Komplete Kontrol window size

mykejb · 2022-12-03T15:16:59+00:00

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Are there any plans to make the KK window resizable. Currently the window take up about 1/3 of the display on my display. Being able to resize it would allow things like the "TYPES" and "CHARACTERS" filters to be use and have more than two presets displayed on the screen. Seems crazy to have so much available space and use a tiny portion of it.

The resizing code is already present in the app as the window resizes to hold the instrument interface when you load a preset so why not just enable it for normal resizing

-- Mike

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ASKF

Unbelievable that a software this quality, in 2023, doesn't have a resizable plugin window!!! Seems like no one from NI cares about user feedback

Kymeia

Just to reiterate - to say NI do not care about user feedback in relation to resizability is at odds with the facts, particularly since this post Kontakt has had 2 more updates further improving resizing. My opinion remains that they will use those improvements to develop a resizable browser in KK but since we are already on 2.9 this will probably coincide with a new version update and possibly new hardware (which has been speculated about for months)

NI have addressed resizing in their newer FX, Massive X, Guitar Rig and are addressing it gradually in Kontakt 7, so it's not like nothing is happening. I do suspect though that for KK it will not come till we get a new version along hopefully with new hardware.

Jester is right though that KK was originally envisaged primarily as a support app to enable integration with the keyboards so the interface was probably initially seen as less important because we are meant to mainly use the keyboard screens. However over time NI have decoupled it from the hardware, added the A series which is very limited in terms of keyboard screenage, and also allowed KK to mesh to an extent with third party controllers, so the interface has become more central to the user experience (and to be honest they have always neglected the importance of users being able to edit and author they own NKS libraries, this also requires a much improved interface but resisability is not the only, and certainly not the main issue, in relation to editing, although it would help. This for me is a much more important issue than resizing the screen)

PoorFellow

N.I. *do* care, they just do not have infinite resources. So for N.I. it must be first things first, they knows your wish-list and they want to give it to you but they have to take care of what they consider most important first. Also , alas , really great instrument plug-ins are retired because it is simply to much of a work, and thus too costly, to have to rewrite from scratch. And same goes for rewriting an entire GUI , it most likely have to be re-written from scratch and on top of that then it also still have to be able to function not only as a stand-alone app but also within another program as a VST. So when people ask for resizable interfaces then I think that they also kind of forget what a can of worms that also is, because the same people asking for an interface change would most likely also be first in line to complain if their plug-ins suddenly didn't work in their DAW anymore or crashed all the time.. So while it is easy to ask for new GUIs then it still could be a daunting task considering all what it entails !

Kymeia

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/84167#Comment_84167

Yeah but that isn't really the case with KK - it's basically just a container for other plugins and has comparatively little to change in its own GUI. Plus it's not really an old product so doesn't exactly have a lot of technical dept like say Absynth did, or Reaktor still does. As I said this is primarily a combination of priorities and timescales, NI needed to get their other plugins resizable first and are using the technology they developed for that to drive changes to Kontakt and eventually it will be KK's turn.

PoorFellow

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/84178#Comment_84178

Yeah ! , well , as long as they (hopefully) eventually get there.. I mean I completely get peoples frustration. But with all that I have experienced with companies staying in business while not having the resources or manpower to fix even basic things then I am actually quite happy that all my N.I. stuff in general actually work as good as it actually does. In general then I personally consider N.I. to be a provider of rather good quality hardware and software (though time will tell how long time my Keyboard lasts 😺 - hopefully a long time) .

By the way , nice catch there , I were aiming at e.g. Absynth but also at the Izotope Iris 2 ! 🙂

Scottgarni

To address your concerns and suggest the addition of window resizing functionality, it's recommended to reach out directly to the developers or the support team of the app. They will have the most accurate information about any upcoming updates or feature enhancements. Providing your feedback and explaining the benefits of resizable windows for improved usability can help them understand the user's perspective and potentially consider implementing the feature in a future version of the app. Many software developers actively listen to user feedback and strive to improve their applications based on user needs and preferences. Therefore, expressing your suggestions and concerns to the relevant support channels is often the most effective way to bring attention to such feature requests....

MyStudioOne

I don't think NI is unaware of the discontent of many long time and presumably valued customers - many of whom have been expressing their discontent right here for years. Nor are they stupid and they no doubt regularly sit around a board room table and map out the path/goals of the company.

As was noted above, the ongoing improvements made to Kontakt in this regard make it obvious that it is the priority. This implies that at the very least, KK is least important to them and that it may or may not be brought up to the same standards at some point. Since Kontakt is quickly gaining the same functionality as KK, I think KK is being phased out.

Were it not for the fact that Komplete Keyboard functionality is not currently working with Kontakt, I would be perfectly happy using Kontakt 7 moving forward.

This begs the one BIG question left. Is NI also abandoning Komplete Keyboards? Considering how many years it has been since the MK2 was released, it is easy to think that they are.

OR...They plan to port keyboard integration over to Kontakt at some point. If/when they release an MK3, we will have our answer I guess...

Regardless, it is very apparent that KK is not very important to the product upgrade cycle and so it is likely just a matter of time before it is put to rest...

Kymeia

I don’t see how you came to any of those conclusions tbh. I don’t think KK will be abandoned at all, but I do think as it is the ‘hub’ of their NKS ecosystem NI need the other parts to be fully updated to support HDPI first (or at least Kontakt which at the moment is where almost all new product development is focussed) before they integrate this into KK (which is on 2.9 implying it will probably be a version update)

If they just port keyboard integration into Kontakt then we would lose it from everything else including all the third party NKS partners, I can’t see that happening (although it would be nice for Kontakt to have keyboard integration of its own too)

nightjar

My suggestion to more quickly improve the user experience of KK would be for NI to create a "standardized interim panel" for each NKS enabled instrument.

KK would use the same browser design as Kontakt 7.

When you clicked on a preset in this new KK browser, instead of opening the "legacy opening panel", this new "standardized interim panel" would open instead. It would be based on the first "encoder panel" (layer/macros) for the instrument and be rather horizontal in design. All elements in this panel would be corner-drag scalable included the text. When you wanted deeper feature of an instrument, clicking on this interim panel would bring up the legacy panel.

This new horizontal "interim" panel would also allow more window area for additional items you might want to have simultaneously visible.. the plugin chain, the scale/arp panel, additional macro panels, an always available on-screen piano keyboard...

Make this all of these simultaneously-desired horizontal panel fully scalable as a group. The is NO legacy raster art in any of this so it should be a much easier task to do.

Make it pretty with some minimal new vector art that identifies the instrument associated with this new interim panel... or just use the thumbnail as in the Kontakt 7 browser

This could be a huge short cut to a much better user experience.

The better user experience is much more inviting to actually find, PLAY, and lightly edit/modulate the preset via the macros.

MyStudioOne

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/84446#Comment_84446

Practically speaking, the amount of overlap/redundancy between KK and Kontakt is growing. I mean just put KK into edit mode and then put K7 into preview mode and they now do the exact same thing side by side. Kontakt users can now enjoy the best feature of KK which is previewing sounds. This addressed what to me was the most glaring issue with Kontakt.

As you know, Komplete Kontrol just copies the virtual keyboard which resides within Kontakt which is why when you create a custom script in Kontakt it also carries over to KK and the light guide mapping. So now that they have went to all the trouble to incorporate KK's preview feature directly into Kontakt 7, what do think NI is working towards in the long run?

a. Will they ultimately commit resources to updating 2 separate apps that now largely do the same thing? Apart from keeping KK actually functioning with various DAW's and OS's, they haven't added a meaningful amount of new features to KK since day 1. In some ways they went backwards when the MK2 came out. Just look at how the they stripped down the Controller Editor when they added the midi mapping feature in KK for the MK2. And it could be argued that they have even less reason/motivation to update KK meaningfully now.

b. Allow the Komplete Kontrol keyboard integration/light guide to connect directly to Kontakt and the virtual keyboard that always resided therein? Won't this be far more efficient from a software/resource point of view? And won't this solve many of the issues that so many of us have spent years complaining about (yourself included if I remember correctly) such as KK's inability to save Multi's? The keyboard integration/light guide/focus would also likely work properly with multiple open instruments given a direct connection to Kontakt. These things that they will likely never fix in KK will probably work natively if the keyboard integrates directly with Kontakt. It will likely be more stable and perform better overall without a clumsy software bridge.

Perhaps KK was the simplest way for NI to experiment with preview/plugin features without having to touch their core software which is and has always been Kontakt. Perhaps they made KK as a temporary solution and software bridged it to Kontakt minimally (hence all the limitations) in order to see what kind of demand there would be for things like NI keyboard integration/light guide/etc?

Preview now added to Kontakt. Check that box. I think that was a very worthwhile move.

They are slowly and methodically updating everything to VST3. Check that box too.

But where does that leave the Komplete Kontrol (namely NI keyboards) ecosystem? Surely they will continue to make keyboards, but will they continue with light guide which is a small percentage of their Kontakt customer base? I don't know but I sure hope so!

At any rate, they are playing the long game and I think they are continuing to find ways to differentiate Kontakt from the pack. So the future seems bright does it not?

Kymeia

Will they ultimately commit resources to updating 2 separate apps that now largely do the same thing?

But they are not largely doing the same thing, unless all you use is Kontakt. KK can host, control and manage presets for almost any plugin. Kontakt is only one plugin. I would like to see Kontakt getting the ability to use the light guide independently too, I would also like KK to get a better browser (although at the moment it still has a better browser than Kontakt by far even if Kontakt's one is resizable - so what I hope is for KK to get the resizablity of Kontakt browsers but not its limitations).

JesterMgee

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/84683#Comment_84683

Yeah but even you will know that will likely not happen. KK will just become Kontakt so they can update the same code and lessen their own workload, what we want as users is never important.

wa7154733

The Komplete Kontrol window size is adjustable and can be resized to fit your preferences and screen resolution worldbox

mykejb

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/85347#Comment_85347

Not in any version I've used. The window size changes to fit the embedded instrument/VST. If you load a VST which allows you to resize the VST the KK window will resize to fit, but you can't resize the KK window itself, for example to display more presets, types, characters etc

MyStudioOne

This member has been flagged per below. Regardless, the info he provided in the July 20 post is incorrect although I WISH he was right!

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