Does anyone here know how to make Kontakt 2and VDL show up in Ableton Live 8???  Do you use it as a plug in just like other players ie. aria and guitar rig?  I can't get it to show up as a plug in for some reason.  Any help here would be great!

I don't currently have Ableton installed to test this against, but if you can access Kontakt 2 from within Ableton, you should then have access to your VDL sounds. Do you have any other VSTs that appear when Kontakt 2 doesn't?

You may also consider updating to Kontakt 4, but I don't see a reason Kontakt 2 wouldn't work either. It might be worth checking the Native Instruments forums to see if anyone there has experienced the same issue.

Yes, it should appear as a plug-in like the Aria Player. Are you on Mac or Windows?

If using Mac, Kontakt 2 should appear as an available plug-in in the Plug-In Device Browser if Ableton is pointing to the AU Plug-ins folder in Mac HD > Library > Audio > Plug-ins > Components.

If using Windows, do you have a folder like C:\Program Files\VSTPlugins or something similar? If so, copy the Kontakt2.dll from C:\Program Files\Native Instruments\Kontakt 2\VSTPlugins and paste it to your general VSTplugins folder. I would suggest placing other plug-ins you want to use in here as well, for easy management.

Then in Ableton, click Activate in the Plug-in Device Browser (or press Ctrl + ,). Under Plug-in Sources, click Browse next to VST Plug-in Custom Folder and locate the folder we moved the Kontakt 2.dll into. Once selected, make sure Use VST Plug-in Custom Folder is set to On.