KVR Audio

DrGonzo · Post by **DrGonzo** » Wed Jan 30, 2019 5:58 pm

I've been looking at the new SL master keyboards since they came out and they sure are itching my GAS in a very tempting way. I already have a bunch of master keyboards from NI - and while I really like them, I find the central-hub idea of the new SLs to be very appealing.

Anyone who has one? What's your experience with it? What do you / don't like?

I heard the manual/documentation is a disaster, but I usually don't have a problem with those things.

/C

Echoes in the Attic · Post by **Echoes in the Attic** » Wed Jan 30, 2019 6:28 pm

The SL keyboards keep losing things since the first one. First, one of the screens went away. I hoped it would come back in a later edition (meanwhile color screens are getting added to other controllers, still bus powered). And then in MKIII, they also lose 8 knobs. Maybe with mkIV they will lose the sliders and buttons and it will basically be a komplete kontrol keyboard?

What the hell is wrong with these people. We don't want 20 pages of controls for a plugin. 16 knobs and 8 sliders is a good amount. Stop removing shit.

pdxindy · Post by **pdxindy** » Wed Jan 30, 2019 6:31 pm

Yeah... It was disappointing to learn it went backwards

chk071 · Post by **chk071** » Wed Jan 30, 2019 6:39 pm

Echoes in the Attic wrote: Wed Jan 30, 2019 6:28 pm What the hell is wrong with these people. We don't want 20 pages of controls for a plugin. 16 knobs and 8 sliders is a good amount. Stop removing shit.

Amen.

Guess they always want to cut down on production costs.

david.beholder · Post by **david.beholder** » Wed Jan 30, 2019 7:58 pm

Quite disappointing and I have plenty of novation gear at home.
Keybed is not from Fatar and have no aftertouch.
No pots only encoders.
Too expensive if you don't use CV/Gate.
It's basically not Remote but Launch Control with parts from Circut.

DrGonzo · Post by **DrGonzo** » Wed Jan 30, 2019 8:49 pm

Ouch! Seems they are not too popular around here.

/C

chaosWyrM · Post by **chaosWyrM** » Wed Jan 30, 2019 11:15 pm

yeah.

i was very disappointed to say the least. as others have said...its a few steps backwards. i dont think it even supports automap anymore.

i think its a nice controller, but...seems like it should be its own line and not part of the sl series.....this is not a continuation of those controllers, and doesnt really offer much in way of an "upgrade" to the new version.

DrGonzo · Post by **DrGonzo** » Thu Jan 31, 2019 10:35 am

It seems they took some inspiration from the Native Instruments keyboard line. When they got released everybody was annoyed that they only had 8 knobs. But they seem to sell just fine. So maybe Novation took a look at them and said we can do better than that.

Just guessing of course.

Yeah - I also see them as a different species than the old Remote SL line. Automap gone? Good riddance IMO. That just caused me troubles.

Anyway. My GAS got cured after I recognised that you have to already muck about chaining patterns if you want to make something longer than 16 steps.

In either case. It still looks like a cool concept.

/C

chk071 · Post by **chk071** » Thu Jan 31, 2019 11:05 am

chaosWyrM wrote: Wed Jan 30, 2019 11:15 pm i dont think it even supports automap anymore.

Well, that's a big plus, because Automap sucks hard.

chaosWyrM · Post by **chaosWyrM** » Thu Jan 31, 2019 2:56 pm

chk071 wrote: Thu Jan 31, 2019 11:05 am
chaosWyrM wrote: Wed Jan 30, 2019 11:15 pm i dont think it even supports automap anymore.
Well, that's a big plus, because Automap sucks hard.

no it doesnt. its pretty good actually.

besides, how is NOT having a feature a plus? ok fine...YOU think is sucks hard, but lots of people use it. having a feature you dont want to use has no effect on anything. dont like it? dont use it.

but NOT having that feature...a feature that was a main part of the device, that people have come to rely on, is a slap in the face to current users. it effectively makes the thing incompatible with old projects and any vst thats been automapped.

again...as a user of an sl mk2...what incentive is there to "upgrade" to mk3? absolutely none really. and i probably would have if this was an advancement, but it isnt.

chk071 · Post by **chk071** » Thu Jan 31, 2019 7:16 pm

If the feature is buggy (crashes a lot here, and it doesn't even work on non-admin accounts on Windows), obsolete (plugin wrappers are a very bad solution in general, and Novation doesn't even provide Automap HUI mapping for more current DAW's, like Studio One 4, or Cubase 10), and unsupported (none of the current generation of Novation controllers even supports Automap, except the Impule controller), then, yes, it is a plus not to have such a feature at all.

Novation doesn't seem to be convinced of it anyway, otherwise their newer controllers would support Automap. For me, it's obsolete tech. Same goes for plugin wrapper. It would be much better if controllers had some kind of soft switch, to change the MIDI CC's of the control elements. The thing is, they want to make it as easy as possible for the customer, but, it isn't easy and comfortable at all, because you have fiddle with third party software, when you could just do what you do in the DAW. I've had several controllers now, from M-Audio, Novation and Arturia. None of them had a satisfying solution for learning and mapping software controls (the worst was M-Audio though, with their Direct Link stuff, which is even more obsolete than Automap, because they provided support for DAW's generation Reason 5 at best.).

krankyone · Post by **krankyone** » Fri Feb 08, 2019 6:11 pm

Just got the SL Mkiii this week. It was replacing my Novation Impulse.

First, about Automap. I tried using it with the Impulse (one of the reasons I originally got it). Hated it and eventually stopped trying to get it to work. It worked, but never seamlessly. Glad they didn't keep it.

My choices for a replacement were the Komplete Kontrol S61 MK 2 and the Keylab MK2. The KK looks very cool, but I'm an Ableton Live guy, and I didn't like the poor integration with Live. The Keylab looked better, plus I like Analog Lab, but everything looked good, except for the 1980's tiny display. What were they thinking? Trying to control multiple devices in Live without good visual feedback is a waste of time. The displays on the MKiii are great, even more readable than Push 2. Not sure why they went with 5 small ones instead of one big one, but so far I like the displays a lot.

I like the hardware on the MKiii a lot. Actually, I love everything about it a lot except for aftertouch. My Impulse had a very different feel between the white keys and black keys as far as aftertouch. Not a deal breaker, just annoying. The Mkiii has the same problem, admittedly improved in the MKiii, but still there. Again, not a deal breaker. The actual keybed is much improved over the Impulse. Other than that, no regrets.

I'm keeping it!

DrGonzo · Post by **DrGonzo** » Fri Feb 08, 2019 6:23 pm

What really bums me out is that you have to fiddle around with chaining patterns if you want to do something more than 16 steps. How do you deal with that?

/C

Mister Natural · Post by **Mister Natural** » Fri Feb 08, 2019 7:02 pm

I'm never getting rid of my mk I 61 model. I use very little of the knobs and pads, the sliders just a bit for levels in LIVE.
For me; it's the feel of the keybed that I can't live without

best of luck

marcora · Post by **marcora** » Sat Feb 09, 2019 12:41 am

In addition to the limitations of the sequencer in terms of number of patterns and steps per pattern, I am baffled by the fact that there are only two pages of controllers (for the knobs, faders and button) that can be access using the up/down arrow buttons. There should be unlimited number of pages available, as in NI Maschine or Komplete Kontrol. MIDI information and controller mappings don't take Gb of memory to store on the device. While hardware limitations are understandable, software-imposed limitations like this one are hard to swallow at this price point.

Novation SL MK3 - The Itch! What do you say?