Ask me anything: Kontrol S-Series MK3

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  • Matthew_NI
    Matthew_NI Product Team Posts: 1,401 mod

    Installed base - past and present tense, absolutely. That doesn't go away quickly, nor would we want it to.

    There seems to be a clear distinction between users who see KK as a pivotal and central librarian of their collections (this is certainly how I use it) and users who see it as an inconvenience they want to side step.

    Doing both is an option as well, albeit more involved. We'll definitely return to this topic in the months ahead. Partners are already asking about access to Direct Connection, as are users.

  • Matthew_NI
    Matthew_NI Product Team Posts: 1,401 mod

    I think we should. And I say that as someone who can and will simultaneously point our users to the updates we have done for Maschine (I'm not shy about pushing back on assertions it's abandoned or unsupported, because I see the annual support and maintenance investments), whilst also acknowledging that even in a world of many users, many needs, and an inability to satisfy all at once, it's true that we could do more, and that we plan to.

    As I've said earlier in the AMA, VST3 and Polyphonic Aftertouch for M+ are features we plan to bring to beta and then public release hopefully by the end of this year.

  • ALDREAD
    ALDREAD Member Posts: 107 Advisor

    @Matthew_NI

    could nks and the kk 3 support hardware synths , ie , setup a synth definition containing the encoder cc set up and a patch list using PC , bank select etc , so you could browse patches from the kk3

  • Keith Cocker
    Keith Cocker Member Posts: 130 Advisor

    Thanks Matthew - Support Tickets I have raised include Numbers 3583238; 3616181 ; #3634167; All of them have been picked up by your colleagues and acknowledged as a problem with NKS on non Contact instruments - eg Spitfire - but no solutions have been forthcoming.

  • Matthew_NI
    Matthew_NI Product Team Posts: 1,401 mod

    Both are indeed notable partners.

    uHe in particular have been wonderfully collaborative, and their team is extremely dedicated, detail oriented and phenomenally impressive at what they do. Anyone who doesn't own their products absolutely should. Urs and I have talked about CLAP. We also met with Bitwig a few times this year to talk shop. Of course it is possible. They're doing some great work. It is not planned yet but we're not closed off to the idea. Partners tend to want to support one another in that regard. Such a decision is larger than say, Komplete Kontrol, or my immediate world per se, as it would imply support for CLAP across the entire organization, representing hundreds of plug-ins. B

    Leaving dignity and self-respect aside for a second (I'm not claiming to have any, but also... ouch), it's fair to say I've clarified what I can in the context of a Kontrol S MK3 focused AMA, and that I think to continue doing such events, some with a focus on Maschine, would be more fantastic and productive than it would belligerent. At the end of the day, I can say Maschine is still supported, but talk is cheap, and there's clearly a disconnect whereby the actions aren't substantive in the estimation of some. What is true: we've updated Maschine software several times in the last year, including support for VST3 and Apple Silicon, and continued to fix bugs. And when we look into new features and improvements, we immediately hear about 100 different suggestions, many of which are good, not all of which we can do at once. TL:DR yeah let's have a larger Maschine conversation later this year and lurk in the forums in the meantime.

  • Matthew_NI
    Matthew_NI Product Team Posts: 1,401 mod

    Spitfire are currently updating their NKS implementation. It was quite dated so I hope that helps - it will certainly help some issues we've seen reported. I'll take a look at the ticket numbers tomorrow.

  • Matthew_NI
    Matthew_NI Product Team Posts: 1,401 mod

    That's a really interesting idea!

    There's nothing stopping us other than priority and time. Certainly, we'll start with implementing MIDI template management (this is how you'd save the map for a particular product).

    But other steps that would need to happen to unlock this include making it possible to transmit MIDI simultaneously over DIN and USB-C (currently either/or) and establishing a paradigm for template organization and browsing within the KK flow.

  • Max Trau
    Max Trau Member Posts: 39 Member

    I still don't get why you chosed to make the new keyboards integreated with every major daw out there for all the basic functions (transport, undo/redo, tracks selection, mixing functions...) and absolutely no integration whatsover with Maschine.

    I mean, given the few videos i watched, integration with Cubase or Live seems to wrok pretty well. You tell us you chosed to ditch the integration in maschine due to the low numbers of users of KK Mk2 keyboards using it, but still allocate resources to make the mk3 keyboard work with every single of your competitors on the sequencer market ?

    I understand that the specific integration (selecting scenes, editing patterns...) could be a waste of resources, but it seems you didn't even tried to make a basic integration. I'm a bit worried about the future of maschine, given this context.

    Sorry for going off-topic a bit, but my whole workflow and artistic project revolves around maschine. (wich is a great, yet improveable, software).

    Thanks

  • Matthew_NI
    Matthew_NI Product Team Posts: 1,401 mod

    That is not actually what I've clarified in more detail elsewhere.

    We use a revised and significantly improved version of the TP9 and TP100. It feels much, much different to the MK2 keybeds, and the build quality control is much higher as well (we flew back and forth to Italy, Tunisia and China for endless calibration and quality assurance sign offs until we were happy). It's analogous to car manufacturers. The models differ from model year to year (e.g. 2018 vs 2023) but see continued improvement and refinement each year.

    If our transparency here isn't enough, I'm not exactly sure what additional proof would satisfy, beyond proprietary and confidential documentation I'm unable to release. I'm proud of the new product, confident in our testing, and have nothing to prove about it. But I understand why you'd be skeptical after having had the experience you've had.

  • Matthew_NI
    Matthew_NI Product Team Posts: 1,401 mod

    This isn't a policy we have, as we have the aforementioned repair policies in place, and I'm also not in Customer Support or Marketing, but I can at least raise this with them. Of little comfort, but true nonetheless: a vast majority of users have never seen such issues.

  • Matthew_NI
    Matthew_NI Product Team Posts: 1,401 mod
  • gbrown44
    gbrown44 Member Posts: 11 Member

    Everything about looks slick and refined. Weighted keys is a plus and the new screen looks awesome from where I sit. Would love to have 1.

  • Matthew_NI
    Matthew_NI Product Team Posts: 1,401 mod

    This is pretty much the gist, yes.

    What's interesting to me is to see people point to products with non motorized faders. To each their own, but time and time again, we observe those with such faders to be frustrated by, and infrequently use them. To have them always out of sync, jump to erroneous values upon touch, and otherwise ignore automation is problematic.

    To have motorized faders is fantastic for some, but overkill for most.

  • Matthew_NI
    Matthew_NI Product Team Posts: 1,401 mod

    This is unfortunate, and easily explained. No one needs to be fired, it appears to be an honest mistake by whomsoever you purchased it from. A terrible experience for you, but not one that was supposed to happen. We have had one retailer ship a few keyboards early and are trying to chase that down.

    The keyboard is weeks away from being permitted to ship and should never have been released to you. None of the necessary and compatible software has been publicly released, nor are those URLs intended to be live yet, the user guide is being written at the moment, etc.

    Anyone with pre-release access has special beta builds provided directly to them.

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