I would expect so.
Sent from my iPhone
On Dec 24, 2023, at 6:04 PM, joestephen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
Also, Chris,
If they update the software for the Mk3, will it be backward compatible with the MK2?
Thanks
Joe
From: midimag-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <midimag-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Chris Ankin
Sent: Sunday, December 24, 2023 8:54 PM
To: midimag@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [freelists-midimag] Re: anyone with both Komplete Kontrol and Arturia who can give preferences for either
Komplete Kontrol is the way to go if you want to use more than just Arturia plugins, Komplete Kontrol has literally hundreds of third party NKS packs, Omnisphere, Korg Collection, Arturia, Spitfire Audio, Heavyocity, Project Sam to name just a tiny minority, and there is a website called Freelance Soundlabs where you can find and purchase at very reasonable cost many more, as well as lots for free on the Native Instruments user forum.
Admittedly I may be slightly bias having worked and contributed to the ongoing accessibility development at Native Instruments for the past 8 years, but Komplete Kontrol is pretty much recognised by blind musicians globally as the standard.
It’s not perfect by any means, there are holes where accessibility is frustrating, and we have community based solutions on both Windows and MAC to help address these shortfalls.
I have an email list for which you are welcome to join, just email me your preferred address and I can happily add you.
I also have my website at www.kk-access.com where I provide news, reviews, and tutorials on the Komplete Kontrol eco system.
Chris
Sent from Mail for Windows
From: midimag-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <midimag-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> on behalf of joestephen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx <joestephen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, December 24, 2023 7:13:46 AM
To: midimag@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <midimag@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [freelists-midimag] Re: anyone with both Komplete Kontrol and Arturia who can give preferences for either
Hi all,
It also sounds like if I want mainly authentic sounding real instruments, e.g. strings, orchestral, piano, NI seems to be the way to go. From what I understand, Arturia’s strength is not in sampled instruments but replicating classic synths, which for the most part I’m not that interested in except perhaps for some nice rich synth pads and mellow sounding 80s style fm synth. I’m not into hip-hop, house or anything like that so unless it will sound good with an acoustic guitar, its unlikely to be of interest to me.
Correct me if I’m wrong.
Thanks
Joe
From: midimag-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <midimag-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Keith Hinton
Sent: Sunday, December 24, 2023 5:27 PM
To: midimag@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [freelists-midimag] Re: anyone with both Komplete Kontrol and Arturia who can give preferences for either
Hi Joe,
I hope that the following thoughts help you make an informed decision, or at least, that reading this, gives you some serious things to think about, before making any firm decision one way or the other.
Let's get some realistic expectations out of the way.
I would first of all say that it really depends on what you're wishing to do, as far as which keyboard from either company that you are considering going for.
Komplete Kontrol keyboards are not for everyone, and I would also say that neither is Arturia.
And this is totally okay.
Not everyone may like me saying this, but this is a fact of life, with any hardware or software considerations, really.
If you're intention is to have the best control possible over Native Instruments, and third party products that use the NKS system, then, the Komplete Kontrol keyboard is certainly going to work best for this, because this is what it is primarily designed for.
Although, you can certainly use it as a general MIDI controller as well, although not everything necessarily is going to be accessible.
Accessibility with both companies is generally a work in progress thing, as far as I understand it, with no ETA on when full accessibility, such as with screen reader access to things, will generally be fully implemented, though work is ongoing in any case as far as I know behind the scenes at least.
The Arturia keyboards even though I have never owned one, from what I've researched, are really great at controlling the Arturia products specifically.
That's it's greatest strength, and Analog Lab V or whatever it is called now, does have a speech access system that is similar to Native Instruments and how they do things in some ways.
I do know that the Keylab series of keyboards is often used by folks who work mostly with Arturia instruments full time.
That's really what they were designed for primarily.
Though I'm sure that they also, can be used in general as MIDI controllers.
With the Native Instruments line of keyboards, by far their main strength, is tying into the NKS (Native Kontrol Standard), ecosystem, which is a speech based only system for accessing what would otherwise be instrument parameters and such, for both virtual instruments, and optional FX as well, that have been created to be used with this accessibility platform.
Not everything is necessarily NKS ready, some products depending on what you might wish to use still use old parameter mappings, and some parameter mappings, just flat out suck as far as over all parameter access goes, also, depending again, on what you get your hands on.
Some mappings are better than others, so let's be clear, there is a down side to this entire nKS thing as well.
It can certainly make your day, when you happen to be using products with great parameter mappings.
But it can certainly break your day altogether, also, when the reverse happens.
For many things, that are NKS, we really have no choice at all, but to use these things from within Komplete Kontrol at the moment, for the best experience possible.
Keep in mind that parameter mapping is totally manufacturer dependent, and we cannot create or modify these things at all for ourselves at this time, and who knows if we'll ever get access to this functionality, as end users, Native Instruments is aware of this wish, but it isn't presently a high priority for them as far as I know.
Also, do keep in mind one other major thing, without being too technical about this, I'll just say this up front, as a warning to you in general, that if you do go the NKS route, that the other thing that ultimately determines as to if we can even get detailed parameter mappings for anything at all, beyond the manufacturers, is unfortunately the Native Instruments quality assurance team.
They alone, have a final approval, or outright denial process that we do not have any say in generally as end users that even goes above the wishes of instrument manufacturers.
So this means, that they can even deny a manufacturer using their NKS system as developers, especially if they're tied into Native Instruments by software licensing, as many of them are, from allowing us access to parameter maps in general, at their soul discretion.
If the quality insurance team decides that a parameter mapping has too many parameter pages, and needs to be reduced to say just one, or two, then they can do this and if the manufacturer wishes to stay an NKS developer, then they'll have to comply in such a situation, especially if they're licensed to Native Instruments as a developer.
The only exception to this would be third party developers who aren't under a licensing situation with Native Instruments, since they wouldn't be subject to the QA team then.
I actually have a good example to illustrate this point.
There was a time a few years ago, where they commanded all manufacturers for example, who were for the vast majority, all developers under licensing terms with them,to have parameter mappings reduced to only one or two pages, or possibly up to four maximum, in some cases for whatever reason.
While they have, fortunately, in very recent times, appear to have reversed this restriction, I think that the point illustration that I gave does need to be carefully considered.
Because once you start investing into lots of products, third party or otherwise, it is likely that many will be under Native Instruments licensing requirements to operate.
And thus, these manufacturers will be entirely at the will of the QA team and their wishes with any updates that they may wish to make to NKS mappings.
And, even if the manufacturers wish to provide us with very detailed mappings, the QA folks may refuse.
And as far as present priorities for Native Instruments go at least,
right now, they're trying to migrate a bunch of things that were never intended for any accessibility, into something that we might be able to use fully one day, but that's still quite a long way off as far as I know, and much about what they're up to is still not really publicly available information at this time for obvious reasons.
Like I said, unfortunately, this is all a work in progress situation, with no guarantees of when we'll actually see things or dates promised or anything like that.
So, with that in mind, if you do go the Native Instruments route, do understand that some things, like Komplete Kontrol, and the Controller Editor program, for example, especially when ran as stand alone programs, aren't really that accessible at all to us.
The Controller Editor program, is how you'd create knob assignments to the hardware, for things that you wish to use, that are not accessible through the Komplete Kontrol system.
Hopefully, I have been able to provide you with some constructive thoughts, that at least, help you consider some things before taking the plunge in either direction.
I went into this stuff with both eyes open, really, when I personally chose to go with Native Instruments back in 2017, but even I was quite shocked to recently learn about the QA team at Native Instruments having this much power over as to if we can even get decent NKS parameter mapping access, with the vast majority of manufacturers who develop products for their NKS platform.
On 12/23/2023 9:54 PM, joestephen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
Hi All,
I have the possibility of getting either the Komplete Kontrol s49 MKii on sale or the Arturia Keylab 49 Mkii on sale. Does anyone who has owned both have any preferences or advice in terms of which one has better accessibility, better keyboard feel, etc?
Thanks
Joe
