A use for Komplete Kontrol - Reaktor synths

[Guy Rowland]

I am probably Komplete Kontrol's greatest critic. I hate it. It's always been bad, and it is still bad. Over the many years now its badness has shifted a little, but it's always remained bad. With 3.0, NI went to the new browser format where you can't search for multiple fields without switching tabs, which is a UX fail on a scale I can't really fathom. To cap it all, the screen STILL wasn't resizeable and you just got a tiny selection of search results on the right hand side. That one at least has been fixed - you can now resize and you can reduce the huge library images to about 40% of real estate, which means you can see some more results:



This has meant that it is now actually finally reached the point of being Better Than Nothing in one specific area - Reaktor synths, many of which are really good. Reaktor has never had a browser that can read its own tagged ensemble presets, its browser is strictly Y2K, a clumsy tree haeirachy. So I've now added a bunch of new disabled tracks to my template, each with a Reaktor synth selected in Komplete Kontrol. Here's what that gives:

1. Any expansion presets are included when searching. Komplete owners will likely have a bunch of these - I find them useful for drum one-shots and synth presets, not much else.

2. Tags. Yes, split across different tabs, but at least it's now easy to see ALL the bass patches as in the screenshot above, and it is possible to drill down further.

3. Audio Previews. This is actually quite a big deal. Previews are a separate install in Native Access (about 9gb IIRC) where the presets all have audio previews that can auto-play.

So even though it's still clumsy in many ways, it is now very quick to cycle through all the Monark bass sounds.