# Komplete Kontrol mkII



## locash (Aug 19, 2018)

Is anyone using a new mkii komplete kontrol controller? 
Do you like the software? Does it work well w komplete libraries (spitfire, heavyocity etc)? Seems like so many are coming out w nks compatibility now. I tried it early on but it didn’t have much integration w plugins and libraries outside NI. Was looking at getting the 61mkii. (Looks like they don’t make an 88mkii yet). Wondering if composers who use Kontakt find the software useful for searcing libraries and adding plugins and searching presets etc.


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## HeliaVox (Aug 19, 2018)

MK 2 dropped MCU support, so be sure your daw is supported. MK 2 can’t do splits yet. 
But, if you are a heavy Kontakt user and your libraries support NKS, the light guide itself is amazing. 
I have an S88 MK 1 and I love it and the little ecosystem NI have set up. Fortunately for me, about 85% of my libraries support NKS. I just lucked out I guess. 
On the NI forums there is a subset just for Komplete Kontrol and once you wade through the hyperbole and noise, it’s quite informative, with bunches of helpful people.


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## HeliaVox (Aug 19, 2018)

As for searching presets, I favorite everything I think I might use, because when you’re looking at a library(or synth) all the presets are in alphabetical order. It may not be a big deal for you, but it’s irksome for me.


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## locash (Aug 20, 2018)

Thanks HeliaVox. Yes I believe Logic is supported. Most of my Kontakt libraries seems to be compatible with NKS so that's why I was checking it out. When i tried Komplete Kontrol v1 it couldn't search kontakt libraries and it was not great for anything outside the NI ecosystem. Seems that has changed.

Are your referring to the KONTAKT: Sampling, Programming & Scripting sub forum? I couldn't find a form dedicated to Komplete Kontrol. 

When you save as a favorite is that kontakt thing or are is that a feature in komplete kontrol?


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## Mornats (Aug 20, 2018)

Wow, the MkII dropped MCU support? That would rule out an upgrade from the MkI for me as I need that for transport controls in Reaper. Seems a backward step to me.


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## HeliaVox (Aug 20, 2018)

NI Community Forums: Komplete area: Komplete Kontrol S Series. That’s the path to the forum.
https://www.native-instruments.com/forum/forums/komplete-kontrol-s-series.354/

I save my favorites in Komplete Kontrol.


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## locash (Aug 20, 2018)

HeliaVox said:


> NI Community Forums: Komplete area: Komplete Kontrol S Series. That’s the path to the forum.
> https://www.native-instruments.com/forum/forums/komplete-kontrol-s-series.354/
> 
> I save my favorites in Komplete Kontrol.



Im sorry...i didnt read that it was on the NI forums. My bad. Thanks so much.


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## HeliaVox (Aug 20, 2018)

No worries! Good luck in your research!


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## Jaap (Aug 20, 2018)

I got a s61 mkII a while ago as extra keyboard and loving the features to be honest. Works great with the kontakt libraries that are NKS, I love to browse via the keyboard through some patches to get already some ideas (adding them to favorites is a good advice). Specially with libraries like Strikeforce the colours on the keyboard really shine!
I use it though mainly for all my synths as I have not fully integrated the Komplete Kontrol player on my big template, but on the few projects that I worked on and added a lot of Komplete Kontrol instances in Cubase, it works actually really smooth here. The CPU footprint does not seem to be very high (was worried about that).

I also like the quick basic controls like start, stop, play, record, metronome, scrolling etc. Didn't use the things like mixer though and have probably not fully taken advantage of everything.

I don't like the playing on the keyboard itself though, the keys don't feel very nice for me, but it does the job 

Good luck with the research indeed and with the decision making.


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## HeliaVox (Aug 20, 2018)

And that’s why it’s also important to try and play the keyboards in a store if at all possible. What’s great for me could be ok or horrible for someone else


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## lpuser (Aug 21, 2018)

locash said:


> Does it work well w komplete libraries (spitfire, heavyocity etc)? Seems like so many are coming out w nks compatibility now.



Just to add to what has been said above:

In my opinion, it is a no-go that Kontakt itself cannot talk directly to the Komplete Kontrol Keyboard. Unless you first open up an instance of the Komplete Kontrol (KK) plugin and the load Kontakt into it, there is no way to get Lightguide to work. This really breaks it for me ... it should be possible for Kontakt to transmit the very small light informations without having to load KK first.

Also, I own and use loads of presets which are (by default) not NKS compatible. This means that the browse feature on the keyboard always only shows NKS compatible presets and when I would really want to browse through everything there is, I am forced to go back to the plugins themselves. This alone makes the browser unattractive for me and has me using the standard browse/load features inside of the respective plugins.

The keyboard itself is ... well ... okay (although I love playing my older synths much better). However, the fact that I can start/stop/record/undo directly from the keyboard without having to use my Logic Control is nice.


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## locash (Aug 21, 2018)

lpuser said:


> Just to add to what has been said above:
> 
> In my opinion, it is a no-go that Kontakt itself cannot talk directly to the Komplete Kontrol Keyboard. Unless you first open up an instance of the Komplete Kontrol (KK) plugin and the load Kontakt into it, there is no way to get Lightguide to work. This really breaks it for me ... it should be possible for Kontakt to transmit the very small light informations without having to load KK first.
> 
> ...



Ah man. That’s what I felt like in V1 of the software. But I thought now w everyone getting on the NKS train it would be better. It seems like it’s only a bit improved. 

Also I’m guessing you can’t use KK if your instances are on a slave PC.


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## Loïc D (Aug 21, 2018)

I'm also very keen on buying a KK S61mkII.
From all the keybeds I've been trying (61 keys), lots of models, it's my favorite. Not the best, but in this range, it has a nice velocity response, aftertouch (which I don't use lots), and quite silent keys (my actual Nektar P4 is a nightmare).

Ok so, few weeks ago, I was talking at a NI event with a guy from the (French) support.
He confirmed that they're working on a far better integration between KK and Kontakt (also multitimbral mode).
And possibly VE Pro, since the question was raised by some users (the event was oriented towards media composers), but he quite was shy on this one.
Next update is expected in late autumn / winter.

Besides, he also confirmed that there's no benefit in using Kontakt in multitimbral mode.
On the contrary, Kontakt has been optimized lately in CPU & RAM usage per instance, so he advised to switch to monotrimbral (1 instance per instrument).


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## StillLife (Aug 21, 2018)

Had the MK1 and switched to the MK2. To me, both have been/are brilliant. I do have a lot of NKS libraries, with which it shines, but it is also possible to create user presets from non-nks libs (I have a lot of those from Modwheel and Sounddust) with your own knob configuration. Just takes a bit of work, but when it's done, you basicly have made an nks library (just without the nice thumbnail on the screen). They recently added support for effects. Still in its infancy, but already usefull to me. I also like how it talks to cubase: switch between tracks (from the keyboard) and see the lightguide change. If you happen to have Maschine than you can use the extra Maschine functions on the MK2: what a powefull combo that is.
I very much like the keys.
If it broke down somehow (I reckon it won't for a long time, it's quite sturdy - although the MK1 was actually sturdier than the MK2 is) i'd buy it again.
Good luck!


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## Jeremy Spencer (Aug 22, 2018)

And if you're an EastWest user, Play is now NKS compatible, works like a charm.


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## lpuser (Aug 22, 2018)

StillLife said:


> but it is also possible to create user presets from non-nks libs (I have a lot of those from Modwheel and Sounddust) with your own knob configuration



... but in my opinion, the process is much too cumbersome (or let me say that I really want to write music and not invest days to organize thousands of sounds). NI should - in my opinion - find a way to scan all the sounds for Kontakt, Massive etc. and at least display them for selection, even if there is no pre-listening available. That should not really be a hard task and would help so much.


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## Jeremy Spencer (Aug 22, 2018)

lpuser said:


> ... but in my opinion, the process is much too cumbersome (or let me say that I really want to write music and not invest days to organize thousands of sounds). NI should - in my opinion - find a way to scan all the sounds for Kontakt, Massive etc. and at least display them for selection, even if there is no pre-listening available. That should not really be a hard task and would help so much.



You mean just for finding sounds? It already works this way, no?


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## HeliaVox (Aug 23, 2018)

Wolfie2112 said:


> You mean just for finding sounds? It already works this way, no?


I think he's talking about non NKS library "patches". He wants to be able to browse non NKS patches in Komplete Kontrol.
That kinda defeats the purpose of having a standard.
But, you can always load in a non NKS plug in and browse the patches manually if need be.
Maybe if you email the developers of your plug ins for NKS support?


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## Jeremy Spencer (Aug 23, 2018)

HeliaVox said:


> I think he's talking about non NKS library "patches". He wants to be able to browse non NKS patches in Komplete Kontrol.
> That kinda defeats the purpose of having a standard.
> But, you can always load in a non NKS plug in and browse the patches manually if need be.
> Maybe if you email the developers of your plug ins for NKS support?



Ahhh, gotcha. I agree, that would be nice.


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## EvilDragon (Aug 23, 2018)

lpuser said:


> That should not really be a hard task and would help so much.



That is *absolutely NOT* an easy task at all.


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## will_m (Aug 23, 2018)

Does anyone know if there's a performance hit using KK as the wrapper for Kontakt?

I currently use one instance of Kontakt per instrument track in Cubase and have several hundred tracks so I'd be worried that any additional strain would be multiplied.


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## EvilDragon (Aug 23, 2018)

There's additional RAM load for sure. CPU-wise it's a very minimal overhead.


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## Reid Rosefelt (Aug 23, 2018)

There is a guy named Jason Absolom, who has a company called *Freelance Soundlabs. *
For very small fees, he can sell you files that make a lot of software synths, notably Omnisphere, act as if they had NKS when you run them within Komplete Kontrol. You can control them in exactly the same way as regular NKS VIs.

Jason's files work with the controls and patch changing, including all the sample sounds. None of the ones I have use the light guide, so I can't say if that works. Jason's "NKS" turns up in the User Section, not the NKS section.

At this point he supports:

Avenger
Novation BassStation and V-Station
Analog Lab 3
OPX Pro II
Synthmaster 1 and 2
Thorn
Korg Legacy
Electra 2
Icarus
Serum
Omnisphere 2,
Versions for Keyscape, Trilian, Bob Moog Tribute, and nearly all 3rd Party Libraries are available for additional fees
Sylenth 1
Tal-Bassline 101 and Tal-U-No-LX
Lethal
AIR Mini Grand, DB-33, Strike, Structure, The Riser, Hybrid 3, Xpand!2, Loom II, and Vacuum Pro





He regularly adds new synths and new features.

This is, of course, done without the approval of Native Instruments.


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## HeliaVox (Aug 24, 2018)

I have several of Jason’s products. I can’t speak highly enough of them. And if NI puts the tools out available for us to use, than we don’t need their permission to use them and do what we want, EULA notwithstanding.


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## Reid Rosefelt (Aug 24, 2018)

HeliaVox said:


> I have several of Jason’s products. I can’t speak highly enough of them. And if NI puts the tools out available for us to use, then we don’t need their permission to use them and do what we want, EULA notwithstanding.


If my memory is correct, Jason's first efforts in this area came out of a strand on the topic of using non-NKS instruments in Komplete Kontrol. He did the Omnisphere patches and it all took off from there.

I do have to say that there are instruments like Xpand!2 that had some interesting sounds, but bad UI. You had to open up drop-down menus over and over just to audition them, so I quickly moved on. With NKS it is a whole new ballgame. I really like it now.


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## lpuser (Aug 25, 2018)

EvilDragon said:


> That is *absolutely NOT* an easy task at all.



Relax.
And yes it should absolutely be ... I was not talking about automatically making "audio previews" or whatever, but simply doing the same thing which we all can *manually* do. Meaning: Open KK, load e.g. Massive, load one of my 3rd party presets which are not showing up so far, save them, put them under the "User" tab and ... there you go.
If you are trying to say that what I can do manually is not automatable, then something must be seriously wrong with KK.
And looking at tools like Autosampler etc. it should even be possible to (remotely) create audio phrases for 3rd party presets. NI has accomplished many things and such a task is certainly not impossible for their programmers.


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## lpuser (Aug 25, 2018)

Wolfie2112 said:


> You mean just for finding sounds? It already works this way, no?



If this works, then it must have been a huge oversight on my side and I need to apologize. So far, I cannot see any of my 3rd party presets in the browser on the keyboard unless I am saving them one by one manually. But if I have missed something, then it was all my bad ...


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