Komplete Kontrol mk 2

T he second generation of NI’s innovative
MIDI keyboard claims even deeper
integration than its predecessor (
212, 9/10)
with their own Komplete suite of instruments
and Maschine, as well as NKS-compatible
plugins from developers including Arturia, Rob
Papen and u-he. It’s available in 49- (£479) and
61-key (£559) versions, and while the Fatar synth
action keybed is unchanged, everything else
has been redesigned to match the
simultaneously-released Maschine Mk3 (
249,
10/10). It’s got the same sexy new look and feel,
and – more importantly – the same full-colour
LED screens (replacing Mk1’s monochrome text
displays), the same combination 4-way joystick/
rotary encoder/button, and a new layout
similarly reconigured for worklow parity.
Physical presence
Komplete Kontrol Mk2 is 23mm deeper from
front to back than its predecessor, as is to be
expected given the addition of the screens.
Happily, it’s now USB bus-powered, and we know
that many Mk1 users will be overjoyed at the
ejection of the pitch and modulation touchstrips
in favour of regular pitch and mod wheels and a
single freely-assignable touchstrip. The build
quality is exceptional – it feels and plays like a
premium instrument in every sense.
Native Instruments
Komplete Kontrol
Mk2
£479/559
With its all-new dual displays and improved integration with Maschine
and certain DAWs, this futuristic keyboard hits all the right notes
“The build quality is
exceptional – it feels
and plays like a
premium instrument
in every sense”
Komplete Kontrol Mk2 hooks into the
Komplete Kontrol software, which runs
standalone or as a VST/AU/AAX plugin. Without
that, it’s is just a conventional controller
keyboard, albeit CC-mappable using the free
Controller Editor software. Komplete Kontrol is a
browser for all your NI and NKS instruments,
essentially. Prior to Mk2, you had to look at it on
your computer monitor to see what you were
selecting, and use a single push encoder for
stepped navigation and loading. Now, the dual
screens replicate every bit of it in glorious
technicolour, and the main row of capacitive
knobs (touch to pop up menus) and 4D encoder
give ‘parallel’ access to a series of hierarchical
selection ilters – it’s a vast improvement. Hit the
Browse button and the left screen shows your NI
and NKS-compatible plugins as thumbnails,
while the right lists their presets and banks.
Select a single instrument or category (drums,
samplers or synths), and ilter the resulting
EDITOR’S CHOICE
94 / COMPUTER MUSIC / December 2017
> reviews / native instruments komplete kontrol mk2
CMU250.rev_kkmk2.indd 94 11/10/2017 14:45