It took me a minute to decide weather this was a keyboard that runs plugins, or a control surface that had keys. I’m going to say this is less a keyboard and more a multifaceted plugin controller. And many others are buying it for the same reason.
The real value of this thing is it talks to EVERYTHING. And not the same way M-audio and or Akai do. Its much deeper. It uses a Protocol called NEK. With hui, you assign a knob on the surface to a parameter in the DAW. That’s pretty much it. NEK allows the controller to see deeper into the architecture or the software the same way Maschine and Push do. You can scroll and bank with a browser. You can see entire sets and groups of plugins and load them from the control surface. Then you can bank through presets and saved patches, while seeing the patch names on the display. Novation’s automap can’t even do that.
Also, when you load a drum set, the keys automatically color code to kit pieces. And this is with ANY nek software. Not just native instruments. Kicks automatically show up red, cymbals cyan, toms orange, and snares are yellow. Makes it VERY easy to find kit pieces over a massive drum map.
Another interesting note, Logic and Cubase/Nuendo have bought into the NKS code mappings. So this thing can control more daw features than your typical HUI device, which usually controls some rotors, faders, mutes, solos, and that’s it.
What makes this a very good fit for me, though it may not for some others, is that a large percentage of my keyboard work is done in Komplete Ultimate, the Arturia Suite, U-he (Zebra), Spectrasonics (Omnisphere and Trillian) and Rob Papen. The fact that those five synth world giants all signed up for NEK control is pretty significant to me.
Initial thoughts…we’ll actually play with it tomorrow!
I want one of these. I don’t need a full 88 key on my desk, I have a separate midi controller for that. But 90% of my vsti stuff is kontakt, and this thing would make my life a lot easier. I still can’t justify buying one.
There’s like…three different levels of control. And this is my own made up hierarchy, so nothing official.
Basic stuff - Hui, mackie protocol. Where a fader on your console moves a parameter on a plugin or in your DAW.
Advanced stuff - Where programs like Automap, Eucon and Nuage can do parameter moves + intelligent mapping + access menu commands. And you get visual feedback on your physical controller.
Real advanced stuff - Where something has that all that plus browser and editor stuff. Automap and Eucon can do just about anything, EXCEPT bank and browse through applications and folders, and query and sort the data according to the needs of the software program. So it can see ‘all drum samples that are snare related’, or it can query ‘all Synths patches inside of Arturia Minimoog that are monophonic’. This would be like the Slate Raven, Ableton Push, and Komplete Kontrol. The Eucon based stuff definitely CAN NOT do that.
It doesn’t mean something that falls in category 3 is any better. It just a different way of thinking about the machine handles information.
So the answer is yes…you can control native Cubase plugins, third party plugins, third party instruments, and browser stuff, but the NI doesn’t let you access the DAW’s menu commands.
The non-weighted keys on the smaller models are WAY nicer than the M Audio, Akai, Arturia keybeds. That Arturia one is CHEAP plastic!! I went there to buy the Arturia one too, but passed on it once I saw how poorly it was built.
Wait a little while and snag one off eBay for $150. lol. Yay for used.
Day 2. I found out you can’t assign switches. Or at least I don’t know how. So on a Moog Voyager for instance, you have a 2 position switch (on and off) that syncs oscillators, toggles note glide, etc… I can’t figure out how to map that. And its a problem.
So I tried hooking up a Korg Nano Controller to see if I could use the mute and solo buttons on the channel strips to send the commands. Yeah, it works, but it doesn’t seem to remember the mappings when you close it and restart it, even if you save the patch. I also wanted to assign the sliders on the Nano Controller to the drawbars on the B3. That doesn’t work so good either.
The 3rd party plugins (as in anything not NI) are called up form a menu on at the top of the interface. They don’t show up in the browser like I thought they would.
I also had to update everything else to get it to work properly. I had to install the new update to Pro Tools, because the NI kept crashing for some reason. And then when I tried to combo it with UAD processors, it crashed again. So I had to update the UAD plugs. Some just don’t work even when fully updated. The Arturia Farfisa crashed Komplete Kontrol at startup. So I had to go in and disable it. Also, many of the parameters, even like basic sliders and knobs are not even visible in Omnisphere, and you can’t map them manually. So the control over the plugins was a lot more limited than I was led to believe.
I also had to re-arrange the studio. I needed to switch to a 55" screen because if I’m sitting infront of the keyboard, and there’s also a mixer behind that, the screen I had was too small to see. It put me a good 7-8 feet away. And its not like watching TV. The controls on Massive or Omnisphere are a lot smaller than you’d think even on a 45". So when I still couldn’t see them quite well enough, I set up a keyboard/synth rig on a desk behind me. So from the chair, I can turn 180 and I’m infront of a different screen with a different keyboard. I put the crane song on a rolling music stand so I can reach the master fader.
But I have it to where I can use it…as soon as these ribs get done on the charcoal grill I’m gonna start messing with that track I’ve been trying to get to for two days now lol. I’m also gonna sync the keyboard to my NI Maschine if I have time later tonight.
