How do I get my nanoKONTROL2 back?

[Starship Krupa]

I have a nanoKONTROL2 that's been recognized by Cakewalk since I started using Cakewalk 4 years ago. Before that it worked well with Mixcraft.

Recently I purchased a couple of new audio interfaces, a Presonus Studio 2|4 (intended for mobile use), and a Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 (main studio computer). I tested the Studio on the main DAW and then stuck with the Saffire.

After all this, Windows seemed to lose track of the nanoKONTROL. So I did all the tricks of going into Device Manager and deleting the redundant entries, using Korg's MIDI port uninstallation utility, and even edited my registry to remove the redundant MIDI entries, uninstalled and reinstalled the Korg driver, yada yada.

This got the nanoKONTROL to show up in Ableton Live Lite 11, Mixcraft Pro Studio 9, and Studio One Artist 4. The lone holdout is Cakewalk.

So far, I've deleted my AUD.INI and let Cakewalk create a new one, and nope, no help.

I'm out of moves. What should I try next?

[msmcleod]

@Starship Krupa - have you installed the very latest Korg USB drivers? 

The drivers have broken at least twice over the years due to Windows updates, and Korg have normally released a new version a few months later.

Personally, I've just uninstalled the Korg drivers altogether and use the nanoKONTROL 2 as a class compliant device. This has solved the issue for me, however it does mean I cannot use the KORG CONTROL Editor ( not a problem for me as I'm using it in Mackie mode ). 

The latest drivers should be ok though - just uninstall the old ones first before installing the new ones.
 

[Promidi]

With Cakewalk closed, see if renaming ctrlsurface.dat does the trick.

This file is in the following folder:

%APPDATA%\Cakewalk\Cakewalk Core
 

[Byron Dickens]

You don't have it plugged into a USB hub, do you?

[Starship Krupa]

3 hours ago, bdickens said:

You don't have it plugged into a USB hub, do you?

No, I don't. Is Cakewalk touchier than other programs about seeing MIDI devices plugged into hubs?

39 minutes ago, msmcleod said:

have you installed the very latest Korg USB drivers?

Yes, it was one of the first things I checked.

I'll try removing the Korg driver entirely and see what happens with the Microsoft class compliant driver.

3 hours ago, Promidi said:

With Cakewalk closed, see if renaming ctrlsurface.dat does the trick.

It does not.

Something I just tried (to no avail) was renaming TTSEQ.INI and letting Cakewalk rebuild it. I looked at it and saw that it had references to my Firepods' MIDI ports as well as the Korg. Thought it might be the issue. Nope.

[Byron Dickens]

5 hours ago, Starship Krupa said:

No, I don't. Is Cakewalk touchier than other programs about seeing MIDI devices plugged into hubs?

Not CW, but the devices. I know that my Minilogue won't work plugged into a hub. It will show up but not work.

[msmcleod]

@bdickens - FWIW, I have my nanoKONTROL Studio plugged into a hub, and I've got no issues with it. 

My nanoKONTROL 2  isn't plugged into a hub, but I can give it a try... of course USB cables can be problematic too, so it's worth trying another cable if possible.

[Starship Krupa]

4 hours ago, bdickens said:

my Minilogue won't work plugged into a hub. It will show up but not work.

Got it. Well, my issue was not that it wasn't appearing anywhere, just not in Cakewalk. The thing about all the hubs and cables and whatnots, it seems to me that if those things were the trouble, then Live! and Mixcraft and Studio One wouldn't have been able to recognize it either.

Anyway, I tried Mark's trick of getting rid of the Korg driver and just using Microsoft's, and voila, it appears in Cakewalk's list of MIDI devices. Why Cakewalk alone and none of the other apps failed to recognize it is beyond me. I haven't yet tried it to see if it actually works using the Microsoft driver.😄

@msmcleod: should I be running the nanoKONTROL2 in "SONAR" mode, where you boot it up holding Set Marker and REC?

[msmcleod]

3 hours ago, Starship Krupa said:

Got it. Well, my issue was not that it wasn't appearing anywhere, just not in Cakewalk. The thing about all the hubs and cables and whatnots, it seems to me that if those things were the trouble, then Live! and Mixcraft and Studio One wouldn't have been able to recognize it either.

Anyway, I tried Mark's trick of getting rid of the Korg driver and just using Microsoft's, and voila, it appears in Cakewalk's list of MIDI devices. Why Cakewalk alone and none of the other apps failed to recognize it is beyond me. I haven't yet tried it to see if it actually works using the Microsoft driver.😄

@msmcleod: should I be running the nanoKONTROL2 in "SONAR" mode, where you boot it up holding Set Marker and REC?

Yes, and set it up as a Mackie Control in Preferences / Control Surfaces.

There's also some key combinations that were added specifically for the nanoKONTROL 2 and nanoKONTROL Studio, using the Cycle key on the nanoKONTROL 2 or the Scrub key on the nanoKONTROL Studio ( for the various plugin modes, the pan controls change the values )   :

[Starship Krupa]

Oh, cool, you added the set marker. I gather this is a key combo thing, like in order to set a marker, you hold the cycle key and then tap the FF key and for undo you hold Cycle and tap Stop.?

I don't quite understand the stuff with the plug-in params and all that, is there something in the documentation that can help me with that? I'd love to try using the nanoKONTROL to adjust plug-in parameters.