Hi,

I am using Ableton Suite and have Komplete 12 and Maschine Studio and I need a new MIDI controller since my old one died. The Komplete S49 or 61 seem like a great option since I have quite some NI stuff. I also use some other VST's but since I have so much already I mainly use Live and NI stuff.

The main reason to get S-series is that I want to minimize monitur use since I have an office job and I don't want to stare at my monitor too much when I come home and the plugin integration can help here. Also the 'auto chord' seems like a nice feature since I cannot play piano. But I find that plugin control with Maschine is not suuuuuper deep and I wonder of S-series will be any better. When doing some research I found this 2017 in depth review shows some limitations that I also see with Maschine Studio. For instance some knobs have nonsense naming or values. The top row of buttons on the S-series seem to do little. I cannot figure out if this has been fixed with new Kontrol software updates.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDmFTiQDx4M

Are there viable alternatives? I saw the Nektar Panorama P6 that seems quite good and that also has pads and a motorized fader. I am considering to get a Push 2 later on but the addition of pads is nice to be able to use with Live drumracks. But to my suprise it does not support Live DAW integration. How does the Nektar compare to NI S-series? Are there any others I should consider?

Panorama has no integration with Live. Reason, Cubase, Logic, Studio One, Fruity Loops, Bitwig, Reaper, Garageband no problem...just not Live.

The KK boards are similar to Maschine in terms of control depth. You can't do deep programming from scratch, they are aimed at quick patch browsing and a few pages of performance controls. The knobs are mapped by the patch designers, so you get what they consider important.
You can do some amount of remapping of the knobs, but if you're expecting to be able to reach 1000 parameters, forget it. But if you're already using Komplete, they do make it much more hands on. They also play nicely with Maschine.

you will have to build your own remote script to control Ableton macros automatically with your Komplete kontrol. Easy to do, but dont freak out when you plug in your NI controller the first time and it won't control Ableton parameters.

While there are tons of options don't see much that does not require manual mapping to buttons or reduce the need to look at the monitor.

The Arturia Keylab MK2 or Novation SL MK3 seem good too but don't have those pros.

Do you mean I cannot control Live parameters? Or only macros?

You can manually assign any parameters in live using the 'Midi Assign' function in ableton. But those will be hard assignments. If you want the "blue hand control" where the midi controller automatically controls whatever is selected in the DAW, you will have to build a remote script.

I also found the Akai Advance 49. That seems to be quite similar to the S-series but maybe more allround? Any experiencehow these compare ?
https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/akai-advance-49