Native Instruments Komplete Kontrol A61 5-stars Reviews

Opportunities

This MIDI keyboard offers an impressive combination of quality and functionality. With it, I can fully immerse myself in the music creation process with intuitive controls at my fingertips and deep integration with Komplete Kontrol software. Benefits: +Playing this instrument gives a great feel and response, but the keys themselves could have been made better, although you can't complain about that for this price. +Integration with Komplete Kontrol +Touch controls and 4D encoder are awesome. Despite its affordable price, the A61 is as good as its more expensive counterparts in terms of functionality.

Seamless workflow

Great addition to my set up as it really helped me enhance my workflow

Nice controller

Feels good to use. Good quality for the price

Thanks to its beautifully weighted keys, with good feedback I have this keyboard at my main place and the b-studio as well. I especially like having the transport control and a couple of knobs available straight at the keyboard as it gives me an option to move my keys away from the desk and still have control over the playback and the instrument I am playing.

A huge plus is that you get a basic set of instruments, sounds, and a "DAW" (Maschine Essential) together with the keys so you're pretty much ready to rock - a nice start to the Native Instruments ecosystem.

1a wie von NI gewohnt

Das Keyboard aus dem Hause Native Instruments hält wie immer was es verspricht. Perfekte Verarbeitung, perfekte Einbindung, super Haptik, einfach genial. Kann ich jedem empfehlen der Geld sparen möchte, keine Displays braucht aber Spaß mit nem Midi-Keyboard haben möchte. Und wertstabil san die Sachen von NI eh meist über ne längere Zeit. Also, da kann man nix falsch machen. Kaufen, ausprobieren und geiles Zeug produzieren. Ab geht‘s!

Great Keyboard with nice Daw integration

I use it for both composition, teaching and production, integrates really well with Cubase and the buttons and knobs on the front are a life saver for scrolling and ease of recording, would recommend !

Most beautiful touch in this price range

Build & Quality

Just amazing. I didn't expect everything to feel so well-built. Everything feels nice - the knobs, the wheels feel AMAZING. The mod wheel is smooth as butter. It's heavier than most, but if you're a producer using VST (which, I suppose is 95% of the reason one gets MIDI keys), I can only imagine that being a plus. In general, all the knobs have a good heavy-solid feel to them.

I'm comparing it to some previous keys I've had:

Nektar impulse, Arturia keylab essential, Korg SP100, Novation impulse

The keys are great. As semi-weighted keys, it obviously makes piano expressions much better than non-weighted ones.

The cons:

The only one I can think of so far is the tiny screen. I don't think an LCD screen could've been that pricey. I hope they had put one at least as big as the Arturias

Native Instruments Komplete Kontrol A61 Compact Controller Keyboard

Best Controlers Ever , Native Instruments , The Best

Great for the aspiring producer!

I've been a studio guitarist for more than 5 years, but I wanted to add something else to my musical skillset. I was looking at a more affordable keyboard, but when I saw the software bundle that comes with this keyboard, I was sold. The keys themselves feel absolutely fantastic, especially for the price, and with over 500 euros worth of software included it's great for producers who are into sound design, and want to work without anything hampering their creativity.

My first keyboard

I'm really excited about how expensive this one feels.

A61 first glance

So after few hours fiddling with this keyboard

The build quality is great and key action is a little bit on the heavy side, which is good.

The sound library that comes with it is really good, especially the Gentleman piano and Scarbee electric piano, high quality.

Not to mention the tons of other sounds.

However there are some drawbacks.

Usability is not great.

The data screen is very small and not very helpful.

It will take you some time to learn all the functions because this product is not very intuitive.

If you want better usability take a look at the S series which comes with big color screens.

There is no option to set the global velocity curve and no way to set global volume from the keyboard.

Both these features are usually taken for granted and you may be disappointed when you find out they don't exist in the A series.

To sum up, good value for money.

The best value for money

In my opinion, this keyboard is a nice tool for home studios.

It has enough controllers and options for the regular tasks if you compositing something or just play for fun.

Pros: Low price, quality, design, good brand (NI), it doesn't need any additional drivers.

Cons: I didn't find them. I guess this keyboard gives you many benefits for such a low price.

5 stars

Great keyboard, keys are great as well. works with no DC!

Top keys, but lacking features

I bought this piano after comparing all 61 keys midi controllers, and this seems to be the one with the best integration in Studio One.

Best:

The good point are the keys and seamless integration with all Komplete products I have. It reminds me the feeling of a real piano, it's no so plasticky and looks like a premium unit. Another good point are all transportation buttons that it has, useful for DAW and also for the Komplete Kontrol plugin. I can control some basic features from Studio One which is what I was looking for. Also, I need no mapping at all, I love plug and play things without messing around with configuration files and so on :)

Cons:

It's quite heavy and bulky, so you need a lot of space for it. The clicking sound from the buttons is really loud, really. The little screen is useful but it should be at least bigger or similar to the layout of the S series MK1.

No aftertouch, which in 2019 should be a standard in this kind of hardware.

I think this type of units can have more controls, as it has two big empty frames on each side, but it happens the same with the S series.

In sum, for this price it's an affordable piano that can do almost all that I need, so I'm happy with it and I hope it lasts so many years.

Amazing Keyboard

I use the keyboard for music production, its been a lot of help for me because I don't have good enough musical knowledge. Scale function and chord functions are phenomenal. Recommended.

Pros.

keys feel great easy to get used to

easy to navigate in komplete kontrol

build quality is amazing

Cons.

There is no on/off button on the keyboard.

Worth the money!

I am very happy with purchase!