Dorico 3 Elements doesn't recognize Kontakt 5 or 6

[Ulf]

Hello Kontakt users (on Win),

I’d like you to test something on your computers. First, you need to find where actually Kontakt is installed on your computer.
I just found that I have 3 different versions installed and each is in a different location.
So please open a File Explorer window, navigate to C:\Program Files and then at the right top put into the search box the string Kontakt 5.dll (or just Kontakt.dll for version 6)
It takes a while but eventually show you a list of Kontakt DLLs, also for Kontak 5 16out.dll and Kontak 5 8out.dll. Anyway, important is the path to it.

Then please open a Command Prompt window. To open that, right click on the Windows icon on the left of your taskbar and from the pop-up menu choose Run.
Then type in ‘cmd’ and return, a Command Prompt window shall open.
In that window do type

cd “C:\Program Files\Steinberg\Dorico3\VSTAudioEngine\Components”

and then

vst2xscanner -p “C:\Program Files<full path to Kontakt dll>”

In the above replace with that what you have found in the search in File Explorer before.
To give an example, this is what I would type in my case:

vst2xscanner -p “C:\Program Files\Native Instruments\VSTPlugins 64 bit\Kontakt 5.dll”

Now, once you press the return/enter key, what does get output to the Command Prompt window?
In my case - and that is the good case - it puts out:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

C:\Program Files\Native Instruments\VSTPlugins 64 bit\Kontakt 5.dllInstrument5653544E694F356B6F6E74616B7420355653454E694F356B6F6E74616B742035Kontakt 5Native Instruments GmbHVST 2.45.7.3.00005903

But since you complain that Kontakt does not get listed in Dorico, I expect that actually nothing comes out with you.
If nothing gets put out on your computer, then please type in the following command:

echo %ERRORLEVEL%

As response just a number gets displayed. With me, because everything is fine, it is simply 0.
But in an error case it may be any other number.
Now, I want you to report me that number that turns up there with you.

Thank you very much for your collaboration.

[Silent_Drummer]

Hi Ulf,

my Command Prompt window puts out the same as yours does. Also the “0”.

[alindsay55661]

Here is the output from my PC:

Kontakt

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<vst2xplugin><path>C:\Program Files\Native Instruments\VSTPlugins 64 bit\Kontakt.dll</path><subCategory>Instrument</subCategory><cid>5653544E6924446B6F6E74616B740000</cid><editorCid>5653454E6924446B6F6E74616B740000</editorCid><name>Kontakt</name><vendor>Native Instruments GmbH</vendor><sdkVersion>VST 2.4</sdkVersion><vendorVersion>6.1.1.0</vendorVersion><latencySamples>0</latencySamples><canDoublePrecision>0</canDoublePrecision><audioInputBusCount>0</audioInputBusCount><audioOutputBusCount>59</audioOutputBusCount><mainAudioInputArr>0</mainAudioInputArr><mainAudioOutputArr>3</mainAudioOutputArr></vst2xplugin>

Kontakt 5

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<vst2xplugin><path>C:\Program Files\Native Instruments\VSTPlugins 64 bit\Kontakt 5.dll</path><subCategory>Instrument</subCategory><cid>5653544E694F356B6F6E74616B742035</cid><editorCid>5653454E694F356B6F6E74616B742035</editorCid><name>Kontakt 5</name><vendor>Native Instruments GmbH</vendor><sdkVersion>VST 2.4</sdkVersion><vendorVersion>5.8.1.0</vendorVersion><latencySamples>0</latencySamples><canDoublePrecision>0</canDoublePrecision><audioInputBusCount>0</audioInputBusCount><audioOutputBusCount>59</audioOutputBusCount><mainAudioInputArr>0</mainAudioInputArr><mainAudioOutputArr>3</mainAudioOutputArr></vst2xplugin>

[Ulf]

Hi alindsay55661, thanks for the data. This is getting more and more strange.
So your output shows that Kontakt passes the scanner when invoked manually.
I’m really puzzled that it still gets blacklisted with you.

In the meantime, Silent Drummer is up and running again, Kontakt is working for him again, but we are not quite sure how he managed to do that.
Somehow setting the VST2 search paths fixed it.

So I think Kontakt should also work just fine with Dorico on your machine.
Would you please send me one more diagnostic report, so that I have a current snapshot of the xml files.
If I then can’t find what’s wrong, it’s finally time for a screen sharing session.

[Derrek]

I just got an opportunity to purchase Kontakt 6 at a discount. Does Dorico now recognize this version of Kontakt?

[dspreadbury]

There are no known general problems with Kontakt 6 and Dorico. Individual users may have run into problems, but to my knowledge they have all been related to specific circumstances such as mismatched installation paths.

[Derrek]

Many thanks – for this and all you and the Team are doing.

[prko]

I am using Dorico 3.0.10 Pro.
I reinstalled all of my software programs on a clean MacBook Pro (repaired by Apple with a new keyboard, a new trackpad and a new logic board including a new SSD).

I installed “Kontakt 5” and “Kontakt 6 Player” via “Native Access”.

“Kontakt 6 Player” appears correctly in the VST, but any types of “Kontakt 5” don’t appear.
Please refer to the following picture:

The following is the result what I did in terminal:

prko$ cd /Applications/Dorico\ 3.app/Contents/Applications/VSTAudioEngine3.app/Contents/Components/VSTPlugManager.bundle/Contents/Resources
prko-MBP2018:Resources prko$ ./vst2xscanner -p /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST/Kontakt\ 5\ 16out.vst
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<vst2xplugin><path>/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST/Kontakt 5 16out.vst</path><subCategory>Instrument</subCategory><cid>5653544E694F376B6F6E74616B742035</cid><editorCid>5653454E694F376B6F6E74616B742035</editorCid><name>Kontakt 5 16out</name><vendor>Native Instruments GmbH</vendor><sdkVersion>VST 2.4</sdkVersion><vendorVersion>5.8.1.0</vendorVersion><latencySamples>0</latencySamples><canDoublePrecision>0</canDoublePrecision><audioInputBusCount>0</audioInputBusCount><audioOutputBusCount>11</audioOutputBusCount><mainAudioInputArr>0</mainAudioInputArr><mainAudioOutputArr>3</mainAudioOutputArr></vst2xplugin>

What should I do?
Have I missed something?
Here is the diagnose report:
Dorico Diagnostics.zip (441 KB)

[Ulf]

Hm, the output of the vst2scanner looks normal, still Kontakt 5 is on the blacklist. But once it is on the blacklist, it won’t get rescanned anymore.
Therefore, try to delete the file /Users//Library/Preferences/VSTAudioEngine3/Vst2xPlugin Blacklist VSTAudioEngine3.xml.
That will enforce a rescan on the next Dorico startup. What does it then look like?

[prko]

Thank you very much!
It works now!

[MarcLarcher]

Dear Lillie and devs,
I’ve been struggling a little to whitelist Kontakt 6, because following the instructions in Help (Whitelisting VST instruments) is actually misleading…
This help document is for Dorico3, therefore the folder in which all the xml documents have to be edited or deleted is called VSTAudioEngine3, whereas the document leads to the folder concerning Dorico 2. As I have Dorico 1, 2 and 3 in my machine, I understood that this number had nothing to do with VST but was about the version of Dorico. It might be useful to correct this

[dspreadbury]

You shouldn’t need to manually whitelist Kontakt 6 in any case, since it’s just called “Kontakt” and is included in the default whitelist that ships with Dorico.

[MarcLarcher]

Well, Kontakt 5 was available in the VSTi list, but not Kontakt 6 (I bought the upgrade with the black friday offer), and I did struggle. Just thought it could be useful for you to have some feedback about this kind of little problems in the doc

[Derrek]

Marc,
Did you already have the Kontakt Player? When I purchased Kontakt 6, it just overwrote the Kontakt Player (also called Kontakt in my list). I had to check the “About” menu item to be sure it was indeed Kontakt 6.

[MarcLarcher]

I had Kontakt 5, and I still have it. Maybe my setup is strange, I don’t know (I don’t think I’ve done anything wrong though). But the doc is not accurate, that was the only purpose of my post

[Derrek]

What I have heard is that NI decided to call Kontakt 6 just Kontakt to avoid users’ having to make changes (such as in the WhiteList) to access Kotakt each time a future upgrade becomes available. I suspect it is, in this one instance, causing a small amount of confusion as it initially did in my case.

[MarcLarcher]

To be absolutely clear, this is by no means the problem I was pointing. The help file clearly points to a folder that belongs to Dorico 2 instead of Dorico 3 (/Users/username/Library/Preferences/VSTAudioEngine2 instead of /Users/username/Library/Preferences/VSTAudioEngine3)

[dspreadbury]

I’ve alerted Lillie to the issue.

[MarcLarcher]

Thanks Daniel.

[jespergoor]

Was there ever a fix found for the issue with Kontakt 6 being blacklisted in Dorico 3? I am struggling with this issue and none of the proposed solutions in this thread have fixed the issue.

I have tried adding “Kontakt” to the whitelist (being careful with EOL encoding), I have even tried copying the Kontakt entry from the blacklist XML file to the correspondng whitelist one myself.

Running vstscanner manually seems to work:

c:\Program Files\Steinberg\Dorico3\VSTAudioEngine\Components>vst2xscanner -p "C:\Program Files\Steinberg\VSTPlugins\Native Instruments\Kontakt.dll"
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<vst2xplugin><path>C:\Program Files\Steinberg\VSTPlugins\Native Instruments\Kontakt.dll</path><subCategory>Instrument</subCategory><cid>5653544E6924446B6F6E74616B740000</cid><editorCid>5653454E6924446B6F6E74616B740000</editorCid><name>Kontakt</name><vendor>Native Instruments GmbH</vendor><sdkVersion>VST 2.4</sdkVersion><vendorVersion>6.2.0.0</vendorVersion><latencySamples>0</latencySamples><canDoublePrecision>0</canDoublePrecision><audioInputBusCount>0</audioInputBusCount><audioOutputBusCount>59</audioOutputBusCount><mainAudioInputArr>0</mainAudioInputArr><mainAudioOutputArr>3</mainAudioOutputArr></vst2xplugin>