Native Instruments Announces NKS Support for Arturia Controllers
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[07 May 2025] Native Instruments and Arturia have announced that the Arturia KeyLab MK3, KeyLab Essential MK3, and MiniLab MK3 series controllers will soon support the NKS standard.
NKS Partner Program
NKS Support for Arturia KeyLab, KeyLab Essential, and MiniLab
At NAMM this year, Native Instruments announced that it was opening up the NKS control standard for third-party controllers (see below). While the Hardware Partner Program was previously limited to selected controllers from AKAI Professional, Novation, KORG, Nektar, and M-Audio, Arturia will soon join the party. At Superbooth 25, the two manufacturers will preview the upcoming integration for the Arturia KeyLab MK3, KeyLab Essential MK3, and MiniLab MK3. As of now, we don’t know when it’ll become available, but you can already preview the integration at the Native Instruments and Arturia booths.
The Arturia KeyLab MK3, KeyLab Essential MK3, and MiniLab MK3 series are available at Thomann*.
NKS now Available for AKAI, Novation, KORG, M-Audio
[26 February 2025] Many keyboard controllers from AKAI Professional, Novation, Nektar, KORG, and M-Audio now support the Native Instruments NKS Standard. The update, which was announced at NAMM 2025 in January, is now live. And here’s a special bonus: All owners of a compatible controller receive Native Instruments Komplete 15 Select for free!
Until now, you had to own a keyboard controller from Native Instruments to benefit from the NKS standard. At NAMM 2025, Native Instruments announced that the NKS ecosystem would be opened for selected 3rd-party manufacturers (see below). The change takes effect today. NKS is now available for the following keyboard controllers:
- AKAI Professional MPK Mini series (MPK Mini, MPK Mini Play, MPK Mini Plus)
- Novation Launchkey MK3 / MK4, FLkey, SL MK3
- KORG Keystage
- M-Audio Oxygen series
In addition, the new Nektar Impact LX MK3 series will support the standard when it comes out in April 2025.
To celebrate the launch, all owners of a compatible controller will receive Native Instruments Komplete 15 Select for free (a $99 value). Owners of an AKAI MPK series controller receive a specially tailored version that includes Massive X, Battery 4, and iZotope Nectar 4 Elements.
Most of the controllers included in the program are available from Thomann (find the complete list here*).
More Information
NKS Support for 3rd-Party Keyboard Controllers
[22 January 2025] Many keyboard controllers from AKAI Professional, Novation, Nektar, KORG, and M-Audio will soon support the Native Instruments NKS standard. At NAMM 2025, the developer announced the NKS Hardware Partner Program.
If you own a current keyboard controller from AKAI Professional, Novation, Nektar, KORG, or M-Audio, or are thinking about getting one, you could soon benefit from Native Instruments NKS support. The standard, which was first rolled out about a decade ago, enables intuitive control of many plugins and software instruments by NI and many 3rd-party developers. With compatible plugins and a supported controller, you no longer need to manually assign the knobs and faders. Pre-configured mappings make short work of what used to be a tedious task.
Until now, you needed a Native Instruments controller to make full use of the standard. The new Hardware Partner Program, which Native Instruments announced today, brings support to many controllers from the aforementioned manufacturers.
The AKAI MPK Mini series controllers (MPK Mini MK3, Mini Play Mk3, Mini Plus) are among the first to be supported through the program. Native Instruments announced an extended collaboration with AKAI Professional today, which also includes exclusive content for the MPC series.
The Novation Launchkey MK3, Launchkey MK4, and FLkey series will also receive support to complement the already seamless DAW integration of the keyboards.
Native Instruments will also extend support to the Nektar Impact LX25+, KORG Keystage, and the current line of M-Audio Oxygen controllers.
Support for the aforementioned keyboard controllers will be rolled out over the coming months.
Komplete 15 Select Included
As an added bonus, owners of compatible keyboard controllers will receive a free license for Native Instruments Komplete 15 Select. You can choose from the Beats, Band, or Electronic editions, each of which includes a different selection of software instruments and effects. Vouchers for Komplete 15 Select will be available from the manufacturers of the keyboards once NKS support is available.
More Information
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3 responses to “Native Instruments Announces NKS Support for Arturia Controllers”
Hmm… What does it mean anyway? How can a MPK Mini of a Launchkey benefit from NKS? Or vice-versa?
So they will just midi map its 8 knobs to the NI wrapper plugin? You can do that already now.
The NKS standard makes sense to me only with devices with huge screens, so you can see and control a plugin from it without watching the monitor. All the rest is just a generic midi controller.
I’d rather watch my cash grow feet and jump off a waterfall than spend money buying the KORG crap build material and their ancient interfaces
There is a new sense of cooperation in the air! Bring it on!!!
P.s.: FINALLY!!! 😂