Ask me anything: Kontrol S-Series MK3

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  • Matthew_NI
    Matthew_NI Product Team Posts: 1,401 mod
  • nightjar
    nightjar Member Posts: 1,322 Guru

    Will the new UI for KK software bring any of the new visuals of NKS 2 to the desktop? The standardized dimensions and visual clarity of parameters and their grouping would be wonderful to see "up top".

    Spread the NKS 2 love!

  • Matthew_NI
    Matthew_NI Product Team Posts: 1,401 mod

    Indefinitely.

    I can't share proprietary commercial data, but even if we wanted to (which we don't, because sustainability, e-waste, caring for our customers, etc), it would be a poor business decision, as we have a significant number of Kontrol S MK2 users who continue to use, and buy NKS 1 content, both of which are still supported.

  • Matthew_NI
    Matthew_NI Product Team Posts: 1,401 mod


    We also believe in accessibility, and think every feature should be accessible.

  • Matthew_NI
    Matthew_NI Product Team Posts: 1,401 mod

    To start in reverse order, we do listen to customers. I want to be very clear that listening to customers is not ever, nor should ever, be the same thing as implementing every single feature exactly as requested. You may not always like a particular product decision, but we have to strike what we see as a healthy balance. Rarely does the shepherd of such an approach end up with a cohesive product. In making it "right" for everyone, you can easily make it "wrong" for everyone, as it's too diluted, convoluted, etc.

    Regarding MIDI 2, I answered this earlier in the thread. But we're primed to take advantage of all it as to offer, as soon as the OS, DAWs and content manufacturers do too (which they are in the process of doing).

    I've also touched on this elsewhere, but it is not possible to port the direct connection to Kontakt 7 to the Kontrol S MK2. It's built on a the standalone tech stack only MK3 has. I don't believe it was every promised, at least it certainly should not have been.

    Regarding the capacitive knobs - we will continue to make improvements, but that may not be one of them.

    MPE - yes this is likely at some point.

    And to the first question... X/Y pads. To be fully transparent, this is a fantastic request and one I wish we'd been able to accommodate sooner. We encountered some engineering challenges specific to this feature, and it didn't make it in. Perhaps on future revisions, but not on MK3.

  • nightjar
    nightjar Member Posts: 1,322 Guru

    My vote is for more Direct Connection for more products please!

  • Matthew_NI
    Matthew_NI Product Team Posts: 1,401 mod

    NKS 2 is so, so much more than that. Check my earlier post (one of the first AMA responses): https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/95118/#Comment_95118

    Kontrol S MK2 is still supported.

  • Matthew_NI
    Matthew_NI Product Team Posts: 1,401 mod

    Agreed - this is something we hope to do at some point as we continue to revise the NKS SDK.

  • nightjar
    nightjar Member Posts: 1,322 Guru

    Can you tell us a bit about this internal computer? The processor and operating system?

  • Matthew_NI
    Matthew_NI Product Team Posts: 1,401 mod

    No, and there's no plans at the minute to allow this.

    However, it's a bit chicken, egg, road, whichever came or crossed first or whatever. Great idea!!! People haven't really requested it. As soon as we announced this new keyboard, which has directly integrated support for Kontakt 7 multis, it sparked a lot of follow on requests for such layering in non Kontakt settings.

    Completely understandable. Would probably stay as an intriguing yet low priority request unless we hear otherwise en masse, at which point we'd lay the proverbial egg, cross the rubicon, and get it done.

  • Matthew_NI
    Matthew_NI Product Team Posts: 1,401 mod

    I find these threads a like:

    NATIVE INSTRUMENTS: it starts on the 18th!!

    Everyone: does not read this.

    I jest of course. I'm terrible at skim reading, I do it all the time. All good. Nice to have you here!

    I am looking forward to going on vacation though, once the keyboard ships, and the post launch stuff I've talked about is underway.

  • Matthew_NI
    Matthew_NI Product Team Posts: 1,401 mod

    No faders may not be the buy for you, but it is the buy for others. Such a feature is quite a binary (and apparently, polarizing) consideration. Some people were asking for faders, but not all, and not enough to warrant the inclusion (and associated increased in cost, weight, complexity, and so on). I absolutely understand why people that want faders, want them. I have film composer friends who say the same as you. Then I have other film composer friends who say quite the opposite. Time is a flat circle.

    Furthermore, I appreciate the sentiment, but I'd encourage anyone to take a stab at things considered easy to add, or easy to do, before drawing a conclusion. It would be hard and expensive to do motorized faders well, to our standards. It would sell in limited numbers. Maybe we'll do it one day, but this isn't that day. Plus, if it isn't a motorized, I'll offer an opinion that I don't believe it to be useful. To be useful, a control needs to follow the state of the parameter, otherwise you get out of sync.

    Regarding the Fatar keybeds - they're massively improved. I don't think the MK2 keybeds were bad by any stretch, but as a keyboard player myself I totally get the plethora of thoughts and feelings with regards to the entire Fatar lineup. If and when we add faders, and this becomes the product for you, I'll hope you enjoy the new keybeds!

  • chadmtl
    chadmtl Member Posts: 10 Member
    edited September 2023


    You know what? It's weird to let questions build up for a week. That's not really how normal forums work. You said you were busy, but honestly, 15 minutes a day would have been all it would have taken.

    I'd let it slide other than I've now waited a week, and you just breezed over the question I've actually been waiting for (about FL Studio's new integration), I'm going to give you some feedback.

    I assumed you would operate this like a normal AMA, but given how famously bad NI customer support is, and how well known you all are for abandoning this community usually letting regular users give incomplete and often wrong answers, I really should have known there would have been something weird about your AMA.

    But my irritation is really that you're answering posts like this, and others that don't have an answer while ignoring actual questions that you, oddly, made us wait a week to find out were going to get ignored.

  • Matthew_NI
    Matthew_NI Product Team Posts: 1,401 mod

    Not at this time. That team are working on some other stuff for now. Bringing Massive and Massive X to NKS 2 for instance.

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