Just received the MK3 keyboard - Feedback

Wiseguy2006

Wow. I was so close to purchasing one of these Kontrol mK3’s yesterday - despite not being satisfied with its level of upgrade over the MK2 (and lack of Maschine integration).

But after hearing a couple of my colleagues who have not recommended the new Kontrol when I was going to purchase it yesterday and now reading this thread - WHOA. This is serious and beyond the typical bugs to worked out in a new release. NI - how are you going to address these issues, the apparent lack of communication/response times with users and the overall adjustment in confident in your company to “deliver”? That’s a high price point to lower confidence in your customers on. There’s a point where people eventually turn away to other options. I’m very surprised to hear how widespread these issues are. I can’t purchase this product without an entirely different level of confidence.

xgman1

wise, I'm asking the same questions. not sure why this doesn't seem to bother more people, but I guess some just use it as the most basic midi controller and don't expect much more. I'm kinda resigned to it at this point. It is a nice build and does basic things sorta fine.

BIF

@Wiseguy2006 and @xgman1

We get you both on your concerns. And the NI people understand it too. If you need to make a purchase decision fast, then you may indeed wish to look elsewhere. But if you have time or don't need to make a decision immediately, it would be harmless to wait and see what the NI team is able to do in the coming months.

Whatever you decide, happy new year and the best of luck to both of you!

bruman

Great start... after waiting all day for NI to get back up. My update fails error-2 on my Kontrol S61 mk3. What an awful first impression. Any idea how to fix an update error-2 issues? Ive tried restarting about 6 times now.

PoorFellow

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/127888#Comment_127888

You might as well contact product support right away , while including more information than you did here.

bruman

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/127917#Comment_127917

I reached out to Sweetwater support and they determined the board is defective. A replacement will be here Thursday (fingers crossed)

trusampler

I just bought a MK3 S88 as well for the studio, had the same hoops to jump through as the rest. One thing NI should do at least on Windows CPU's is just make the USB Driver available on their website for download without the need to run Native Access etc.. Just keep it simple, and if you're dead set on using Native Access, at least explain to your customers, that it is necessary to manually install the USB driver.

Native Instruments just doesn't get actions/keybeds. I don't care that it's a fatar, it's another TP/100 garbage heavier in the wrong way keybed. It's not natural feeling at all, next to my Montage M8X it's really terrible. Even the Korg D1 uses their top of the line Korg Kronos/ Grandstage RH3 action. Native Instruments, is just greedy to not put a better action/keybed in their controllers.

As far as the software, then this is a whole other debacle, whoever thinks this workflow is streamlining or better, is insane. The Komplete Kontrol plugin scanner, still cannot process and scan plugins fast. This is a minimum 2 hour ordeal, you literally need a day to set it up. I could see if it was a great workflow, and great feeling action to go along with it, but people could have made complete songs in the time it takes to really get going with this set up.

The screen is amazing, the knobs are too lose for any serious sound design/Performance.

NI really has changed so much over the years, getting millions of dollars clearly ruined your company.You need to get rid of the Weak Yes men,in your company and snap back to reality. Quality over Quanity, this ones gonna bite you bad. Buyer beware.