History
Battery was the first true sampler product from Native Instruments. It is technically a drum sampler and was designed with up to 54 Pads of multiple velocities of samples.

Battery 1 was based on it's own memory-based sound engine and was really quite flexible. It was the first time a waveform was shown in an envelope-display window, make adjustments rather easy. It also sported a modulation matrix. It could import the major instrument formats and could accept samples via drag and drop. Battery really was ahead of its time.

Some time after Battery was released, Native Instruments brought out Kontakt (and you know the history there). When it came time to improve on Battery with Battery version 2, instead of updating the Battery 1 code, they instead put the Battery interface (rewritten of course) on top of the Kontakt sound engine. Battery 2 is essentially Kontakt 1.5 with a interface similar to Battery 1. This immediately brought in huge improvements in sound and in features, especially relating to DFD streaming.

As Kontakt grew, Battery was destined to grow and Battery 3 was released, which was actually Kontakt 3 in disguise. Later minor version updates of Battery related to Kontakt 3 and Kontakt 4 upgrades.

Battery 4 is Kontakt 5 in disguise and sports a highly evolved interface; it uses a .nbkt file.

Synthesis and File Structure
Battery 1
Battery uses WAV or AIFF files (and SD2 or SFIL on the Mac) to store it's samples. However, it is a little unusual in how it references them.

If you create a Battery 1 kit on Battery 1 itself, and save it, Battery 1 will automatically write the samples in a folder with the same name as the kit - plus the text " samples" - and put that folder in the same folder as the kit. You have no choice in the matter. This can cause sample duplication, as if ,say, 23 kits reference the same samples, those samples will be duplicated 23 times over. Not good.

However, strangely enough, the .kit file, which is just a XML text file, can be written to use full paths or relative paths, so you can actually put your samples anywhere you want. The only problem is that while you can do this, Battery doesn't!

Translator gives you the choice of doing it the "Battery way" or doing it the better "referenced path" way. However, if you do it the latter way, just remember that if you resave the kit within Battery 1, Battery 1 will do it the "Battery way" and copy/move the samples.

Battery 2/3/4
We should refer you to the Kontakt article in this document; Battery works the exact same way. The only difference is that while Kontakt is modular, Battery is fixed in the amount of modulators and scripting it allows, and it is all internal. Again, you can think of Battery 2-forward as a specialized version of Kontakt.

A Battery Cell is a Kontakt Group; it's actually called a Group in the file itself. And just as Kontakt can save Group files for later editing, Battery can save Cell files. Also, Battery 3/4 has the ability (just as Kontakt does) to save files in monolith format (samples contained within the .kt3 file). There is no Multi or Bank equivalent for Battery though.

Translating and Building Battery Kits

An Battery Kit is just a single Instrument, so any conversion creates a single Kit file (.kit; .kt2; .kt3) per incoming program. Sample files are selectable between WAVE and AIFF (see the Preferences for Battery).

Since Battery 2-forward support keyswitching, controller-switching, release-triggering, and even round-robin, it accepts all these from incoming formats. Battery 1 does not support these, so multiple .kit files will be created.

A Battery Pad is essentially a Group of samples. Battery 1 only has 54 Pads, which can be interpreted as 54 keyranges. This means that if you try to import a 88-key piano with samples on every key, you are going to run out of room. Keep this in mind as you import things into Battery 1.

Battery 3/4 has several grid views you can look at. Translator sets the view based on how many Groups it has, and lays out the Groups to fit the Grid View.

• Less than or equal to 16 Groups: 4x4
• Less than or equal to 32 Groups: 8x4
• Less than or equal to 54 Groups: 9x6
• Less than or equal to 72 Groups: 12x6
• Up to 128 Groups: 16x8

Battery (all versions) accepts incoming Group structures and divides them up as Cells if the Battery Group to incoming Groups parameter is checked.

Battery 3/4 supports monolith packaging of samples (again, see Format Preferences-Native Instruments), but please remember that this improves ease of portability but disallows sharing of samples.

Translating Out of Battery Format

Translator supports converting out of all Battery Kit files (.kit, .kt2, .kt3, .nbkt), monolith or linked, and all Cell formats (.cel, .cl3).

Remember that Battery 2-forward may contain expanded Rules/Dimensions and the destination format may not. In that case the result will be multiple destination programs, each representing the different rules.

Cell names are also preserved; any destination format will recognize these if their Group to incoming Groups parameter is checked.

Translator assumes the links from the Battery file are correct; if it can't find the external sample file, Translator will ask you where it is, either via the File dialog or Folder dialog. Using the Folder dialog (Create Catalog), choosing a folder will provide a hint for remaining unfound samples. On the Mac, Translator will also perform a quick CatSearch to find the sample as well.

It is also possible, if the destination format permits it, to just assume the sample is where it actually isn't and the new format will just pass that path. Checking Do Not Require Samples in Preferences-Fix References allows for this.