you read this, update you GUI! It's terrible, It worked fine on a 2005 monitor but now we've 4k ones...)
great tips, thx!
thank you!
i need help regarding my kontakt 6/7 my libraries changes its position while i organise and then restart kontakt like all my piano lib i keep them on top but when i restart my logic pro x it changes it position and i have organise them again which is hectic everytime any help please let me know
Nice. If only there was a Windows version of this video
It would be nice if you changed the Title of this video to highlight that it is Mac-only.
how to do this on windows??? Please help!
I tried this, but the smart folders do not work for me and my external SSD. How did you get smart folders and tags to work with yours?
Works for me using the method above. I use both internal and external drives (and the location of the drives shouldn't matter). It's hard to troubleshoot without knowing more details besides "do not work."
@@daviddas the only useful info that I can think of right now is that it's formatted in exFAT. Is there anything else that you might need to help me diagnose the problem?
@@lol473 I have heard multiple significant problems with using exFAT for Kontakt **while on a Mac**. I don't believe there are any problems if you're on Windows.
Windows users, I spent some time searching for the solution and I belive I found it - it's free and quite an elegant one! Here's a link to the developer's youtube channel: ruclips.net/channel/UCgn6Zqh1L3UV9tbB2r5LJnQabout . Take some time to explore it's features - for example the Smart Search, tags within tag groups and more. I am pretty sure this is the best we have at the moment.
I think this is great - but, so, so fast. May slow down a bit my friend - though I suspect you wanted to aim for a 10 min-only video? I guess I will come back to this and watch it a couple tunes. Curious where you are putting your smart folders...
Re: pacing: try slowing RUclips playback by a bit if it goes too fast. :) Re: Smart Folders, you can put them just about anywhere. They occupy microscopic amounts of disk space so it doesn't matter too much.
daaaamn, i'm a windows girl unfortunately. it boggles my mind that Kontakt doesn't do this... ahem... natively.
this is too long. Just copy and paste or directly download the third part libraries in to the kontact library/instruments folder, move the folder up where you want it. problem solved
Dude this is super Rad. DM me I want to hire you to do some shit for me, Trevor.
Sure. Sent you in a quick message to your ask address. Or feel free to reach out to me through my site (daviddas.com).
Kontact is terrible... good concept.. terrible design and UI. You shouldn't have to resort to using FINDER to locate and load items into the Library.
I partially agree. From a UI perspective, Kontakt isn't elegantly designed. However, it's supremely good at the core job it does. I've been a user of Kontakt since Kontakt 1, so I've seen each of these tabs get added on like band-aids to solve new problems that have come along over time. I don't really mind that I manage my full library outside of Kontakt; in fact I like the control that it gives me. Perhaps a future version of Kontakt will consolidate all this and offer a better way to organize a library.
@@daviddas Perhaps... I guess if you aren't an avid user or a full on NI user (ie: don't use their hardware) - the system is just really confusing and non-user friendly.
Amazing concept. David, I know your previous method of using aliases was not advisable because of it not being future-proofed (as I realised myself recently when upgrading my mac!) Does this new method get around this computer-upgrading problem? Issues I can envisage would be new Mac OS no longer supporting smart folders.... or user-created tags not transferring to a different machine. However, if these issues do not arise then you may well have created an absolute work of genius! Would love to know your thoughts on this. Thanks for your hard work and effort creating this technique and the video for it. Great service to the audio community :)
Yes, exactly. The older technique was not very portable, and hence not a good long-term solution. This system should be portable to future machines and drives. Finder tags seem to be embedded in the file's metadata, so when files get moved to different drives, their tags stay with them.