Akai Pro Advance Keyboards - with Native Instruments Komplete

Thanks for the review... I might grab the Akai Advanced 61.

 

which vst was it and did you ask arturia or akai what the issue with that vst is?

 

Analog player, analog lab works and the individual vsts work from arturia, so it wasn't a biggie.

 

yes, if you have the space get a bigger one, although i haven't tried it yet, but i'm pretty sure i can control the software with another controller. I think, i just wanted a bigger one for the keyboard split feature, which for the life of me i couldn't figure out how to do from the software, but it was as simple as clicking on the key range adjust, that i didn't notice. I wish vsts/au/axx were capable to go full screen.

 

phy did you say that you can use the software with another controller?,

 

i'm not saying you can browse or use the arp features but you can trigger and play the splits with another keyboard if you choose to... i think, i haven't tried but in the settings it has the option to receive incoming midi from all my devices that are hook to my computer. I'll give it a try a bit later. Another thing, i don't know if you guys know this, but the advance has an internal clock.

 

Is their scale and chord feature? I don't know for me with the kontrol having a light guide and scale feature you can pick a certain key and see what notes your playing. If working with musicians completing records it easy to tell them the key and what notes you played. To me I find that more important than the two screens and browsing presets. The kontrol makes you wanna enhance your skills playing wise imo.

 

Not that i know of, but i'm pretty sure and i'm going to try this right now LOL.. to run an instance of VIP in maschine and see if i can use the chord feature there, i still haven't ran VIP as a plugin yet, i've been having so much fun just learning the hardware and the vst Transfuser 2. i can't believe the stuff you get with this thing... but i'll be back with an update on how it works as a plugin in a sec.

 

yes please report back , I'm very interested to know how it would be if you didn't care about screens on the board and you were planning on using the computer screen when you use it anyway as I would prefer my current controller which sits infront of my monitor.

 

okay, it doesn't do chords even when you put maschine in chord mode, however, i does when i put my Komplete Kontrol in chord mode, but that happens with all my midi controller so i expected that. So far, i can't figure out how to map the knobs on the Advance control to parameters in maschine. what i can confirm is, keyboard splits do work with other midi controllers, cpu usage starts to spike when i load around six plugins (depending on what i load) and i'm using a fairly old imac.

 

so basically you're saying that really we could use any controller we want with it.

a quick note about the kk chords feature, does it space the chords out so they sound naturally or does it just trigger them all at once?

 

The software seems clunky and buggy as hell, as you'd expect from this bunch:

"VIP needs work...I can't even rename presets. Transport controls don't work (in Reaper).
I had to manually import all my Serum presets...more monotonous "clicking the mouse", the antithesis of what this thing is supposed to be about."

 

it triggers all at once, there is no type of strumming feature yet.

 

I rename presets all the time, you have to right click instead of left click. I had to manual import some of my vst presets too. but they do have the auto import and import bank options. I can't figure out how to do the import bank, and the auto import worked for most of my vst, It just takes some time, since you do have to go through them individually. My real problem with the software is the way it handles tags, i don't know why but i can't seem to add any tags to the expansion tag portion of the tagging system. this would be good for user or 3rd party presets to be managed. But overall, i don't think it feels clunky, it feels more like version 1.

 

Ok, as i'm getting familiar with the VIP software, i'm remembering NI KORE and what it could have been, what it should have been. NI had VIP already, and it was better than VIP in most aspects, I never really got the chance to fully use KORE but what i did learn and use, I know NI had a great product that they should have built on, i guess Kore was ahead of its time, and or the cost was to great. I don't know, but I think VIP software is trying to pick up where Kore was, it has a ways to go, but i can see this happening.

 

I wasn't talking about a strum feature, I meant you know how when you play chords on a keyboard, the notes aren't triggered identically cause humans don't move like that.. sometimes chord features trigger in a mechanical way like all of the notes and velocities etc.. trigger at once in an identical fashion and it can sound weird...

 

thanks for sharing your insights phyia

 

Exactly why I don't use the chords feature. Sounds pretty bad. I know some have a "humanize" or whatever to offset the timing and velocity of certain notes in the chord. Also allowing this to respond to staccato triggers differently and some round robin variation would be good.

 

yes, i used the word strum, because on a guitar when you strum the strings its not getting all the notes at one time, but i know what you mean, that was the best way i knew how to describe what happens when we all play the keyboard. I don't know, maybe i picked the wrong word to describe it LOL. but na it doesn't play in a humanized way.

 

oh well, chords schmords, nothing worse to my ears than those mechanical chords mixed with an arp ewww ... who's got the best chord feature on the market anyway?