It's time for a NI Keyboard controller ...

Hello,
While I was trilled to see NI come out with controllers for their various soft synths, I think the time has come for a full on Keyboard controller. If I'm going to be a total NI musician (which I almost am) I don't want to go shop around for someone else's compatible keyboard.
Because of the vast variety in the different synths I think the FM8 could be the guide for what this controller should have.
Stuff like :::
* 25,29, 81 key options (with octave where needed)
* Lots of knobs AND faders
* X/Y pad
* Ribbon
* Easy assignment change (to change from one synth to another)
* Weighted keys
* Etc. Etc.

I'm not sayin' I'm just sayin' You know what I'm sayin'
Anyone have any more ideas
Let's see if they will build one !
I'd buy it !
Cheers
BAMM

 

Eight (of the) knobs and buttons AND screen available for a 'Kore Mode'.

 

Imagine a NI DAW for production =O

 

an dedicated NI keyboard cotnroller would be nice

I'd like a 61 key version

I agree with some good knobs/screen for a kore mode, in addition to the other stuff, would be good.

 

Maschine with 49 keys added.... done. I'd buy that package in a heartbeat.

 

A good 76 keyboard, USB powered with an audio interface is really missing in the market.

 

That would be incredible... I like the idea of a Kore mode for sure...would I be asking for too much if it had poly AT? lol

 

A good 76 note keyboard / controler (with or with out an Audio interface) is seriously missing. Unless you want piano action you are pretty much stuck with 61 notes.

61 notes is probably enough for most non piano applications until you loose an octave or more to keyswitches.

Take NI new Vintage Organs for example. With a 61 note board you either loose the key switches or the top octave.

 

... and please add explicit buttons for accessing the categories in the KORE browser!

 

a small Controller with 8 knobs and 2 XY Joy-sticks would do for me.

sowari

 

it would be nice to have something specifically designed for multi stage envelope editing....motorised faders with coloured led's in that showed where envelope loop points are.....totally pie in the sky though....that's a lot of motorised faders

 

I'd say it's very much on the cards, given the success of Maschine, it's the next logical step for them. I suspect they'll build a new synth from the ground up to accompany this. I made a post on the Kore forum which is relevant here:

 

+1 for a new controller

 

Not to rain on the parade, but it might be good for NI to work with one of the hardware manufacturers like Ableton did with the Akai APC40.
Designing and building hardware takes a lot of expertise and can be very costly.
However impressive Maschine is (and it is), it seems that the MPC is still the goto drum pad controller. The number of 2nd hand Maschine controller's I see on gumtree is highly irritating!
One of the key problems NI would face if they did design a device would be choosing which synth to adapt to. The ideal Absynth controller would be so different from the ideal FM8 controller.
Maybe creating a Komplete iPad synth controller app would be a good idea, and not such a financial risk. It could adapt to fit the appropriate synth.
Or even creating separate apps for each synth....?

 

And how many second hand mpcs do you see each day? or second hand mpd, or second hand mv? You get my point, there will always be an aftermarket for anything that comes out, people buy and sell, that's the name of the game lol.

I think they could get away with a synth that has plenty of controls that will be able to fully control all of their products, it doesn't have to fit just one. Knobs, faders, x/y pad, etc...are universal. It doesn't have to be an exact replica of the software interface, just automatically map it's controls to the software controls.

Of course this is all a dream anyway lol...but it would be cool

 

Br2000

I am using Behringer BCR2000 for all my NI synths and it works like dream especially with Reaktor. If you watch Finger video on NI homepage, you'll see Exile guy using combination of bcr2000 and bcf2000 to control Reaktor. This combination should be enough for all NI controlling needs.

 

Yeah, that's a fair point about the second-hand market, Saint Joe!
As for Tim Exile's setup, well I think that's a bit different.
He's basically set up Reaktor to work as a looper.... sort of like Ableton.

The automatic mapping of synth parameters that you're one day dreaming of Joe isn't such a far out idea. In fact, Novation's Automap system already does a nice job of that. I have some Novation gear, and it recogonises what instrument you are using and maps common controls automatically.
The tech is there, but if Novation isn't your flavour, maybe we do need to wait for NI to prototype their own hardware/software solution. I've worked in hardware and software my entire career and hardware prototyping is a very costly and time-consuming exercise. If they brought out such a device, they would have to update the software every time they do any updates to any of the synths it supports.... a logistical nightmare, and it would be very expensive to support such software. It would need a dedicated software engineer attending any products just to deal with any updates on supported products. His salary as a continuing investment (on top of the r+d and prototyping) would have to be built into any pricing they put on a device and matched against projected sales.

I can understand why for the moment, they are happy to give the users the job of configuring their controllers to map to the synths! With a wide range of awesome MIDI controllers available, users should be comfortable enough configuring their own controllers to work with their software.

 

great feedbacl man thanks Yeah I've seen Novation, but have heard very mixed results, well..actually most I've talked said they didn't like the auto map at all, as it creates some weird wrapper for your plugs, also heard about m audio hypercontrol.

But I think NI could surprise us in this area, let's wait and see how they handle the mapping of plugins in Maschine. They already did some basic mapping and controlling of plugins with Kore didn't they? ( I don't know for sure, I only have Kore software version lol)

 

Yes Kore maps well with NI stuff,but 3rd party stuff requires a bit more work,unlike automap,which is brilliant,and extremely easy to use..

I'd watch out for novation obviously,they have the technology,I've owned 5 or 6 novation sl's, there's a reason for that.. :]

If anyone in the software business has the funds to do it,it'd be NI.. They obviously are taking over the market with each new release.

 

Yes! Love to see NI come out with a controller keyboard that Looks just like Pro53.