VE Pro 7 has Kontakt auto migration

[Guy Rowland]

Can it be true?

Well, sorta.

The catch is - it's not VST2, only VST3 versions 6-8, and AU version 7&8. But it's a start.

You can now move or delete prior instances of Kontakt as per the limitations above (should you wish), and VE Pro will auto-load your latest version in your existing sessions. I updated the install from Vienna Assistant.

It feels like a slightly bigger update than the boringly named v7.3.4328 suggests. There's a new splash screen and new VST/VST3 scanner has also been overhauled - "Plug-in scanning is now much faster and more robust".

As it is, not very useful for me. Cubase can handle a transition from VST2 v3.5 to VST3 v8. But here's hoping this is just the first step for VSL.

[Linos]

That's such a messy way to 'auto' migrate. Just delete your previous Kontakt version, and it will automatically load the new one. Partly, sort of, maybe.

There is no way I am going to delete a previous version of Kontakt. If something doesn't work, or if I am still using vst2 somewhere, I am going to break my template so hard. It would take weeks to rebuild. We need a non-destructive, reversible way of doing this. Anything else is not good enough really.

[Guy Rowland]

That's such a messy way to 'auto' migrate. Just delete your previous Kontakt version, and it will automatically load the new one. Partly, sort of, maybe.

There is no way I am going to delete a previous version of Kontakt. If something doesn't work, or if I am still using vst2 somewhere, I am going to break my template so hard. It would take weeks to rebuild. We need a non-destructive, reversible way of doing this. Anything else is not good enough really.

I think the safe way to do it is to move the plugins you don't THINK you need to a separate folder. Then in case of any issues, you simply put 'em back. So all my old versions of Kontakt are in a VE Pro only folder which Cubase doesn't see but VE Pro does. Works really well.

I've found the migration pretty reliable in Cubase I have to say.

[Linos]

Ah, that makes sense. Still, it's something for users that are more organized than I am. I have instances from Kontakt 5 to 8 loaded in my template. Just finding out which ones are vst2 and which vst3 would be quite an enterprise. Then I had to manually migrate all vst2 instances to vst3. In some cases I am using the older version deliberately, because a multiscript or something didn't work in the newer versions. In other cases I simply never took the time to migrate to the newer version. As long as everything works I am not going to spend that time. Maybe in a year or two VE Pro can migrate everything automatically.

[Lawrence]

Ah, that makes sense. Still, it's something for users that are more organized than I am. I have instances from Kontakt 5 to 8 loaded in my template. Just finding out which ones are vst2 and which vst3 would be quite an enterprise. Then I had to manually migrate all vst2 instances to vst3. In some cases I am using the older version deliberately, because a multiscript or something didn't work in the newer versions. In other cases I simply never took the time to migrate to the newer version. As long as everything works I am not going to spend that time. Maybe in a year or two VE Pro can migrate everything automatically.

That’s me too, Linos. My template has plenty of K5 instances, and I ain’t deleting nuttin.’

[Guy Rowland]

Maybe in a year or two VE Pro can migrate everything automatically.

That's the hope, and how Cubase works.

[Linos]

Did the update break my automation settings? I am using your trick Guy to activate/deactivate an instance in VE Pro by pressing B7 and C8 respectively. I had it all set in my template. After the update, this doesn't work anymore. VE Pro shows 'Disable' in the automation setting, instead of 'Horn 1 Disable', for example. If I have to go through every instance of VE Pro to set it again that will take a lot of time. Did you encounter the same issue?

[Guy Rowland]

Did the update break my automation settings? I am using your trick Guy to activate/deactivate an instance in VE Pro by pressing B7 and C8 respectively. I had it all set in my template. After the update, this doesn't work anymore. VE Pro shows 'Disable' in the automation setting, instead of 'Horn 1 Disable', for example. If I have to go through every instance of VE Pro to set it again that will take a lot of time. Did you encounter the same issue?

I did! My bad, I meant to put a warning post here about it. Automation is definitely broken.

Two bits of good news. 1 - VSL are on it. 2 - they should also be rolling out VST2 to VST3 auto-migration in the next update.

For now I recommend rolling back via Vienna Assistant. Go to the product, Show Archive and then install the previous version. It was painless for me, though rescanning everything was slow on first launch - the new scanner is way faster and better. Hopefully the next version will be along soon.

[Linos]

Thank you — that's useful information. I hope they iron out the automation bug quickly. It would also be nice if auto-migration finally worked for everything. I hope that getting rid of VST2 improves performance. However, I'm in no hurry to try it. First, I want to make absolutely sure that there aren't any bugs or hidden issues.

[Guy Rowland]

The main reason VST2 migration is worthwhile to me is that my main template has versions of Kontakt back to K4. For the next version, in theory if I move all those Kontakt instruments out of the plugin folder that VE Pro scans, it will load them all in K8. Cubase already does this, so I'd always be working with one single version of Kontakt (finally)

[Linos]

That's my goal as well. Let's see what the next update brings.

[Linos]

An update is live that should fix the automation problem. Sadly, automation is still not working in my template.

[Guy Rowland]

An update is live that should fix the automation problem. Sadly, automation is still not working in my template.

Oh that's disappointing.

From the changelog, 7.3.43724 (June 3 2025) says:

FIXED
Vienna Imperial Player did not validate
Projects could no longer save & recall automation data for integrated plugins
VST2: Projects would open empty as no data could be pushed to the server application

ADDED
Support for VST2>VST3 auto-migration of the Vienna Ensemble Pro plugin in the host (e.g. Cubase)

I wonder from the wording if they've only fixed automation on VSL's own integrated plugins rather than all third party plugins?

Also the VST2>VST3 migration, while welcome, is not what we were looking for which (again) concerns third party plugins withing VEP itself.

[Guy Rowland]

Just to add everyone seems in the same boat, the automation bug for third party plugins is NOT fixed in VEP 7.3.43724.

I'm sticking on 7.3725 for the time being, that's the last known good.

[Linos]

Hopefully with the next update. I am rolling back to 7.3725 as well. I haven't been cautious with updating VE Pro since it always worked fine. In the future I will not rush the updates.

[Ashermusic]

I was an early VE Pro adopter and as far back as 2010 I wrote about how to use it with Logic Pro in my book “Going Pro With Logic Pro 8.”

But with the ability to save groups of instruments in Logic Pro’s library, Logic’s improved CPU efficiency, and now having a faster and more powerful computer, coupled with the fact that these days I rarely need to load huge templates, I rarely use it anymore.

[Guy Rowland]

I've been back-and-forthing with support. Seems like they need more examples of automation-busted projects, so if you have one please email to:

support@vsl.co.at

[Guy Rowland]

I was an early VE Pro adopter and as far back as 2010 I wrote about how to use it with Logic Pro in my book “Going Pro With Logic Pro 8.”

But with the ability to save groups of instruments in Logic Pro’s library, Logic’s improved CPU efficiency, and now having a faster and more powerful computer, coupled with the fact that these days I rarely need to load huge templates, I rarely use it anymore.

My current VE Pro template is 0.5gb. That's trivial, but if my Cubase projects were that big (with 5 autosave backups per project) things would get very unwieldy. Cubase is still quite troubled with CPU efficiency compared to VE pro too.

That said, I'd say I only use the template 1 time in 10. It's still great for the times when I do though.