Sad state of Native Instruments

[nightjar]

Looks fantastic in design and features!

I have already placed my pre-order for a S61!

[Echoes in the Attic]

So what's the deal with NKS2? Is it required for the new keyboards, or is an optional upgrade for developers to provide some new functionality? I assume existing NKS work just fine?

[EvilDragon]

Existing NKS works just fine, NKS2 is for mk3 keyboards only and is indeed opt in for developers to add it to their products.

[Echoes in the Attic]

Existing NKS works just fine, NKS2 is for mk3 keyboards only and is indeed opt in for developers to add it to their products.

Is there a list of NKS2 improvements over NKS?

[PieBerger]

Existing NKS works just fine, NKS2 is for mk3 keyboards only and is indeed opt in for developers to add it to their products.

Is there a list of NKS2 improvements over NKS?

2 is great than 1, what more do you need?!

[Old Norse]

Poly AT is most welcome, my trusty Ensoniq VFX is slowly dying, but is it now possible to easily disable the Light Guide?

[pdxindy]

Poly AT. As if they didn't already owned half of the masterkeyboard market with those things.

PolyAT makes me interested. But then I'm no longer using any NI plugins, so maybe not worth consideration.

Does using the keyboard as a simple PolyAT controller require the installation of any NI software?

[zerocrossing]

I’m so down with a new polyphonic aftertouch controller from NI. First, it will let me ditch my Hydrasynth, which I like more than I thought I would, but it’s really unnecessary for me as I can do what it does using software. More importantly, it means they are finally updating their software to recognize polyphonic aftertouch, and that totally puts them back into my top developers list. Exciting!

[VitaminD]

The screen looks nice maybe a sign of things to come with Maschine IV one day

[machinesworking]

Having the SL88 MKII I'm just happy that they're giving developers reasons to still code NKS in general. Maybe some of the Apple Silicon mess will get fixed.

[noiseboyuk]

Ach, still no great semi-weighted 88 note keyboard.

[EvilDragon]

Does using the keyboard as a simple PolyAT controller require the installation of any NI software?

You need Native Access to activate the bundled software and to install Hardware Connection Service, other than that no.

[nanostream]

„deep software integration, and polyphonic aftertouch“

This has to mean they’re updating Maschine to finally support aftertouch, right?

[EvilDragon]

Is there a list of NKS2 improvements over NKS?

OK lemme see if I can list it succintly:

* Direct page jumps as already mentioned
* There actually are no pages, you can just use left-right arrows to shift by parameter, it's a continuum (it's called parameter group now, not a page)
* There is a performance page that shows up by default (up to 16 parameters), then Edit button allows you subpages with deeper editing
* Controller pages can be generated by KSP from Kontakt, ergo they can be dynamic and contextual
* The above also means that the same parameter can be found on multiple parameter groups
* Parameters can show as a toggle switch (and the encoder changes its behavior so that switches are toggled way faster than was the case before), as just a value, as an enumerated list, as a unipolar or bipolar knob, or the two iconized special cases (waveforms and filter types). More icons will likely be coming in future updates.

I may have missed something but in a nutshell, these are the major departures from NKS1.

[menthol]

Existing NKS works just fine, NKS2 is for mk3 keyboards only and is indeed opt in for developers to add it to their products.

Is there a list of NKS2 improvements over NKS?

2 is great than 1, what more do you need?!

It's exactly twice as good, in fact.