NI S61 buy now or wait for Mk3?

I have just retired and now have some spare cash to spend, wisely. I love NI software its years ahead of anything else in its workflow and structure and certainly the way forward, the TESLA for music. I want to buy the S61 keyboard, for purely personal home use, HOWEVER, Mk2 is now over 2 years old and surely there will be a Mk3 out sometime soon? £500 is a large investment but unlike the software, hardware is not up gradable but like software, we always want the latest version. I currently use the Nektar 88 which I absolutely love but the S61 at the time was outside by budget now I have the spare cash BUT its old and I know that Mk3 must be just around the corner.. comment advice welcome

 

Hi Stewart. I have had the S61 for about 18 months/2 years now and it is the light guide that has sold it for me. When using instruments like Session Guitarist to be able to see the Key Switches and Modifiers lit up juts makes it so much more playable. The S88 wasn't available when I bought mine but then I don't have the space so the S61 has worked out great. Also I like the keyboard action.

Only thing that would have been useful (as there is plenty of space) would have been some (4?) MIDI sliders to control the likes of Expression/CC1/Vibrato/Reverb etc for Orchestral Libraries but the Korg NanoKontrol 2 fits there and does the job perfectly for the price.

I too am retired and having a ball in the recording revolution that has taken place since I started in the 80s. Happy music making. Bob on the UK

 

Hi BOB

As I said I already have the Nektar Impact 88 and love it. Using Kontakt standalone is fine but when using studio one I find its almost impossible to assign Midicc universally you have to set them up every time for each library. I looked at the a61 for all of about 5 mins and thought nope has to be the S Series or nothing.

So in your DAW (I use studio one) will nks work universally with all Kontakt libraries or only some? I also have an old Yamaha 01x but I am thinking between the Nektar and the S61 it will almost be redundant na I love that to and had since new. I think nks is the way forward over Midicc

Would the S61 benefit from sliders, sure it would but then I think it looks great (modern) without them to. Would a knob be better over a slider? I am not so sure and guess its something you just get used to. One benefit, its something less to go wrong and faulty

 

I found it slightly confusing to start with so forgive me if I cover things you already know. To use the light guide the Kontact instrument will need to have the light guide enabled in the instrument scripting and it is run inside Komplete Kontrol which comes with the S61. So the instrument doesnt have to be NKS ready to use the light guide providing you use the Full Kontact (paid) version inside Komplete Kontrol - if you use the Free Kontact Player inside Komplete Kontrol any non-NKS ready instruments will only last 15 minutes (demo mode).

As far as I know the Instrument browser on the S61 only works for NKS ready instruments.

I use Cubase Pro and depending on whether I need the light guide will either open the instrument in Komplete Kontrol or the Full Kontact. I also use the Korg NanoKontrol 2 as a MIDI Controller as I prefer sliders for orchestral libraries as I will sometimes use two or even 3 at the same time - knobs couldnt do that - horses for courses. Controlling the DAW from the S61 is very handy as my keyboard is not directly in front of my main monitor (lack of space at the moment!)

 

oh well I opted for the S49 with 14 days grace to change my mind and swap for the S61. I now have the fun of building a dedicated PC for it as against using my main music PC or I will when my head stops spinning from last night

Can't remember why now but for a specific reason I use Kontakt 5.8.1 on the main music system the rest were updated to Komplete 12, the keyboard comes with Select 12 so I will install that complete on the test system and see what happens to all my libraries, I have a lot of them.

Yes I can understand the advantages of using sliders and having the Nektar Impact 88 I will probably do the same as u do