[Poll] Best all-around product? You be the judge.

De Hutch

Well,

Based on the question: Satisfying everyone, plus innovative AND simplicity, the challenge would be more that complexity should be made easy to LEARN, and easy to USE, but....moreover also COMBINING products....

Now.... taking myself as an example, i am quite sure lots of others will have- or already had the same issue as what i am experiencing right now!

As my background is : Started as an organplayer, developed towards Arranger Workstation player, and since a couple of months entered the world of MIDI controlled playing... i think a lot of people with this background and my age exists and there you have the problem....the background of the people, and their age!

My entrance started with the buying of an KK S88 MK2... and i am very honest... i LOVE it! BUT...... for someone with my background, and used to have libraries.... making your own rithm, background, fill ins, intro's, endings etc... is something very new ..... i tried it, and the result is close to rubbish... I simply cannot find my way on the keys as a drum machine... distance, location, which one is where etc...is not an easy thing. Beside that the weighted keys of the S88 are actually not suited to drum with them. Actually i found out that the lighter the keys, the easier to drum with them! So in here you have a contradiction! It made me to decide to have the Maschine MK3 next to it... it is already ordered and will arrive today or tomorrow, because i do think that will help me quite well....

By the fact i am used to play "live" with the combination of a Maschine together with my S88 makes it possible to let the backing be played by the machine while i can play the lead on the S88...actually as an arraner would do too!

so....making a fully new instrument which serves both worlds, should have both instruments in one!

The weighted keys of the S88 to play are awesome....for songs.... but not for drumming, therefore the presence of the pads and functions of the Maschine is desired ..... Making a fully S88 with a fully Machine would be for me (and i think many others) THE perfect instrument....

Also a 76 keys instrument like above would attract a LOT of keyboard players to enter this world of midi controlled playing.

Robert13

I like the workflow of Maschine in combination with my Maschine MK3, Maschine Jam and Komplete S61 MK2.

But I miss a more advanced MIDI implementation for connecting external MIDI equiment, like an easy Program Change, CC0 and CC32. Midi VSTs implementation (like for Scaler, Hexcel and Melody Sauce).

More than 8 audio inputs.

tokenboomer

Kontakt of course. I have lots of other very fine instruments but Kontakt is the only one where I could compose an entire track without leaving it.

Enio Beatz

MASCHINE ❤️

Mavros

Maschine is the winner for me all-round but also suited for all experience levels. I often use it combined with Massive X.

Guitar rig is also very good and easy to use to get awesome guitar sound but it is what it is a guitar rig not an allround tool.

Kontakt was good but since version 7 it is buggy. For more than two years you cannot enter text in the main new browser search field on M1 Mac.

Komplete Kontrol and NKS seem very outdated on the interface side. Updates do not really seem to change anything in the clumsy interface and updates do not seem to be coordinated with official partners offering NKS functionality as most stopped working correctly for months and some never got their light guides back after the M1 related update. I stopped using it as plugin. What is needed and what in my opinion would increase the user group is an easy to use tool to make your own NKS light guides and button allocation for whatever library you want to play through KK. The resulting NKSF should preferentially be savable in the user library. Today the editor to make your own templates for midi modein the standalone version is a helpfull alternative but it lacks basic editing functionality starting with duplicate or  copy paste « and or « save as « 

Maxray

I'm going to say Komplete Kontrol, because it represents a system of simplicity in design. Bring all the power of a complete line of products into an innovative tool to simplify hardware needs. It's not what it is, but what it could be. Kontakt is a prime example, but not the precipes of innovation.

I read that article, it was all "blah, blah, blah...."! If you want to please all of your customers, identify a problem currently affecting the industry in a big way, use technology to engineer a solution to that problem, test it in multiple scenarios, see what you can do to improve that technology even further, make sure your selling point meets the design of that technology and always provide support! You will then fill the needs of all your customer base.

There is no sense in making products that are going to be irrelevant in the next few years or months... make products that will be relevant for the next ten years! Even if competitors come on the stage in the following years, your product will still be relevant, because it was the first and it was made well. Look at the plugins that are purchased the most, they are renditions of hardware made decades ago. At the time, those products were relevant, enough that people want them again today.

Make products that are going to take us into the future, not dwelling in the past. We have enough of those and will continue to appreciate them, but we've entered the period where the new artists are on the same level as the experienced artists. We like smaller form factors that do big things in an easy way with lots of options to add new flavors.

Itchygash

Gotta be maschine, workflow is easy although patterns, scenes and clips can be quite confusing but like inception ain't it?

Milos

In my opinion, I have couple of them:

When it comes to the effects: Guitar Rig (obviously)

Not only you can play with the effects, but with the amazing plugins from the Tools section, you can make over 1000000 different Fx racks for sound design, music and voice acting!

And not only that, but you can also even use the effects from Modify to shape the certain effect at the certain time, just like with automation, which can grant you bonus 100000 sound effects!

But for the instruments and sampling, I would go with Kontakt, because it is much more stable and more creative than Komplete Kontrol.

In Kontakt, you can play multiple sounds from multiple instruments at the same time, unlike in Komplete.

In Kontakt, you can easily separate multiple audios and even MIDI channels, unlike in Komplete.

In Kontakt, you can easily figure out where to go and where to find the right instrument for you, unlike in Komplete.

In conclusion: Komplete Kontrol is Steven He, while Kontakt is Timmy, Steven He's cousin (because it is much better) (you get the meme)

I respect people who use Komplete Kontrol tho.(no hard feelings)

abnegative

Thank you for the undo/redo buttons on Guitar Rig!

tetsuneko

Best middleground product? That'd be Kontakt. Best overall though is Reaktor, hands down.

Milos

What do you like about Reaktor that made you name it the best product for you,@tetsuneko ?

Just asking, bro.

tetsuneko

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/130350#Comment_130350

Well, you can basically use Reaktor to create all the other NI instruments. It is easily the most powerful piece of software in the entire NI product portfolio. Not saying its the most useful product in the NI lineup for my music, that'd be Maschine+, but its the product that separates NI from the competition IMO

Milos

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/130383#Comment_130383

Your reason...is logical.(ShockWave reference)

Great!

For me, the reason why Kontakt is the best NI product is because unlike many other NI products, you can layer multiple instruments and MIDI channels to create some catchy and epic melodies!

You can even layer multiple drum kits!

Not just multiple and different snare sounds (just like Slipknot does).

Multiple kits!

And with the effects and multiple master output channels from the Outputs, you can push the creativity even further and at the same time mix the drum kits easier and more properly!

I still respect your personal choice of a favorite product tho, @tetsuneko!

I wish you the best in your music career!

tetsuneko

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/130387#Comment_130387

Ahh, so you are using Kontakt like the workstations of old, maxxing the multitimbrality, layers and splits.. Yeah, that's powerful stuff too