Korg Nanokontrol 2
Elva Stuller
I recently bought both the Korg nanoKONTROL 2 (usb only) and the nanoKONTROL Studio (usb and bluetooth), neither of which can I get to work with any DAWs (eg Cubasis (IOS), Cubase LE 11, GarageBand, NanoStudio).
Not only have I read the manuals, the forums and called Korg (pretty useless and only managed to get through the once), I got no reply at all from Steinberg.
I have worked with software and hardware for over 35 years and never wasted so much time.
I discovered in one posting that Korg uses a proprietary USB cable but that it looks to be identical to any run of the mill cable - can that really be true? If so, how do I know that the ones which came in my boxes are the right ones (i.e. not those from returned items?).
What a fiasco.
I see many, many posts of people having issues with recent Korg products and that is shameful from a company of that stature in the industry.
But with yours its as easy as downloading korg app. Then controller will be in aum. Then see if cable works. Heard also about the cables but not sure if it means its different for sending data when customising controller vs using controller. Every cable has worked when customising. Theres were sure to be a cable thats for charging a torch. Vapouriser. Ps4 controller etc but could be true what you are saying. I think with the nanokey ( yours is nanokontrol ) maybe theres more functionality when using BT vs wired? Or maybe that were just the arps. Maybe scenes though.
With the kontrol studio. Will be noodling but with sequencers and tweaking. Controller will be close. Will seem good to have 16 volumes and 16 mutes and solo. Like a mixer. Shame about no cue monitoring but mixer style will be good. Any other additional mutes and solo will be with the left buttons near the circle jogwheel. With a 2nd ipad dedicated for a couple of synths. The only prob is if you solo these synths. You would be soloing both synths ( if they are a stereo input in another aum ) but thats fixed with x 2 volumes mapped to another controller. Volume off when you you solo the other. So it seems that a wired connection ( if everything works ) would be better for use with both ipads.
I have both the nK2 and nKS and they both work fine with all my iPads. Both usb through ACC and nanoKontrol Studio via bt as well. All you do is just map them however you please in AUM and you're good to go. Tried Studio recently with CB3.3 and mapping worked as well although they don't have a factory profile for nanoKontrol Studio but just nanoKontrol 2 unfortunately.
I make it a rule now a) not to buy anything which has a micro usb to communicate and b) to fit the gear that I already have using micro usb with magnetic-end cables, so I can leave the usb doohickey itself. permanently in place to avoid stressing the ridiculously fragile micro usb connection.
@sdclee tons of people (including myself for the NanoKEY Studio) use these with iOS and all the hosts you mention. I can only speculate you may inadvertently be using a charging only USB cable. I've never needed to use a special cable from Korg with the NKS, but there are USB cables that don't carry data and are good only for charging devices.
Regardless of the USB situation, you should be able to use the NKS with Bluetooth. You have to go through the Bluetooth connection dialog every time you reconnect the device. You do not go through the normal Bluetooth device connection. You go through either the Korg BLE Midi app, or the host's Bluetooth MIDI dialog. I you did manage to "pair" the device through iOS Settings > Bluetooth, tell iOS to forget that connection before using the BLE Midi dialog to connect.
Since you bought these recently, I kind of doubt that you need to update any firmware, but it's possible. That's always a good thing to try because a year or more back there were problems with the Korg products after an iOS update.
Thanks for the replies - I didn't get notifications so I'll look into my settings. I was more interested in Cubase on the iMac than Cubasis on IOS even though I use both. I guess I was just unlucky but I think it's a very sad state of affairs when huge companies have no phone support (which I'd be prepared to pay for) and those which don't even reply to emails or form submissions (thanks for nothing Steinberg).
Once I'd read about the dedicated USB cable (true or false who knows) I gave up. I was using Korg's BT connectivity btw.
Anyhow, I've sent them back and moved on to more productive areas.
The Korg nanoKEY Studio (BT) I bought a few months ago worked straight out of the box so that was really the spur to purchase the other two products. Am I the only one who finds their naming completely and utterly confusing? Drives me crazy.
Appreciated - Cheers.
So I was kinda expecting a pain to set this up, but got it working with AUM seamlessly. The transport controls, sliders, button and knobs all mapped and working. Instead of using the Korg editor app to change the CC values I just used the AUM learn functionality to map the sliders and buttons etc. Cool!
I can confirm that the NK2 is a great DAW controller for Cubasis 3.3. Just set it up as a Mackie controller in CB settings and hold Set + Rewind when you connect the controller (I made this mode default with editor software). I used many different USB cables. I think only I once had a cable that seemed to be for charging only.
That's good to know but I would want it primarily for Cubase LE 11 on the iMac with Cubasis (IOS) with as a secondary use.
Anyway, it has gone back now so I'll have to wait until such time that someone can provide me definitive setup for Cubase LE 11, in which case I might consider buying one again (but not right now as I've just spent the money on a volca mix and volca 2x2 stand instead).
The answers depend somewhat on what you want to use the controller for? Do you want to use it like a mixer controller (moving the channel faders, muting and unmuting tracks, panning ...)? Or do you want to use it to control things within different synths and FX? If so, are the apps you want to control AUv3 or IAA or both?
Either way, your starting point is to understand AUM's midi control section and, most importantly, MIDI Learn. Check the help in the app for a brief overview. But you can also jump right in by adding an audio channel, then tapping the channel name at the bottom. This will pop up a dialog box and you'll see an icon that looks like four faders at the top right of it. Tapping that takes you to the MIDI Control setup for that channel.
You'll see Volume, Mute, Solo, and Rec Enable. You'll also see a blue message at the top that says "No MIDI Source! Tap to connect." Doing so brings up a list that should include your NanoKONTROL Studio. Tap on that and they on the back arrow at the top left of the window. Now, tap Volume, and then "Learn" in the dialog box that pops up. Move the first slider on your NKS and you should see the channel and CC that has come from the NKS mapped to that control. Repeat for all the controls you want to map.
The process is similar if you want to control things inside AU synths and FX. Once you've added an app to the channel you're working with, you'll see it listed below the channel controls in the MIDI control setup dialog. Tap the app and it will take you to the parameters that can be controlled in that app. From there the process of MIDI learn is the same.
@wim said:
The answers depend somewhat on what you want to use the controller for? Do you want to use it like a mixer controller (moving the channel faders, muting and unmuting tracks, panning ...)? Or do you want to use it to control things within different synths and FX? If so, are the apps you want to control AUv3 or IAA or both?
Since I only use the Rec button for one channel, what are your recommendations to use those for? I was planning on using 'Select' to open and close audio units but that doesn't appear to work (Do you know if that functionality might be coming?).
I was thinking to use Select instead for enabling, disabling effects, but that leaves the Rec button.
I could use it to Disable send to the Track I'm recording from, but it's not super useful. Any ideas?