Matthias_L Posted March 9 Share Posted March 9 After not making music for almost 30 years, I started this great hobby again last year as a pensioner (former semi-professional). All my old synthesizers are still there and, apart from the OB-8 and the Prophet 2000, still fully functional today. In the 80s I was using Cubase 2.0 on an Atari (which unfortunately hasn't survived). Now I installed Cakewalk. I'm absolutely thrilled with the tool and its possibilities. Now I have a question regarding a new purchase: I'm looking for a keyboard that gives me extensive control over Cakewalk and can also be used as a MIDI Masterkeyboard. Two devices caught my eye during my search. Nektar Panorama T6 and NI Komplete Kontrol S61 MK2. My wish would be to use the device to control the VST instruments from Cakewalk (also to change them directly on the keyboard) and to control the recording. Both can do the latter. But what about controlling the VST instruments? I hope someone here can give me some advice or a recommendation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Maar Posted March 9 Share Posted March 9 I have owned a Panorama P6 and still have an S61 Mk2, but it's in the box that my new S61 Mk3 came in. I don't use Machine, so didn't need the Machine-specific buttons on the Mk2. The Mk 3 supports aftertouch (!), which the Mk2 doesn't. Also note that you don't need Komplete Kontrol to directly control Kontakt 7. It supports the Mk3 directly. My P6 had a great semi-weighted keyboard, but I had a couple of issues with it. One, the color display partially died, but more importantly for me, there was a bug is the Nektar sysex file for direct support in Studio One. I provided Nektar with exact steps to reproduce, and even told them on which specific line in the sysex file the bug occurred. All I ever heard from their support was "it works here". I had also heard of others with driver issues. It just seemed to me that they did just enough software development to get new products out the door, and then moved on to other things. I landfilled the P6 and bought an S61 Mk2. I sold it when I moved to France and then bought another one here. It was working perfectly, but I wanted the aftertouch support on the new Mk3. If you live in the EU, I could be talked into parting ways with my Mk2. A quick note about sliders on MIDI keyboards... Unless your software supports soft pickup (you can move a slider without changing the parameter it's linked to until its position matches the current parameter value), you'll find using them a challenge. My P6 had 10 sliders, only one of which was motorized. Unfortunately, the motorizing was buggy and never worked in my setup, meaning I just had 10 non-motorized sliders. YMMV. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
57Gregy Posted March 9 Share Posted March 9 For controlling VST soft synths and effects, that's up to each plug-in how much can be done. Welcome to the forum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthias_L Posted March 10 Author Share Posted March 10 Many thanks for the helpful answers. At the moment I'm leaning towards the Komplete Kontrol S61. Aftertouch is important for me. Mainly because a number of my 80s synthesizers already support it and I would like to address it with MIDI. However, I assumed that the MK2 already does this. At least that's what it says on Thoman's product page: (Komplete Kontrol S61 MK2). But if you write that this is not correct, I'm leaning towards the MK3. But what I would still be interested in is whether it is possible to change the individual VST instruments (of a track) in Cakewalk with the T6 or the S61 MK3. E.g. from a LABS instrument to VITAL (just an example)? The background to my question is that I have three racks, each with 3 instruments, and behind me is the 19" rack with the mixing console on top. There is very little space for the computer, which is why it is a bit far away. That's why I want to be able to control as much as possible remotely with the keyboard. If that's not possible, I'll have to rebuild. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Maar Posted March 11 Share Posted March 11 (edited) 19 hours ago, Matthias_L said: Many thanks for the helpful answers. At the moment I'm leaning towards the Komplete Kontrol S61. Aftertouch is important for me. Mainly because a number of my 80s synthesizers already support it and I would like to address it with MIDI. However, I assumed that the MK2 already does this. At least that's what it says on Thoman's product page: (Komplete Kontrol S61 MK2). But if you write that this is not correct, I'm leaning towards the MK3. But what I would still be interested in is whether it is possible to change the individual VST instruments (of a track) in Cakewalk with the T6 or the S61 MK3. E.g. from a LABS instrument to VITAL (just an example)? The background to my question is that I have three racks, each with 3 instruments, and behind me is the 19" rack with the mixing console on top. There is very little space for the computer, which is why it is a bit far away. That's why I want to be able to control as much as possible remotely with the keyboard. If that's not possible, I'll have to rebuild. I just checked, and Thomann is correct that the S Series MkII keyboards support aftertouch. What's new with the S Series Mk3 keyboards is that they support POLYPHONIC aftertouch. Sorry for my confusion. Here's a link to the S Series Mk3 User Manual. One possibility may be using your VSTi plugins inside of Komplete Kontrol (which is something that you would need to do anyway if you want to use the color display and knobs to control those that offer NKS support). Check out pages 8-12. There are a couple of other possibilities documented in the manual that you can consider. Komplete Kontrol S Series Mk3 User Manual in PDF Another option is to check out Gig Performer for those switching tasks. It's an amazing piece of software for both live and studio use. It may be exactly what you need. One of the devs is a touring keyboard player. The devs were formerly with IBM Research. G.P. is truly next generation after Mainstage, Cantabile and Forte. There is a super supportive community of users available in their forum. I've been using G.P. in my studio for years, and love it. Gig Performer Gig Performer forum Gig Performer YouTube channel Edited March 11 by John Maar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthias_L Posted March 11 Author Share Posted March 11 Thank you very much for your detailed answer. That definitely helps me. It's good that the issue of aftertouch has been clarified. Now I can think about whether I need polyphonic aftertouch or whether channel aftertouch is enough for me. The price difference between the MK2 and MK2 is big. I didn't know Gig Performer. What I've seen and read so far sounds very interesting. I will look into it further. I'm totally amazed at what's possible today and I'm looking forward to discovering everything. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msmcleod Posted March 11 Share Posted March 11 FYI - before soft synths were a thing, and multi-timbral modules were king... Cakewalk had this for Windows 95, that would do the "two-finger" trick and play a backing to the speed of your playing. It didn't need to be a two finger thing either - if your part was already in 8th notes, that would be enough for it to work it out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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