Ableton Forum

Am looking for a new midi controller and looking at Arturia Keylab range / Komplete Control Series.

Anyone using either of these with Arturia v collection? I'm trying to understand if either automatically map to controls of each individual synth or if they all need to be assigned individually (or if there are midi scripts out there for each individual ones).

Arturia stuff maps to their own synths only and it can even change presets from the keylab.

The Kontrol series maps plugins that support the NKS standard, as well as all NI catalog.

The Kontrol S has way better keys.

login wrote:Arturia stuff maps to their own synths only and it can even change presets from the keylab.

Curious about this... I'm looking at a Keylab myself. According to Arturia's website, the sliders, encoders, buttons, and transport controls are assignable to any DAW, and several of them are supposedly assignable to any vst plugins.

Can you share more details from your experience? I'm getting ready to pick one up and would hate to get stuck with something I can't use.

You can also save and load your own presets via the NI KK keyboards, once you save a preset wthin Komplete Kontrol its there to use. Also pretty soon 3rd party NKS enabled FX will be loadable with the KK keyboard too.

login wrote:Arturia stuff maps to their own synths only and it can even change presets from the keylab.

The Kontrol series maps plugins that support the NKS standard, as well as all NI catalog.

The Kontrol S has way better keys.

Thanks for reply...
Just to further delve...

When you hook up keylab, it will automatically assign everything on each synth from v collection?

If the plugin is NKS (as all Arturia ones are) then the KK will automatically assign on each synth?

Or is there further work to be done in setting up own templates / mapping...

cheers

Ok think I can see that by opening Keylab, that gives basic control to all V-Collection synths under one hood with Midi pretty clear to see.

Shame the keys aren't so great - heard this a lot.

Just need to watch a few more vid's on the KK

The KK can do quite a bit and is probably one of the best for finding and tweaking sounds from a "large" variety of VSTs. It then can be switched to Midi mode so you can map the controls as you would any other Midi controller. Works well with Live.

It is, however, made by NI for NI stuff primarily and the uptake of NKS has been slow and in some cases will "never" be officially implemented by vendors (Spectrasonics for one).

I have managed to create NKS compatibility for a heap of synths (including Spectrasonics, Air, Sylenth, SynthMaster, Korg Legacy.....) and other users have some scattered around the traps too so it is well supported by users. The sound browser feature (that plays a small sample of each preset as you browse) is actually a very handy tool when trying to find a sound as it makes things super fast without having to constantly load and switch instruments to find what you are after.

The biggest downside is it is hardware created and (cough... supported) by NI. Unlike Ableton that have constant updates and features and a decent Beta test group, NI seem to have their own narrow vision of what they see as useful features and no amount of people shouting that things need to be improved/fixed seems to matter. As mentioned previously, they are adding FX to the KK even though in 4 years on the forums I have heard exactly zero people asking for FX to be possible but still you cannot create keyboard splits on the MK2 (though you can on the MK1) or do anything useful with the touch strip.

I still have an MK1 keyboard simply because it works just fine and I have seen too many frustrated users with the MK2 that cannot use features that were on the MK1. NI are just far too slow with everything they do.. support, software updates, fixes. It's a constant wait fest and that is probably the biggest thing to be aware of.

The arturia, as any MIDI controller, can be mapped using midi learn if the plugin has that functionality. I was just referring to automapping.

After looking at reviews for Arturia, M-Audio, and Novation on SoundOnSound, I'm starting to think I need to reconsider an Impulse61. I have an Impulse25 and have always thought it was pretty decent, but they do tend to be a bit bulkier than other controllers I've seen and the key action doesn't have quite as much weight as I'd like. Still... it maps easily and includes aftertouch. /shrug

I prefer the keyboard controller to be as simple as it can, like the Roland A49, and add something like Push for controlling the DAW:

But if you want other option: Roland APro line as nice keys.

login wrote:I prefer the keyboard controller to be as simple as it can, like the Roland A49, and add something like Push for controlling the DAW:

But if you want other option: Roland APro line as nice keys.

That looks like a pretty nice option. It's about 1/3 more expensive than the other controllers I've looked at, but if the keyboard feel is right, it might be worth it to me.

Thanks for the suggestion!

Richie Witch wrote:

login wrote:I prefer the keyboard controller to be as simple as it can, like the Roland A49, and add something like Push for controlling the DAW:

But if you want other option: Roland APro line as nice keys.

That looks like a pretty nice option. It's about 1/3 more expensive than the other controllers I've looked at, but if the keyboard feel is right, it might be worth it to me.

Thanks for the suggestion!

I see you own Kontakt, just the integration of that with the NI KK S MK2 range is a no brainer.

jestermgee wrote: It is, however, made by NI for NI stuff primarily and the uptake of NKS has been slow and in some cases will "never" be officially implemented by vendors (Spectrasonics for one).

I've been a bit out of the loop with what's going on in the software world lately, is this right?

Splurge wrote:

login wrote:Arturia stuff maps to their own synths only and it can even change presets from the keylab.

The Kontrol series maps plugins that support the NKS standard, as well as all NI catalog.

The Kontrol S has way better keys.

Thanks for reply...
Just to further delve...

When you hook up keylab, it will automatically assign everything on each synth from v collection?

If the plugin is NKS (as all Arturia ones are) then the KK will automatically assign on each synth?

Or is there further work to be done in setting up own templates / mapping...

cheers

You can make most plugins NKS compatible even if not officially supported with just a few tweaks - almost any plugin can be learnt and mapped and then saved as a template - there's a load of NKS templates for third party plugins here:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ulf40cicmwzu ... ChOwa?dl=0

In midi mode it can also control Live transport and DAW functions using the script NI made for it, but to control Live devices you need to adapt the standard Live user template like this:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/h6tjfxfxcpb47 ... e.zip?dl=1