NKS 2 will be accessible to Akai, Korg, Novation, Nektar & M-Audio controllers!

Super8boy
Super8boy Member Posts: 138 Advisor
in Komplete Kontrol

This is a pretty unexpected announcement.
Pretty cool for the NKS2 format to be expanded, as the number of developers rolling it out had been small (and things have been very slow).
I wonder will one also be able to use NKS1 on the likes of the Novation SL MK3 & Launchkey, or will it just be NKS2

https://synthanatomy.com/2025/01/native-instruments-expands-nks-2-to-akai-novation-nektar-korg-and-m-audio-midi-controllers.html

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  • Matthew_NI
    Matthew_NI Product Team Posts: 1,709 mod
    edited January 22

    Technically, it's not NKS 2 with all the advanced features of Kontrol S MK3. It's closer to NKS 1. An experience more like the Kontrol A and M series.

    Our official press release does not specify NKS 2, but it is likely future hardware controllers will come to market with support for NKS 2.

    https://www.native-instruments.com/en/press-area/music-production/namm-2025/

  • Super8boy
    Super8boy Member Posts: 138 Advisor

    ok thanks for clarifying.
    I'll let Tom @ Synth Anatomy know, as his post does make a mention of NKS2

  • Matthew_NI
    Matthew_NI Product Team Posts: 1,709 mod

    Already did (Jack is on it)

  • Matthew_NI
    Matthew_NI Product Team Posts: 1,709 mod

    A better way to describe it might be:

    NKS is a range of capabilities split between version numbers.

    NKS as a whole is now open to 3rd party hardware manufacturers.

    How many of those capabilities they implement will depend on what each hardware is capable of supporting, and how much work they're willing to invest.

  • Super8boy
    Super8boy Member Posts: 138 Advisor

    Great thanks. It's exciting news.
    Does the integration with NKS from these third party manfucturers involve installing and using Komplete Kontrol (or some sort of wrapper?)

    Many people I know are on Reaper (I'm not) and the NKS integration doesn't work well because Reaper and Native Instruments haven't collaborated directly for integration with KK MK3 software.
    So anyone with Reaper I know that had bought into the Native Ecosystem had to sell on unfortunately.
    I hope that will change in the future if Reaper gets better integrated…

  • Matthew_NI
    Matthew_NI Product Team Posts: 1,709 mod
    https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/205602#Comment_205602

    At first, only Komplete Kontrol will support it. Soon enough thereafter, support will ship for Kontakt 8 as well.

  • Super8boy
    Super8boy Member Posts: 138 Advisor

    Fantastic!

  • trusampler
    trusampler Member Posts: 338 Pro
    edited January 23

    For those of us who already own Komplete 15 Collectors Edition and say an MPC X are these libraries going to work in our MPC's straight away or are these additional purchases ? Kinda confusing, do we have to re-purchase all of the expansions we already own ? And re-purchase all of the libraries we already own for it to work in the MPC?

  • Matthew_NI
    Matthew_NI Product Team Posts: 1,709 mod
    https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/205947#Comment_205947

    I think this is a question about the content that's been ported to the MPC environment? They are separate purchases for the MPC ecosystem.

    If you have a follow up - would you mind starting a new thread? This thread is about the NKS opening up to 3rd party hardware, which is a different thing.

  • trusampler
    trusampler Member Posts: 338 Pro

    Ok thanks for the answer, that's unfortunate to hear. Yes no worries, sorry I thought it was relevant to the news.

  • Matthew_NI
    Matthew_NI Product Team Posts: 1,709 mod
    https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/205956#Comment_205956

    Honestly - I agree. As a user I'd love for the purchases to duplicate. But since this is a partnership, we can't easily retroactively make it so.

  • trusampler
    trusampler Member Posts: 338 Pro

    Understandable. Thanks for confirming this.

  • mchantzi
    mchantzi Member Posts: 24 Member
    https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/205591#Comment_205591

    Hi Matthew, will this implementation be available for independent developers (I'm one of these) or it will be available just to the vendors mentioned?

  • Matthew_NI
    Matthew_NI Product Team Posts: 1,709 mod
    https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/206187#Comment_206187

    It's not open sourced, since the NKS promise is a badge of quality that we like to work closely with partners to ensure.

    But it's also free-to-play once you're part of the program. There are no licensing fees. Interested developers would need to start here: https://www.native-instruments.com/en/specials/komplete/this-is-nks/developers

    It's worth pointing out that the NKS Software SDK is mature and years-old, with extensive documentation. The NKS Hardware SDK is still in development, and the very first version is being built in a somewhat high-touch way, in close collaboration with a few key partners, before it's ready to be broadly usable.

    We may even release an interim version to Komplete Kontrol in the coming weeks, which is a more basic (but still highly useful) MIDI Mapping solution on the road to delivering a fuller NKS experience by the midpoint of this year.

  • Matthew_NI
    Matthew_NI Product Team Posts: 1,709 mod
    https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/205967#Comment_205967

    Not ideal, I know. It's a bit like buying an Xbox game and a Playstation game separately. Ideally, you'd pay once and get both (like buying an audio plug-in that works everywhere). At least the prices are intentionally low.

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