Komplete Kontrol S88 MKII

Native Instruments Komplete Kontrol S88 MKII is a keyboard controller that works with  NI’s Komplete series of virtual instruments (e.g., Komplete Ultimate). The NKS (Native Kontrol Standard) protocol is at the core of the Komplete Kontrol concept, whereby the keyboards communicate bi-directionally with instruments via NI’s Komplete Kontrol software application.

The device

Image: Komplete Kontrol S88 

Specifications

Native Kontrol Standard (NKS)

Native Kontrol Standard (NKS) brings all your software instruments, effects, loops and samples, into one intuitive workflow – creating seamless integration between NI and other leading developers. It gives you streamlined browsing, consistent tagging, instant sound previews, pre-mapped parameters, Smart Play features, and more. NKS also connects all your favorite tools to our KOMPLETE KONTROL keyboards and software, MASCHINE, and third-party controllers.

Midi input and output

The user manual is not entirely clear on this.

• Komplete Kontrol-1 is the keyboard itself, that needs to be configured as a MIDI-In device to be able to play notes of a Virtual Instrument. Thus, this one should be used as input channel in the Cubase Inspector
• Komplete Kontrol-EXT is only needed, when an EXTernal MIDI device is attached to the Kontrol-S, e.g. a hardware synthesizer. In this case it needs to be configured as a MIDI-Out device. If no external hardware is attached, the EXT driver can stay deactivated.
• But most important is Komplete Kontrol-DAW should never ever be configured as a MIDI device. This driver component is for the transport and Kontrol features like the lightguide.

To use with Cubase:

• Add the device Komplete Control S-series
• All MIDI input and output ports should be selected in Cubase and set to Visible and included in Midi All In, in Studio Setup –> Midi ports.
• For the Komplete Control S-series use Komplete Kontrol DAW as input/output ports.
• To fully control a NKS Virtual Instrument from the S88, the Virtual Instrument should be loaded in an Instrument Track with Komplete Kontrol loaded as plugin (inside Cubase) instead of using a (rack) Kontakt.

Problems

First of all, make sure that you see the following processes running the the Windows Task Manager.

• NIHostIntegrationAgent
• NTKDaemonService
• NTKDaemon
• NIHardwareAccessibilityHelper

NIHostIntegrationAgent and NTKDaemonService can be started in the Windows Services if these are not running.

1: VSTi gets ‘disconnected’ in DAW 

When I start Komplete Kontrol (KK) as a standalone program I can browse/use/etc any virtual instrument from the S88 (that is, I see the instrument on the S88 display). When I try from within Cubase 12 I get weird behavior.

1. I need to run the standalone KK software, otherwise the Komplete Kontrol DAW midi port does not show up, or if it is there, it will disappear after a minute or so.
2. If I add multiple Virtual Instrument tracks and load Komplete Kontrol on each of these tracks, then I can use the S88 to browse and select virtual instruments (VSTi). Works fine. Also the DAW controls (play, stop, etc) work.
3. When I close and re-open the Cubase project then for some reason the VSTi tracks are not recognized anymore by the S88. That is, I don’t see the instrument on the display of the S88. It just shows the general midi screen (but I can still play the instrument from the S88)
4. Next, if a add another VSTi and load Komplete Kontrol, and select an instrument then this instrument I can again control from the S88. However, previous addd VSTi’s still don’t show up.

Looking at the instruments, I see that the newly added VSTi has the S88 as Controller (see screendump) while the previous VSTi doesn’t have the S88 selected (see screendump). I also included 2 screendumps from the Cubase studio setup.

I tried the following three solutions. Only reinstalling the driver and Komplete Kontrol software solved the problem.

1. If the Komplete Kontrol DAW midi input/output disappeared from the list of midi ports then see [here] for a solution. This didn’t work for me.
2. The next solution prevents the Komplete Kontrol S-series to be removed from the Remote Devices list in Studio setup. This also didn’t help me.
   • See also [here]
   • In device setup/Midi port setup I checked the box “use device ‘direct music'”
   • Check “use system timestamp for direct music inputs”. As it was for Windows midi inputs.
3. Uninstall Komplete Kontrol driver and software. Reinstall Komplete Kontrol via Native Access.

I don’t know why, but after a while this problem solved it self.

2: S88 display not responding 

I encountered the strange problem that the display of the S88 was not responding while all other functions seemed to be working as usual:

1. If I turn on the S88 the screen is stuck at the initial startup screen (“smart keyboard controller)
2. If I then disconnect and reconnect the USB cable, the display will switch to the Midi screen and gets stuck at this screen.
3. Pressing the “Setup” button does not show the corresponding screen (but the S88 is, however, switching to the Setup mode, which I can see from the yellow buttons that light up; it is just not showing on the display that keeps on showing the Midi screen.
4. Next I start the Komplete Kontrol software
5. Now from the S88 hardware controls I can browse, select, edit, and play instruments: I see this happening on the computer screen in the KK software and I also see the buttons on top of the screens lighting up; also the leds above the keyboard are working. However the two S88 displays remain stuck at the Midi screen.

I contacted NI support who were very helpful trying to resolve this issue. Based on there suggestions I tried many things. To summarize:

• Reinstalling Komplete Kontrol
  • Uninstall (from Settings –> Apps)
    -Komplete Kontrol
    -Drivers
    -Bome Midi
  • From Windows Device Manager removed all NI devices
    – NI
    – Bome Virtual Midi Enumerator
• I confirmed that the following devices showed up in the Windows Device Manager and that the corresponding MIDI ports were showing and selected in the Preferences of the Komplete Kontrol software:
  • Komplete Kontrol DAW – 1
  • Komplete Kontrol DAW – 1
  • KOMPLETE KONTROL EXT In – 1
  • KOMPLETE KONTROL EXT Out – 1
  • KOMPLETE KONTROL In – 1
  • KOMPLETE KONTROL Out – 1
• I tried different USB ports (USB2 and USB3), and (not) connecting to an USB hub
• Disconnecting all other Midi and audio devices except the S88 (this included, for example, my SSL UC1, Softube Fader, X32, CC121, StreamDeck, but also my webcam, a Rode usb microphone, etc)
• I checked that the latest latest S88 firmware was installed.
• I ran the NI Support Tool. Support pointed me to various Windows errors that appeared. I looked into these but they didn’t seem related to my S88 problem. 99% of these errors were related to my Avid S1 (windows gives an error if the device is not turned on), HDD led application that monitors drive activity, and sometimes Dropbox. There were some other errors but for me difficult to understand. However, based on this I also scanned many other Windows logs for errors but was not able to find anything that could cause this problem. Because of the Windows errors NI support also proposed to do a fresh Windows 10 install. I didn’t do this because I was afraid that it would mess up my complete system (although it would probably help to get rid of many of these errors/warnings that appear in the Windows logs and would speed up the system again).
  • You can check yourself in the msinfo tool, under “Windows Error Reporting”
  • You can also take a look at the Windows Reliability Monitor, which also provides valuable information regarding the operation of your system
• Next I installed the Komplete Kontrol on my laptop and connected the S88. Everything worked fine. Thus, this excluded a hardware failure.
• Another suggestion from NI Support was to disable all Midi out ports in Preferences of Komplete Kontrol. This didn’t make a difference.
• NI Support suggested to make sure that no other application was running that could ‘steel’ the S88 midi device. This had me disabling all Midi devices in the Windows Device manager (which were over 25 devices) except for the S88 devices. This also didn’t help. Then I disabled the ‘BomeMIDI: Komplete Kontrol DAW – 1 (1)’ and ‘Bome Virtual Midi Enumerator’ device. Also this didn’t make a difference. Note that I also rebooted after disabling the devices (and in fact I did after many of the actions described above).
• Next I enabled all Midi devices again.
  • Only the ‘BomeMIDI: Komplete Kontrol DAW – 1 (1)’ and ‘Bome Virtual Midi Enumerator’ device had completely disappeared from the Device manager and therefore I could not Enable them. Thus, I  manually reinstalled it from https://www.bome.com/products/bmidi
  • I now noticed in the Windows Device manager the three NI USB Devices:
    • • Komplete Kontrol S88 MK2
    • Komplete Kontrol S88 MK2 BD
    • Komplete Kontrol S88 MK2 DFU
  • I am not completely sure but I think the BD and DFU were not there before. There was also a warning sign in front of the device name thus I manually updated the drivers from the Windows device manager.
  • Magically, this brought the Displays of the S88 back to life and everything seems to be working again.
  • One final note from NI Suport:
    • Not sure though what the cause might have been. We have seen some issues in the past regarding the Bome MIDI Driver, not in the exact way you have described your fix but actually quite similar. The Bome MIDI Driver is the “extension” of the NIHostIntegrationAgent, responsible to transmit everything from A to B. My assumption was that in case any other application gets first access to the Bome MIDI Driver it will not available for other applications (Komplete Kontrol) anymore.
• Anyway, thanks again to NI support for their help and very quick responses.

Setup Komplete Kontrol S88 for Cubase

Videos of Komplete Kontrol

Videos of example Virtual Instruments

References

• Sound On Sound Review