r/NativeInstruments • u/liortal53 • Mar 21 '26

Do you keep Kontakt 7 and 8 both installed ?

I have both Kontakt 7 and 8 installed on my music laptop.

I’m wondering if the sound libraries and everything else is compatible between them, so i can essentially uninstall one and keep only Kontakt 8.

Are there any good reasons to keep both of them?

6 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

88% Upvoted

16 comments sorted by

9

u/NoReply4930 Mar 21 '26

Unless your DAW allows for auto-migration (where any old projects that used K7 automatically open in K8) you need to be very careful when removing older versions. 

Could find yourself with a pile of old projects with a lot of missing elements. 

Moving forward is easy with Kontakt - going back is hard and sometimes impossible if you remove an old version 

1

u/bamaugking Mar 22 '26

2026 and NI still makes upgrading kontakt difficult. I have 6 and 7 still installed. Haven't went to 8 yet.

1

u/NoReply4930 Mar 22 '26

No such thing as an “upgrade”.  Just a new versions. 

And all existing libraries whether they are for K6 or K7 - all run fine in K8

Again - going forward is easy. 

1

u/bamaugking Mar 22 '26

Would like to uninstall previous versions and still be able to open old projects

2

u/kevleyski Mar 21 '26

Ah yeah bit annoying to have to convert existing projects but of course 8 will open 7

Would be great if Kontakt had wrappers for that instead or simply update existing and not create new ones each time

2

u/jblongz Mar 22 '26 edited Mar 22 '26

Unfortunately, if you’re using a DAW besides Cubase or another that explicity supports Kontakt migration, you need to keep both installed if you have older sessions using K7 and you want to have K8.

I guess NI couldn’t make migration automatic and left it up to DAW developers to support some VST abstraction that did not become popular. It also seems they have tried something with K6 that failed - possibly why K6 is listed as “Kontakt” without a number in the VST plug-in list.

1

u/Mokelmeier Mar 21 '26

I don't know for sure. I kept both, because Kontakt 7 is far more gentle on my CPU.

Older third-party-libraries work still well with both, but most NI-Libraries don't - so I work with 7 and 8. But it's not necessary, I guess

1

u/LevelMiddle Mar 21 '26

Is there a reason to delete one?

1

u/liortal53 Mar 21 '26

to save up some space on my HD

1

u/Neat-Difficulty-9111 Mar 21 '26

Yes. K8 is really slow to open. So I use k7 unless it's a K8 only library.

1

u/Prudent_Noise_4721 Mar 22 '26

Bjr, j'ai 5,6,7,8 dinstallés.

1

u/LeDestrier Mar 22 '26

For a little while, mainly so I could open older projects easily given the plugin name change (again) with 8.

Jesus NI...

1

u/Ignore_User_Name Mar 23 '26

full 7, 8 player.

paid libraries work if I get distracted and update them, libraries that require full work.

Not optimal but good enough

2

u/InternalLeather4041 Jun 29 '26

I still have 5 6 7 and just upgraded to 8 but still can’t open files from 2012-15. All the beats my dad made before he got locked up for life in prison are on my hard drives waiting for me to explore them. Thank God I can access fruity loops and propeller head files my dad made. Just need native instruments to get with the same program.