Hardware of the Year

Komplete Kontrol Mk2 £479/559

Web www.native-instruments.com Format Mac/PC Released simultaneously with Maschine Mk3 – the two were designed to be paired up, both visually and functionally – NI’s secondgeneration MIDI keyboard is a massive upgrade over its predecessor. Built first and foremost as a controller for the Komplete suite of instruments and third-party NKS-enabled plugins via the Komplete Kontrol plugin or standalone host, Mk2 ditches the alpha-numeric monochrome displays of Mk1 in favour of the same dual fullcolour LED screens found on Maschines Studio and Mk3, plus their attendant buttons, capacitive knobs and 4D push encoder. This not only makes browsing and loading plugins and presets a much quicker and more logical process then before, but also enables KK2 to be used as a secondary Maschine controller, showing various of that DAW’s views in glorious technicolour.

The dual screens also expand the reach of Komplete Kontrol’s Host Integration feature. While KK1 can access the transport controls and select tracks in supported DAWs, Mk2 also hooks into their mixers, scrubs their timelines and operates a range of other functions.

The other major hardware change is the transformation of the pitchbend and modulation touchstrips of KK1 to conventional wheels, with a single horizontal assignable touchstrip below.

Although, for us, the greatest thing about Komplete Kontrol Mk2 is actually something that’s remained operationally unchanged – the assistive Light Guide system, a bank of RGB LEDs that light up keys to match keyswitches in Kontakt, highlight scales and chords, etc – there’s no denying that this is a huge generational leap for NI’s already-impressive ’board. We can’t recommend it highly enough to those invested in Komplete and/or Maschine.