iX49 Archives - Nektar Technology, Inc

USB Power and Impact

Tue, 23 Jul 2019 18:58:05 +0000

USB Power and Impact

The Impact line of DAW controllers are designed to receive power via USB. The exception being the LX88/LX88+ which also has the option of being powered by a 9v power supply.

Even in the case of the LX88/LX88+ a typical setup involves connecting Impact directly to a USB port on your computer using the supplied cable. This connection powers the device and sends data to and from your computer. With that said, we have encountered some cases where the USB ports that are built into computers don’t provide consistent power to bus powered devices and in some case don’t even follow USB power spec. These USB power problems can lead to a number of strange behaviors such as:

Device is recognized by the computer but not the host application (Reason, Cubase, Logic, Bitwig Studio and other applications compatible with USB MIDI devices).
Loss of communication with host application (keys stop working, display updates when moving controls but software does not respond).
Performance that deteriorates over a period of a few minutes or hours.
Parameter values changing when controls are not being moved.

Solutions

We have found that in many cases, simply trying a different USB cable or USB port will help.

In other cases, we recommend connecting Impact through a powered USB hub (particularly when using a laptop). To be clear, Impact will not work with a standard passive USB hub, only USB hubs which provide their own external power supply are recommended.

This is an example of a powered hub that we have tested extensively: Plugable USB 2.0 10-Port High Speed Hub

If you have tried these solutions and you continue to encounter problems, please contact support.

Tags:

The post USB Power and Impact appeared first on Nektar Technology, Inc.

Reason Setup and Troubleshooting: Impact

Sat, 01 Jun 2019 18:52:39 +0000

Reason Setup and Troubleshooting: Impact

Here are the steps you need to follow to get Reason up and running with your Impact series controller.

Installation & Setup

Impact Reason integration is compatible with Reason 6 and above. For Reason 5, please see below.

Download the ‘Impact_Reason_Integration’ file from your Account page after registering your product.
Run the “Impact_Reason_Support” installer from that file and follow the on-screen instructions.
Plug-in your Impact and make sure it’s switched on (if you didn’t do so already).
Launch Reason.
Open the ‘Edit’ menu.
Select ‘Preferences’.
Select the ‘Control Surfaces’ tab.
Click ‘Auto-detect surfaces’.
After a few moments of scanning, Reason should show a dialogue box stating “Some of the control surfaces use the same MIDI ports.” (Image 1) That’s correct, so click ‘OK’.
You should now see two control surfaces populated in the Control Surfaces window (Image 2-4 for OS X, Images 6-9 for Windows). One is named ‘Nektar Impact**’ and the other is named ‘Nektar Impact ** Mixer Mode’.
Make sure both control surfaces are ticked ‘Use with Reason’.
Close the Preferences menu.

Note: ‘**’ represents 25, 49, 61 or 88; depending on which Impact series controller you are using.

Surface Locking
In order to control Mixer parameters from Impact Mixer Mode, follow these steps:

In Reason, open the ‘Options’ menu.
Select ‘Surface Locking’. You should see the window shown in Image 5 for OSX and Image 10 for Windows.
Set the ‘Surface’ option to ‘Nektar Impact ** Mixer Mode’.
Set the ‘Lock to device’ option to ‘Master Section’ (alternately, you can choose Remix 14:2, Remix 6:2 or even the ReGroove Mixer).

Now when the Impact is in Mixer Mode, (press the Mixer button) you will have control over Mixer parameters.

Image 1) Warning

Image 2) OS X

Image 3) OS X

Image 4) OS X

Image 5) OS X

Image 10) Windows

Image 8) Windows

Image 9) Windows

Image 6) Windows

Image 7) Windows

Image 8) Windows

Image 9) Windows

Image 10) Windows

Note for Reason 5 users

The latest versions of the Reason support software for the LX+, GX and SE49 (v1.2.0 and above) are only compatible with Reason 6 and above. If you are using Reason 5, please run the installer from the links below:

Impact GX/LX+/SE49 Reason Support - Windows

1 file(s) 1.30 MB

Download

Impact GX/LX+/SE49 Reason Support - MacOS 1.31 MB 5121 downloads

...

Download

Manual Setup

Windows:

Open Reason.
Open the ‘Edit’ menu.
Select ‘Preferences’.
Select the ‘Control Surface’ tab.
Click the ‘Add’ button.
For ‘Manufacturer’ select Nektar.
For ‘Model’ select ‘Impact LX**’. (Image 8)
For ‘Controls In Port’ select ‘MIDIIN2 (Impact LX**)’. (Image 8)
For ‘Keyboard Port’ select ‘Impact LX**’. (Image 8)
For ‘Out Port’ select ‘Impact LX**’. (Image 8)
Click ‘OK’.
Click the ‘Add’ button again
For ‘Manufacturer’ select Nektar. (Image 9)
For ‘Model’ select ‘Impact LX** Mixer Mode’. (Image 9)
For ‘In Port’ select ‘MIDIIN2 (Impact LX**)’. (Image 9)
For ‘Out Port’ select ‘Impact LX**’. (Image 9)
Click ‘OK’.

Both ‘Nektar Impact LX**’ and ‘Nektar Impact LX** Mixer Mode’ should now appear in the Control Surface setup window with yellow exclamation marks (this is normal).

OS X:

Open Reason.
Open the ‘Reason Menu’ and select ‘Preferences’.
Select the ‘Control Surface’ tab.
Click the ‘Add’ button.
For ‘Manufacturer’ select Nektar. (Image 3)
For ‘Model’ select ‘Impact LX**’. (Image 3)
For ‘Controls In Port’ select ‘Impact LX** MIDI2’. (Image 3)
For ‘Keyboard Port’ select ‘Impact LX** MIDI1’. (Image 3)
For ‘Out Port’ select ‘Impact LX** MIDI1’. (Image 3)
Click ‘OK’.
Click the ‘Add’ button again.
For ‘Manufacturer’ select Nektar. (Image 4)
For ‘Model’ select ‘Impact LX** Mixer Mode’. (Image 4)
For ‘In Port’ select ‘Impact LX** MIDI2’. (Image 4)
For ‘Out Port’ select ‘Impact LX** MIDI1’. (Image 4)
Click ‘OK’.

Both ‘Nektar Impact LX**’ and ‘Nektar Impact LX** Mixer Mode’ should now appear in the Control Surface setup window with yellow exclamation marks (this is normal).

Note: ‘**’ represents 25, 49, 61 or 88; depending on which Impact series controller you are using.

Troubleshooting

Patch Changes
If you find that the [< Patch] and [Patch >] buttons don’t work when controlling a third-party plug-in, it’s likely because the plug-in uses it’s own patch browser. The Patch buttons on the Impact series control the patch navigation functions of the DAW, so you may need to save the plug-ins presets in your DAWs patch format, before you can use the Patch buttons on the Impact controller for patch navigation. You can find more information about saving patches in your DAW, in the documentation for that program.

Tags:

The post Reason Setup and Troubleshooting: Impact appeared first on Nektar Technology, Inc.

Studio One 4 and above with original LX/iX controllers

Sat, 01 Jun 2019 18:49:33 +0000

Studio One 4 and above with original LX/iX controllers

Nektar products are compatible with Studio One 4 and above. The latest installers for the Impact GX, LX+, and SE25/SE49 controllers can be found on your account page.

Please follow the instructions below if you are using an original Impact LX or iX controller.

Original Impact Manual Installation Instructions – Windows

Original Impact Presonus - Windows 206.71 KB 14767 downloads

...

Download

Copy the ‘Nektar’ folder from the .zip file above and paste it into the following directory, as appropriate for your version:

C:\Program Files\PreSonus\Studio One 4\devices
or
C:\Program Files\PreSonus\Studio One 5\devices

Once you have done that, your Impact controller will be detected automatically the next time you start Studio One.

Original Impact Manual Installation Instructions – OSX

Original Impact Presonus - MacOS 206.71 KB 3676 downloads

...

Download

Right-click on the Studio One application.
Select ‘Show package contents’.
Open the ‘Contents’ folder.
Copy the ‘Nektar’ folder from the .zip linked above and paste it into the ‘devices’ folder.

Once you have done that, your Impact controller will be detected automatically the next time you start Studio One.

Tags:

The post Studio One 4 and above with original LX/iX controllers appeared first on Nektar Technology, Inc.