I can see this changing in the near future, possibly with the upcoming integration between the Kontrol S keyboards and Maschine, which NI says will come with version 2.2 of Maschine. When playing the Kontrol S as a regular MIDI keyboard, the buttons just go dark. There's another factor that leads me to describe the performance section as deceptive, and that's because at the time of this review, the scale and arp engines can only be used when controlling the instruments within the Komplete Kontrol software. My favorite aspect is its ability to retain the velocity of played notes within the arpeggiated sequence and even alter the velocity spread to increase or decrease the human touch. The arpeggiator module is even more powerful, with eight parameters allowing you to shape very dynamic and expressive sounding arps. You can even configure one-finger chords, a feature that could be handy for producers still working on their piano chops. The former is where you can configure the keyboard to only play the right notes, so to speak. I mean that primarily in a good way-it hides a powerful set of tools under an unassuming pair of buttons that activate and control the scale and arpeggiator modules within Komplete Kontrol. The performance section off to the left of the device knobs is probably the most deceptive piece of the Kontrol S. It would be nice to be able to place specific parameters next to each other for performance reasons, rather than having to navigate back and forth through multiple pages of possible parameters. The downside is that you can't override these automatic mappings yet-hopefully that's coming in the near future. When you load a Komplete instrument within Komplete Kontrol, the knobs of the Kontrol S keyboard are automatically mapped without any user intervention required. While I would have liked to see a finer level of resolution here, the Kontrol S's displays are still an exponential jump from the original Kore hardware. Here you'll find eight touch-sensitive knobs, each with a nice OLED-style display beneath. The one that draws the eyes immediately is the large device control section in the middle of the controller. Moving up from the keyboard you'll find (from left to right) the performance and transport section, the device control knobs and the browse section. This can serve as a helpful reminder of the key of a previously recorded MIDI take. When playing back notes from a DAW to Komplete Kontrol, the Light Guide flashes to indicate the incoming notes-probably the Light Guide feature I found most useful. For more custom needs, the Light Guide can be configured programmatically within Reaktor and Kontakt, or within the controller editor for MIDI templates. This can serve as a helpful guide for instruments like Battery that house a huge amount of individual sounds spread across a keyboard, or for Kontakt instruments that feature multiple instruments in a split keyboard configuration. These send what you'd expect them to-pitchbend and mod-by default, but they can be configured with gravity or elasticity to add life to your performance.Ī somewhat unexpected feature on the Kontrol S keyboards is the multicolored light that sits above every key, which NI calls the Light Guide. A pair of LED-edged touch strips sits off to the left of the keyboard, where typically you'd find the pitchbend and modwheel. The responsiveness and velocity accuracy was probably the best of any MIDI controller that I've tested. The keybed is a Fatar semi-weighted model with aftertouch, and it feels very impressive from the get-go. There are three keyboards available, differentiated only by the number of keys: the S25, S49, and S61. I was curious to dig in and find out what Native Instruments' vision was this time around. This rightfully led many to begin drawing comparisons with Kore, even though it was made clear that Komplete Kontrol is a completely new product, with no built-in compatibility for Kore libraries or hardware. This made it surprising when, this September, Native Instruments announced the Kontrol S keybord series, a set of MIDI controllers designed to browse, play and control the Komplete instruments with the help of an integrated software environment called Komplete Kontrol. For reasons that remain unclear, Native Instruments retired the Kore ecosystem in 2011. Kore could browse and search the Komplete library, making it a key tool for many producers, myself included. For many, the answer to this was Kore, NI's now-retired modular audio environment with its integrated hardware. Getting your arms around all of this content when it comes time to actually make some music can be intimidating. The latest incarnation of the flagship music production collection, Komplete 10, offers 12,000 unique sounds across 39 different products. With a package as large as Native Instruments Komplete, it can be easy to get lost.
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