2025 Outlook: Maschine, Kontrol, and NKS Hardware Partnerships

Chris_NI
Chris_NI Product Team Posts: 63 mod
edited January 31 in NI News
Kontrol keyboard

Hi Maschine and Kontrol community!

I’d like to introduce myself to the broader audience—some of you may already know me. I’m Chris, the Product Lead for Maschine, Kontrol, and NKS Hardware Partnerships.

I’ve been with Native Instruments for over 10 years, but my journey with Maschine started 12 years ago as a passionate user. That passion led me to NI, where I drove the ideation, development, and launch of the Maschine MK3, Mikro MK3, Maschine+, and the latest Kontrol S-Series MK3 keyboards. Recently, my role has expanded to oversee Product Management for both hardware and software development for Maschine and Kontrol.

I know that when communication is sparse, it can feel like there are no developments on your favourite products. While we may not always post frequent updates, rest assured that development is ongoing, and our team is working hard to improve and expand the products you love. Our goal is to provide transparency on what’s coming in 2025, and we’ll continue to update you each quarter.

For those who want early access to new features, I’ve included links to our beta programs in each section.

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Maschine

Maschine 3.1 (Q1 Release)

Since the launch of Maschine 3, we’ve introduced parallel plug-in scanning for faster scanning / startup times. 

In December, we released User Chords to beta, allowing users to capture and perform custom chords directly from Maschine MK3 and Maschine+ (in controller mode). Other Maschine hardware devices can use the new chords for playing, but are not able to create them via the hardware. This feature will officially launch within Q1 with Maschine 3.1.

IMG_4879.JPG

Maschine 2 on Maschine+ (Q1 Release)

We’ve heard your frustrations with Maschine 2 on Maschine+, and since late 2024, we’ve been hard at work taking into account your feedback, focused on stability and critical bug fixes. The update—including a kernel upgrade, the possibility to change sampling rate and buffer size for extended compatibility with USB class compliant audio interfaces, and bringing several effects from our desktop portfolio of effects (see Maschine+ content releases below)—will enter beta within the next week and release officially in Q1. 

This update ensures Maschine 2 on Maschine+ remains stable for those who prefer to stay on this version, while also preparing Maschine+ for an upgrade to Maschine 3 in Q2. More details will follow once the beta is live.

Maschine 3 on Maschine+ (Q2 Release)

Bringing Maschine 3 to Maschine+ is a top priority, with a release planned for Q2. We're also exploring Stem Separation for standalone mode, though its technical complexity means it may not be available in the upcoming release. Importing a desktop project already using the feature will work as expected for playback on the Maschine+

Additionally, we are adding Kontakt 8 support and alongside the highly requested bounce-to-audio feature, Maschine+ users will gain access to more CPU-intensive instruments. The bounce-to-audio workflow will allow you to free up CPU resources, making it easier to work with high-quality sounds. We’re excited to hear what you’ll do with the new features.

Maschine+ Content Releases (2025)

More content is on the way in 2025, starting with a set of NI effects in Q1 (The new effects will be available in the Maschine+ library and can be activated if you already own them in your NI account for desktop).

Some of you may have seen our recent Play Series and Expansion content releases on the MPC platform, in partnership with our friends at Akai Professional. This collaboration allows us to bring high-quality sounds to more creators, but we want to reinforce our strong commitment to Maschine.

It’s also important to note that the Play Series MPC Editions are not direct ports of the original Play Series instruments. Instead, they are custom-built for the MPC platform, utilizing its sample engine and featuring MPC-specific presets. This makes them a unique experience tailored to the MPC workflow, rather than a replication of the Play Series desktop version.

With Maschine 3 on Maschine+ supporting Kontakt 8, plus the ability to bounce to audio for CPU efficiency, we’re excited to bring a selection of full Kontakt instruments including Play Series to Maschine+—exactly as it was designed. We look forward to sharing more in the coming months.

💡 Want to test new Maschine features early? Join the beta program here.

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Kontrol

Alongside Maschine updates, we’re bringing exciting improvements to the flagship Kontrol S-Series MK3 in Q1:

✅ Accessibility Features – Expanding the success of MK2’s accessibility features to MK3, including Kontakt integration.
✅ On-Device Arpeggiator – Adding to the Play Assist features (Scales & Chords) introduced in 2024. Beta feedback has been extremely positive.– You’ll soon be able to send Arp, Chords, key splits, using multiple MIDI channels via both USB & DIN, enabling more creative control of hardware synths.

All these features will roll out within Q1.

💡 Want to test new Kontrol features early? Join the beta program here.

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NKS Hardware Partnerships & Komplete Kontrol Software

At NAMM 2025, we announced the NKS Hardware Partner Program, extending NKS functionality beyond NI hardware to other leading brands. This means better integration for more controllers you own within the NKS ecosystem.

Expanding Hardware Integration

We’re collaborating with Akai Professional, Korg, Nektar, M-Audio, and Novation, with more to come.

NKS MIDI Templates (Komplete Kontrol 3.4 – Early 2025 Release)

We’re launching pre-mapped templates for essential NKS parameters, accessible via the Komplete Kontrol Controller Manager. Supported keyboards include:

🎹 Akai Professional – MPK Mini MK3, MPK Mini Plus, MPK Mini Play, MPK 249
🎹 Korg – Keystage 49, Keystage 61
🎹 Nektar – Impact LX25+, LX49+, LX61+
🎹 M-Audio – Oxygen Pro series, Oxygen MKV series
🎹 Novation – FLkey 37, Launchkey 49, 49SL MKIII

Screenshot 2025-01-27 at 11.16.09 PM.png
Screenshot 2025-01-27 at 11.15.32 PM.png

Deeper Partner Hardware Integration (Q2 Beta)

We’re working toward deeper integration for partner keyboards in Q2. While it won’t match the seamless experience of NI hardware, it’s a big step toward expanding accessibility and improving workflows for more users.

💡 Own a supported keyboard? Join the Komplete Kontrol beta program here.

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Speak to you soon!

I’ll be back every quarter with updates like this. Development is always evolving, and while we can’t implement every request, your feedback plays a huge role in shaping these products.

We truly appreciate your passion, loyalty, and dedication to Maschine and Kontrol. Your input drives our decisions, and we’re committed to delivering the best experience possible.

Thank you for being part of this journey!

Chris & the Hardware Systems Leadership Team

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Comments

  • MaikR
    MaikR Member Posts: 377 Guru
    edited February 1

    Right before the weekend and the end of January 😉 😎

    Thanks for a very promising outlook, also for Maschine+.
    Really looking forward to the version 2 update beta release.

    This answers:

    https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/38221/will-there-be-a-version-2-update-to-maschine-or-only-a-version-3-upgrade

    And also:

  • raphaël_
    raphaël_ Member Posts: 31 Helper
    edited January 31

    thanks for the update Chris_NI

    a question: will the tempo per scene be implemented in the final "maschine 2" version for maschine+ standalone?

  • Sûlherokhh
    Sûlherokhh Member, Traktor Mapping Mod Posts: 2,986 mod
    https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/207982#Comment_207982

    Off topic, but now i finally get why NI dropped 'Kontrol' from the last two Traktor controllers' names. 🙃

    It's great to finally see things developing behind the scenes coming into view, in particular the hardware partnership. In a contracting market (in my humble estimation), collaboration is vital.

  • beisi
    beisi Member Posts: 14 Helper

    tnx for the update

    there were a LOT of feature requests in the survey and one of the top ones was automation, having some way to add curves etc, I did not read anything about that in this update…

    is there anything planned for updating automation for 2025? if not could you please at least enable the ability to record external midi CCs then one could use some other device to achieve this with current automation functionality?

    not understanding the decision to prioritize stem seperation to the standalone hardware… it has taken so incredibly long to make progress and there are so many other things on the list, why is this one so high up? am assuming the stem separation achievable on the HW would pale in comparison to a version in the software. Wouldn't having a better way to sync projects between the standalone HW and SW would be a higher value add for all?

  • ALDREAD
    ALDREAD Member Posts: 280 Pro

    anymore kontrol / maschine integration in the pipeline

  • Paul Opp
    Paul Opp Member Posts: 55 Member

    Thanks for the info update.

  • LostInFoundation
    LostInFoundation Member Posts: 4,772 Expert
    https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/207982#Comment_207982

    Please no. Don’t close this thread after 7 days (don’t close it at all…eventually stop the engagement, but don’t close it).

    I for one am waiting to answer to find a way to express my thoughts in a constructive way.

    And…in any case… closing a thread discussing things that have been waited for so long (even only some infos have been waited for ages) is not the right thing to do.

    If a guy like me who is visiting the forum every day (multiple times in a day) thinks that 7 days is too little, I can just imagine what the vaste majority of inscribed think.

    The vaste majority comes to the forum once in a while (which doesn’t mean they are not interested). How can they even interact if such an important thread gets closed in a breath?

  • Cretin Dilettante
    Cretin Dilettante Member Posts: 221 Pro

    I'm grateful to have a ballpark estimate for Maschine+'s 3.0 update, but still pretty disappointed that it's not coming sooner. I signed up for the beta, so hopefully it will be ready to test sooner than later. Tempo Per Scene is really important to me and I want to write a lot more music with Maschine in standalone mode.

  • growers
    growers Member Posts: 16 Member

    Thank you for the update, awesome news :)

    I just wanted to second the comment from @beisi above. I hope automation improvements for Maschine+ are high-up on the list for future updates!

  • Schmapps1
    Schmapps1 Member Posts: 143 Pro

    What does it mean that custom chords will only be useable on the Maschine + "in controller mode"?

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