KK3: let's talk about Preset Edit and View improvements

B.Minor

I've been off for a while, not actively visiting the NI forums for a very long time. But as it seems, I didn't miss anything, as simply nothing has changed or progressed since one year, at least when it comes to the aspect of the higly requested "backwards compatibility" for the KK3 application and its plugin version.

Obviously NI is still following the same old policy which is hostile to existing users and their prioritized requests. Still no realization by NI on the damage which has been created so far, as long-time customers have been left behind since introducing KK3 in conjunction with the latest NI MK3 keyboard. No single evidence in the meantime that the needs of the bigger part of the NI community have been addressed, e.g. by letting important KK functionality return which was already implemented in KK2 but was dropped for incomprehensible reasons. @Matthew_NI promised about more than one year ago that our customer requests will be heard and at least some features will be brought back "very soon". None of that has happened yet.

Now we can be almost sure that NI will never bring back any of those appreciated features we once knew, not even the most important ones which have been demanded so many times already, like the "sample drag and drop" feature or any other KK2 goodies like "property editing". Instead, NI exclusively stays focussed on functionality which is exclusively serving the newer MK3 keyboard user community. As there is not even a progress visible for KK3, it seems like NI's goal is also to drop that application very soon and to implement its limited functionality in their forthcoming Kontakt versions. After all, KK was always claimed to be a "free" application only (which is now not even part of the "Komplete Start" package anymore). Why should NI support and maintain such an application when Kontakt has anyway become a 1:1 clone already? Maybe the goal behind that move is to force all NI users who want to maintain a "KK experience" (if any) in the future to upgrade to the latest Kontakt version, in best case on a yearly basis. But still there won't be any guarantee that those old "cross-device" respectively "cross-application" based functionalities will ever return then at all.

NI simply forgot about all those users which ars still appreciating the functional value of the KK2 application and all the benefints it has offered, even in conjunction with the older MK2 keyboard (which is btw. not EOL yet). Even if you look at the latest KK 3.3.4 version just tested, immediately so many bugs are still present there, for example in conjunction with the MK2 keyboard control and workflow (keyword: mutual control/screen/status update in either direction).

My patience is slowly running out, that's why I'll have to make a decision very soon. If I don't see any behavior change until EO March '25, my decision will be very clear. I will stop supporting NI by not purchasing any updates or even new products anymore. I guess many existing NI customers think exactly like I do. We don't want to get fooled, and we are tired of fighting for functionality which has been already there for a while but was incorrectly deemed "not important enough" by NI. They simply haven't done their homework properly and they are obviosuly not willing to learn from the past.

Sunborn

New version 3.3.4 arrived but still no updates about the requests of this discussion, thread is dormant since February.... lets revive it! 😉

Kymeia

Yes now that we are almost there with MIDI templates and functionality it is time to return to the NKS editing and user experience of that

trusampler

Is there release notes for 3.3.4 ? What was fixed ?

Matthew_NI

Both Komplete Kontrol and Kontakt will continue to exist and be actively developed. We do not plan to sunset one in favour of the other.

Komplete Kontrol has received a steady stream of updates (see the release notes in Native Access) over the year, albeit not every request just yet. We also spent some time on Maschine 3 this year, which took priority for a while.

Which specific bugs and feature requests are the ones you're interested in?

Matthew_NI

The release notes are in Native Access.

This was the issue where instrument GUIs would freeze.

Kymeia

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/196988#Comment_196988

In terms of feature requests the ones that were discussed in the first couple of pages. Firstly the return of the features such as

• The ability to delete user presets from within Komplete Kontrol
• The ability to edit properties for user presets 
• The ability to view and browse by Sub Bank
• Return of a side browser view to enable drag and drop of samples into loaded plugins/sampler modules (now we see this added to Kontakt 8 it just makes sense for this to be in KK too)
• Return of drag and drop into external DAWs
• Return of a more accessible NKS properties editor without needing an extra click
• Return of full accessibility features

In addition future development needs to include in my opinion:

• Expansion of properties editing to include banks, sub banks and vendor fields
• More flexible NKS editor with the ability to rearrange user pages and insert new user pages at any point, as well as copy/paste/duplicate functionality (much like the MIDI template editor now has)
• The ability to create device level NKS templates instead of the tedious process of saving out presets one by one (as in Bitwig)
• The ability to retrospectively apply a controller mapping to a batch of NKS presets
• Built in previews and graphics content creation to enable complete NKS authoring from start to finish
• Improved accessibility features

trusampler

Is the pinning of the browser not in this list ? That’s a huge issue for any of us who upgraded to the MK3 and can no longer pin the browser to properly audition sounds like we we’re able to with MK2.

Kymeia

Yes it should be - in the hardware (you can do it in the software)

I guess we are getting beyond NKS editing features here though (but so is accessibility I suppose)

On the theme of more general improvements for me the biggest priorities would be:

FX version

FX automation

FX/Instrument combo saving