Ideas View: MK3 Manual is full of MAJOR Errors + Hardware is full of Omissions

This has been the worse hardware rollout I have ever seen from NI.

1. Where is the Ideas view in Maschine MK3 ???? Komplete Kontrol MK2 has it and it's using identical screens.
2. Read the section in the manual referring to Ideas View on MK3 (p. 742 onward). It's just copied over from MK2 manual with completely wrong info for the actual MK3 controller. I can't believe that no-one bothered to check this. It goes on for at least 10 pages.

 

Manuals are under constant update. It has probably been rushed because of new users that are less knowledgeable about Maschine and really need the manual for the basics. We should expect the manual to have a lot of fixes soon...

 

Thanks for the info.
Think it's a pretty crappy way to roll a product out though don't you think?

 

Try this:

-> Here you´re able to mange your pattern within ideas view.
Create, Select, Remove, Delete, Double, Duplicate, Switching banks, Pattern length,...
And with locking that view -> no problem to switch to all the other groups

I agree, for jaming with pattern with the workflow from KK MK2 could provide an advantage for MK3.
Independent from that, MK3 + JAM is currently the best setup for jamming with pattern ;-).

EDIT:
After the second trial I realized the issue ;-)
With switching into the ideas view only the view on the computers display is reacting into the habitual view of the ideas view. The MK3 displays are showing another view. Currently, I´m not familiar with it.
Hmm.

 

Yes. Exactly.
The whole idea of this wonderful new controller is to use it without the need to constantly reach for the mouse. This weekend I was having an amazing time coming up with patterns on the MK3. My laptop lid closed, it really felt like an MPC on steroids until it was time to arrange. Then I started scratching my head at how horrible the implementation of arrangement is on the MK3. I reached for the manual thinking that I'm missing something only to get more frustrate and confused. I'm hoping that this is just temporary, but given the speed of change at NI, I fear we'll be stuck with this for a while. It's such a shame.

 

Personally, i don't really care, I never read the manual. I only have it to quote something and tell others to read the manual... lol
For me, most things are intuitive and learning by getting your hands dirty is fun, but i can understand that a product release with no manual is frustrating.

 

I also was trying this (again) - easily on my sofa without the laptop in front of me. Then that was the point to change the controller in a glas of wine!
Indeed, that`s really annoying. I hope there is an forthcoming update which allows the MK3 to have the same display view for the ideas view like on the KK MK2.

 

Well honestly I'm the same as you here. I don't usually read manuals but I pointed out the errors because I feel it shows how sloppy the rollout and implementation is.

That being said, when I realized there is no 'Ideas view' on the controller I thought I was missing some kind of un-labelled hidden shortcut for displaying it and that's when I reached for the manual only to realize that the whole section on it is completely wrong.

 

Only thing we can do I guess is talk about it here, and hopefully someone at NI will see it.

 

Well, it's 891 pages, not that that is an excuse. If you look more you will probably find a lot more issues. I remember seeing open job opportunities in Native's career center for people that write manuals (don't remember the exact job title) a couple of months before the MK3 dropped, I'm guessing there might be a new team that is still learning the ropes... but again, that's also not an excuse.

There is no Ideas View at the moment if there was someone would have found its key combo by now. I think Mick confirmed that the Ideas View on the KKSMK2 was done its own dev team which is separate from the machine dev team, don't quote me on this though.

Yes, I agree. If you are willing to compile the errors you find here I'm sure its helpfull.

 

I'm sure it will be helpful if they bother to read it, but I kinda see it as not really my job. I'm expecting they'll fix all these inconsistencies in both implementation and documentation.

 

Funny you should mention this. I have the Jam and Studio and just received my KK Mk2 yesterday. I saw the ideas mode displayed on the Mk2 and was wondering where is the secret key press for the studio to display the same. It doesn't. Only the software displays the change and the studio displays the Arrangement view of which you can select different patterns, as normal.

I think this is NI way of integrating a different display option for the KK Mk2 when working in Maschine 2.x.x As a Studio user I find it actually damn nice to have 4 screens displaying something different.

 

When I first bought my Studio I read all the manuals over 3 weeks. It was an excellent resource and those who haven't read them do not know what they are missing.

Now if I had just started on MK3 and did the same, assuming the reports are I guess a lot of my time would have been wasted. It's not exactly too much to expect a decent manual when you receive the goods, and hardware/software with a relatively small amount of bugs and deficiencies. Customers are NOT beta testers!

 

Yeah, something definitely happened cuz we know they've been working on this controller for 2 years (per their blog). Let's say they finalized the design in the last 9 months... that gives you 9 months to start cracking on a manual. It is a time consuming process for sure but the product manager accounts for it in their timeline. This is what leads me to believe that they released the MK3 earlier than what they were planning on. Not good hearing that it has some major errors though. I was going to thumb through it and pick up on a few "nuggets" but now its sounding like they just copied/pasted the MK2 manual (with a few tweaks).

 

If you read the full Studio Manual only 1% of the MK3 manual would actually have new info for you, its not like its a completly different controller..
Indeed it is not too much to ask for, thats just commom sense especially for new users.

 

There is no reason why both devices cannot have the same display options and have the user choose which option they want on each device. I do own the KK MK2 but sometimes I just want to create beats and arrangements on the Maschine alone such as when working out of the studio etc. I think it's either an oversight or miscommunication between development teams or a shameless way of NI to try and have people buy all their devices at the expense of convenience, versitility and usability. I believe it's the former and that leads me to conclude that this is a company with great ideas but poor development management.

 

It was indeed the case that the development teams were not working on this in unison. The KK Mk2 team developed the screen for Ideas View and it was too late to propagate it to the Maschine controllers. This has been discussed in another thread already. Apparently NI is working on porting the KK Mk2 Ideas View screen to the Maschine Mk3 and possibly the Studio.

https://www.native-instruments.com/...ew-page-like-the-komplete-kontrol-mk2.321804/

 

Black & white doesnt matter, hope they apply this to MKII too.
Are we stepchild

 

That's great news!

 

I'm glad the manual was finally released. I bought the MK3 having never used the MK2 or MK1. I have Maschine Jam, but it's quite different of course. It did help that I understood the software workflow, and yes I was able to figure out a lot by just pressing buttons, but without the manual I was having a bit of a hard time figuring out how to do some deeper diving into a controller-only workflow.

The section on the Ideas view did of course confuse me as it was not correct. FWIW, where the manual says "Press NAVIGATE" you have to instead press shift+VARIATION[NAVIGATE], then release shift and follow the directions from there. But, still no Ideas view on the screen, glad to see NI team has stated that it is in the pipeline.

Another mistake(?) I saw is that the manual says only one controller at a time can be connected to the Maschine software. This seems wrong (thankfully) since I'm happily using MK3, Jam, and KK S49 all at once, and indeed they are all checked on in the controller menu. Or am I misunderstanding something? I'm in the process of learning how to optimize workflow across all three, using the best suited option for each task. It's a really powerful combo, though. I just want to maximize its potential, glad to have the manual now, despite some mistakes.