Kontrol 2024 outlook: what was, what now, what next?

So looking ahead to to future of the Kontrol ecosystem...

Here is a new controller product from BlackMagic that I wish NI would take a few pointers from:

More info:

@B.Minor

"Initially coming from an IT company that managed mission critical networks and related equipment, maybe my personal measures and expectations have been set too high"

Gotcha - same for me. I manage a team of highly skilled application support analysts where I work here in Canada. I work for the City here so there are very clear lines on what "support" vs "active support" are really all about. There are no illusions on what these mean.

"After all, in many times other comparable companies offer a much longer support time than NI does, and I basically I mean an "active" hardware and software support that also continue to release new features on older products as well and lasts much longer than 10 years (and not only 7 years as in the case of the MK2 and its KK companion)."

Nothing wrong at all with watching what other companies do and as a existing customer (or potential customer) taking advantage of specific product purchase scenarios when they avail themselves.

But what I am VERY careful not to do is make hard comparisons with Company A and B - which almost always leads to hard expectations. What is good for A (or what they decide to do for me) is not what B will necessarily do. And I must be OK with that.

For every Spectrasonics (who inexplicably continue to update Omnisphere after almost 10 years) there is an iZotope who consistently set an 11 month stopwatch ticking every September for yet another sunset countdown for a product they tell you - you really need.

"I didn't have that much experience with NI at the time I entered their eco-system. I simply have to realize now, like others, that I might have made wrong decisions last year and I picked the wrong choice here just because I was simply too optimistic, hoping that critical but still forward-oriented feedback or detailed bug reports would help to improve the situation"

I was exactly like this in Fall 2020 - waiting around in giddy anticipation for the next KK2 release or possibly - new firmware! None of it really came to pass - but I did not suddenly hate on NI because of it.

And yes - 100% agree - feedback is always good.

I honestly believe that NI does hear us - as long as the feedback is logical and has some meat on the bone. But that still does not mean we will get some, any or all of what we ask for.

VP

My main request would be - Make absolutely certain it is entirely compatible with your existing products. I've had way too many Native Instrument products turn into bricks because NI stopped developing for them or because they weren't class compliant.

The Guitar Rig, which was an excellent guitar pedal/interface - not supported and is a brick

The original Maschine - no longer supported and is a brick

The S1 keyboards - no longer supported, so I will have to use old versions of Komplete Kontrol forever.

This is what makes me very reluctant to buy NI hardware.

These are not inexpensive devices, they are a similar cost to a professional musical instrument, like a guitar and I expect them to have a similar lifespan (so multiple decades, not a few years). I don't care how fancy you can make the control strips on your new products when they'll be dumped in 3 years or so or won't work on the control strips you have on existing products.

I frankly don't care about most of the ideas in the recent survey. There is no real need for fancy AI stuff when there's no metronome or 'tape' functionality so you can play along to backing tracks within Komplete Kontrol. And I entirely agree with the comment above that what I really really want the browser to do is help me tag samples quickly and effectively in a way that makes sense (which I guess is a background non-fancy AI thing). I've yet to find anything product that lets me take a sample pack and easily categorise it so I can separate the quality from the quantity.

So backwards compatibility (at least make my bricks work) or don't bother.

Defend?

Big stretch from "Geez - I think I just bought a 3 year old keyboard but I have decided not to b***h about it already being end of life in the NI forums" to not agreeing with your position (whatever it is) on the "Truth" and then labelling that "Defending NI".

FWIW - I am not a fan of a lot of things NI does either.

This is a public forum. We are allowed to voice opinions - good, bad or otherwise.

If you cannot handle a response to your comment because it rubs you the wrong way - your options are simple - either learn to roll with it and get in the conversation or ignore the post. Please consider both of these.

In the meantime - hoping you can make an effort here to communicate exactly what "the truth" is - OR what it is that is bugging you so much about NI, your MKII or whatever else has you riled up so we chat about it - respectfully - within this public forum.

VP

LOL, all but the one I REALLY wanted...KK 3.3.somethingsomething.

No need to thank me - I wasn’t offering advice or anything else to you.

If you cannot explain what you mean by “the truth” - that’s all I need to know.

Peace out.

VP