minas_chantzides

Kross 2 is my go-to choice when I'm outside my home studio. It's super light (weighs somewhere near 3kg), it has a thousand of decent sounding presets, a sequencer and audio recorders, plus pads for small samples and step-sequencing. The keybed is good synth-action, and at this price range I find it unbeatable! I also saw guys programming sounds on it, with remarkable results, which is a great plus even if in my personal opinion it's rather designed for portability and sketching your ideas on the road. But that's just me, I know and saw guys making great tracks from scratch using just this beautiful workstation!

I initially hesitating moving to Komplete Kontrol S49 MK2, mainly because I didn't know whether it would help me in my DAW (Cubase) workflow. I knew of course about its tight integration with Native Instruments' VSTs, so since I'm heavily invested on this stuff I decided to proceed. Turned out that not only I had a perfect experience with NKS software (and this includes also non-NI VSTS which have NKS support, for e.g. Serum, Omnisphere, Diva and the list goes on and on), BUT at the same time I arranged to build up most of sequencing editing commands I use in Cubase, and map them to its encoders and buttons. The best thing was that I could actually SEE commands' description in KK's very good screen, wihout relying on my memory! I currently use it with almost NO mouse movement or PC keyboard typing! It is a dream for me since coming from hardware workstations, I really needed this hardware 'feel'. Apart from this stuff, there's of course the keybed. What can I say? It's SUPER! Generally, in my personal opinion, one of the best controllers out there!

I knew before buying the great capabilities of this controller by watching stuff on the internet. After a bit of time (say some hours or so) I was able to map all my important DAW (Cubase) functions, making it perform like my old favourite hardware workstations. A bit later I bought another controller (NI's KK MK2) which I review elsewhere of course, so I was thinking whether to keep this one, since the other controller again suited my needs. Fortunately, the desicion was pretty easy, when I realized the power of this machine in conjuction with Arturia's Analog Lab software. What can I say? I have almost all my favourite hardware synths of the past in ONE VST which is very well integrated in Keylab MK2. Encoders, faders, browsing instruments/categories/sounds, and last but not least, make combis of two distinct sounds on the fly! It just fills me with joy, and often the sonic result is incredible! About the keybed: It's synth-action, very comfortable and I really love it, since i'm using it with Analog Lab. Construction: Top premium to me, and I surely used some other controllers in the past to judge so. I now have it in my setup with my NI's KK MK2, and well, I couldn't dream of anything better, at least on the DAW I use.