Hello people,
I'm currently looking at ways of upgrading my home studio setup. I work almost exclusively with NI VSTs, and a few others from Arturia or Spitfire Audio (but I try to stick to NKS-compatible stuff when possible). My keyboard is a Roland FA-08, which I love for its feel, dynamics and expressiveness, and which has a dedicated DAW mode for Logic Pro (which I also use). But alas, the integration of controllers (knobs, pads and faders) is a little too limited for my taste, and forces me to do some rather tedious gymnastics for CC assignments via midi-learn.
So I thought of replacing my Roland with a Komplete Kontrol S88-MK3 keyboard, but I'd lose two things: the Roland keybed, which I'm an absolute fan of, and quite a few of the FA-08's native sounds (including the entire Jupiter bank) that I manage in midi. Another important detail is that I don't have enough space in the room dedicated to my home studio to host two keyboards. What's more, I'd also lose the possibility of having access to a piano in a matter of seconds whenever I wanted to try out an idea because a Komplete keyboard would at the very least require me to switch on my Mac and launch Logic Pro before playing anything (and I don't need to mention that when some idea arises between two non-music-related duties, this kind of delay can be a real stopper).
Taking a look at the alternatives, I wondered if it wasn't possible to keep my Roland and add a Maschine as a secondary controller - so basically, use it as a keyboardless Komplete keyboard - and use it to control all the parameters in NI VST, and those compatible with NKS.
Have any of you tried this kind of setup? If so, is it easy to manage? Does it appeal to you? What do you think of it?
Thank you in advance for taking the time to read and answer my existential questions.