Yes – it’s premium, yes – the build quality is 5 out of 5, yes – it integrates well with Komplete Kontrol…
But!! All the pros are outweighed by major cons that make you wonder – why should this keyboard cost so much???
Very poor software. I connect the keyboard through a USB hub, and basically, it only works properly with NI products. To make it work with a DAW, I have to reinstall it every time (at least in Logic Pro).
The keybed takes getting used to. If you’re used to a typical synth action, you’ll need to completely adapt to this one. The velocity adjustment is extremely limited, and even in the lightest setting, you can press a key and get no sound at all. I have to play harder than usual, and sometimes quiet notes simply disappear from the melody. There’s no way to fine-tune the velocity curve to your personal playing style.
The octave up/down buttons are uninformative. You never know how many octaves up or down you are at a given moment. They’re also useless for semitone transposition. Considering the beautiful, large display, not showing the current transposition value on screen is a serious design flaw. It would be great if this could be added in a future update – if that’s even possible.
P.S. It’s a real shame that NI engineers don’t seem to read reviews here – or if they do, we never know about it, and there’s no feedback from them. It would be nice to understand whether they plan to fix these issues or not. Otherwise, unfortunately, I’ll have to switch to a simpler and cheaper MIDI keyboard in the future.
