I was at guitar center a couple days ago and the salesman was almost begging me to take home one of those Kore 2 hardware / software sample kits. They wanted 400$ for it but the guy was saying he would sell it for 100$ under. It does not really seem like its worth the extra change to get that little controller, all the functions you can easily do with a mouse... Does anyone have any first hand experience with it?
NI Kore 2 Hardware Edition: Worth it or Waste of $$$?
- Thread starter SvenD
- Start date
Focused
Sound Designer/Educator
I own one, and at first its confusing. I didn't like it at all actually because I didnt understand how it was supposed to be helpful. I came from being a heavy Motif and Fantom user and thought it was going to do all of the same things I could do on my Motif, but from the controller.
First and foremost KORE 2 is not really about that controller at all, the controller is just an extension of the concept. KORE is really about organizing your software instrument based studio and creating a quicker way of finding the sounds that you are looking for. If you are a Komplete owner for example, all of the sounds in Komplete are automatically categorized with tags that dictate what type of instrument sound each patch belongs to. Say you are looking for a synth lead while making a track. If you type in the word lead into KORE 2, it will pull up every lead sound that you have within your Komplete 5/6 library(if you own NI Komplete), whether the sound/preset be from pro53, FM8, Reaktor, Massive, Absynth, or Kontakt. It shows you all of you leads that are tagged and allows you to get straight to the point instead of having to go through each program/plugin individually, manually loading and unloading each until you find what you are looking for.
The other thing KORE 2 offers with the hardware controller is automatic mapping of many of the controls and parameters for all your Komplete instrument presets, as well as the ability to preview and scroll through patches with the same quickness someone would if they were using a Motif or Roland Fantom for example. KORE allows you to create stacks of sounds and build a very creative new instrument using multiple instruments in your instrument library. KORE also allows you to load up 3rd party Vsts and categorize the presets of those plugins so that you can find them quicker as you work on tracks. Its a highly misunderstood product that is really designed to speed up your workflow and enhance your possibilities when working with software instruments.
I think if you own alot of plugins, and especially if you own alot of NI products, KORE 2 is an excellent tool to have to help you find your sounds and discover new sounds. It also is an excellent controller for products like Ableton Live.
First and foremost KORE 2 is not really about that controller at all, the controller is just an extension of the concept. KORE is really about organizing your software instrument based studio and creating a quicker way of finding the sounds that you are looking for. If you are a Komplete owner for example, all of the sounds in Komplete are automatically categorized with tags that dictate what type of instrument sound each patch belongs to. Say you are looking for a synth lead while making a track. If you type in the word lead into KORE 2, it will pull up every lead sound that you have within your Komplete 5/6 library(if you own NI Komplete), whether the sound/preset be from pro53, FM8, Reaktor, Massive, Absynth, or Kontakt. It shows you all of you leads that are tagged and allows you to get straight to the point instead of having to go through each program/plugin individually, manually loading and unloading each until you find what you are looking for.
The other thing KORE 2 offers with the hardware controller is automatic mapping of many of the controls and parameters for all your Komplete instrument presets, as well as the ability to preview and scroll through patches with the same quickness someone would if they were using a Motif or Roland Fantom for example. KORE allows you to create stacks of sounds and build a very creative new instrument using multiple instruments in your instrument library. KORE also allows you to load up 3rd party Vsts and categorize the presets of those plugins so that you can find them quicker as you work on tracks. Its a highly misunderstood product that is really designed to speed up your workflow and enhance your possibilities when working with software instruments.
I think if you own alot of plugins, and especially if you own alot of NI products, KORE 2 is an excellent tool to have to help you find your sounds and discover new sounds. It also is an excellent controller for products like Ableton Live.
@Focused
Thanks for the thorough reply man, appreciate it. The sales person was talking it up to be an instrument in itself, when really it seemed to be more what you were describing it to be, a means of increasing work flow. It just does not seem like it really does anything extra that you couldn't do with a mouse and the Kore 2 software. But since I have a good amount of NI plug-ins, maybe I will give it a shot if the price is right.
Thanks for the thorough reply man, appreciate it. The sales person was talking it up to be an instrument in itself, when really it seemed to be more what you were describing it to be, a means of increasing work flow. It just does not seem like it really does anything extra that you couldn't do with a mouse and the Kore 2 software. But since I have a good amount of NI plug-ins, maybe I will give it a shot if the price is right.
yah I was thinking it really just comes down to 8 encoders for $100???
I feel like I have plenty of encoders ... I can just automap my main 8 encoders on my SLmkII boom. no??
software is really the key. if you have Komplete especially ... the speed at which you can build complex layers and build sounds is amazing.
saves you a ton of CPU as well by layering them within Kore2
I think I just talked myself into buying it for myself ...
werd
-BM
MimikOctopus
New member
I've been looking at the Kore/Komplete package, thanks for the detailed description as it's kind of ambiguous, I saw some videos and it looked really powerful, the morphing between 8 different variations looks really cool!
Anyway I've heard the controller is a cpu hog, but I'm guessing this is only when it's used as an audio interface?
Anyway I've heard the controller is a cpu hog, but I'm guessing this is only when it's used as an audio interface?