UPDATED!!! 4Front TruePianos NKS support files

[James Steele]

These are NKS support files for the 4Front TruePianos VI that I made myself. (For more about True Pianos see https://www.truepianos.com/)

Below is the download link to the ZIP file with the necessary files and instructions as to where they go. UPDATE: These have the audio previews AND INCLUDE FILES MISSING FROM PREVIOUS VERSIONS. I apologize profusely. THESE will work correctly!!

Here is the link to download the archive:
https://motunation.com/files/TruePianos_NKS_Files.zip

Here is the READ ME which is included in the ZIP file.

8/3/22

I put together these NKS support files for 4Front True Pianos Virtual Instrument. It supports the factory presets for the Amber, Atlantis, Diamond, Emerald, Sapphire, and SapphirePed modules. Audio previews ARE INCLUDED in this version. You must have the True Pianos VST version installed for Komplete Kontrol.

The folder names indicate where the files should be copied.

After copying the files over, launch the standalone Komplete Kontrol app. Depending on what you set in the preferences it should rescan the User Library, but to make sure, you can go to Preferences, click "Library" from the left panel, then click the button labeled "User" at the top, and then click the "Rescan" button at the bottom right. Then close the window. If you are using a Komplete Kontrol series keyboard, it may also be a good idea to then quit and relaunch Komplete Kontrol so it clears out the memory of the keyboard.

NOTICE!!!
These files shouldn't cause any problems with your system, and if you get unpredictable results in Komplete Kontrol, you can just go back and remove them and then rescan your User Library. Nonetheless, given the litigious nature of society, I ASSUME NO RESPONSIBILITY for any problems caused by installing these files on your computer and promise no technical support whatsoever. It should be straightforward enough. Thanks.

James Steele

truepianosmk2screen.jpg (91.53 KiB) Viewed 2007 times

[James Steele]

Okay... added the Piano / Grand Piano tags on each of the presets. And reattached the file.

[James Steele]

Okay... I'm just so darned pleased with myself. I figured out how to add the audio previews. There's some work involved for sure, but at least I know how now.

[James Steele]

By the way... since I'm having this little conversation with myself, I'll share that I wrote to Native Instruments last night about getting an SDK for NKS. I'm no programmer, but I thought maybe I could decipher some of the documentation and it would be useful to me. For example, access to the light guide on the Komplete Kontrol keyboards is something that casual experimenters like myself have been unable to figure out.

I got a response today that was a generic reply that seemed to assume I was a big developer. Turns out Native Instruments charges a licensing fee for third party plug-in developers to support NKS... from the email "We’ll determine a license fee based on the retail price and order volume." Well now KNOW why more small developers don't support this. I guess I'm fairly naive. Seems like if NI dropped the licensing fees, NKS could become as ubiquitous as MIDI itself. Perhaps they think their system is so good, that consumer demand will push small developers into paying the licensing.

I have half a mind to apologize to UVI for writing to them also, asking them to start building in NKS support. I know NI invested money to develop this and maybe they think once people like me get hooked on NKS, this will push me toward buying exclusively Native Instruments VIs or VIs from their partners. That WAS true at first. But now that I know they're charging small developers licensing, it doesn't feel fair for me to use the lack of NKS support against them. I had thought small developers were just being *lazy*... I was wrong.

[mikehalloran]

Thanks for this. I'll have to give it a go.

There are so many piano VIs out there at various prices but TruePianos @ $69.95 is a good bargain, even if just through the proprietary app.
https://sites.fastspring.com/truepianos ... truepianos

Demos are good.
https://truepianos.com/demos.php


It's nice to know that, if TP 2 is ever released the upgrade is no cost to those of us who bought in 2008 or later.

All existing customers who bought TruePianos v1.x during or after Jan 1 2008 will be eligible for a free update to TruePianos v2.0.

[James Steele]

Thanks for this. I'll have to give it a go.

There are so many piano VIs out there at various prices but TruePianos @ $69.95 is a good bargain, even if just through the proprietary app.
https://sites.fastspring.com/truepianos ... truepianos

Demos are good.
https://truepianos.com/demos.php


It's nice to know that, if TP 2 is ever released the upgrade is no cost to those of us who bought in 2008 or later.

All existing customers who bought TruePianos v1.x during or after Jan 1 2008 will be eligible for a free update to TruePianos v2.0.

Let me know what you think, Mike. Keep in mind I'm learning here, but it's working well for me, with all the piano expansions listed. Like I said, I figured out how the audio previews work. It seems what's popular with these previews is to make the preview a recording of a C Major chord played at middle C, so when I have time I'm going to add that. It's going to be time consuming. I could perhaps automate some of it, but right now I'm just getting off and figuring out this puzzle. I also found an app that lets me create an installer package that will copy the files into the proper locations for the end user... although I'm going to be very careful testing that as it seems there's potential for bad things if one doesn't know exactly what one is doing. So far though, I did a test build of an installer package and it put a small subset of the NKS support files right where they were supposed to go.

Sigh... I'm totally geeking out. I really should have been a programmer in another live. I find I enjoy this WAY too much.

[James Steele]

Oh... I did exchange email with the developer of TruePianos and he plans to maintain this great little plug, so that's good news. We did sort of bemoan the burden of licensing on small developers. I've heard from numerous people that it's a large reason some small developers don't have AAX versions, because the licensing fees from Avid make it impractical for them.

[James Steele]

By the way, Mike, do you own a Komplete Kontrol series keyboard? That's where the fun comes in. Although you can still enjoy a lot of the benefits without one just using the Komplete Kontrol plug-in.

[James Steele]

I have updated the TruePianos NKS support file archive in the first post to support the audio previews function. It only takes up 2.1MB on your hard drive to include these. There is an option to turn them off in Komplete Kontrol. One caveat: the preview is limited to 2-3 seconds of a C Major chord and many of the presets within a particular piano module (Amber, Diamond, etc.) are very similar so you may have no choice but to load the preset and play with it to assess the more subtle differences between presets. But again, the previews don't take much disk space and at least give you an idea.

[James Steele]

OMG!!! I cannot believe I did something so stupid. If you downloaded previous versions, you were probably polite not to yell at me! In my excitement and rush to share this with the community, I omitted some crucial graphics files from the archive. I'm so sorry. I have added a link to download the FIXED archive to the first post in this topic. Please download it again and you should get the proper results this time. Again, my apologies if you were confused.

[mikehalloran]

You're a treasure, James!

[James Steele]

You're a treasure, James!

I take it it worked this time? Can't believe I did that. Probably would have been fired if I did that working somewhere!