Feedback - Komplete Kontrol 3.0

One thing that I realized when toggling configurations between KK 2.9.6 and KK V3.0.1 and comparing the behavior of the standalone application after startup:

In KK V2.9.X the application was always continuing there where you had left off the last time. In other words, in case you were browsing presets located in the "user library", the next time KK was opening again in "user" mode and you could immediately continue working (btw. that also applied to the "vendor" vs. "category" selection which sadly doesn't exist anymore in KK 3.0.1).

Nevertheless, in KK 3.0.1 it seems no setting at all is saved anymore. The application always launches with the "standard NI library" selected in the first place, regardless of what you had opened in your last session before closing your standalone KK.

@Martin_NI:

Could you please re-implement the old behavior please? Personally I really appreciated that feature. Thanks in advance.

I see my issue now (even from 2.94). As "pads" in the "Character" menu only has 2 entries, when left engaged and then "Synth Pads" in the "Sound Type" menu is searched, only 1 sound shows up that is both a "Synth Pad" and a "pads".

Rare-user mistake.

Sorry for my carelessness.

I want to add a +1,000 to what @vash1122 says above. As an IT manager (yeah, I still use that term, even though everybody is a product owner or orchestrator or some other thing these days) and before that a DBA, programmer, and developer, I can say that NOTHING will put a person on my "bad" list like somebody who disses my team without cause. Even saying something like "I don't think they're musicians like they were in the past" is mean and may even reveal one's ignorance.

@Matthew_NI , I feel you man. 100% respect for your defense of your team. By the way, congrats on spinning up QT; I agree that it is key to faster future improvements.

To everybody else...yeah, yeah, I'm 8 pages behind on this thread. But all of this stuff, or at least a great majority of it, is going to get fixed. We are not dealing with "old NI". I know this because I've been here since Komplete 2. I've been through all the insulting radio silence. I've been through the terminations of B4-II, Akoustik, Elektrik, Kore 2, Rig Kontrol, and who knows what else. I've been through the ham-handed decisions of the old NI. And this ain't that!

This is a new team and I'm confident that they are trying to do the right thing, starting with better priority-setting and backlog management (as evidenced by Matthew's posts here), and continuing with better communication to the customer base.

I'll tell you something else too: Nobody ever likes the "MVP" (Minimum Viable Product in "Agile" terms), but that's a concept that just isn't going to go away; it's how work gets done in many companies now, and quite frankly, KK 3.0 is right at that MVP level. Everybody hates it, which is absolutely normal! And of course, who wouldn't hate getting a skateboard when they really want a sports car? Or getting a paper airplane when they wanted a fighter jet? But that's just how this stuff works in the current era.

Assuming that Corporate doesn't start making everybody attend too many non-productive meetings, start reducing staff, or otherwise elbow their way into the KK dev teams' day-to-day work, these teams just need TIME. It's just going to take some time for them to get a few more sprints under their belts. BIG success only comes from multiple and repeated small individual successes. Week by week, and sprint by sprint.

I for one am willing to give the team some more time. This is a new NI. They're trying to do the right thing, so I believe every one of us should give some grace. The LAST thing we want to have happen is to give them cause for losing heart. Because once a team loses heart, it doesn't matter HOW good leadership is...because at that point, the hole in the hull is too big to repair before the ship goes under.

@Matthew_NI , if your team really IS doing CI/CD (Continuous Innovation/Continuous Development), I see success in your future. And I see your team becoming an incubator for bright young developers to become the experts of the future. I wish tailwinds for you going forward, and I'll admit that as a leader, I'm a bit jealous of you, lol!

@BIF

"Assuming that Corporate doesn't start making everybody attend too many non-productive meetings, start reducing staff, or otherwise elbow their way into the KK dev teams' day-to-day work, these teams just need TIME"

100% agree with your analysis - but I think the biggest issue that most of the folks have (that are really cranky about this) is that TIME - has already been expended - possibly for years - when one considers the lead time needed to bring hardware to market (Kontrol Series MKIII).

While NI will never divulge EXACTLY how much time has been consumed getting from point A (No MKIII) to B (MKIII world release) - it is not a stretch to assume that an extraordinary amount of "time" should also have gone into the MKIII's sole co-pilot on this mission - KK3.

It is pretty clear to anyone paying any attention right now - that KK3 feels like it was cobbled together in about 3 months and shoved out as is on Oct 12.

I also have to challenge you calling KK3 an "MVP" too.

If KK3 is to be considered a "true" upgrade (and it must be if there is any justification for changing from v2 to v3) and as we all found out (quite suddenly on Oct 12) that KK3 is not even KK2's equal at this juncture (bad UI, missing functionality etc etc) - calling KK3 an MVP is not close to being accurate.

A better label for KK3 (right now) would be a MUV (minimum usable version).

As of today - KK3 as an MVP (at least for me) does not even exist and the real "upgrade" we were all expecting - a version of KK that justifies a version number increase to "3" and makes an upgrade past KK2 worthwhile - is still way out in the future like circa Fall 2024.

VP

I appreciate your insight, VP. I had no prior experience with "MUP" (Minimum Usable Product), so that's a new point of reference for me, thanks. Learning something every day!

As for "time being expended", I won't oppose you on that...except to say that when I say time is needed, I'm still not wrong. More time is indeed needed. I'm not here to point fingers, although I do hope that NI does a proper post-mortem analysis on this release. Again, learning something every day, and maybe preventing a future recurrence too; that would be good.

I concur! And if they are indeed following a steady sprint cycle (whatever that cycle may be, whether it's a firm 2-week cycle or something different), I'm sure we'll see something this week or maybe next week. CI/CD does not lend itself to looonnggg and complicated sprints. I would even go so far as to say that long sprints are not the same thing as CI/CD.

If they keep the bites small, we might get two sprints before the US Thanksgiving holiday. And who knows, if they can knock out even a couple of their top-priority backlog items in that amount of time, maybe people can enjoy some football and turkey, right? Of course, not everybody celebrates Thanksgiving, so maybe we can get a sprint on that week.

Hey, didn't we just have an NFL game in Germany this week? I'm confident that sooner or later, we'll get everybody converted! Nothing beats a good grilled sausage with peppers and onions on game day! 😅

@igesoid

"I read somewhere here that V2.8.x might be the last "fast" loading version, so maybe you should do some "diff" the nail that down, because this loading times are a real killer for creativity and inspiration."

Seems to me like this could be a Reaper-centric issue as all versions of KK 2.7.x/2.8.x/2.9.x load in about 2 ms in Studio One as an Instrument track.

If I had to wait 30 secs every time I loaded KK while my DAW "thought about it" - I would be getting a new DAW.

VP