Native Instruments S88 MK3: EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW

[Music] This is the S88 MK 3 the  top-of-the-line Native Instruments   keyboard the first they've made with polyphonic  aftertouch and there's brand new software to go   with it this is a big deal the previous model  was one of the most popular MIDI controllers   on the market famous for its virtual instrument  integration so everyone including me was hoping   for a lot with this new model but did they do  enough let's take a look at the features   the competition and the one thing that sets this  keyboard apart from the rest Native Instruments   sent me this keyboard for free expecting me to  replace my old S88 and I will I've been using   the previous model for a few years now as my  daily keyboard so yeah I've got a lot to say   about this new one first and foremost this is a  MIDI controller that you use with your computer   to play software-based Virtual instruments control  your DAW and you can connect this to hardware synth   as well it does not have internal sound so this  is not a standalone keyboard and that was expected   but kind of disappointing to we're seeing a lot  more standalone devices these days including the   Maschine + from Native Instruments themselves  granted adding this standalone capability would   have bumped up the price but it would be nice  to take Kontakt on the road without a computer   Someday by the way I'm using the Earthworks Ethos  microphone today they're sponsoring this video   I'll share more about this mic later in the video  okay polyphonic aftertouch is pretty exciting so   let's talk about the keybed first because it's the  highlight of the S88 in particular this is the   biggest keyboard that Native Instruments makes  and the only one with 88 fully weighted hammer   action [Music] keys what does that mean well  basically this feels more like a traditional   piano the keybed is by Fatar Fatar is an Italian  company that makes key beds for keyboards like this I grew up learning classical piano on  many different types of pianos and this one   feels very close to a grand piano with very  nice touch if youve tried or if you own the   previous model S88 it feels about the same  compared to that now I've reviewed several   other hammer action keyboards compared to  the Arturia Keylab 88 this is a bit lighter   the Keylab 888 has a heavy feel compared to most  other MIDI controllers out there compared to   the M-Audio Hammer 88 Pro the S88 MK II  is about the same in the lightness of keys   velocity sensitivity on the S88 MK II is on  par with the previous model feels very natural   quick question what's more important to you dock  control or key feel comment below so what's the   deal with polyphonic aftertouch aftertouch  modifies the sound when you apply pressure   after pressing a [Music] [Applause] [Music]  key and this new keyboard has polyphonic [Music] aftertouch all sizes of the S  Series keyboards including the 49 and   61 have independent aftertouch on each key as  you press [Music] and this is a nice way to   add some extra expression while you [Music] play  of course when I tried this it worked well with   some Native Instruments plugins but I tested this  with a non-Native Instruments plug-in drift which   is included with Ableton Live you can assign what  the poly aftertouch does because it's sending MIDI  information to your [Music] DAW pretty cool I'm  not sure how much I'd use this but it is nice to   have what do you think now if you're considering  the S49 or 61 the key bed is different those are   semi-weighted keys without hammer action they  feel very different from this keyboard by the   way if you're new around here I'm Sanjay C I have lots  of videos about music production and the latest   music gear on my channel consider subscribing  if you haven't already I'll be sure to make it   worth your while so when I first saw the S88  years ago by far the thing I was most excited   about was the screen I want to show you the  brand new screen and its features but first a   quick overview of the layout the buttons knobs and  such on the left you've got a touch strip which   is now above the pitch and mod wheels which helps  avoid accidental touches you can assign what this   touch strip controls in the settings above that we  have fixed velocity which will apply a consistent   velocity or key press no matter how hard you  press a key and you have octave and semitone   up and down you've got some do controls next then  play assist which I'll show you later in the video   a settings button and some navigation buttons  there are contextual buttons above the screen   that correspond to different things depending  on what the screen shows and eight knobs at   the bottom that are also contextual over on  the right pretty simple browser plug-in DAW   mode buttons and a large encoder that does a lot  we'll go over everything so let's talk about this   screen the old S88 had two color screens but  with this new model they've ditched the double   screen for a single wide screen it's about  the same width but now a little taller about   an inch more this new size and the UI actually  improves readability the screen really sets the   S series apart from the cheaper Native Instruments  keyboards and pretty much every other keyboard   controller out there it's really useful for  navigating presets and modifying sounds and   it also does a great job at displaying your DAW's  mixer pressing the DAW button gives you a view of   your mixer tracks now unfortunately this is  not a touchscreen which would have totally   made sense in this form factor imagine swiping  through presets right anyway this screen helps   you focus on playing and making music instead of  looking at your computer screen and controlling   things with your mouse I'm using Ableton but  this mixer control works the same for other   compatible DAWs you can adjust track levels solo  mute pan is a little Annoying to adjust compared   to other keyboards now from my experience it takes  a while to lose the habit of grabbing your mouse   for everything and I still catch myself using the  mouse more than some of these controls but if   you're playing live or if your controller is far  away from your computer this could be a workflow   game changer and this screen is better than the  competition M-Audio screen is pretty small in   comparison low resolution no color but that's a  cheaper keyboard compared to this Arturia has a   screen on their Keylab controllers but they are  not up to the same level as you see here keep in   mind though that Arturia recently updated their  essential line of keyboards with better screens so   their premium keyboards will need to follow suit  soon I hope they come up with something that can   compete with this keyboard let's explore virtual  instrument control next but before we do a little   info about the mic I'm using this is the Ethos by  Earthworks I'm a big fan of Earthworks mics shout   out to Earthworks for sponsoring this video  the Ethos is a broadcasting mic but you can   use it for a vocal recording too it has this pop  filter included this sleek design and mount this   thing is fully stainless steel by the way so it's  built like a tank it's sensitive to my voice but   doesn't pick up other noises in the room which  is great for this video and really nice if you   podcast you'll hear this mic throughout this  video and in fact I've used it in a previous   video as well I'll put links to this mic below  the video if you want to learn more about it now   this screen really helps level up the S Series  usefulness when you load up Native Instruments   software and this is what I really love about  Native Instruments keyboards and it's even better   on the MK III all Native Instruments keyboards  work hand in hand with Native Instruments software   namely Komplete Kontrol and Kontakt to give you  a more efficient way to explore and modify sounds   when you're composing and the new integration is a  big deal especially the Kontakt integration check   it out you can now load Kontakt onto a track  and you'll get browsing capabilities and quick   control of the main parameters of that instrument  this is a much needed feature and you didn't have   this direct control with Kontakt before so you  can browse sounds hear a little sample filter by   types products and more when you find something  you like load it and you get controls right here you can also delve in deeper with the edit  button or the arrow buttons to see other [Music]   controls Kontakt integration is a welcome  addition for sure Native Instruments other   software complete control takes things even  further giving you the play assist features   and access to third-party instruments  and effects so load up Komplete Kontrol   and you have Native Instrument stuff and also NKS compatible plugins from Output Arturia U-He [Music] yes you can even load effects [Music] here and  this is what sets Native Instruments apart from   the rest the NKS standard that Native Instruments  developed in 2015 allows other plug-in developers   to integrate with these keyboards as well  giving you nearly the same convenient access to controls use the encoder to cycle through  presets from any NKS plug-in and load them   I can't tell you how useful this is when  trying to find a sound for a beat or a song this is the most convenient  way to try different sounds and the   preset up and down buttons are useful as [Music] well so load to sound and you've got  parameter controls here the knobs are   are touch sensitive so you'll see what  you're controlling before you even turn [Applause] them they've added an edit  button here that lets you dive deeper   and assigns more virtual controls to the  knobs but it does mean adding an extra   press before you get to them there's also  the page back and forth buttons to navigate here so the S Series is pretty good at navigating  and sculpting sounds the only other keyboard   that's this good is the artoria keylab with  their own analog lab software now let's talk   about that for a second artoria will give you  easy access to browse their own sounds and load   them similar to what the S Series gives you  but Arturia's keyboards have something over   this one more physical controls Arturia  Keylab keyboards have more ways to control   virtual instruments which really makes sense  for Arturia because they are so synth heavy   with their plugins so much of the stuff you see  on screen in Arturia plugins corresponds directly   to physical controls I wish Native Instruments  had given us a bit more physical controls like   faders or the touch screen now since we're in  Komplete Kontrol let's talk about play assist   play assist is a nice tool that works with the  Komplete Kontrol software it's great   but it's missing something too but let's cover  the good stuff first open Komplete Kontrol load   an instrument and you'll get a bunch of useful  tools scales chords arpeggiators scale mode will   show you the scale with a light guide and mute  notes that are not in the scale chord mode gives   you a bunch of different chords to choose  from and they're again mapped to the light guides I love the chord sets feature  which gives you complimentary chords   this is really nice for coming up with  chord progression ideas I use it all the [Music] time the art mode has lots  of different options for creating   arpeggios including rate swing octave gate and more note that you can't use play assist in Kontact  this only works with Komplete Kontrol and that's   a limitation you need to have this keyboard  connected to a computer and running the Komplete   Kontrol software to access these features they  could have implemented it into the keyboard's   hardware itself which would allow you to use  these tools with a hardware synth with no   computer needed at all most other keyboards do it  that way unfortunately not on this one that said   Native Instruments commented on a question under  one of their videos and said that this keyboard   is capable of on device rendering so such improvements  are now possible as they look ahead so that may be   coming we'll see the light guide on this keyboard  has been updated like I showed you they're a nice   tool to help you with cords scales but they're  also really useful when loading some virtual   instruments I've loaded 40's own drums and you'll  see I have drum hits on the left and patterns to   trigger on the right and the light guide makes  this very clear the lights are also useful for   Kontact instruments like picked acoustic that  treats these as key switches and lets you change   the pattern that you're playing or add some  additional sounds note that this feature works   on the previous MK II version of this keyboard  as well you can adjust settings for the light guide under the settings menu you can adjust  things like brightness and colors so what about   DAW control the S88 MK II has transport controls  play record stop loop metronome and automation   on and off here shift plus the metronome button  lets you tap the tempo and you've got quantize   and undo redo up here side note these are newly  designed buttons apparently the design is dust   proof meaning dust can't get under the button but  I find that the dust that collects is actually   harder to clean off anyway back to DAW control  you get the most needed controls for compatible   DAWs like Ableton Live Logic FL Studio Q Base  ProTools Studio One Bitwig and Digital Performer   their website says that more Integrations are in  development the mixer integration is excellent   because of this screen I haven't seen another  keyboard do it this well now one thing this   keyboard doesn't do as well as others is clip and  scene triggering for Ableton Live you can use the   large encoder to scroll through tracks and scenes  and press to trigger a clip but that's far from   the usefulness of keyboards that map their pads  to clips and scenes which if you're an Ableton   user is a huge performance benefit Novation Launch  Key and Arturia's Key Lab give you very nice   clip and scene triggering so this keyboard feels  premium more premium than most of the competition   the encoders and wheels are aluminum things feel  wellmade and solid on the back you've got USBC   it's bus powered and you have optional power if  you need it there are four pedal ports and you   can adjust what the pedals do in the keyboard  settings there's also a MIDI in and out for   connecting to hardware since so I've mentioned  some competing keyboards already but let's take   a closer look at some more differences the screen  on the Native Instruments S Series is a definite   winner but it's not everything that makes a good  MIDI controller faders are missing on the S Series   and faders give you two things first more control  you just have more physical controls to do things   like adjust virtual synth parameters and adjust  your DAWs track volumes even though you can do   this with the S Series knobs faders allow you  to easily adjust multiple volumes at once with   one hand what else is missing drum pads this  is a famous omission on all Native Instruments   keyboards and given how much I like the pads on  the Native Instruments Maschine I wish they could   have added them to the S Series MK III as well  Native Instruments got rid of the machine software   integration on the new Mark III which is a shame  I didn't use it that much but when I did it was   really appreciated not sure what they're going  to do with that change so another thing I wish   they could have done is map the plugins and   parameters of Ableton stock plugins right here   on this screen I mean the screen is here we just  need the plugins to show up and this is another   thing other keyboards do very well again Novation  and Arturia will show you the Ableton device and   the parameter and the unit of measure that you're  controlling right on their keyboard screens it's   so useful but it's not on the S Series this is  something they should be able to add later I   really hope they do you can still manually map  any MIDI controls from this keyboard but it's   not as efficient and elegant as a full da plug-in  integration now there's another competitor the S   Series MK II the previous version it's going to  give you a lot of the same control you won't get   the new layout and polyphonic aftertouch but  you will get that Maschine integration if you   can get a MK II I think you'll be really happy  with what it offers as far as native instruments   software integration and similarly nice screens  and you'll get what this this keyboard really   excels at virtual instrument integration and  remember that's with many thirdparty plugins   as well and you really love that integration if  you're heavy into the Native Instruments plug-in   ecosystem and the Kontakt libraries the updated  light guides may be useful but even if this   keyboard didn't have them it wouldn't be a deal  breaker for me now let's talk price the price has   increased by $100 for each of the models the S49  is $749 and the S61 is $849 and this one the S88   is $1,249 now I'm not surprised even budget midi  keyboards are going up in price you can get the   Arturia KeyLab 88 for $250 less than this and the M  Audio Hammer 888 Pro for $500 less than this I'll   say this if you're a synth enthusiast definitely  check out what Arturia has to offer you'll get   more physical controls for those synths if all  you want is 88 hammer action keys some basic   features but no integration with software  instruments the M-Audio is a great keyboard   and much cheaper the S Series MK III keyboard may  be missing a few features but what it can do it   does exceptionally well I think we're going to see  Native Instruments further improve their software and that should translate to more features on this  keyboard as well I love what this keyboard has   to offer including the screen the controls and  the general Native Instruments workflow as I'm   composing if you're interested in buying the S88  or any other S Series keyboard I'll include links   below if you use my affiliate links it helps out  this channel thanks to Earthworks for sponsoring   this video and check out the Ethos mic in the  links below if you want to see my review of other   88 key keyboards available today watch the video  right here keep Making The Music YOU Love

Channel: Sanjay C

Views: 202,798

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Id: f3ixKc6VLKk

Length: 21min 49sec (1309 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 17 2023