How to NKS - a brief guide

1. What is NKS?

Native Kontrol Standard (NKS) is a proprietary technology developed by Native Instruments, a company known for its software and hardware products in the music production and DJing industry. NKS is designed to streamline the integration of third-party software instruments and effects plugins with Native Instruments hardware and software ecosystem, particularly their Maschine and Komplete Kontrol product lines.

2. Becoming an NKS partner

Reach out to Native Instruments by using their third party contact email address, and let them know that you want to become an NKS partner 3rd-party-developers@native-instruments.com
Once you’ve been granted access, download the NKS SDK
Familiarize yourself with the NKS SDK and which additional assets you have to create to support NKS

Please note: This is mandatory. You need permission from Native Instruments to release a NKS-enabled product.

3. Required additional assets

You will need:

Presets in NKS format
One preview audio file per preset
Graphical assets in different sizes
A few JSON, PList and XML files that make your plugin discoverable by the NKS host software and define its appearance in the NI browsing experience

You’ll find more details in the NKS SDK documentation.

4. Lightguide support

If your plugin has keyswitches, the playable key range varies or it is possible to switch between different keyboard modes, you can indicate these features to users of NI Komplete Kontrol hardware by using the lightguide. Colours for the lightguide can be set from the instrument script. Further information can be found in our Gorilla Script reference.

5. Creating an installer

Add the additional assets (mentioned above) to the “NKS Resources” in Gorilla Compiler. Make sure all other Gorilla Compiler settings are set properly, click “Create Product” and you are done.

6. Submitting your product

NKS Partners are required to submit their product to Native Instruments to be accepted as fully functional NKS products. You’ll find more details about this in the NKS SDK documentation.