Native Instruments: New Kontrol S88 MKII & Komplete 12 Ultimate Collector’s Edition

Here is part two of our special two part series looking at some of the new products released by Native Instruments in 2018. In part one we took a look at the New Kontrol A Series & Kontakt 6 Instruments and this time we’re looking at the new Kontrol S88 MKII keyboard and some of the additions to Komplete 12 Ultimate and the new Komplete 12 Ultimate Collector’s Edition software.

As mentioned in the previous video, NI introduced the MKII versions of their Kontrol S 49 and 61 keyboard controllers in late 2017, which left many wondering when their flagship 88 note model would receive the upgrade treatment. And here it is, finally! The S88 MKI was the go-to controller keyboard for piano players and composers and the MKII model improves on the original in just about every way. First off, the keybed is a brand new weighted action from Fatar and feels even better than the original model. We also have proper pitch bend and mod wheels now, in addition to the ribbon controller.

Of course the biggest new addition is the lovely pair of colour screens which present a huge amount of information. When browsing instruments for example, the left hand screen shows the artwork for your installed NKS plugins, and the right hand screen shows a preset list for the currently selected instruments.

The light guide has also been modified from the MK1 model to more clearly distinguish between keys and really becomes useful when using some of the sample based instruments in Komplete 12 that utilise key switches.

Take for example Session Guitarist Sunburst, one of the new additions to Komplete 12 Ultimate. Most people’s experience with keyboard based guitar emulations is pretty negative. No matter how good your guitar samples are, it’s almost impossible to play them back in a natural way that actually sounds like a guitarist. The Session Guitarist series does it differently. Instead of being able to playback individual notes, you can trigger phrases which follow the chords you’re playing in real time. After choosing a style preset, phrases can be selected via key switches which are conveniently pointed out by the Kontrol S keyboards light guide and intensity can be controlled in real time by using the pitch bend wheel.

Brand new to the 2018 is Komplete 12 Ultimate Collector’s Edition which commemorates 15 years of Kompete Series of software packages. The most notable addition to Collectors Edition is the Symphony Series of Orchestral Libraries which is 164 GB of pristine recorded orchestral samples.

The String Ensemble software mixer page allows you blend between four different microphone options; stereo, close, mid and far. With a Native Instruments S Series controller you can see via the light guide see exactly where each part of the orchestra is. With the bottom we have the basses, followed by cellos, violas and violins.We also take a quick look at the Brass Ensemble software as well.

For More Information visit the Native Instruments Website: Here

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