NI Komplete Kontrol S61 MkII

V
ery few companies
oversee a software
product collection
as diverse and
comprehensive as
Native Instruments.
Over the years, its
libraries and instrument collections
have expanded to cover so many
musical genres that musicians,
producers and composers of all styles
and descriptions have been seduced.
Whilst NI have, through the years,
also designed hardware to harness the
power of some of their software titles,
incarnation’s pitchbend and modulation
sliders have been replaced by more
traditional (and more controllable)
wheels, whilst beneath these, a
ribbon-style slider is adorned with a
discreet row of lights to show current
position. The whole of the upper
surface is redesigned too, with a
broader collection of buttons and
rotaries which hint heavily at the
extended functionality NI hope to
provide through Komplete Kontrol;
not just of supported software
libraries, but over your host DAW too.
Round the back you’ll find
connections as follows; a USB 2.0
port which provides bus power as well
as communication with your
computer, a twin pair of MIDI ports,
and two pedal controller sockets.
Whilst it hasn’t been updated since
the original version of Komplete
Kontrol, it’s still worth drawing
attention to the aftertouch-enabled
Fatar keyboard, which is pleasingly
musical to play. One last hardware
consideration: at present, only the two
‘middle-sized’ keyboards from the
Komplete Kontrol range have been
updated. We’re yet to see what NI have
planned for the baby of the range
– the S25 – and the flagship S88.
To use your Komplete Kontrol
keyboard, you’ll need to register it via
the Native Access portal, which
enables an optional download of a
software bundle called ‘Komplete 11
Select’ (see the next page for what’s
included). Thereafter, Komplete
Kontrol has been designed foremost
for driving the initial, creative stages
of building a track, and many of its
new functions have this in mind.
None more so than the Browser, which
allows you – as in the Komplete
Kontrol software – to narrow a sound
until Komplete Kontrol’s release in
2014, never had such an integrated
solution been released. Now, Komplete
Kontrol returns with a considerable
list of enhancements, all driven by a
focus on even deeper integration into
your creative workflow.
Anyone familiar with the original
Komplete Kontrol hardware will see
immediate changes on MkII. The
most arresting of these is the addition
of a pair of high-res colour screens
whose functions switch to reflect your
choice of operation. In the bottom
left-hand corner, the previous
THE PROS & CONS
+
NI titles and
NKS-ready content
easier to access
and audition
Improved workflow
from sound browsing
to recording,
automation writing,
transport and
parameter control
Maschine integration
-
No sliders,
making in-DAW
mixing less intuitive
Only at its most
powerful if
you’re working
with NI software
Anyone familiar with the
original hardware will see
immediate changes on MkII
NI Komplete Kontrol S61 MkII | Reviews
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FMU324.rev_ni_komplete.indd 83 10/4/17 12:17 PM