Hello Native Instruments team,
First of all, thank you for the fantastic work you’ve been doing with the Komplete Kontrol S‑Series MK3. The recent improvements, firmware updates, and overall user experience really show how much care goes into shaping these controllers.
I’d love to suggest a feature that I—and I believe many hardware‑focused musicians—would truly appreciate:
Dual‑Channel Layering (two zones playing simultaneously, each with its own MIDI channel)
Currently, the MK3 keyboards provide up to 16 split zones, but no layer functionality, as confirmed in the specifications (“Layer function: No”).
This means it isn’t possible to play two sounds at the same time while sending them out on different MIDI channels.
Why this would be wonderful to have:
- Many hardware synths and modules are multitimbral and shine when receiving multiple MIDI channels simultaneously.
- Layered sounds such as piano + pad or EP + strings are extremely common in live performance.
- The MK3 series already feels like a perfect platform for deeper hardware interaction thanks to standalone mode, MIDI templates, and flexible routing.
- A feature like this would greatly expand creative possibilities without altering the existing workflow.
A gentle idea for implementation:
- Allow zones to be marked as “layers,” meaning they can overlap.
- Each layer could have its own MIDI channel, transposition, and velocity settings.
- Layers could be stored inside the existing MIDI template architecture.
- Optional: A simple on/off toggle to enable or disable layers during performance.
I also checked the community discussions, and it looks like this specific feature hasn’t been requested yet — so I hope my suggestion is helpful and timely.
Thank you very much for considering this.
Your continuous improvements really make a difference, and this addition would make the MK3 series even more powerful for users who integrate hardware instruments into their setup.
