About to buy a kontrol s series controller...

[djmoonie]

I understand these can run in midi or native mode. If I want to remap them I guess I have to go into midi mode, but are there any downsides to not running the controller in native mode? Do you lose any functionality?

[Sulherokhh]

For the S2/S4 A few functions only work in native mode, for example the accurate display of loop sizes on the 7seg display and the CopyMode/BrowseMode of the s4. S5/S8 and D2 provide only a few knobs/buttons/faders to work with MIDI, the rest cannot be MIDI mapped.
For the S2/S4 there is the option of keeping the native HID mapping and just overriding a few or more functions so that you can add, remove or change quite a lot.

[frankiefilth]

S5/S8 and D2 provide only a few knobs/buttons/faders to work with MIDI, the rest cannot be MIDI mapped.

I would say more than a few knobs/buttons/faders are mappable on these controllers. The only things that aren't available in MIDI mode are the screens, the little square buttons on either side of the screens, the deck and shift buttons.

[padi_04]

You can remap them but you'll be losing the screen's functionality which is basically why someone would be getting one of these. Only the D2 and S8 allow partial remapping without losing functionality and it's only for the faders, buttons and encoders under the displays.

Depending on how you wish to remap them you can use the stock mapping and switch to the MIDI layer when you need it.