Will NKS go the distance?

[crimsonwarlock]

We all agree on the fact that KK is on the other hand an unfinished thing. No multitimbral, no fx automation are the biggest issues I’m having.

But Komplete Kontrol is not a DAW, it's a plugin wrapper for tactile control. My DAW (Reaper) does multi-timbral, automation and what not with ease. I can stack as many plugins with loads of control envelopes, but that is to be expected from a DAW, not from a control-wrapper.

Are there any other controller keyboards that are multi-timbral... oh wait, they don't load plugins the way Kontrol does but only map controls (or I missed something). It is seemingly normal to expect more from a product than the manufacturer designed it for, but from my perspective Komplete Kontrol simply delivers a lot more then the competition.

I am amazed what functionality Komplete Kontrol added to my workflow that I didn't have before, which is mainly that I can now work with softsynths almost as if they are hardware synths.

[jancivil]

How long has this been out, now?

It's not something I can invest in, as in a typical project more than half of what I use isn't supported. Most typically most of it, 75% of instruments or like that.

VSL, no; BFD3, no. SonicCouture is most of my Kontakt and probably well-supported, but they are fixing the host automation to work in NKS so that you can't change anything; so this 20, 30 or whatever percent of my vi frames isn't moving me to it and I kind of hate it because of this.

I have a very manual workflow drawing and typing in automation values, hundreds of parameters, which is not supplantable with turning knobs anyway. Big non-starter, I don't care if it lives or dies. If it does die I'd love for SC to put out non-NKS versions again but that's a lot of products now.

[dune_rave]

Nks is good for finding specific preset. but i don't like to embed a wrapper, this is one more layer. the safest and easiest way to use your plugins directly.
so i will use komplete kontrol to find and audition sounds, but not to control them.

[Echoes in the Attic]

One thing I’ll add is that an nks keyboard paired with a touch screen just above it might be a good combo. Your buttons are on screen and you can actually just select a parameter page directly on the komplete kontrol software GUI which then selects that page on the hardware. Could be good. I think I saw someone doing that on a YouTube video, some music news channel, Robin something.

If it wasn’t for the fact that I really like Maschine and am already familiar with it, and the light guide functionality, I probably wouldn’t consider it as I’m just so annoyed by what NI is doing in general beside Maschine. I e sometimes thought I could do without komplete at this point but I have too many kontakt libraries to give up. And I’d miss Reaktor too.

[superscan]

NKS has been very useful to my workflow, but not using KK. I've found the most bang for my buck using Maschine. It will capture the ARP and Chords if those modes are enabled. I use Maschine as the curation portion and then load it all into Logic from there. Preset browsing, categorization all in the plus column. If KK could write the arp and Chords into Logic instead of single notes, that might change for me.

In terms of the long game, whomever figures out how to natively work with your daw, insert plug-ins, effects while having the "centralized" browser will win. Getting DAW's to open up to leveraging a standard is really the hurdle here. NI has done a great job at working with the table scraps. Just like MIDI, the right amount of adoption from the big guys and it will take off. If everything in the first sentence in this paragraph was available and you just had to pick a controller/keyboard I still think NI would have a large share of the business out there. Perhaps some sliders and more knobs to boot, but now I'm dreaming.

[Reefius]

If KK could write the arp and Chords into Logic instead of single notes, that might change for me.

It is possible to record the MIDI notes from the arp and chords from KK (at least in Ableton Live, don't know about Logic).

[Orbit-50]

...which is not supplantable...

Dude, can you stop that already?

[jbuonacc]

IDK but as an owner of an Maschine mk3, I am seriously considering selling it as the NKS support (or lack thereof) is seriously a burden on my OCD.

It's not an issue not having a standard mapping layout when I use another DAW but it REALLY bothers me when I use one with integrated hardware and some plugins are fully integrated where others aren't.

And the reality is I will never see the day when all the plugins I use are supported because I use some abandoned 32bit plugs

i use a number of "abandoned 32bit plugs" inside Maschine MK3 and KK using 'jBridge'.

[jancivil]

...which is not supplantable...

Dude, can you stop that already?

OK. Supersedable

it popped into my head, I self-edit so much really, I just went with it this time

[Local Man]

If KK could write the arp and Chords into Logic instead of single notes, that might change for me.

It is possible to record the MIDI notes from the arp and chords from KK (at least in Ableton Live, don't know about Logic).

You can't do that in Logic. It is a limitation of the AU format not Komplete Kontrol. AU does not support midi out.

Edit: I believe AU V3 supports midi out but nobody seems to use that for some reason.

[Orbit-50]

...which is not supplantable...

Dude, can you stop that already?

OK. Supersedable

it popped into my head, I self-edit so much really, I just went with it this time

I can't wait until IDG Books publishes "Jancivil for Dummies". Then I might be able to keep up with you.

[EvilDragon]

Also it's a dudette

[jancivil]

everybody's a dude to the young people, it appears
I remember once my friend and I in her care with this guy who worked on said car, Indian guy, peppering his remarks to her with '..., bro' and finally she objected after a lot of eye rolling, we were laughing hard by then

I thought after I wrote it supplantable doesn't sound that good actually, but whatever

[rod_zero]

The controllers need more controls, to me we live in the 8 knobs limit in controller hell

[acYm]

8 knobs is fine if it's well designed, i.e. kore
but you need instant access buttons for at least 8 sections, which is why NKS should never have left the drawing board
though I do believe 10 knobs would be better than 8, but remember that we know from kore that 8 quality knobs and buttons is $500, so a hypothetical 32 param surface would be really expensive.