KVR Audio

plopseaw · Post by **plopseaw** » Sat Aug 20, 2016 9:07 pm

Hi All,

Anyone have experience with this (e.g. Advance 61).

I bought one but the software is turning out to be very buggy, not supporting many of the popular vsts (Dune, Spire, Arturia collection V5, Reaktor 6) and a lot of the maps for other vst's out of date (i.e. old discontinued version)

I'am just wondering what other peoples experience is?

Ryan99 · Post by **Ryan99** » Sun Aug 21, 2016 12:58 pm

I have the Advance 49 and so far my experience has been very positive. A lot of fixes and improvements over time, effects VST's now supported. They added some substantial freebies (Air FX Creative Collection Plus, Eventide Blackhole, etc.).

It's true that some mapping is not up-to-date, but they have mapped a lot of stuff so far. They have mapped the thousands of presets from Omnisphere for example. With my current VST's, I have over 100 000 presets mapped inside VIP from Akai, so it's hard to complain even if it's not perfect.

I was hesitating between Ni Komplete Kontrol keyboard and Akai Advance, and I'm glad I choose the Advance. No keyboard on the market has so many stuff mapped, includind FX. For Native Instruments, their NKS is nice, but it depends of the willing of each developers. Anyway, I have Maschine Mikro, so I can benefit from NKS, so it's best of both worlds for me.

plopseaw · Post by **plopseaw** » Sun Aug 21, 2016 11:25 pm

Hi Ryan,

Its great that Omnisphere is mapped but did you notice that you can't control the filter resonance on any of the 15000 presets. For me filter resonance is pretty much an important control to be left out.

I too was wondering about NI Complete Kontrol but based on the number of show stopper bugs in Akai I wish I had stuck with NI now.

I'am a great Spire and Reaktor user but both of those crash VIP advance immediately or don't show up at all. I bought Arturia V5 but that doesn't even work with Akai Advance.

K-Bee · Post by **K-Bee** » Mon Aug 22, 2016 10:21 am

Advance 61 owner here too. I've had loads of issues in the last year but with the recent VIP software update things are a whole lot better. VIP used to crashed constantly and didn't work at all on FL 11.
Everything works fine now but the amount of bugs we've seen since it's launch really is intolerable.
I have Arturia V5 collection as well and I'm eagerly awaiting for them to map it. V4 has maps but I never owned that.

DJ Warmonger · Post by **DJ Warmonger** » Mon Aug 22, 2016 10:46 am

I bought one but the software is turning out to be very buggy

Exactly my thoughts. The driver and software are buggy and cause reproductible crash at preset switch. That is, if I manage to start up teh keyboard and connect everything together. There are also many minor issues which make it completely unreliable. For sure at this point I can't incorporate it in my workflow.

If I wanted to buy keyboard, I'd buy cheaper keyboard. If I wanted a bunch of plugins, I'd buy Komplete. VIP is the heart of this system, unfortunatelly it doesn't work as expected.

I've had loads of issues in the last year but with the recent VIP software update things are a whole lot better

Not for me. VIP 2.1 didn't bring any improvement. In fact 1.05 driver is even worse than previous. It doesn't seem like developer is going to fix the issues, either.

incubus · Post by **incubus** » Tue Aug 23, 2016 5:11 pm

JFC, another brick that costs a fortune? Ryan is having a good go, but the other stuff scares me.

The question is WHY companies continue to put out Cadillac 4-6-8's? (google it)

The keys on my nektar are not the best by any stretch of the imagination (impact, afraid to order the expensive one), but at least it works.

DarkStar · Post by **DarkStar** » Tue Aug 23, 2016 5:47 pm

The M-Audio CTRL49 uses VIP too (and is a bit cheaper):
http://www.m-audio.com/products/view/ctrl49

acYm · Post by **acYm** » Sat Aug 27, 2016 10:20 pm

does VIP allow you to program your own control templates for plugins? or are you stuck with the stock ones that they provide?

plopseaw · Post by **plopseaw** » Sun Aug 28, 2016 11:13 pm

Yes they 'allow' you to program your own templates and save presets. You can even update the template and have it reflect in the presets. If you use a keyboard automator and some OCR software it is relatively straight forward (maybe an hour for the script and 30 minutes for a bank)

However, test your vst first as many don't work or will crash the VIP when you are changing preset.

Its the same with NI Kontrol but that seems a lot more stable

beatmangler443 · Post by **beatmangler443** » Sun Aug 28, 2016 11:16 pm

Took a survey from NI about a week or so ago. I've taken 5 from them this year. Looks like a new komplete kontrol with a screen is coming in my opinion from the questions asked.

bungle · Post by **bungle** » Mon Aug 29, 2016 12:29 am

beatmangler443 wrote:Took a survey from NI about a week or so ago. I've taken 5 from them this year. Looks like a new komplete kontrol with a screen is coming in my opinion from the questions asked.

Weird, couple weeks ago when i asked if that was the route they were going, you lost the plot and accused me of lying and all sorts, you are so so sad !!

incubus · Post by **incubus** » Mon Aug 29, 2016 12:52 am

DarkStar wrote:The M-Audio CTRL49 uses VIP too (and is a bit cheaper):
http://www.m-audio.com/products/view/ctrl49

That is a brilliant looking controller. The problem I always run into is that as good as the hardware has become, drivers are usually an issue and they seem to discontinue stuff at an alarming rate.

Kinh · Post by **Kinh** » Mon Aug 29, 2016 5:44 am

What's the velocity like? I heard the black keys and white had different feel

DJ Warmonger · Post by **DJ Warmonger** » Mon Aug 29, 2016 5:50 am

The problem I always run into is that as good as the hardware has become, drivers are usually an issue and they seem to discontinue stuff at an alarming rate.

Since it's 3rd keyboard in VIP series, they don't seem discontinued. WHich doesn't mean the proper support at all. The driver problems and bugs are still there, nonetheless

I still wish this technology took off, but i's not there yet.

K-Bee · Post by **K-Bee** » Mon Aug 29, 2016 7:32 am

Kinh wrote:What's the velocity like? I heard the black keys and white had different feel

Not at all

Yes they 'allow' you to program your own templates and save presets. You can even update the template and have it reflect in the presets. If you use a keyboard automator and some OCR software it is relatively straight forward (maybe an hour for the script and 30 minutes for a bank)

However, test your vst first as many don't work or will crash the VIP when you are changing preset.

Its the same with NI Kontrol but that seems a lot more stable

Details on how to create a VIP template from scratch for a synth that is not yet supported (like the Arturia v5 stuff) are sketchy at best. Still looking for a down to earth tutorial. Please post a link if anyone knows about one

Changing the controls for the templates already made by VIP are easy enough.

Akai Advance Keyboard