Using Komplete Kontrol causing my DAW (Reaper) to freeze every 5 minutes

Mate, I have serious bugs reported back in 2022 that were never fixed, so I wouldn't hold your breath for a fix any time this big bang cycle…

@BIF I appreciate your time to help out. As you're listed as non NI employee, I cannot estimate the relation between your MIDI Templates issue, this KK bug and the allocation of the NI development team. This is the reason I'd like to stick to this bug topic only and really need official clarification from NI support / management how to proceed to find a solution by fixing KK.

Let me explain why there is now also a financial damage involved with consequences:

NI decided to drop Mk1 support silently. No email announcement, no warning in Native Access, nothing. I installed regular updates and my S88 Mk1 keyboard stopped working completely. Finally I discovered via support that there is no way forward to get the Mk1 working. I was not able to sell this 1000Euro keyboard as nobody wants to buy a second-hand keyboard which is no longer supported by NI. First waste of 1000 Euro's.

I decided to purchase a new 1200 Euro S88 Mk3 (+ additional cost of missing required accessories) to work with my existing Komplete software bundles/plugins (also over 2000 Euro in total cost).

The Mk3 generated the famous general error during the firmware update and did not work out of the box. I discussed with the webshop to return under RMA. Finally, got it up and running and encountered immediately the REAPER crash when inserting Komplete Kontrol on a track, move some buttons and loose window focus. I spent time of creating a clearly reproducible bug report in this thread without further follow-up by NI.

Look at the screen capture REAPER crash below which is reproducible on any Windows system:

Answer from Zendesk email support they point back to this thread without any help. The only official NI response I received on this forum so far:

Thanks for the detailed repro. It turns out the bug was already reported and filed under this reference: KBDSW-7859. It's been forwarded to the developers.

In other words: NI can fix this tomorrow, but there is a very high risk that NI will never fix this critical bug and KK cannot be used at all. Then I've wasted all my NI investments as described above in past years.

With the defective Komplete Kontrol, Native Instruments delivered me a faulty product which does not work as advertised.

I am not able to use Komplete Kontrol + Mk3 Keyboard until this bug has been fixed by NI. Why are new NI products released at high speed and this KK bug does not get any attention?

NI violates the new European 2022 laws as:

1. EU manufactures must support hardware and software products. NI did not come up with a plan to get both Mk3 and KK working so far. This problem is already known for >7 months. We as customers expect an estimation when this problem will be fixed. The EU warranty period is applicable for both hardware and software, so there is an obligation to NI to provide an answer and support their products.
2. EU manufactures must reduce the 2.2 billion tonnes of waste each year by offering repair or recycling. Mk1 keyboard should be put in the recycle bin instead of supporting in KK? Because it is all about increasing sales? It results in many frustrated customers instead.
   More information on https://www.europarl.europa.eu/

The aim of the revised directive is to set uniform rules for Eu countries, ensure proper functioning of the digital and circular economy and help victims of defective products get fairer compensation.

I am a 10+ years NI customer and also located in EU.

A coupon for another plugin is not a fair compensation as the total damage is thousands of Euros with a Mk3 keyboard + software which cannot be used. Does it ring a bell why I scream for help now?

@Jeremy_NI Please go to your management and tell them that I do not accept the answer without a plan to get Komplete Kontrol working in a reasonable time frame as I'm not able to use the product at all.

I expect an answer with a plan how and when this will be resolved before Friday 28 June 2024 which gives you another 2 weeks of time. If not, I take further steps. I look forward to your answer.

@rdalcroft Thanks for your reply which is highly appreciated. I'm sorry, I'm not using MSI afterburner.

When Native Instruments plugins are developed according to the VST3 specification, then I agree with you: It should work in any DAW and don't see a reason why a specific DAW should be excluded.

I use REAPER VST2/3 plugins for 15 years now and don't see any problems with any other Native Instruments VST3 plugins. Kontakt 7 initial releases were unstable as well and crashed, but NI fixed stability issues in the mean time (see release notes). Komplete Kontrol is the only one which crashed REAPER and I requested help to get this problem resolved. Then I can start using the Mk3 + other NI software I purchased the past 10 years.

You can still use the MK1 keyboard with Komplete Kontrol 2.9.6, as explained in lengths in this forum and also here:

What you forgot to mention is that new plugins require Kontakt 7 which is not supported by Komplete Kontrol 2.9.6. For this reason, new NI plugins cannot be used and there is no way forward to use Mk1 as Komplete Kontrol 2.9.6 is no longer maintained. As a result, I had to purchase a new keyboard!

"I have to reiterate that Reaper is not officially supported"

This message comes out of the blue and is completely new to me. It is the second deep shock to me in 6 months: First the silent Mk1 deprecation, now this one without any explanation after I purchased the S88 Mk3!

When I bought the S88 Mk3 in February 2024, the S series keyboard product specifications did not explicitly mentioned which DAW's are enforced by NI. Again, I used REAPER for many years. There was no possibility for me to know this upfront and now I'm ended in a giant problem without any professional help from NI so far:

• February 2024 email support: No answer, no ticket number created.
• 2 June 2024 email support #4310699 Sebastien: Dead conversation without providing any help. Last message 13 June 2024.
• This tread: Reported since November 2023. Bug KBDSW-7859 reported, forwarded to the developers. What is the status????
• 17 June 2024: Contacted @Matthew_NI via a private message. Waiting for your reply.

@Jeremy_NI

I only ask for help to get Komplete Kontrol stable. Then this tread can be closed and I can start making music / having fun.

I've been following this thread for a while, since I also experience the same issue with Reaper. So, please don't consider this bug to be a single user issue, it is not. Again, the version 3 of Komplete Kontrol is the sole and only plugin causing problem in Reaper.

I have downgraded to 2.9.6 and things are working fine, but having a non resizable inteface in 2024 is a real pain, especially on a 4K monitor. And we all know that been stuck on a non supported version is a dead end.

@Tulio Guilherme Grunwald Thanks for posting your comment as REAPER user. I'm also a REAPER / NI user for many years without issues, until the introduction of KK3 which is a useless product and a complete nightmare.

Current status: Native Instruments administrated this REAPER crash under KBDSW-7859 with low priority and did not investigate this problem further. Any request to to find a solution has been rejected and postponed by NI so far. Their focus is new product releases where fixing bugs in their products is lowest priority. NI premium support is not available (where a customer pays to fix a silly bug introduced by NI like this).

NI decide if and when to fix this problem and not earlier than October 2024 according to multiple private conversations. However, this problem was already reported in November 2023 and there is a high risk for all REAPER users that this problem will never be fixed: There is no commitment from NI to actively resolve this critical bug.

Misleading Komplete Kontrol VST3 product specifications and system requirements:

1. REAPER is not listed in Komplete Kontrol product system requirement section DAW integration https://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/keyboards/kontrol-s49-s61-s88/specifications . This is no problem: Full REAPER integration can be easily addressed via DrivenByMoss plugin for REAPER.
2. Any NI plugin states for Windows/MacOS: Stand-alone, VST3, AAX without specifying which DAW's are tested or supported by NI. A VST3 compatible plugin should work in any DAW, but in fact it comes with zero support.
3. Nobody at NI could confirm which DAW's are officially supported for VST3 compatible plugins like Kontakt/Massive/GuitarRig/etc. Instead, NI support engineers blame you as REAPER customer to use it in an unsupported environment, for example
   https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/160275#Comment_160275
   This statement is not traceable to the the VST3 system requirements and therefor invalid from legal point of view. Instead, NI uses this statement to avoid KK3 product support.

NI: Take your responsibility and handle critical bug reports like this at equal priority. 10+ months of response time is not acceptable.

Strong advice is to ship your product back to the webshop ASAP to get your money back and post a negative review on the webshop and Trustpilot. This problem will not be fixed in upcoming months for sure which is a shame and damage to the brand name NI. It is seriously questionable if NI will survive in near feature without listening to customers and ignore customer feedback. My investments are on hold.

If you are a REAPER user, please reply to this thread. The more frustrated and unsatisfied customers, the higher the pressure on NI for their unacceptable product support and misleading product system requirements.