Bloody KORG nanoKONTROL Studio. COULD be so good, but...

[blue-moves]

Hello. I have one of these:

It will control Logic (transport / volume faders etc.)
or, without its dedicated plugin installed, it presents to logic as a regular MIDI controller and I can assign CCs to soft synths etc.

It doesn't seem to be able to do both things...

I went 'round the houses trying everything I could think of some time a few years ago and gave up
Today I've just wasted a whole work day pfaffing around with it and I STILL can't get it to do what I'd expect having spent good money on it.

Damn.

(To be clear I'd like it to control the transport AND be assignable to knob twiddles on soft synths... seems NOT too much to ask..??!!)

Does anyone know if there's a way?

From scouring the forums it seems many good men have tried and failed...

 

[des99]

It depends how the back end is architected, but yes, generally a device can either be a "smart" control surface for Logic, *or* a generic MIDI controller, but not both at the same time (without going too deep int to the weeds as to why - there are lots of posts exploring this in the past on this forum.)

And virtually none of the "smart" control surface devices ever implement plugin control - it's usually just transport and mixer. For plugin control, you need to go to full on Mackie Controls etc.)

So decide how you best want to use it, and use the mode that most makes sense for your use cases, would be my suggestion.

Edited September 9, 2023 by des99

[JakobP]

Otoh, you don't need to install your Korg as a control surface, simply assign the transport buttons their appropriate key command in the key command editor: 

[blue-moves]

Thanks Des - Your post on another thread from a few years back was helpful, I guess I kind of wondered if anyone had come up with a workaround in the meantime.. It seems like an issue that enough people had. I guess I don't know why it couldn't be hacked with a wee software patch of some kind? (I mean, it CAN do both things - obviously - just not at the same time..)

Jakob, thanks for responding - not quite sure how to do what you're suggesting, are you saying it might be possible for it to control transport AND do CC stuff at the same time? - by assigning a CC to the transport functions? (maybe you don't mean that? That was something I was wondering, though) Anyway, please, if you'd be so kind, give me a little more detail about what you're suggesting here (ELI5 etc.! 😄)

Thank you.

[des99]

12 minutes ago, blue-moves said:

control transport AND do CC stuff at the same time? - by assigning a CC to the transport functions?

Sure. This is basic generic MIDI controller stuff, you can assign the transport buttons and whatever else you want to control various Logic functions.

[Zipfunk]

On 9/9/2023 at 11:39 AM, blue-moves said:

Hello. I have one of these:

It will control Logic (transport / volume faders etc.)
or, without its dedicated plugin installed, it presents to logic as a regular MIDI controller and I can assign CCs to soft synths etc.

It doesn't seem to be able to do both things...

I went 'round the houses trying everything I could think of some time a few years ago and gave up
Today I've just wasted a whole work day pfaffing around with it and I STILL can't get it to do what I'd expect having spent good money on it.

Damn.

(To be clear I'd like it to control the transport AND be assignable to knob twiddles on soft synths... seems NOT too much to ask..??!!)

Does anyone know if there's a way?

From scouring the forums it seems many good men have tried and failed...

 

I realize I have the NanoKontrol 2 and this video is for that. But I was hoping there would be some info that may help in any way?

Its a short video

Apologies if its a waste of time.

[blue-moves]

22 hours ago, des99 said:

Sure. This is basic generic MIDI controller stuff, you can assign the transport buttons and whatever else you want to control various Logic functions.

Well that sounds promising! I mean that's all I want to do really... (kinda mystifies me that there isn't a 'mode' under the KORG software that allows it?)
Would you be able to point me to a source for getting this set up? - I (clearly!) don't know the first thing about it - the most I've ever done with CCs is point the mouse at a softsynth's cutoff knob and selected "learn from MIDI" 😄

I don't suppose the jog-wheel and faders (self-selecting their corresponding channel - as they do when the software is installed) would be available via this route?

Anyway, this is definitely worth investigating. Thanks Des!

[blue-moves]

22 hours ago, Zipfunk said:

I realize I have the NanoKontrol 2 and this video is for that. But I was hoping there would be some info that may help in any way?

Its a short video

Apologies if its a waste of time.

OMG Thank you, Zipfunk! It's exactly the issue and exactly the solution!! (I haven't tried it yet with the nanoKONTROL Studio - but the KORG Kontrol Editor software is the same so I'm guessing it will work fine) - the PROCESS is what I needed to understand and this video has given me that understanding. Thank you so much! I really appreciate you going to the trouble to post it for me.

Right, I'm going in... 😄
 

[blue-moves]

9 minutes ago, blue-moves said:

Would you be able to point me to a source for getting this set up?

Des, pls disregard this. I hadn't watched Zipfunk's video link yet - now I have and it's exactly what I needed.

Going to try it out now!

Cheers.

[Zipfunk]

4 minutes ago, blue-moves said:

OMG Thank you, Zipfunk! It's exactly the issue and exactly the solution!! (I haven't tried it yet with the nanoKONTROL Studio - but the KORG Kontrol Editor software is the same so I'm guessing it will work fine) - the PROCESS is what I needed to understand and this video has given me that understanding. Thank you so much! I really appreciate you going to the trouble to post it for me.

Right, I'm going in... 😄
 

I was just as happy as you are when I found it.

Mark it as the solution so others can find it as well.

I downloaded the video off Youtube just in case the video disappears and others need the solution.

Cheers,

Drew

[blue-moves]

12 minutes ago, Zipfunk said:

Mark it as the solution so others can find it as well. (Yup, will do!)

I downloaded the video off Youtube just in case the video disappears and others need the solution. (Ha ha, me too! :D)

*professor Farnsworth voice*
"Good news everyone!"
This WORKS on the nanoKONTROL Studio just the same as in the video with the nanoKONTROL 2!!

Blimey, even the jogwheel works!

Now I'm going to try and see if I can get SOME of the faders working as mixer channel strip faders and the rest as CC things like modulation etc. I'm not confident this will be possible but who knows - five minutes ago I thought the whole unit was junk :D:D

Today is a good day.

Thanks Zipfunk!

 

[Zipfunk]

1 minute ago, blue-moves said:

*professor Farnsworth voice*
"Good news everyone!"
This WORKS on the nanoKONTROL Studio just the same as in the video with the nanoKONTROL 2!!

Blimey, even the jogwheel works!

Now I'm going to try and see if I can get SOME of the faders working as mixer channel strip faders and the rest as CC things like modulation etc. I'm not confident this will be possible but who knows - five minutes ago I thought the whole unit was junk :D:D

Today is a good day.

Thanks Zipfunk!

 

Glad I could help. You aren't alone in the pains taken to get Korg controllers to work.