When playing the Kontrol S61 Mk3 under normal conditions, I need to apply excessive physical pressure on the keys for MIDI velocity to increase to what would be considered a normal or expressive range. Light to medium playing consistently results in very low velocities, making dynamic and musical playing difficult, especially for piano and expressive instruments. Current status * Keyboard is fully functional and correctly detected * Latest firmware is installed * Issue is reproducible and consistent Hardware settings tested * Velocity curves: Soft 1, Soft 2, Soft 3* Soft 3 performs best, but still requires more force than expected * All available hardware sensitivity parameters adjusted * No further improvement possible via onboard settings DAW testing * Tested in Ableton Live * Using Ableton Grand Piano and other velocity-sensitive instruments * Enabled Fixed Velocity on the keyboard:* Confirms the keyboard is playable * Removes dynamics and is not a usable musical solution DAW workaround (important) Using Ableton’s MIDI Velocity plugin to boost and scale incoming velocities does improve the response, confirming this is a velocity curve/scaling issue rather than a performance or detection problem. However, this should not be required. Velocity response should be correctly handled via the keyboard’s own velocity curves and sensitivity settings, not by inserting corrective MIDI plugins on every track. Not an isolated case This issue has been also reported by other users of the Kontrol S49/S61 Mk3: I was wondering if anyone else experience this issues with Kontrol S61 MK3 or could this be few units isolated cases ? I have opened a support incident with NI 4770710 but no feedback so far.

Kontrol S61/S49 MK3 Velocity Response

When playing the Kontrol S61 Mk3 under normal conditions, I need to apply excessive physical pressure on the keys for MIDI velocity to increase to what would be considered a normal or expressive range. Light to medium playing consistently results in very low velocities, making dynamic and musical playing difficult, especially for piano and expressive instruments.

Current status

Keyboard is fully functional and correctly detected
Latest firmware is installed
Issue is reproducible and consistent

Hardware settings tested

Velocity curves: Soft 1, Soft 2, Soft 3
- Soft 3 performs best, but still requires more force than expected
All available hardware sensitivity parameters adjusted
No further improvement possible via onboard settings

DAW testing

Tested in Ableton Live
Using Ableton Grand Piano and other velocity-sensitive instruments
Enabled Fixed Velocity on the keyboard:
- Confirms the keyboard is playable
- Removes dynamics and is not a usable musical solution

DAW workaround (important)

Using Ableton’s MIDI Velocity plugin to boost and scale incoming velocities does improve the response, confirming this is a velocity curve/scaling issue rather than a performance or detection problem.

However, this should not be required. Velocity response should be correctly handled via the keyboard’s own velocity curves and sensitivity settings, not by inserting corrective MIDI plugins on every track.

Not an isolated case

This issue has been also reported by other users of the Kontrol S49/S61 Mk3:

I was wondering if anyone else experience this issues with Kontrol S61 MK3 or could this be few units isolated cases ?

I have opened a support incident with NI 4770710 but no feedback so far.

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DunedinDragon

If Soft 3 works for you I'd suggest going that way as there are any number of ways to adjust velocity after the fact. The mechanics of how velocity get delivered changes considerably between different keyboard vendors depending on how the keybed was designed. In this case it's a Fatar keybed which some people like and some people prefer others. It's not my favorite, but I've adjusted to it and it's worked fine in production for me for over a year now. It does take more pressure than some, but I can always deal with that with other tools in my DAW either through velocity or just volume adjustments within the plugin I'm using.

I will say the keyboard works best for me if I use a lighter touch generally and considerably more pressure to accent things. After a while it becomes second nature.

djmagicb

Thanks for sharing your experience — I appreciate the perspective.

Soft 3 is the only option available at the moment and it’s still not sufficient. It continues to require excessive pressure, especially during longer playing sessions or live performance, and it becomes physically tiring much faster than other keybeds I’ve used.

Another concern is the dependency on DAW-side workarounds. While MIDI Velocity plugins or instrument-level velocity scaling do help, they introduce extra complexity:

•They need to be added on every channel or virtual instrument

•They behave differently across instruments

•They don’t translate well across templates or live setups

More importantly, when the keyboard is used in a direct hardware context (external synths, sound modules, or any setup bypassing the DAW), this workaround disappears entirely — resulting in consistently low velocity / low volume notes. That’s a real limitation.

My expectation for a keyboard in this class is that velocity response and sensitivity should be adjustable at the hardware level, not only via a few fixed presets (Soft 1/2/3), but ideally through continuous user-adjustable parameters (e.g. 0–100 scaling, curve shaping, or calibration). This would allow players to adapt the keybed to their technique rather than having to adapt their technique to the keybed.

I understand that different people adapt differently to different keybeds, and some may grow accustomed to it over time. Still, given how many users are reporting similar concerns, it feels less like a matter of personal preference and more like a lack of sufficient configurability in the current implementation.

Thanks again for the input — it’s helpful to hear how others are working around it, even if those workarounds don’t fully solve the underlying issue for everyone.

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