CONVERTING NCW FILES TO WAV
tutorial written by Robin Birner

As user of Native Instruments Kontakt sampler you probably already have seen files in the ncw format inside your Kontakt sample libraries folder. For sample developers and users ncw is one of the greatest features of Kontakt, because it allows developers to compress all their high quality recordings and therefore make them lighter on RAM, while maintaining the original recording quality.

Sample libraries made by Strezov Sampling are usually recorded at 96khz/24bit, but delivered in the ncw format for the advantages mentioned above. However if you want to have access to single high quality wav files for applying some creative sounddesign or just putting them right into your sequencer all you have to do is converting the ncw files back to wav. This little tutorial shows you how to do that within Kontakt.

1. Locating the ncw files you want to convert
Let's say you want to convert the samples of the Low Brass of the Aleatoric Modular Series.

First open Native Instruments Kontakt and navigate to your AMS Low Brass Installation folder on your harddrive using Kontakt's build in Files browser. Remember if you have created a Quick-Load folder inside Kontakt you will find your instruments quicker. (Check out my other tutorial on how to create a Quick-Load folder for your instruments here).
Open the patch which contains the samples you want to convert to wav. In this case it's the Cluster Risers & Falls Lite Patch.

2. Converting the patch
Click on the Files button and hit Save as. In the following Save Instrument window select patch + samples as the Save Mode and make sure that the compress samples box button is deactivated. See the screenshot below for further clarification.

You should also make sure to create a new folder for your saved instruments for a better overview, otherwise it will overwrite the old patch. Nothing wrong with that, but I like to keep everything organized.

That's it. If everything worked out as it should you will have a subfolder containing all the samples from the patch just resaved in their original file format.

If you want to save some space on your harddrive you can of course also convert patches saved in open wav format to ncw. Just follow the steps of this tutorial and this time make sure to to activate the button compress samples in the Save Instrument window.
Now be creative with the samples and get inspired by the unlimited possibilites in tweaking them.

I hope you enjoyed this little tutorial and as always stay tuned for some more hints and tipps in the future.

Robin