Feedback - Komplete Kontrol 3.0

Vagus · 2023-10-12T13:38:42+00:00

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Vagus

I'm going to go with complete honestly, because transparent feedback is really important.

The Good:

Looks much nicer, more modern, with better fonts- a lot learned from Kontakt.

The Bad - Usability:

How on earth did you implement the Kontakt Browser, and manage to make even less presets visible?

Why would you have a resizable Kontakt 7 window, but make the KK window fixed - meaning less is visible than before?

In 3.0 you've actually removed features that were present in KK 2.9. The only thing we can now edit, even on our own presets, is tags. This is obviously a design decision, but effectively, it further limits users creating their own libraries.

Could we get an explanation as to why these decisions were made, please?

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Comments

Sunborn

On a more philosophical level, if i may:

-Doing things with 2, 3, 5 different ways is not only healthy for the brain but also evolutionary, as neurons create new brain synapses.

-Doing things always in the same way, while it is convenient and surely helps the workflow, it is also more like a habit... and habits are the major enemy of evolution, if they overused.

...just some food for thought. 😉

mykejb

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/109901#Comment_109901

Fair point. I'm in the UK so GDPR definitely applies. In general, and not specifically with regards to NI, I'm not too worried about ad optimisations as I'd rather have adverts that might be slightly useful than random stuff I'd never use. If my data metrics help push product design into a direction that goes with how I use the products that's a bonus.

-- Mike

JesterMgee

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/109954#Comment_109954

So, that is why machinery and manufacturing processes don't work as they evolve using a standard set of parameters, just improved and refined with each time? We reinvent the wheel every time we want to push a load up a hill? No, the way the world works is we figure out the best way to do something simple, then see if we can do it better, faster and with LESS steps. Adding in more clicks does nothing to the "creative" side of anything.

Sunborn

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/110217#Comment_110217

Yes, i fully agree with this point of view too, but this is not a contradiction to what i wrote. Life is not just black and white, ideas, ways of doing things, beliefs etc. can co-exists fine, without the one be "right" and the other been "wrong". In fact, many times, it is the conjunction of two different ways, that leads to a newer, better way. Nonetheless, of course less clicks are always better.

Sunborn

Feature Request:

What about when we save a preset using "Save as", instead of this poor window below

we can have a full browser window?

This will be extremely helpful especially for us who make NKS presets!

In this way, we can simply click an older VST2 preset and replace it with its VST3 version, instead of typing names one by one, again and again. This will speed up the work 8 to 10 times more quickly!

Please consider about this, thank you.

nightjar

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/110217#Comment_110217

It's smart to get the foundation "right" before building on top of it.

The foundation of KK needed changed. Some habits and expectations are reliant on the "old foundation" and would be counterproductive to future refinement.

Adaptation is key to evolution.

B.Minor

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/110338#Comment_110338

The foundation was already there, and it was making KK great. Btw, it was called NKS. 😉

What I'm always spotting in your argumentation is the fact that you don't care about thousands of customers who were already satisfied with the featureset that KK offered until October 2023, and the way KK was working until then. And yes, it was at least fully functional up to this point. If it wouldn't have been like that, you wouldn't have to fight now here in this forum against complains raised by other people who just wanted to keep the workflow they were used to in the past, and who don't want to lose all of that just because of a socalled "update" which was breaking everything.

I'd like to remind you that the majority of NI customers simply don't have an MK3 keyboard yet and also didn't have the plan to switch over so soon. Many of them because of the fact that they cannot afford to buy an MK3 currently. Does that automatically mean that you have to treat them unfairly?

Therefore, the best and most appreciated way to satisfy all users at the same time would be to offer new NKS2 features for proud MK3 owners as part of related KK updates - on top of all those great NKS features that were previously available already and used by the majority of existing users. That's the most logical thing anyone can think of. The situation can be compared with MIDI 1.0 which was introduced in the early 80's. It was simply a great foundation for everything that happened after in the music industry. And did the introduction of MIDI 2.0 destroy anything of the existing featureset of MIDI 1.0? No, not at all. It simply made MIDI richer.

And exatly that was the way how the NKS2 format was also advertised by NI. There was no written word anywhere in the media, indicating that somehow the introduction of NKS2 would be suddently affecting existing NKS features in such a way that they are planned to be intentionally removed without prior notice; the communicated information was rather implying that just additional functionality will be added. This is also what most users expect to happen in reality, instead of losing precious functionality which was already there before. You can immediately translate such a loss into time and money. Just put on a different hat for a second and look at the whole thing from the mentioned perspective. Maybe you will discover what I mean. Peace. 😎

Kymeia

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/110338#Comment_110338

Yeah but they didn't get it right. Getting it right would have been listening to what users have been asking for all these years. The foundation for success of a product is not just some 'tech stack', it's also the community that uses it. NI need to understand that better.

tempsperdu

Something very astray for me with the last two KK releases. Both seem to trigger a complete plugin rescan on trying to open, which, if successful can take 3 hours, however it often sticks so doesn't complete and then seems to stop my Windows Explorer from being able to edit files until a reboot. Bizarre and extremely unhelpful.

Headfirstonly

After spending the entire day following NI's instructions and trying to roll back my installation of Komplete Kontrol software to version 2.9.6 so I could update a mix of something I recorded during the summer when I used the VST2 plugin, I have come to the conclusion that the update to version 3 broke something irrevocably. I've admitted defeat and given up. And I now view NI with the same seething contempt that was previously exclusively reserved for Waves.

I will not be buying anything from them ever again.

nightjar

NI is offering a good balance between the past and the future.

For those not wanting to buy into S-MK3 and NKS2, there is KK 2.9.6.

For those that do want to embrace change.. there are the new keyboards and NKS2.

I think NI is on the right path with the new design.

More needs to added on top of this "new foundation", but I am happy that the journey is in the field now.

tempsperdu

nightjar

For those that do want to embrace change.. there are the new keyboards and NKS2.

Victim shaming without understanding yet again are we?

S MK3 has broken a hell of a lot of things and doesn't warrant any additional expenditure for some, especially for Maschine users, even the risible state of NI acknowledge that.

What they don't seem to understand is that if you chose to rewrite a lot of the software from scratch with people who don't understand the products as with Native Access, you are needlessly going to antagonise and alienate many of your long term users who are going to start looking elsewhere.

Yes, you shouldn't be a prisoner to history but ignore it to everyone's peril and your fantasy land about what is happening and may happen is doing no-one including yourself any good.

nightjar

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/110526#Comment_110526

"Victim shaming"? Really?

What has been taken away from anybody?

We are dealing with choices and opinions.

nightjar

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/110408#Comment_110408

I happen to think that NI IS giving me what I've been asking for for all these years.

A deep re-think and re-design of KK software.

I sincerely LIKE the direction it is going.

nightjar

A case in point of opinion and preference:

@JesterMgee (if I understand him correctly) prefers that a found set of presets is presented as a single column to allow for a fast up/down scroll.

I prefer the new multi-column presentation of found presets that allows for a sliding variable-width horizontal panel.

Opinion and preference.

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