Why You're WRONG About the Kontrol S-Series MK3 

Biggest Sale EVER: rebrand.ly/3b4950

With over 20 years in this industry, my advice is wait till they implement the feature you want. If not, you'll be waiting forever and update that may never come .

6 months…no updates. All deadlines missed. Accessibility features per NI have been placed on hold. Turns out we were all actually right this was not a good product.

There are 3 big features that matter to me are onboard KK, direct Kontakt with the (to me) wonderful light guide on many of those instruments, and Poly AT. 4 pedal inputs also a NICE bonus...

I'm happy that there will be better intergration with komplete kontrol. However, im disappointed that they took maschine intergration with the keyboard forcing me to buy another hardware. That is why I enjoyed mk2 not needing to buy mk3.

As a Komplete Kontrol user, and someone who got a M1 mbp, i know it will take a long time for all the instruments/FX to adopt the NKS2 format. When M1 native KK released, it rendered so many plugins useless because they hadn't done the whole VST2 to VST3 migration thing. It took over a year for Arturia/Waves to adopt it (shoutout to u-he who were the only company to adopt it pretty much straight away, and looks like they also adopted NKS2 straight away, too), and some third party companies haven't even done it to this day (Softube). I think I'll keep my MK2 to be used with my Maschine MK3, and maybe in a year or so I'll jump onto the S 61 mk3, the aftertouch is such a nice feature and I heard that the onboard "computer" will allow for graphics/animation rendering in plugins in the future, so that will definitely be a cool thing to have. But not getting one now because I know it wouldn't be fully adopted by all plugins (even all of NI plugins will take forever to adopt this).

Amazing video bro!!!!

I love when you transformed into Jim Carrey @6:02 😂🤪🤣🎹♥️

Thanks for the review. Unfortunately, the ration of hopeful future features to what is important to me is lop sided. No pads, no faders, no midi connectivity to hardwre (without conditions) no maschine integration etc. means I keep my s88 mk2 for along time. I have no confidence that NI will have what I need done in a reasonable time. I have poly after touch on three other keyboards. The only feature that really appeals to me is running Kontakt 7 without komplete kontrol. Not enough. This product is a miss.

Hey, what studio desk are you using, ? I need that kind of access to my machine, keyboard and controller.

Does polyphonic aftertouch work with MPE programmed synths and sound libraries?

Hey my brother thanks for the video I got a question, I kno the keyboard is not yet full capatiable with FL studio 21 but I wanna kno can u still browse/preview the sounds on the screen,use the chord/scale mode on it?

Man bro, I don’t care what no one says I absolutely love love love this midi Keyboard! I can’t wait for them to come out with a small portable version 😁 THIS IS THE FUTURE! I Loved this video and thanks for the info!!

mmmmm i hear you. my nearly 20 year old roland has got drum pads....we need it included no matter what you say.

Stay tuned for an in-action video that highlights a lot of questions you have asked. Coming tomorrow!

Is it true the controller doesn't have a dedicated arp button anymore and the arp function is available only with kontakt instruments?

Some interesting thoughts here. I'm toying with a purchase of S61 MK3, but initial tests of KK in Reaper are disastrous (frequent crashes etc), and support in Reaper is not forthcoming. Having said that, I take the sentiment about judging it on what it is, rather than than what it can be (and on that note, having some faith in upcoming features). It's hard to do that though, when you know you're about to spend £700+ on a piece of hardware that can't do much more than a basic MIDI controller keyboard. Maybe I'm being too pessimistic and need to have more faith - not in complete integration, but in a scenario where I can use the S61 MK3 in Reaper with KK / Kontakt, with Play Assist and MIDI dumping, all those lovely lights, all the foot pedals, poly aftertouch etc etc, and be able to use all the instrument / patch navigation and control. Hmm, got to make a decision!

Who's had their mk3 for more than 6 months already? Are there any issues with the keybed? Are the drivers all good now? Is the keyboard holding up okay with a lot of play ?

Does this keyboard work with k’ed kontakt? Please let me know

Any word about the latency with the OB computer?

Did they fix the noisy key bed?

Well what annoys me the most with this product is that they ruined my perfectly fine Komplete Kontrol MK1 for it for no reason. It still had the prettiest light guid out of all three and now it is just always blue and the auto mapping doesnt work anymore.

Important for blind musicians. DO NOT BUY THE MK3 THERE IS NO ACCESSIBILITY. I have been waiting many years for a manufacturer of midi and hardware keyboards to implement accessibility for vision impaired and blind musicians. After listening to the Komplete Kontroll accessibility vid I started saveing and 8 months later I finally got the money together and purchased the MK3 that came out during this time. However the MK3 has no accessibility implemented that left me floored as the only thing the MK3 offers me over my RP500 is a better feeling keybed. I have messaged Native instruments twice and still no reply, this adds to my very expensive frustration in Australia this is a $1300.00 frustration for the MK3 S61. I have been in contact with the music store that I purchased this from and they have contacted the suppliers and still nothing. The MK3 has been out for 6 months now, Where is the accessibility functionality for the MK3? This is the first time a product has had accessibility implemented in older versions and the latest and greatest has nothing to work with, this would be like Apple not including Siri in it's devices. The other frustrating thing is while waiting for the keyboard to be delivered I had purchased the spotlight Ireland software instrument so more money down the drain so far. Not happy Jan

Wow!

I think i have some issues with my new MK3. The keys sound very low (not like sound but like range) when I press my fingers on them. for example with Genos or MK2 from mid-range the sound appeared. on the MK3 there are times when the notes do not sound unless they are pressed all the way down. MK3 it’s setting in default key not hard1 or 2… I'm not a maestro but I've been playing the piano for about 20 years and I've never seen anything like this on any other model. I understood that it has aftertouch technology, but Roland also has it and the keys sound even if they are not pressed all the way down. I was trying aftertouch off but the same issue - any suggestion? i feel like going back to my mk2…

4:44 I'm counting on somewhere beteen 1st Sep and Halloween. For 14 it was 27th September '22, for 13 it was 1st October '20, For 12 it was 1st October '19, for 11 it was 1st September '16. This means there were 2, 1 and 3 years between, averaging on two years, so I'm thinking it will be early autumn '24. Since you made this video in 2023 that was indeed "next year". It now is said year. Also, I'm already counting on the discount in summer 2025, starting in late spring (june) . :-)

Solid video here m8!

with Midi2 just round the corner I will wait and see what new hardware that brings to the table. nks2 is a small but nice upgrade but I still find the original mk2 more than good enough. The mks2 is basically for Kontakt only without faders and knobs is almost useless for vst and daw control, I have other midi controllers for that ! Would I recommend it to anyone? £1250 ffor the 88 keys and you still have to buy a full copy of Kontakt on top, so my answer would be a resounding NO !! there are better options

I just got my confirmation email my 61 key coming can’t wait first real keyboard. I have fl studio but also logic. Fl studio my main plug in but in school now with logic can’t wait switch back lol fl gang has a better keyboard than fl key nice I can’t wait

I think you're seriously missing the point about Maschine integration - this has nothing to do with pads or faders... it's about removing highly useful functions that already existed in the current model of this controller, rendering major components of the NI ecosystem completely incompatible. In fact, most of the thing's they're working on right now is to try and bring back functions that we already had, versus actually providing new features

My bit ... not happy having to have a workaround because loyalty means nothing . I spent £1000 s from day one. When are they stopping all my shit now actually being shit ?

6:00 LMAO. Love it. IT's such a silly thing that people get upset about. I never used Maschine with S88 MK2. I own Studio and at one point MK3 for Maschine. ONe was for my drums, the other was for instruments. You really would want to think of Maschine as your drum machine. That said, having BOTH S88 and separate Maschine Studio? Best of everything. Very affordable complete solution. If you wanted, you didn't even need a separate DAW Maschine had everything there already. I do miss the JAM. Wish that would come back. The most creative I've been was when I owned the complete studio setup in NI.

NI is out of their game. They need a lot of work to be relevant again. In half a year if they don't make Maschine 2 in Maschine v3.0 or something that is a real DAW and not a VST to control your Maschine hardware. I will sell all NI stuff that I bought and switch to other much reasonably priced and better featured gear. FFS, even FL Studio has great controllers, not to mention Ableton Push for Live.

0:37 but I'm looking to get some free stuff in the future

A k a i...

Is this really a competitive offering in 2023? I have not used my S61 MK2 in forever because I got an Akai Force, which works better to control non-NI plugins in my DAW and is just as good as my S61 controlling the NI stuff. The difference is NI has to tell us the new board “has a computer in it,” while the Force doesn’t need to specify that because the functionality speaks for itself. Also, NI is not the company to trust with adding features after the fact. The market is moving forward without NI.

What is the point of this video?