Session Rescue

Lionel Cohen · Los Angeles

Free Mac tools for Ableton Live

Open the sessions that still ask for plugins Native Instruments retired.

Kontakt 5 and Guitar Rig 5 are no longer supported. The Ableton sessions that used them did not disappear. These two drag-and-drop apps write a new copy that points at Guitar Rig 6 or Kontakt 6, 7, or 8. The original file is never touched.

Guitar amp sessions

GR5 to GR6

Rewrites every Guitar Rig 5 Audio Unit it finds to Guitar Rig 6 FX. Output name: your session plus “ -GR6.als”.

Needs: Guitar Rig 6 installed as an AU

Download GR5-to-GR6-Converter.zip

Sample-library sessions

Kontakt 5 to 6, 7, or 8

Finds devices named exactly Kontakt 5 and retargets them. You pick the version in a popup. Output ends in _k6, _k7, or _k8.

Needs: the Kontakt version you choose, installed as an AU

Download Kontakt-Converter.zip

Why I made them

Years of film cues and album sessions still live as Ableton sets. When Native Instruments stopped supporting Kontakt 5 and Guitar Rig 5, those files did not become unreadable. Live could open the arrangement and then fail the device, because the session was still asking for an Audio Unit that is no longer on the machine.

Rebuilding every chain by hand is not realistic when a cue has a dozen instances. These tools tell Ableton to load the plugin you actually have, and leave the saved state alone so the newer plugin has a chance to restore it.

How to run one

  1. 1Unzip the download. Both tools are Mac only.
  2. 2Control-click the .command file and choose Open. That is the fix when macOS says the file cannot be opened or that you do not have permission.
  3. 3If macOS asks to install Command Line Developer Tools, install them. That is the Python these scripts use. There is nothing to pip install.
  4. 4Drag .als files onto the app that appears in the same folder. Open the new copy in Live and listen before you archive the original.

Originals stay put

Every run writes a new file. If that name already exists, a number is added. Nothing is overwritten.

Audio Units only

VST and VST3 instances are left unchanged. The session has to be using the Mac Audio Unit versions of these plugins.

Listen to the copy

The preset payload is preserved, not translated. A rack can open and still not restore perfectly. Keep the original session.