Native Instruments Kontrol S88 MK3 88-Key Smart Keyboard Controller

Avoid at all costs.

Let me first note that none of this is B&H's fault, they were fantastic with the return and the description shown was provided by NI. NI does not fully disclose that this controller is not intended, nor designed to work as a standard midi controller. It is designed and only fully supported with their Komplete Kontrol VST host, if you intend to use this controller in a DAW or with VSTs from any other vendor, do not buy. Most of their marketing is filled with half-truths and they have already gone back on promises to update. I will elaborate further below.  Most standard features such as ARP, chord assist, even the rare light bar option does not work without being connected to their VST host Komplete Kontrol. They are not features you can simply turn on as needed like you would on pretty much every other controller of this type. They also do not work with Kontakt as they claim, and their own support staff is not aware of this and will claim otherwise. Currently (March 2024) their website states it is a working feature, it is not, it's a promised future update feature. 4-5 months ago NI stated it will be added in a future firmware update, numerous posts on their support forums state this. I was using the latest firmware, tested in Ableton & Cubase and it was still disabled. When I contacted them for an update about the firmware (March 2024) they stated there were no current issues with the firmware, updates are not planned for it. When I asked about the current implementation limitations, I was admonished forever thinking I could just turn on the ARP function and use it (something that is standard in nearly all midi controllers), that it was my fault for not watching the hour-long demo video (that's not shown, nor listed on their website) to fully understand the product before I bought it. It's also worth noting the video itself fails to mention none of those features work outside of Komplete Kontrol. They are disabled in software, the video goes on to demonstrate the features but uses Komplete Kontrol, not Kontact because, despite their own marketing, it is not actually working currently. At this time according to their own support staff, no future updates are planned. It's likely that they over-promised a rushed product and their current hardware cannot be updated to support this. It also lacks the advanced (and very handy) Mackie transport controls found in even entry level Novation controllers for DAW control, you only get the very basic transport controls and a clunky system for setting levels that is kind of useless since you cant see track names and end up having to look at the DAW anyway. It's important to understand what that means. You can load the Komplete Kontrol VST, and then load any VST inside of  Komplete Kontrol to get the ARP, and other functions. However that means if you open an old project, you will have to delete and re-add all the VST's, every single time you want to use those features. The browser system inside of Komplete Kontrol favors only NKS (i.e. Kontact) plugins, navigating to find other third party plugins is atrocious and not possible depending on the type of plugin, you will also have issues with stock plugins like max for live devices in ableton. You now have to deal with Komplete Kontrol for mapping CC not your DAW directly. Not to mention the overhead of now having double the number of plugins loaded since you need to load a separate instance of Komplete Kontrol for each VST channel you want to have. Bottom line, just using and updating VST's is now twice as slow and twice the headache and you have to do a bunch of extra work just to use a feature that on nearly every other keyboard is as simple as clicking a button on the keyboard to enable. As for the actual hardware, the keybed is nice, though it's worth pointing out NI does not make the keyboard, it's from Fatar and it's the same keybed found in several other keyboards such as the Arturia Keylab and the display is quite nice. But that's where it ends for positive comments, the body is not aluminum as implied by NI, it's cheap plastic with a sheet metal base. The wheels are not aluminum as stated by NI, they have an aluminum outer ring but a cheap plastic hub. These are just a few examples of how their marketing claims to be one thing, but is really another. The one and only fader is a touch fader mounted sideways and I'm not sure anyone knows why since it's not practical at all to use the wheel and touch fader at the same time with it sideways as you would for expression control. Also because it lacks any sort of resistance like a proper fader would have, I found it was jumpy and just clunky to use for expression control anyway. The encoders are extremely touchy, I found simple tasks like setting the pan to a specific value tedious and error prone, almost as though breathing on it would change its value. For its high cost (currently the highest of any controller of this type) the expectations are a superior solid build, but in reality it's just a cheap case around a high end keybed with the least amount of control surfaces of any controller in its class. I don't think I have seen a product marketed as a global, do everything you need, in such a deceitful way before in my life. In reality it is just completely self-serving and locks you into their own ecosystem and punishes you for even thinking about buying products from someone else and you're paying hundreds more for it. They even go so far as to not include any real proper faders or touch pads on what is currently the most expensive midi controller of its type on the market so you're forced to by their Maschine controller to fill the gap except that the latest Maschine MK3 version of is no longer supported in Komplete Kontrol, the very VST host your required to use if you want to use all the features of this controller.  End of the day, I have invested a ton in NKS plugins, the entire NI collections edition, a ton of spitfire NKS plugins as well as a ton of other third party NKS plugins. I was expecting a keyboard that had all the basic features of a midi controller with a high end keybed, with a high-end build quality and when using NKS plugins extra features. That is not this product, this product is just a cheap feeling hardware controller for their clunky Komplete Kontrol VST host that barely works with anything else. And the experience I had with NI support has left me knowing I will never buy another NI product again.