Native Devices’ Kontrol S series MIDI keyboards are a favourite amongst producers and musicians for his or her stable construct and tight integration with the corporate’s devices like Kontakt and Massive X. This yr the controllers are getting a reasonably vital improve that pushes the {hardware} to new heights and tightens the combination with the corporate’s flagship software program.
Bodily there are few instantly apparent variations on the Kontrol S MK3. For one the stark matte black aesthetic has been toned down a bit. Do not get me unsuitable, it is nonetheless a largely black affair, however there are some extra lights and coloured labels have been added to a number of the buttons. The contact strip has additionally been moved above the pitch and mod wheels which, may look like a minor tweak, however vastly improves playability. It might typically get in the way in which and it is one thing that a whole lot of Native Devices’ clients complained about, so it is good to see the corporate listening to suggestions.
The opposite evident distinction is the display. The place the MK2 had two small, however useful screens, the MK3 has one giant hi-res display. It is vibrant and crisp and straightforward to view from any angle. Lots of the graphics and UI parts have been up to date to make the most of the brand new show, too. You’ll be able to’t do all the things in your DAW on the keyboard, the way in which you may with say with an Ableton Push, however you are able to do virtually something inside Komplete Kontrol. The display means that you can flick through all of your Native Devices plugins and sound packs, and even many third celebration VSTs, like these from Arturia, full with paintings. After which change parameters, full with visible suggestions, till you get the sound you are on the lookout for.
In the event you’d slightly not take care of the extra overhead of Komplete Kontrol, the keyboard can faucet instantly into Kontakt 7. Frankly I a lot most popular this. Whereas having the ability to browse, load and tweak presets, no matter instrument instantly from the keyboard is good, it may be somewhat overwhelming. And there’s a contact extra lag loading Kontakt soundbanks once you’re going by the intermediary of Komplete Kontrol. (They usually open sluggish sufficient on my four-year-old Dell as is.)
The eight knobs beneath the display provide you with fast entry to quite a few parameters primarily based on what instrument you have loaded. And in Kontakt, there’s extra flexibility as a result of they will differ primarily based on preset, which hundreds with a efficiency mode by default. These are the eight parameters deemed most essential for reside tweaking. However you possibly can dive deeper by hitting a button above the display to change to edit mode the place you possibly can web page by the entire set of choices and get actually detailed designing a patch. All of that is due to the brand new NKS 2.0 (Native Kontrol Commonplace) platform.
Two of the opposite main modifications to the S Sequence are rather less apparent. For one there is a new unibody shell that, may not make any sensible distinction, however does give era a barely extra stable really feel. The capacitive encoders and pitch and mod wheels are all produced from machined aluminum as properly. It is a keyboard that feels worthy of an expert studio.
Extra thrilling although, is the brand new keybed which was developed in coordination with Fatar and brings polyphonic aftertouch to the Kontrol collection. Whereas there aren’t a whole lot of Native Devices’ plugins that take full benefit of this but, it does add a little bit of future proofing to the lineup. With MPE gaining in popularityThe firm needed to do one thing to maintain tempo with the time.
It feels nice too. I examined the Kontrol S49 which, like its barely larger sibling the S61, has a semi-weighted keybed. The journey for aftertouch is brief, however satisfying and on the whole it responds to taking part in naturally permitting you to get a whole lot of nuance out of your taking part in. The S88 nonetheless could have a full hammer motion keyboard which may attraction extra to severe piano gamers.
Lastly, it is price noting that there’s loads of connectivity on board as properly. Clearly, there’s MIDI over over USB-C, however there’s additionally devoted five-pin MIDI ins and outs, plus 4 pedal enter jacks (one maintain, one expression and two assignable).
The Native Instruments Kontrol S Series MK3 keyboards can be found for preorder immediately beginning at $749 for the S49, $849 for the S61 and $1,299 for the S88. All three are anticipated to start out delivery someday in October.
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