Help With Korg NanoKontrol please?!

[Dr. Varney]

Okay, I've plugged it in, installed all this software and read the manuals... but I still can't work out what to do with this thing.

It's not doing anything. I must have overlooked something. Any suggestions?

 

[EuroHobbes]

I bought one this week and had no trouble in starting it. Which software do you want to use it in?

I use it for reason and it works like a charm, though I did have to add it manually. It wouldn't auto-detect.

Just to make sure: the light on the first scene is lighting up, right?

 

[Dr. Varney]

Glad to speak to you, since you've just bought one as well... cheers!

Mine arrived today. Since starting this thread, I've got it going with FL Studio but how can I get it working for Reaper?

I've been through the manual in Reaper, but unfortunately, I don't know quite what I'm looking for, so I don't know where to start.

In FL I merely right click a slider etc and hit 'Link to controller' but with Reaper, it doesn't work like that - so what menu/command etc am I looking for?

Thanks

Dr. V

 

[Dr. Varney]

I just did a search and the Nano comes up on the Reaper forum (of all places ). The person says this:

nano_reaper.nktrl_set must be load into the nanoKontrol with the Korg Kontrol Editor. Load it and go to Communication/Write Scene Set.

But I can't seem to find this file anywhere. Anyone point me to it?

Now, another thing - supposing I DO find the reaper.nktrl file and load it - does this mean I'll have to change all the settings again when I come to use it with FL Studio?

I'm a little confused about all this to-ing and fro-ing with set ups in the Korg editor. I hope I haven't bought something that's more trouble to use than it's worth. Is there an easy way to use this controller for both programs?

Dr. V

 

[Dr. Varney]

Okay, I've found the file. I can get it to do start/stop in Reaper but not the sliders. How do I set that up?

 

[FunkDaddy]

Okay, I've found the file. I can get it to do start/stop in Reaper but not the sliders. How do I set that up?

MIDI learn?

 

[EuroHobbes]

I've got it!

In reaper you click Action->Show Action List. In the new window you click Import/Export (bottom left corner) and click import. Browse to the keymap file you downloaded from the Reaper Forums and you are good to go.

Small note though, I did have to reload all the earlier settings before I could use it in Reason again. That was a bit of a hassle.

I'm not using reaper atm (I heard it was better for mixing so I at some point I want to use reWire to get my reason stuff into reaper) so I'll stick to reason. But I think it's doable to use Scene1 for Reason, and the other 3 for Reaper.

If I ever get around to it, I'll let you know.

 

[Dr. Varney]

Thank you, EuroHobbes. That's cool but now I only have nine tracks working with the Korg. How do I set up the rest?

 

[Dr. Varney]

MIDI learn?

Yes - but HOW??? If you know something I don't, please tell me!

Okay - here's what I've got so far: If I right-click a track, I can choose 'Show MIDI Controls'. That seems to load an FX called 'Reacontrol'. I select the 'volume' slider and hit 'Param'. Then I get a dialogue where I can hit one of the controls on my Korg and it enters in the control field. Now the volume slider in Reacontrol responds to movements on the Korg - but it doesn't apply to the main slider on the Reaper track controls and also doesn't have any affect on the sound! So what's that all about then?

 

[Dr. Varney]

Update: By adding tracks, I've discovered I can control them as well, by flipping scenes on the Korg - but now, I cannot control any of my FX parameters. I was able to get them to 'learn' before I loaded the Reaper control set into the Korg Kontrol Editor. This sucks. I'm not having fun with it and thinking of going back to FL Studio (which accepts things immediately without any messing about).

 

[moresound]

Hey Dr. V just the other day I was thinking that you must be a bit busy for I hadn't seen/heard ya in a while.
Do keep the updates coming on this for if it's a not so good-a-thing to have through reaper it will be good knowledge for anyone hoping to do so to know.

 

[EuroHobbes]

Update: By adding tracks, I've discovered I can control them as well, by flipping scenes on the Korg - but now, I cannot control any of my FX parameters. I was able to get them to 'learn' before I loaded the Reaper control set into the Korg Kontrol Editor. This sucks. I'm not having fun with it and thinking of going back to FL Studio (which accepts things immediately without any messing about).

Could you give an example of what type of parameter you want to change? Maybe I could give it a swing and see if I can get it to work.

The midi controller support isn't exactly top-notch compared to reason, either. The rest I've had very little problems with (mind you, I have tried Reaper for a grand total of 2 hours), but this is seems to be quite a hassle

 

[Dr. Varney]

Hey Dr. V just the other day I was thinking that you must be a bit busy for I hadn't seen/heard ya in a while.
Do keep the updates coming on this for if it's a not so good-a-thing to have through reaper it will be good knowledge for anyone hoping to do so to know.

Sure thing, Moresound! I'll tell you what, I've been all over Youtube with this. There are various applications demonstrated by different people - all with a breezy set up. I can't find any results, specifically, for Korg NanoKontrol with Reaper.

I'm not altogether dissapointed because this thing works perfectly well with FL Studio and I've been coming around to the idea that FL is just easier and better for the type of project I normally do (spoken words; ie: keeping track of hundreds of small wavs - while Reaper shines when mixing music; especially where from analogue origins).

It's worth noting that the Korg was an impulse buy while I was setting up my Christmas wishlist, which the Behringer BCF Rotary currently dominates. That is what I've set my heart on and so I never had the greatest of expectations for the £40 quid Nano - but, as I say, as a go-anywhere controller for most apps, I'd say you can't beat it on price and VfM!

Now, I would expect the Behringer BCF series to work well with anything but now, after hearing that Reaper isn't so great on the MIDI support (I'm sure they'll get there...) I'm not altogether surprised at the results I'm finding. MIDI control set-up in Reaper feels clumsy and long winded, in comparrison to FL Studio which is famous for it's quick & easy MIDI assignment.

Hope this helps. If I get to the bottom of it, I'll let you know.

 

[Dr. Varney]

Could you give an example of what type of parameter you want to change? Maybe I could give it a swing and see if I can get it to work.

Specifically, the main sliders on the mixer. Now, once that Rea-control set is loaded, it does actually work. As the person on the Rea forum was saying, you have to actually create extra tracks, for the tenth slider to work. Without going back to check, I seem to remember it misses one and jumps to number 11.

So, by switching scenes on the Nano you can cycle through 4 groups of 9 sliders in Reaper's mixer array.

Well, now that I have the sliders all working nicely, I can't seem to assign anything to work with the FX parameters; VSTs/DX plugins, etc. It's as if the Rea-control set has defined the mixer, but then doesn't offer you any flexibility beyond that. In reality, we don't always need every slider active whilst mixing and in a typical mixing session, we tweak some things more than others. So it stands to reason, you want to be able to assign stuff to your controllers on the fly - especially when you have so few sliders and knobs available, such as with the Korg Nano.

It's not until you get working with one, that you find out exactly how best to use it. How you envisage yourself using it before it arrives is just guesswork.

You could, in theory, create an entire mixing desk, full of these little Nano Kontrollers but if you did, by the time you had enough to control everything, you might as well have bought yourself a Mackie Universal or perhaps something even more expensive. Plus the fact, you would soon run out of USB sockets on your computer's IO because the Korg NanoKontroller doesn't actually work on a hub... not unless there's definitely enough power there to run it. Something I didn't discover until I opened the box and read the manual.

So yeah, for it's limitations, it's still pretty cool. I'm glad I bought it.

Dr. V

 

[Jawombkamagubi]

I've got nano working with Reaper with the key map, in FL I had to make a template and manually program everything. I made a template for Studio one-and it works great-I can program tons of plugins and S1 remembers them all and still allows me to do the mix-that's cool, but I cannot get the transporter to work in S1-if you know anything, I'd appreciate some info-thanx.