One thing I will mention here is that you can play beats directly from your keyboard, so you don’t absolutely need pads. Just like the S49, there are no drum pads on the A49. You can track directly from your keyboard and control the session if the way that you would like to. Native Instruments has streamlined everything quite nicely to make this process easy. When it comes to recording, it is very similar to the S series. This keyboard will work out of the box immediately with all of your favorite DAW’s for instant gratification. Native Instruments has some of the most popular VST’s and you get access to these with the A49.Įverything is pre-mapped and ready to go with all of the major DAW’s. The synth packs and Maschine essentials that you get with the product are worth it alone in my opinion. The big win, in my opinion, is that you still get all the same software that you get with the Kontrol S series. There are a lot of MIDI controllers that don’t have to screens, so to me, it’s not really the end of the world to have a smaller screen. When you click, “browse” to find synthesizer sounds, you will immediately see your screen start to change as you browse through options.

Now, it’s nothing close to the “S” series here, but I feel like this was a great spot to cut costs for Native Instruments. It’s located at the top left of the keyboard and it is an LCD display. The screen is tiny, but I actually kind of like it.

Native instruments 25 key