Hello,
i’m searching for a nice Keybed for a very long time.
I really love the keybed of my Kronos 61 but there are no other
Keybeds like that on the MIDI-Keyboard Market.
Last time i got my Hands on a NI KK MK2 61 and it felt great.
The NKS Features are looking great.
If i think of the endless times searching for the right patch, and now there is everything categorized.
Now i like to know if or which of the great Features are available for us Cantabile Users.
i would be glad if someone could share his with it?
I also don’t know if the MK2 will bring additional value. Are the Screens usable within Cantabile?
I use both a Mk1 S-88 (as there are no Mk2 versions of that yet) and a Mk2 S-49 every single day in performance using Cantabile 3 Performer. They work flawlessly and feel great! The browser breaks you away from necessarily having to think in terms of specific instruments - you can go by their categories and simply browse not even caring which instrument is loading. (Of course, with slow-loaders you need to plan a bit and commit, but for exploration it is fantastic!) They now have a preset auditioning system (“Previews”) that sounds the instrument’s patch for a few seconds when you click on it playing a short .ogg file - or you can turn that feature off for during performance when you are changing things on-the-fly and don’t want those previews sounding.
I have other keyboards (and use them also for every show), but these two are my centerpieces.
The automatic labeling of editable parameters on the knobs is very nice, though I do not take advantage of that feature as much as I should like to yet. But all-in-all a very well built and versatile device.
I ve read somethiong about the MIDI-Mode and that there all of the good features are gone.
And that Only Midi Channel 1 is available?
Is it possible to use it with the Kontakt Software within Cantabile so i can benefit from the Screen and so on?
What’s with the Instuments that do not have a NKS integration?
Is there the possibility to play them and create bindings für different controllers?
As it is coming in on its own port, I found it did no longer matter that it only used MIDI channel 1, since you are grabbing from the port first and the MIDI channel second anyway. (You can now change the MIDI channel anyhow, FWIW.)
Good features gone? Don’t know what that means entirely, but they ARE working on the Mk2 Controller Editor feature which has become integrated into Komplete Kontrol rather than being a separate entity. I would not get it to be a general MIDI controller - it is made to shine with all the NKS capable stuff out there.
Kontakt is integrated into Komplete Kontrol (the interface that talks to the screen, knobs and buttons on the controller), and several Kontakt instruments appear in the browser list as if they were their own item, not forcing you to load Kontakt first. Same goes for several Reaktor 6 instruments. (Not all, but many powerful ones.)
You can create bindings with just about any plugin that is non-NKS simply using MIDI Learn. There is no need to edit the controller for that - the assigned MIDI controller numbers are all open-field ones. I thought I’d use the MIDI controller editor much more, but found it entirely unnecessary. And for key-splits, transposing, etc. I definitely go to Cantabile for that sort of thing, as it is malleable state-by-state.
I have the Akai MPK249 and MPK225 for doing wild stuff with!
After reading and looking videos i learned that one can switch between KK-Mode and midi-Mode on the fly.
Earlier i misunderstood that. I thought you can only be either in Midi mode or KK-Mode after Powerup.
I like to have the different Cantabile Patch-Volumes on the Knobs and the Switching between Live-Mode and Notes-sceen, Next and Prev Song, Transpose up/down on the Buttons.
Am i right that i have to switch to Midi Mode in this Case?! and for Editing the VST-Instruments i’m switching back to KK-Mode?
Yes, that would be correct. In KK mode, you are communicating via a special protocol with the Komplete Kontrol software to access the VST instruments that have focus, so you would simply use shift-instance to switch to MIDI and use the CC controls for Cantabile.
Ok, so that looks nice but damned, i stumbled across AKAI Advance and VIP.
As i can see, the Patches are Categorized there too.
But here it will be possible to have the Volume Meters on the Display and Colorcoded Instruments.
It would be great to have all Information on the little Display.
On the downside i have to organize my Sounds (Split, Transpose, layer etc) within the VIP Software.
But maybe this is not a great drawback as all bindings are still usable within Cantabile?
Still, the Keybed from KK is far better for my taste. I find the Advance is very springy.
I thing i’m going to the Store for another test…again
