Nektar Panorama T4/T6 MIDI Controller Keyboards

[justin3am]

It would be great, if Nektarine worked as a full blown mapping editor for Panorama P-series controllers and allowed export of those mappings as *.npm files for direct use in DAW's with deep integration.

Nektarine already uses .npm files for plug-in mapping.

[justin3am]

Will there be Studio One support? How about an 88 key model? Thanks!

Currently the T-series can be used as an MCU controller with Studio One. You can use Nektarine to provide plug-in mapping.

[zyguli]

It would be great, if Nektarine worked as a full blown mapping editor for Panorama P-series controllers and allowed export of those mappings as *.npm files for direct use in DAW's with deep integration.

Nektarine already uses .npm files for plug-in mapping.

If it is possible to create mappings with submenus (this is not possible with P series) and menu and parameter renaming, which aren't limited to 4 pages as custom P series user mappings are, and it will be possible to use such mappings without Nektarine in Cubase, then this is BIG! Thanks Justin!

[enossified]

If it is possible to create mappings with submenus (this is not possible with P series) and menu and parameter renaming, which aren't limited to 4 pages as custom P series user mappings are

Hmm, not sure what you are asking about here. Do you mean the 20 slots in Internal mode?

I use my P6 with Logic and third party plugins can be controlled just like native ones in Mixer and Instrument modes. No wrappers are used but like Automap the parameters get assigned in the order that the plugin provides them, which is almost always unusable...assigning continuous controls to buttons, for example. I spent many hours modifying the maps for Diva and Aalto to my taste and hit only three issues:

1. You cannot rename parameters to avoid truncation on the display*

2. You cannot name the menu pages like the factory maps, the pages are numbered instead.

3. You are limited in the number of pages (24 I think) so I left some of Diva's "under the hood" controls unmapped.

This is straightforward with Logic, especially since there is a free editor. I'm not sure how difficult it is with other supported DAWs.

*You can rename parameters in the both the editor and the .plist files, but for some reason the P6 ignores the new names.

[justin3am]

If it is possible to create mappings with submenus (this is not possible with P series) and menu and parameter renaming, which aren't limited to 4 pages as custom P series user mappings are

Hmm, not sure what you are asking about here. Do you mean the 20 slots in Internal mode?

I use my P6 with Logic and third party plugins can be controlled just like native ones in Mixer and Instrument modes. No wrappers are used but like Automap the parameters get assigned in the order that the plugin provides them, which is almost always unusable...assigning continuous controls to buttons, for example. I spent many hours modifying the maps for Diva and Aalto to my taste and hit only three issues:

1. You cannot rename parameters to avoid truncation on the display*

2. You cannot name the menu pages like the factory maps, the pages are numbered instead.

3. You are limited in the number of pages (24 I think) so I left some of Diva's "under the hood" controls unmapped.

This is straightforward with Logic, especially since there is a free editor. I'm not sure how difficult it is with other supported DAWs.

*You can rename parameters in the both the editor and the .plist files, but for some reason the P6 ignores the new names.

The way Panorama controllers work with Logic is quite a bit different from the way they work with other DAWs. We have our own plug-in mapping system (based on .npm files) which have always allowed us to create maps, with custom parameter labels and page names but thus far there hasn't been a graphical editor which would allow customer to make these types of custom maps. In Logic, we relied on the .plist files for parameter mapping because were unable to implement our plug-in maps. The .plist editor allowed customers to create their own custom plug-in maps but there are a number of things that our plug-in maps can do, which were not possible with Logic's .plists.

Nektarine allows for editing our plug-in map files but it also allows customers to use our plug-in mapping system, in DAWs like Reason and Logic. The result is greater flexibility, even for folks who are using a DAW for which we don't provide deep integration.

[Z3N3]

Believe me, I think there is room in the market for a controller which has a synth oriented layout... but it's not as simple as it seems. To make a product which appeals to as wide an audience as possible, the layout has to make sense for a wide variety of synths. For example, since we can't know how many oscillators a synth will have, we run into the same issue of requiring pages to access all available oscillator parameters. Or if we choose to leave out some parameters, how do we choose which ones are important? What if the parameters which are important to one patch are not used in another?

These aren't insurmountable problems, but such a controller requires a lot of thought and development time. We do have ideas for purpose specific controllers (Pacer is the first controller we have made with a specific workflow in mind) but it will probably take years before these ideas bear fruit. We would rather take our time, than to rush an idea that isn't ready.

Why not use a colour coded system? Say you have 100 knobs, the LCD ring and parameter naming strip could change colour according to each grouping, e.g. oscillator 1, oscillator 2, filter, envelope, etc.. You could even go crazy and fence in each grouping, by joining up vertical and horizontal LCD lines with changeable patterns. Just a thought

[Z3N3]

Duplicate post.

[sarabanda]

I'm working with Cubase 9.5.10 and I bought Nekatar T6. Automap slows down work in Cubase - I have a lot of MIDI tracks and scroll is now very slow. Automap is probably to always send requested data about MIDI tracks to Nektar T6. When I run a project without Nektar T6, scrolling is ok.
Any idea how to fix the problem? Well thank you.

[justin3am]

Hi there,

I see that you have created a support request via the Nektar website. I think it would be best to continue your conversation with Tim, in order to get a better understanding of the problem.

- Justin

[Bandaide]

If it is possible to create mappings with submenus (this is not possible with P series) and menu and parameter renaming, which aren't limited to 4 pages as custom P series user mappings are, and it will be possible to use such mappings without Nektarine in Cubase, then this is BIG! Thanks Justin!

You can create subpages in Nektarine, yes. I don't think there's a page limit. And all parameters are renamable.

[mhelin]

How about the support for 32-bit VST plugins in Nektarine?

[DigiPRO]

Will I be able to load MIDI plugins in a Nektarine Multi-slot? Say for Arp, and then will I be able to send MIDI information to other VSTi's in the current multi?

Please let me know, can't find info about that.

Thanks.

[blitze]

@justin3am

Just coming to terms with the T6 myself now. A query though about Nektarine development: Will there be some form of NKS capability with Nektarine in the future? More so in patch library management and browsing.

I see great potential here for patch management but combined with Nektarine / Nektar DAW and VST performance control. I have had a look at Komplete Kontrol within Nektarine but could not see a way to map browsing capabilities of KK to Nektarine. Only Scale, Arp and Chord.

Nektarine seems to work well within Maschine as well so relatively happy there but it is early days.

I'm liking the feel of the Panorama T6 and the drum pads I find useful with Kontakt Orchestral Libraries mapping them to key switches.

[justin3am]

Regarding 32-bit plug-ins, Nektarine does not operate as a bit bridge and while there used to be a 32-bit version of Nektarine, that isn't the case with the current version.

Regarding MIDI effects, that is not possible at the moment but it's something we are looking at.

Regarding support for Native Instruments plug-ins, if you load Komplete Kontrol as a plug-in in Nektarine, you should have access to any automation parameters, which the plug-in loaded in KK presents to the host. I'm not sure what you mean exactly by NKS support but I think it would be unlikely.

[blitze]

Thanks for the reply - NKS support is more in VST Preset browsing and having the presets audition as one navigates through the preset library. I think Nektarine's automation of presets is better although I have to experiment a little with NI Session Series Articulation / controller setups for articulation tweeking and utilsation.

I like the VST stacking one can do with Nektarine. Just have to learn the ins and outs of preset management and how I can effectively bring presets libraries into the browser mainting the preset library structure as given for the VST instrument.

NKS seems to be a standard a few VST instrument programmers are implementing and I wonder if it would be opened up by Native Instruments and taken advantage of. Not also sure how it would develop down the track with the implementation of MIDI 2 spec.