Native Instruments Audio Kontrol 1 and Windows 10 - The Solution

[StrZlee]

DOWNLOAD-LINK-REMOVED - NO MORE SUPPORT FOR NI-DRIVER MODS....


I'm not shure if NI approves this post in their community forums (still under moderation), so i repost it here:



Hey Guys here's the SOLUTION:

I asked NI support if they could me provide the plain driver files, without installer. After 2 weeks they replied only "product discontinued blabla...".
Wtf?! I don't want them to write new driver, only the plain package. The Win7x64 driver are working with Win10, the installer is the problem.
Very bad support!

So i unpacked & reversed their setup. And here we go:

First DISCONNECT your ak1.

Download the files from here (Updated 2017):

DOWNLOAD-LINK-REMOVED - NO MORE SUPPORT FOR NI-DRIVER MODS....

Extract them to your "\Program Files\" folder.

If you messed up your system with the f###ing ni-installer, uninstall the sh#t before and get rid of the driver files via "pnputil"

Quote:
open command line

pnputil -e > my-driver-list.txt

search in the text-file for the NI drivers and look what oemXX.inf number they have

delete them with:

pnputil -d oemXX.inf
pnputil -d oemXY.inf
...

Then navigate to your "\Program Files\Native Instruments\Audio Kontrol 1 Driver\Helper" folder
open command line and install the WDM-Driver via "DPInst /F /PATH ..\inf"

Confirm the dialogbox.

Now you can plug-in your ak1, Windows now recognize it and it should work via WDM.
When you open "ak1cpl.exe" in the "\Program Files\Native Instruments\Audio Kontrol 1 Driver\" folder, the control-panel should also recognize your ak1.

To get the asio driver working you need to add some entries in the windows registry:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ASIO]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ASIO\Audio Kontrol 1]
"CLSID"="{694C0055-8282-44CF-BEE6-E8682953E2AD}"
"Description"="Audio Kontrol 1"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Wow6432Node\CLSID\{694C0055-8282-44CF-BEE6-E8682953E2AD}]
@="Audio Kontrol 1"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Wow6432Node\CLSID\{694C0055-8282-44CF-BEE6-E8682953E2AD}\InprocServer32]
@="c:\\program files\\native instruments\\audio kontrol 1 driver\\asio\\ak1asio64.dll"
"ThreadingModel"="Apartment"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{694C0055-8282-44CF-BEE6-E8682953E2AD}]
@="Audio Kontrol 1"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{694C0055-8282-44CF-BEE6-E8682953E2AD}\InprocServer32]
@="c:\\program files\\native instruments\\audio kontrol 1 driver\\asio\\ak1asio32.dll"
"ThreadingModel"="Apartment"

In case you have troubles: in the folder on the gdrive is also a html-file with all reg-entries from the installer.

Bazinga!

I tested this workaround on my audio-workstation (Win10x64 Treshold2 - messed up with different attempts to get NI's wonderful installer running), on my gaming rig (Win10x64 Prof Treshold1), my dell xps 13 (Win10x64 Home Treshold 2) and a clean Win10x64 vbox installation.

Only on my audio-workstation bitwig studio has problems with the asio drivers. (I'm currently reverse-engineer the asio-drivers to fix this, maybe i could squeeze a little bit more power out of this old brothers...).

To increase performance, try the "Win10 WASAPI" or "Asio4All" driver. Booth works tighter for me than the original asio-drivers.

If NI has no objections, i could repack all and fix their crappy installer.


THANK YOU NATIVE INSTRUMENTS FOR YOUR GREAT SUPPORT.

cheers

edit:
DOWNLOAD-LINK-REMOVED - NO MORE SUPPORT FOR NI-DRIVER MODS....

[mrdeuz]

Thanks a lot! Finally Audio Kontrol works but still ASIO doesn't work (only ASIO4ALL helps), even though I've tried changing stuff with regedit. Any suggestion what could be a solution?

[thecontrolcentre]

The download link is gone ... I'm on Win 8.1 and the AK1 works except for the midi controls, but I may have to upgrade to Win10 sooner or later.

[ruud07]

After upgrading from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 my Audio Kontrol 1 still works, so I was very lucky! It was not a fresh Windows 10 install though.

[thecontrolcentre]

After upgrading from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 my Audio Kontrol 1 still works, so I was very lucky! It was not a fresh Windows 10 install though.

Do the knob and buttons still work on your AK1?

[mrdeuz]

After upgrading from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 my Audio Kontrol 1 still works, so I was very lucky! It was not a fresh Windows 10 install though.

After reading your reply I've tried some awkward manipulation again and ASIO finally works too. So, everything is working now including Controller. I wish NI would spend a couple of hours and fix their Windows 7/8.1 driver's installer to suit Windows 10.

[ruud07]

After upgrading from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 my Audio Kontrol 1 still works, so I was very lucky! It was not a fresh Windows 10 install though.

Do the knob and buttons still work on your AK1?

The MIDI rotary and buttons don't work as far as I can remember, but I did not use them anyway so I don't miss them. The audio in- and outputs and the volume knobs and the MIDI connection work fine. I am using it since 2007, so I can't complain

[thecontrolcentre]

After upgrading from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 my Audio Kontrol 1 still works, so I was very lucky! It was not a fresh Windows 10 install though.

Do the knob and buttons still work on your AK1?

The MIDI rotary and buttons don't work as far as I can remember, but I did not use them anyway so I don't miss them. The audio in- and outputs and the volume knobs and the MIDI connection work fine. I am using it since 2007, so I can't complain

Thanks. Same thing here on 8.1 ... I've also been using mine since 2007. It still sounds great to me, so I don't want to have to replace it.

[ruud07]

After upgrading from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 my Audio Kontrol 1 still works, so I was very lucky! It was not a fresh Windows 10 install though.

After reading your reply I've tried some awkward manipulation again and ASIO finally works too. So, everything is working now including Controller. I wish NI would spend a couple of hours and fix their Windows 7/8.1 driver's installer to suit Windows 10.

Cool that you have fixed it yourself! For me it was a "fingers crossed" kind of thing. I was surprised it still worked without updating the drivers. Otherwise I would have looked for another audio interface with more inputs, since I have some hardware synths and drum machines now.

[ruud07]

After upgrading from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 my Audio Kontrol 1 still works, so I was very lucky! It was not a fresh Windows 10 install though.

Do the knob and buttons still work on your AK1?

The MIDI rotary and buttons don't work as far as I can remember, but I did not use them anyway so I don't miss them. The audio in- and outputs and the volume knobs and the MIDI connection work fine. I am using it since 2007, so I can't complain

Thanks. Same thing here on 8.1 ... I've also been using mine since 2007. It still sounds great to me, so I don't want to have to replace it.

It still sounds great for sure! It's one of the reasons why I didn't replace it yet.

[standalone]

Even if the files in the original post are not reuploaded, it would be very useful if someone who followed the instructions of the OP describes how the files must be placed on the 'Program Files\Native Instruments\Audio Kontrol 1' folder. Extracting them from the installer is trivial.

If not, my AK1 will end up being the coolest paperweight around, I guess.

[standalone]

After checking the original post I realized that the problem is that the link is broken, probably because the post was copied and pasted from another forum. Which forum? You don't need to be a genius (it doesn't hurt either), here you can find the correct link that is still working at the moment of posting this:

https://www.gearslutz.com/board/music-c ... +kontrol+1

[sprnva]

Do the knob and buttons still work on your AK1?

Have you installed the Controller Editor? It's required to get the knob and buttons working. It's not enough to just install the driver.

[thecontrolcentre]

Do the knob and buttons still work on your AK1?

Have you installed the Controller Editor? It's required to get the knob and buttons working. It's not enough to just install the driver.

I have the Controller Editor installed ... it worked fine under XP, but not in 8.1 (not that I used the knob or buttons that often).

[sprnva]

Hmm. I wonder could UAC be the problem? Although I'd imagine NI would have allowed for that by now. Have you tried running Controller Editor as admin (you can do it once to check by right-clicking the program) tos ee if anything lights up?

Just throwing out ideas as I run OS X and retired my AK1. I didn't use the buttons or knob either so it's not a big loss. But still, it'd be nice to have it fully working.