Native Instruments is working on version 3.4 of Komplete Kontrol and with it many older midi controllers from AKAI, KORG, M-Audio, Nectar and Novation will become NKS (Native Kontrol Standard) compatible. Source: 2025 Outlook: Maschine, Kontrol, and NKS Hardware Partnerships — Community
A little astonishing: though Arturia’s VST plugins are NKS compatible its hardware will be not. At least Arturia is not listed as a hardware partner.
Obviously, NKS will become obsolete with Midi 2.0 which will become part of Win11 in mid 2025. But hardware wise it is still not widely supported. The same will be true for VST3 plugins. So NKS still has some live left.
But in case of Arturia’s Keylab it is not prepared for Midi 2.0. So NKS support would be a big plus.
As far as i can read, then it’s only about having pre mapped templates for things you already can map manually today in the Komplete Kontrol software with any midi CC controller.
Can you read there is more to it - at least at this point in time?
Thing is, manual mapping is limited with Komplete Kontrol at the moment. For example, you can’t map your rotary encoder as NI would do to scroll through the presets and preview them. As Loopop showed in a video this will work with NKS partner midi controllers.
The NKS roll-out will happen in two stages. Stage one is just the mapping, proprietary functions included and stage two will be a backchannel if your midi controller can show the parameter name like with Novation SL MKIII or KORG Keystage.
I think a question to be asked is - why dont NI make it possible to manually map any midi CC controller to that scroll parameter?
If Arturia for free are allowed to make such a template and it won give them any trouble or problems of any kind, then i would say yes do that. I’m not sure that’s the case, but i can be wrong. The article mention nothing about what it mean to partner up in this regard.
I encountered this question over years in different forums. I think, it was part of NI to ensure people would buy their hardware.
There was also an interesting interview at the NAMM 2025 https://youtu.be/ZeEpUsNYbdY?si=X4XtxJh2YupUCK2C about this and other topics of cooperation with other companies.
I guess their software business is so much bigger than the hardware biz that they see big dollars in attracting more customers from other platforms. Makes no difference for me. With me owning two partner midi controllers eligible for a free Komplete 15 Select license I am quite happy.
I can’t see what free NI software have to do with wanting Arturia partnering up.
I assume Arturia will join, if they see any or enough benefits in it.
I rather use Arturias preset system for Arturias products. It’s flexible.
NKS as it is can’t work with Arturias own presets and preset system as it demand it’s own preset format.
I do like Komplete Kontrols multipage control system though.
I hope and expect midi 2 will bring better and more universal solutions than NKS including multipage control systems with visual feedback. But that remain to be seen, just like many NI plans remain to be seen in reality.
Apart from AnalogLab pro Arturia plugins are NKS compatible. That means Komplete Kontrol gives users a preview function for all the presets. Before you ask, yes, I tried it and after you had it only for a few minutes you will miss it when working with AnalogLab or within Arturia’s plugins without KK.
I got the beta version of KK for my Oxygen Pro yesterday and what I may say without breaking confidentiality: it makes a difference.
BTW I want to buy a new flagship midi controller and was waiting for KeyLab MKIII and I was really disappointed when it did not deliver on the things many users were waiting for. I will not buy any hardware from Arturia soon. So I have no skin in the game here. I just would have liked it for my all the others who still buy Arturia hardware.
And you are right. If Arturia asks, “what’s in it for me?” it may come out empty-handed. But if they want to deliver value to their customers they might think differently.
Everything you mention can already be done without partnership.
You can even create NKS files for Analog Lab already. But nearly all of them already excist as NKS for the full applications. NKS require two sets of the same presets that Arturias preset system only use one preset for.
Most of Arturias presets load instanly in Arturias preset system and don’t need pre listens there.
BTW - I do own NI software, so i do know something about it.
As said - i assume Arturia will join where there are enough benefits. Just like NI do.
If Arturia have the secret information you claim you have, then they probably can and will not answer upon that.
Hey, if you have one of the mentioned midi controllers, you can join the beta test as well. But if you do, you can’t talk about things, that are not public yet. So no secret information here.
Yeah, you are right, we do not need more user friendliness. It is just a waste of resources.
May be the idea would be that Arturia’s controllers could manage NKS files directly in Analog Lab, allowing to extend sounds to all NKS compliant vst3, making them more direct concurrents to NI controllers.
But I suppose it means rewriting 90% of Analog Lab Pro…certainly not worth the move.
Would be nice, but I guess since NKS is owned by NI this wouldn’t fly. Also: NKS runs kind of on borrowed time. Midi 2.0 is supposed to do all that without a wrapper host like Komplete Kontrol. If you own a KORG Keystage (a Midi 2.0 Controller) and run the wavestate native plugin, you have basically the same experience like with NKS. Though it will take some time until all plugins get a bit of Midi 2.0 love, NKS will be obsolete in a few years.
It would be nice in working in the NI eco system using Komplete Kontrol hosting their and NKS compatible VST’s from 3rd parties. This tied into good control from Arturia’s hardware especially in patch navigation and selection within KK.
As for Arturia’s own instruments, their system is well integrated with their hardware and NI could study how Arturia does it. As written earlier, one day Midi 2 would maybe liberate us from proprietary patch library systems and open up the ecosystem to full compatibility between different hardware and software systems.
Which makes me wonder why the new keylabs are not midi 2.
Midi 2 is big change and I think you’re underestimating the work involved in a thorough migration to it. We’re only just seeing hardware that supports it now years after it was established. Only controllers I know of are new Korg ones and NIs Kontrol Mk3s.
Not sure Windows supporting it will create any critical mass either.
It is disappointing, that the KeyLab MKIII platform is still Midi 1.0. On Namm 2025 were a bunch of products already supporting Midi 2.0. It is clear though without Windows supporting Midi 2.0 we won’t see DAWs supporting Midi 2.0 internally. Imagine Ableton Live did this. It would be a gamechanger as all the presets of all the VSTs would be internally available. Of course, only if the plugin manufacturer changed to Midi 2.0 as well. But this is a step-by-step game. First, we need the DAWs supporting it then the first plugins will be compatible, and people will buy them because they love the interoperability, and then other manufacturers can’t stay on Midi 1.0 without losing customers. And the tipping point is reached.
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