Ask me anything: Kontrol S-Series MK3

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  • BIF
    BIF Member Posts: 956 Guru
    https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/96278#Comment_96278

    R_E_D wrote: "...but a touchscreen would have made sense - to at least be able to search for presets."

    I get you. But I also have a Roland Fantom, and an old Korg Triton, both of which have touch screens. They just get snoggled up, slippery, and nasty looking by being touched (even when I've washed my hands!), so I have subconsciously shifted to using knobs and buttons for most operations and only using the touch screens when I need to do something that would be difficult or impossible to do with the discrete controls on those instruments. The Triton works with fingers OR a stylus, so that can also help reduce the goo. The Fantom won't respond to a stylus. But at least it lets you use cursor buttons to move to and fro in any preset lists. The Korg also has a jog-wheel for that purpose. Both are better than having a touch screen getting all slobbered up by all the touching.

    Oh, and God forbid if you ever have to use somebody ELSE's slobbered up touch screen! At least keyboards are too big to take into the restroom with you, so they "might" be slightly more sanitary than the screens on the average smart phone! 🤢

    One time, many years ago, I was on a jury in a personal injury case. The jury kind of became besties during the time of the trial. One of my fellow jurors handed me her phone and said "say hi". When I was done, I handed her phone back to her, and I noticed that the face of it was all smeared up with her makeup and other "substances". I liked my fellow jurors; it was a tough case and some of us bonded over it. But as soon as we all parted ways that day, I went back into a nearby coffee shop to get some napkins to wash my face with! Bleagh!

    At least nobody puts their face on music instrument touch screens. I hope!

    "Looking forward to see how the instrument develops, there's certainly a lot of potential for growth."

    Me too; on this we agree!

  • ham2065
    ham2065 Member Posts: 13 Member
    edited September 2023
    https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/96042#Comment_96042

    Hi BIF maybe I should have worded this differently. The Midi 2.0 standard was published in June 2023 and is what all companies will be working with. But the way companies implement Midi 2.0 could vary significantly. From the Specification:

    1.2.2 Minimum Requirements of MIDI 2.0 There are two distinct paths for Devices to achieve the minimum requirements to MIDI 2.0 compliance. Devices must implement MIDI Capability Inquiry (MIDI-CI) [MA02] plus some other defined features and/or implement the Universal MIDI Packet (UMP) [MA05] plus some other defined features.

    So even the minimum requirements will be implemented differently. Then how do 2 machines from different manufacturers work together. If they do property exchange then what follows after that? Do they update their displays to show the properties of the device at the other end. NKS does this for us which is good. But there may end up being completing implementations of Midi 2.0 and some winners and some losers.

    Maybe NKS2 works by using some of the features of Midi 2.0 under the hood.

  • thronechild
    thronechild Member Posts: 14 Member

    Not sure my questions went through. I have some questions on midi controlling 3rd party hardware/software, not DAWs. 

    Day 1 launch, If I read right, If used as a generic midi controller, I understand the mk3 will only send midi on USB C, unless that is physically unplugged from the device and the mk3 is powered by the wall and a midi cable is plugged in? There is no option on the mk3 to select the midi output instead of USB? or Can we leave both Midi Din and USB plugged in and switch without unplugging something?

  • thronechild
    thronechild Member Posts: 14 Member

    Is there only one lane of midi sent over USB or are there multiple 16 channel lanes? Mk2 appeared to have a few different names in its ins/outs in midi settings, never figured out the difference of each. 

    On Day 1, If you are running KK software, will we be able to specify if midi is running to USB/DIN or both in the config settings? If not is this planned?

  • thronechild
    thronechild Member Posts: 14 Member

    On Day 1 midi controller template is limited to 1 device with two pages and 16 knobs, is that correct? But that will be expanded down the road to allow device profiles and additional parameter pages? Will that be able to be setup from the mk3 device or only on the computer? 

    Generally are we able to change midi channel for either USB or Midi Din and knob cc assignments and/or knob names from the mk3 when used as a generic midi controller, or only from software?

  • thronechild
    thronechild Member Posts: 14 Member

    Are we able to filter midi input/output channels in the settings? 

    On Day 1, with KK running, are we going to be able to see all midi devices recognized by the computer and have the ability in settings to enable/disable midi input and output? Which would allow us to send midi data to multiple destinations or receive from multiple destinations. 

    Will keyzones/light guide/switches/scales/Arp/smart play functions be available to the midi controller templates eventually?

  • thronechild
    thronechild Member Posts: 14 Member

    I see a + button in your screenshots for the Kontrol software, are we able to setup instrument layers, or is that only for adding effects? Same question, will kontakt can layer instruments, and is this able to be done from the mk3 with all configurations for midi channel etc from the mk3?

  • Super8boy
    Super8boy Member Posts: 85 Helper

    On the back of this question, any plans to improve the effects controlling?

    for instance if is currently impossible to record automation of effects plugins via native Kontrol as they are loaded on the back of the instrument.

    with izotope and brainworx, it would make all the more sense fx workflows are improved.

    also return tracks can be an issue in the same way. What is the design strategy around this?

    thanks

  • Rob Gray
    Rob Gray Member Posts: 54 Member

    Was there ever any discussion of a small version of these with no keyboard? That would actually be my preference, as I enjoy the screen/knobs for the browsing and control experience but don’t need the attached keyboard (or drum pads of Maschine) placing me in an odd no man’s land in the product line. Was this researched and not enough people were interested?

  • Duffcat
    Duffcat Member Posts: 43 Helper
    https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/96416#Comment_96416

    It has been asked by many users but NI so far decided that they are not going to do that. I’d also be interested in an iPad version.

  • mmk_music
    mmk_music Member Posts: 40 Member
    https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/95118#Comment_95118

    Can you clarify this:

    "The new keyboard supports VST3 ParameterInfo. This means that any (correctly implemented) VST3 exposes a limited amount (less than NKS2, but still good) of enriched parameter metadata, which we're then able to translate into relevant UI (e.g. a toggle is a toggle). As such, even non NKS VST3 products will look better on this keyboard, as we're trying to make things as open and as fluid as possible."

    Does this mean that when we open non-NKS VST3 instruments inside of KK3, we can automatically see parameter info on the keyboard?

  • Calaban
    Calaban Member Posts: 2 Member
    https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/95679#Comment_95679

    This is great news! Thank you!

  • Super8boy
    Super8boy Member Posts: 85 Helper
    https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/96416#Comment_96416

    I don’t know. I can see the point of a 37 key version for instance but the absence of light guides would defeat the purpose a bit in many user cases

  • Chris_NI
    Chris_NI Product Team Posts: 53 mod
    https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/96201#Comment_96201

    Hi thanks for the feedback, and sharing your own touchscreen car experience.

    What you mentioned with the speed of browsing; we did make significant improvements in the new browser on the MK3. If you hold SHIFT while twisting the knobs you are scrolling 7x faster. We are also looking into grouping this by letters as well, as we are constantly looking for ways to improve the UX.

    RE: Faders; It is also not our goal to compensate not having real faders via a touchscreen, as we never intended this to be the best mixing keyboard, as the focus is on being the best instrument experience that you can get with a keyboard. We do have basic mixing capabilities via the knobs in your DAWs, but this is only intended for quick volume adjustments, not doing a full project mix.

    We do incorporate customer feedback at all phases of the product development process, from early ideation to in-market improvements via our beta community, all decisions made are the outcome of the feedback when considering the overall experience for the majority of customers.

    I hope that answers at least some of your questions.

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