Suggestion for a 49 key midi controller for NI and Cubase

The Lounge Other Gear
1

Greetings!

I am planning to buy a midi controller, mostly for usage with Cubase, Ableton Live lite, Maschine and NI plugins.

I do own a NI KK m32, but I have been burned by the disappointing support that NI give to its hardware. Fundamentally they sell their hardware as perfectly integrated with DAWs and KK software, but then, you start to use them and realize that even in KK itself, if you own the whole Komplete suite of instruments, you only get to control from the keyboard, few options like browser, settings and few other things.

The integration with DAWs is also mainly focused at Logic X and Ableton; with “future” support for Cubase.

I love Maschne, to the point that I bought a NI maschine Mk3; and that’s all fine and dandy, but now I want to get a controller that

  • Works with Komplete 12
  • Works with Cubase
  • Has mapping for presets so I can use mostly the controller, and do not touch the mouse as much as possible.

I did research a bit and the names that came up are few:

  • Komplete Kontrol S49 : 600 bucks, NI support but it is the same as the M32, so not too keen to risk again such large sum of money
  • Akai Pro advange 49: Amazon sell them at just 299; lots of good reviews, and seems to work easily with Cubase and most of the VST included in Komplete 12
  • Novation SL MK3: it is close to 500 dollars, so similar to the KK S49, has similar features but seems geared more toward stand alone usage; so without necessarily integrate with the software on a computer, due to its on board sequencer. Not sure that it is the right thing for me.

Not sure if there are more; but these were the ones that came up while searching for cubase support, Komplete support and color screen. What would you suggest for my usage? I love the KK series of keyboards; but I already gave enough to NI, and got back a vague promise about support for their NKS instruments; and I am not really keen on dropping cubase to switch to ableton to be honest, to gain 100% of the buttons and knobs usage. Especially when you hear S49 users complaining on the NI forum, that their MK2 has less control and flexibility than the MK1.

2

If you are mostly in the box the. The Akai controller seems like a good idea. Go to akaipro website and check out what support issues it has. I myself use the SL MKiii 61. I like the drum pads and keys on it. I use it in live most of the time though

3

S49mkii here, my only gripe is you can’t ise the midi cable ports if connected with the USB too. Otherwise it’s really a no brainer as it has seemless intergration with KK and maschine

4

thanks for your replies. So the Akai is a good buy, even if it is few years old (I think it came out in 2014 or so).

Do you know how well it integrate with Cubase? And if it is possible to use Cubase with minimal intervention via mouse and keyboard? Saw a lot of videos using Logic, but not that many using cubase; so I want to be sure that I can integrate the Akai easily.

Can’t really figure out why the S49 cost twice as much; looks like the same thing with the Akai apc40 and the Push 2; which cost twice as much and seems to offer the same features.