Some control knobs .. loose?

Hello forum,

tldr / short version: every control knob has a different feel /resistance.

yesterday I bought the Komplete Kontrol S61 and I am very excited and pleased by its features and overall functionality.
There is one thing that confuses me though.

Out of the 8 control knobs, on the top of the keyboard, most of them have different resistences. The first 3, from left to right, have a rather strong resistence, which makes them feel very expensive and good. The fourth, the fifth and the sixth are more loose, while the sixth has absolutely no more resistance at all to it.

It makes the overall feel of the keyboard very cheap. I am quite disappointed. Is this common / Is this intended? Or is this a mistake from manifacturing?

It may seem like a minor flaw, but this is a 700€ keyboard and I want it to be as well crafted as possible.

I really would like to hear your experiences and opinions on this.

 

Yeah I have this problem , I returned one and got a replacement that was similar maybe worse , maschine studio is the same ,
The tight ones are way better and like you say feel expensive , they also give you more control , I find the loose ones off putting ,and turn too quick , I feel I have to use shift more than I should ,but it can be to slow ,
Wonder if they could put a setting to change how shift effects the speed of turning the knob
This is my only issue and I agree that it shouldn't be like this.

 

That is very disappointing. I also called the store where I bought the keyboard and they said that every keyboard they have has some knobs which are loose.

Is it always the same ones that are loose? It is especially the 6th one from the left which is it for me.

Is there any way to tighten the knobs again?

I am also wondering. Has anyone gotten a keyboard that does not have this problem?

 

Same here, I tried 3 different units (kontrol61) with variable resistance between knobs, the knobs that are loose seem to be completely random so I guess it is a manufacturing issue. Its too bad that Quality Assurance doesn't do anything about it because as you said one expect better for a keyboard at this price range.

 

P.S: other than that the keyboard/software combo is great IMO.

 

Thanks for your answer. At least, it is good to know that I am not the only one with that problem and that this is a common problem.

 

I have the same problem....a statement from NI would be nice here..

 

Same here, on both S25 and S61. Have learned to live with it, but it doesn't speak for NI's QA.

 

Yep, same on mine too, some have a much lighter operation than others.

 

Thank you all for reporting this. I was going to get an S49 or S61 for Xmas but that's a deal breaker for me

 

U could go to a shop and ask them to get it out the box before u buy maybe try a few units ,I recently got my shop to open a s88 and it felt much better

 

Yeah it's not a deal breaker. They aren't wobbly or doddgey, just some seem to have a slight difference in resistance than others. All works great.

 

Some of the displays are also fuzzy (had that with multiple S25 units), so opening the box and checking is definitely a good idea.

 

I doubt they'll let me open several boxes until I might (or might not) find a keyboard that I like...
On the other hand I haven't seen many reports on loose encoders on the Komplete Kontrol keyboards. Unfortunately most of the reviews out there are quite useless as they focus on the Fatar but don't even mention the build quality of the knobs.

 

True , I felt bad for the dude in the shop when he went off and brought back the big 88 key , unboxed it , just for me to try the keys and test the knobs and pronounce " that's pretty nice , shame i don't need a big 88 keyboard , see u later "

 

Hi there, I just had the same issue with KK S25 I bought yesterday (23th dec.) !
I came back to my local store, tested it and immediately acknowledge. But they said : "it's a known issue, we already warned NI weeks ago and they even tested by themselves on some of the hardwares we returned. We also spent a few hours unboxing and testing all of our stock at that time... we could'nt find any unit without a slight difference between knobs, even the 88 keys. So NI said "it's normal and part of the mechanical tolerance". I can't do anything, I know what NI is gonna tell me...".

Like it's a "built-in feature"... so I asked for a refund. I would have liked to unbox some of their KK25 to find the right but they didn't seem to be happy with this option given their history with NI .
The thing is I already have a KK61 and I never noticed this issue + at that price tag, that's very weird. I retested my KK61 unit yesterday to compare both in parallel and everything is ok on the 61. Very disappointing and from what I understand, there are high chances you have this issue on any new hardware you buy. So maybe I got lucky with the 61, I don't know.

 

Like I said. Deal breaker. I'm not willing to pay the premium price NI is asking for loose knobs. And it seems there is a very high chance I'd get a KK with loose knobs.

 

I have heard of this issue. My knobs are different from one another in terms of the pressure needed to turn them but perhaps not as much as other keyboards. The only drawback is that the navigate and performance buttons don't light up and are disabled. I'm sending my keyboard back!

 

U can adjust the brightness of the buttons in controller editor

 

I have the same problem with my S25. The differences are like really really big! One encoder is extremely hard to turn while another one has like no resistance at all. Extremely disappointing. And additionally, I might not be able to refund, because I already used the Komplete Select code in it?!!?