# NKS



## José Herring (Mar 18, 2020)

Anybody taking advantage of this? I'm kind of old school and still using midi learn and mouse, ect.. But, I think it's about time I started getting into some more hardware control. What are the advantages of this or is it just like another general midi scheme?

Also, I'm not into touch pads, ect.. The fewer glowing screens I have to look at the better imo. Would this be an alternative to that?


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## StillLife (Mar 18, 2020)

josejherring said:


> Anybody taking advantage of this? I'm kind of old school and still using midi learn and mouse, ect.. But, I think it's about time I started getting into some more hardware control. What are the advantages of this or is it just like another general midi scheme?
> 
> Also, I'm not into touch pads, ect.. The fewer glowing screens I have to look at the better imo. Would this be an alternative to that?


I am very happy with NKS. I use it with a KK 61 MK2 and Maschine. Helps tremendously in browsing for sounds/presets, and its great to have all parameters mapped to the knobs automatically. Not all 3rd party developers do very deep NKS, but even the basic implementation hugely improves workflow, imo. In fact, NKS-compatibility of a library has become a major factor in my buying decisions. 

I'm not sure what you mean with your second paragraph. The light guide (on KK 61) is part of NKS. It is brilliant, but does add a bit of glow... As do the - also brilliant - dual screens. The pads on the Maschine are, again, brillant, but colorful. Why don't you like colorful controllers? To me, the colors help me stay organized, and get inspired even.


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## José Herring (Mar 18, 2020)

StillLife said:


> I'm not sure what you mean with your second paragraph. The light guide (on KK 61) is part of NKS. It is brilliant, but does add a bit of glow... As do the - also brilliant - dual screens. The pads on the Maschine are, again, brillant, but colorful. Why don't you like colorful controllers? To me, the colors help me stay organized, and get inspired even.


I used to have a condition called synethesiia--I think its called. I use to hear sound and see colors in my mind. I've done a lot of work to overcome it so I no longer have it, but I've made it a habit of not having too many colorful flashing lights around my work space. In the past it would interfere with my perception of music. i'd see all these dancing lights and I'd have to close my eyes to actually hear the music after a while. 

By touch pad I meant Ipads, ect... Two computer screens are enough for me. So I like hardware stuff. The NKS ready controllers seem to be okay for me. Looking at a screen with lots of lights in it, I can now handle it better but it is still not preferable for me.

Thanks for your information. Very helpful.


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## gpax (Mar 19, 2020)

josejherring said:


> Anybody taking advantage of this? I'm kind of old school and still using midi learn and mouse, ect.. But, I think it's about time I started getting into some more hardware control. What are the advantages of this or is it just like another general midi scheme?
> 
> Also, I'm not into touch pads, ect.. The fewer glowing screens I have to look at the better imo. Would this be an alternative to that?


Nothing to be skeptical about, Jose. It’s an integrated workflow that has gained increasing support (to greater and lesser degrees, as StillLife mentioned), but is also not for everyone. I rely on the integrated hardware approach constantly

Personally, I use my Komplete Keyboard for locating keswitches or controlling parameters (or browsing for specific patches) in about a third of my workflow, depending on the complexity of the library I load. In some projects, at least half of the patches I instantiate are via NKS .


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## jbuhler (Mar 20, 2020)

I have an S61 and rarely use the NKS capabilities because I find the Komplete Kontrol software to be a pain. It is somewhat useful for things like soft synths with lots of presets and knobs to control. But for most instruments I find it easier to map a preset on the KK keyboard and use that with the plugin directly rather than routing through KK.


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## sostenuto (Mar 20, 2020)

jbuhler said:


> I have an S61 and rarely use the NKS capabilities because I find the Komplete Kontrol software to be a pain. It is somewhat useful for things like soft synths with lots of presets and knobs to control. But for most instruments I find it easier to map a preset on the KK keyboard and use that with the plugin directly rather than routing through KK.



Not as active as you with KK, but interesting to experiment. I have Axiom Pro 61 (sliders, knobs, pads) on one DAW; S49 on other. Likely many users will be attracted to one workflow and away from the other. Will have to focus more and sort which-and-why.


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## jbuhler (Mar 20, 2020)

sostenuto said:


> Not as active as you with KK, but interesting to experiment. I have Axiom Pro 61 (sliders, knobs, pads) on one DAW; S49 on other. Likely many users will be attracted to one workflow and away from the other. Will have to focus more and sort which-and-why.


When I bought the S61, I thought the KK software and workflow would be helpful, but for me it turned out to be not that helpful and just another layer of complexity. The browser isn't what it should be, and many of the other tools like the arpeggiator and such are better implemented in the DAW and in other plugins such as Unify. The automatic mapping is nice, when it works, but for those I generally just copy them over to a preset. 

Fortunately I like the feel of the S61 and many of the other features come in handy in just the normal midi mode.


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## sostenuto (Mar 21, 2020)

THX for helpful Reply ! Your level of involvement and utilization is quite sufficient to save me much time and effort to discover similar shortcomings. It is cool using two different, capable, keyboard/controllers daily. Kinda wish I had gone for S61 vs S49, but key-range limitations are workable. 

(edit) (1) caveat here: Running Win10 Pro /Reaper ..... which can potentially impact some experiences of others, especially Logic Pro, Cubase, xxxx

Regardsl


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## Reid Rosefelt (Mar 21, 2020)

One thing I have discovered is that many Kontakt and non-Kontakt libraries will have either the light guides and/or all the parameters mapped to the knobs even if they don't officially have NKS. So I always load everything up in KK standalone to see what's there. If at that point I don't feel the need to create my own template, I don't load them in KK in Cubase. 

Secondly, I use templates from Freelance Soundlabs to get the pre-mapped parameters, sound auditions, etc for non-NKS like Omnisphere, Keyscape, UVI, AIR, SONiVOX, Korg, etc. With something like M1, which has a very tiny UI, it makes a huge difference. 









NKS Libraries for Komplete / Maschine


Freelance Soundlabs NKS Libraries allow you to integrate VST instruments that do not currently have NKS compatibility with your Komplete Kontrol and Maschine software / hardware to browse, load and control the presets Libraries are created with a lot of attention to detail and community feedback...




freelancesoundlabs.com





Also, many don't know that even if you don't have a KK keyboard, you can still audition sounds with the arrow keys on your computer keyboard.


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## gsilbers (Mar 21, 2020)

I would vote for "meh" if there was a poll. im not happy ni dropped support or left kore2 and feel this is similar tech which at the end didnt seem like it a big thing. or could of just used regular midi cc or knobs from existing midi controller.s 

i think i prefer if logic would add that sort of right click move knob things that abelton live has/used to have instead of that quick thing that sucks. 

also this nks is also for live musicians or guys who check the presets out on their keyboard. since i have a drawer i would find it rather cumbersome. 

i do see the appeal though. having every developer map the most used paramters of each patch to a macro knob does seem cool. but for that i rather just keep using cc1, cc7, cc11 or i have u-he prodcuts already mapped to my virus ti so no matter what projct i open the mapping will remain. 
and most other synths just keep the modulations/macro on the mod wheel anyways. 

i see others like it, so its just my own opinion and maybe its just that i havent bought into this new thing... and since im alos old skool, chanign to use it is meh.


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