Is it worth purchasing an S88 MK2 now?

Mk2 is still supported, Mk1 is not.

There is probably more issues with Mk3 than with Mk2. Mk3 is still very new, whereas Mk2 is mature product with most (if not all) kinks already ironed out.

However, unless you are on a PC (where compatibility problems are not very common), I would rather invest in Mk3, even if you need to save a bit longer to buy it. Mk3 is THE future.

The worst purchase for my studio was and is the Kontrol S88 MKII. The key stopped working after two sessions, some keys lost their dynamics. This is a disgraceful NI product.

Do not buy the MK3, you will regret it. The MK2 is far superior and now appropriately priced for what it does on the used market. The MK2 is capable of transmitting as many midi CC messages as you need it to learn via its “midi template functionality.” This allows you to map and label controls for any plug-in, not just NI plug-ins. The MK3 does not do this, and it is a great disadvantage. NI has a very poor track record of adding functionality to products they have already released, so the lack creditability when they say they will correct for this (already they have punted the fix several times from the initial date of December 2023).

Some other areas the MK3 is terrible - 1) track switching in DAW control mode requires you to move one at a time through each track with a rotary knob push, which renders it pretty useless. The MK2 allows using individual buttons above each track to navigate; 2) The MK3 parameter labels are in some crazy font and the keyboard truncates the words to basically jibberish, rendering the screen pretty useless. The MK2 shows the full label and shrinks down the font to accommodate, which is pretty awesome; 3) the new NKS2 mappings do not allow you to alter the control assignments to individual pages and uses the same number of button presses as going page by page as on the MK2, so that feature is unusable. NI must have known this imo because they included a “classic” mode for users that need the flexibility and would have been very upset if the new mode was all that was offered; 4) the MK3 cannot control instruments in Kontakt individually because lack of “midi mode” means you cannot transmit cc messages on different channels (honestly this is insane for a keyboard this expensive). The MK2 can be used with Kontakt to do this and create ensembles of up to 16 instruments; 5) no Maschine integration on the MK3 vs. wonderful integration on the MK2. I understand many don’t use Maschine (and I was once one of these people), but take it from me this is real downgrade as Maschine is very powerful if only dated and stagnant like most other NI products at this point.

To sum it up, the MK3 is a terrible product. It is only useful to users that have narrow use cases. This seems to be a vocal majority in the NI community, but the fact remains the Kontrol MK3 is not a competitive offering for the money NI is asking. The average life cycle of their keyboards is about 5 years, so I expect the MK3 will limp along with little to no updates from NI until they release something more well thought out or abandon hardware entirely. I would not believe for one minute that NI is going to sink more development costs into improving this product because my guess is it didn’t sell well. NI will probably argue this, but the release went so poorly that I can’t imagine there are a lot in circulation. Anyways, buyer beware.

MK2 is not discontinued and will not be per NI as there is a far greater number of users on MK2 vs. MK3. MK2 is objectively better value for money because it has more features (by far). I don’t really think opinions come into play. It’s great you don’t need NI to update or add any functionality to the MK3 because they aren’t going to.

I don’t subscribe to multiple truths. Better means of higher quality. A quality is a distinguishing feature. The MK2 has more distinguishing features than the MK3 and is therefore objectively better. Not objectively better TO or FOR ME (which are qualified oxymorons), just better period.

If you buy an Akai, Roland, or Korg product, it will contain the history of that device with little to no interruption in its feature set. A Roland MC groove box contains a feature set that can be traced back to the 80s. Korg workstations are the same story. We never hear Korg or Roland talk about “minimalist design” because its a laughable term that means terrible product. Lower quality. Less features. No one at NI is Steve Jobs, and NI did not drop an IPOD-esque product in the MK3. The keyboard barely does anything and does nothing well or interesting.

Native Instruments is the only Company that completely guts features on newer versions of its products to the point this practice is a defining part of the Company’s identity. It is not worthy of defense. The only thing worse than stripping down a highly anticipated refresh to make more money for a private equity firm is gaslighting customers about those features not being widely used. I don’t buy any of it. Let’s revisit this if ever they actually release midi templates on this device because the conversation is so old at this point I am struggling to understand anyone’s optimism they will ever be released.