Novation Impulse 61 -any success stories? Old thread. Sold.

[Michael Fogarty]

So yes, sold (trying to) my keyboard to a friend and it is randomly shutting itself down. (I saw online this is a possibility as it has happened to others.) Is yours working? Has it always worked? Are you using USB 2? (he only has 3). Did you ever upgrade your firmware?

Much appreciated.

Edited June 7, 2021 by Michael Fogarty

[Promidi]

Is this connected via a non powered USB hub by any chance? 

Is the USB power saving disabled in device manager?

[Michael Fogarty]

2 hours ago, Promidi said:

Is this connected via a non powered USB hub by any chance? 

Is the USB power saving disabled in device manager?

Hi PROMIDI. Before I go digging into things I would just like to know if there are success stories with this particular controller as the web has sited problems.

And no to the questions above. Are you possibly suggesting that plugging straight into the computer isn’t enough and he should use a powered hub? No right?
 

[Promidi]

8 minutes ago, Michael Fogarty said:

Hi PROMIDI. Before I go digging into things I would just like to know if there are success stories with this particular controller as the web has sited problems.

And no to the questions above. Are you possibly suggesting that plugging straight into the computer isn’t enough and he should use a powered hub? No right?
 

Direct connection is always best.  If you must use a hub, make sure it's powered.  Don't use unpowered.

As respects USB power saving, you definitely want this turned off.

[noynekker]

3 hours ago, Michael Fogarty said:

So yes, sold (trying to) my keyboard to a friend and it is randomly shutting itself down. (I saw online this is a possibility as it has happened to others.) Is yours working? Has it always worked? Are you using USB 2? (he only has 3). Did you ever upgrade your firmware?

Much appreciated.

Since you mention the notorious Novation Impulse 61 . . . yes, I have one, and have wrestled with it for years in various Cakewalk iterations.

Some success using the AZ Controller add on . . . but still some weirdness.

Not so much the "randomly shutting down" you mention, but much other weirdness, pan controls automatically going all the way right,  VSTi instruments cycling and  toggling in and out and on and off . . . I'll also add that Novation Impulse 61  works "almost" perfectly in Cubase. (Let's just give it an 85%)

I've always had my Impulse 61 directly connected to my main motherboard USB3, not to a Hub.

[Michael Fogarty]

2 hours ago, noynekker said:

Since you mention the notorious Novation Impulse 61 . . . yes, I have one, and have wrestled with it for years in various Cakewalk iterations.

Some success using the AZ Controller add on . . . but still some weirdness.

Not so much the "randomly shutting down" you mention, but much other weirdness, pan controls automatically going all the way right,  VSTi instruments cycling and  toggling in and out and on and off . . . I'll also add that Novation Impulse 61  works "almost" perfectly in Cubase. (Let's just give it an 85%)

I've always had my Impulse 61 directly connected to my main motherboard USB3, not to a Hub.

thank you. Not that I wanted to hear this. The person who is buying it uses Cubase but he already had a problem with it. Sad huh.

[Federico C.]

Hello everybody,
same problem here!
Novation 61  shuts down just 2 second after I connect the usb cable.
This happened with two different laptop (acer and lenovo)
but dont with a PC desktop....  it's really weird!

i dont know what to do!  

any ideas?? 

please...

[oneofmany]

Over the years I have seen notebooks not providing enough amps to devices that rely on them for power. A powered USB hub had usually solved the problem. 

 

My novation 61 impulse has worked very well on both my desktop and portable acer switch12

Grant 

[Peter Brookes]

I successfully updated the firmware for the Impulse 61. However now I have problems with the Impulse 61 randomly turning its self off and the only way I can resolve this issue is to unplug the USB and re-plug it back in. Is there away I can reset the firmware it its original form.

Anyone know how to fix this problem ?

[noynekker]

6 minutes ago, Peter Brookes said:

I successfully updated the firmware for the Impulse 61. However now I have problems with the Impulse 61 randomly turning its self off and the only way I can resolve this issue is to unplug the USB and re-plug it back in. Is there away I can reset the firmware it its original form.

Anyone know how to fix this problem ?

I've never had that "turning itself off" problem in the many years of using Novation Impulse in Cakewalk, but yes, a host of other issues. Have you ever installed the AutoMap software that came with this keyboard ? (Novation Impulse hasn't been supported in Cakewalk since Sonar X3, a long time ago.) How long is your USB cable ? (I had troubles when I got one that was too long) Also, there are settings in Windows in the Device Manager where USB hubs have a Power Management setting to allow Windows to turn off USB hubs to save power, find that USB, uncheck it ?

Sorry, I know of no way to revert the firmware.

Despite my many issues, I still use it with Cakewalk, though I only use it now to input Midi parts . . . as a controller interface, the suckage factor is high.

[Steev]

On 11/19/2019 at 8:43 PM, Michael Fogarty said:

So yes, sold (trying to) my keyboard to a friend and it is randomly shutting itself down. (I saw online this is a possibility as it has happened to others.) Is yours working? Has it always worked? Are you using USB 2? (he only has 3). Did you ever upgrade your firmware?

Much appreciated.

Huh, I've never seen a computer that only has USB 3.?

And contrary to popular belief, just because they SAY USB 3 is backwards compatible does NOT mean all USB 2 devices will work with it. I remember with the first version Scarlett gen 2 drivers, Focusrite gave a strict warning NOT to plug it into a USB 3 port. Although they finally resolved that issue, USB 3 didn't offer any performance benefits.

Also I do believe Novation is a subsidiary of Focusrite so I would sign in to your account and check with their support.

Did you try replacing the USB cable or using another MIDI port on the computer?

Impulse's have super fast MIDI transmission & ultra low unnoticeable latency so there's no need to use USB 3 and it would be wise and well advised to keep all USB 2 devices far and away from USB 3.1 ports.

Also I've found many people get confused with the mini USB-C ports found on cellphones with high speed USB 3.1 Type "C" (24 pin) ports can be problematic for any device that doesn't specifically have support for 10 GB/s data rate. USB 3.1 or Thunderbolt devices. Not only is USB 3.1 Type C have more connector pins and much faster then v3 it's also capable of monitoring power consumption and automatically throttle down or shutting off power for charging batteries. I noticed this happening when charging my iPhone. When the phone was fully charged it not only stopped charging the iPhone it also shut down power to the external USB hub as well.

 And while I've read claims that USB 3.1 is backwards compatible, you'll never convince my Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 gen 2 of that.

 And what makes it even more confusing is Yes you CAN plug  a Scarlett 18i20 gen "3" USB 3.1 interface into a USB 2 port with an adaptor, but you CAN'T do it the other way around.   Plugged into the USB Type C port, my normally rock solid Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 gen 2  may or may not disappear and disconnect at any time during a CbB project session and knock out studio monitors and headphone amp and switch over to the little speakers built in my display monitor. ?

I have never had any problems with my Novation Impulse 61 since I 1st unpacked it brand new & plugged it in, and flashed the firmware. I've never done that again because I never had any problems with it, there's no need to fix things that aren't broken. Of course I wouldn't even dream or consider plugging it into a port or doing anything with it that it wasn't designed for, but that's just me. 

It's been like a best friend for years now, other then Auto Map sometimes guesses/picks some strange controller settings for Waves plugins. Best work around I found for that is, I create my own MIDI Maps and store them in the DAW so I know what knob or fader is assigned to what parameter and DON'T USE or advise choosing Novation's AutoMap for MIDI channel input ports or plugins. It's pretty much been bulletproof and plays very well along side of my Behringer X Touch I use for controlling all audio channels and use the Impulse to control all MIDI channels, synths, and FX plugins.

Edited June 1, 2021 by Steev

[Tezza]

This is an old keyboard now, I had one some time ago, it was nice to play and use compared to others around at the time and even today. I ended up moving it on because I didn't like the automap software and there were various issues.

[Steev]

Yeah I've been using mine for about 5 years now and love it a good deal more then I do NOT love Auto Map which has to be installed for the basic drivers, but you don't have to use Automap. May require going into Windows "Services" and switching AutoMap to "manual start" from it's default setting of starting automatically with Windows boot, NOT GOOD because it will start searching for and find ALL plugins. Most issues I've had by turning Automap on, is it will search for and try to communicate with every plugin on your computer whether they are connected your your DAW or not, and not all plugins are audio/MIDI/ video plugins on Windows computers. Apple dropped support for and disabled AutoMap years ago which caused confusion for a bit because users tried to uninstall it, but you still have to install the driver package or your DAW won't even know it's there.

Other then that, my Impulse 61 has great keyboard action been my favorite and most reliable MIDI keyboard controller I've ever used, and it's one of the very few I can say that about that works with Pro Tools.?

I believe Auto Map is Novation's precursor into getting a jump on MIDI 2.0 which hasn't gotten off the ground yet, and until it does Novation isn't really going to give it much more development or support.

For CbB I just select "Impulse" from the MIDI chan. drop down menu and use it as a straight MIDI keyboard controller specifically mapped out by "ME" for synths and FX plugins and it runs along side and stays out of the way and never collides with my Behringer X-Touch DAW controller running in Mackie MCU protocol. The Impulse is also recognized and can be mapped to Bandlab's Mix Editor for limited mixing functions, which is still in development, and although the latency can be high at times, it's still doable playing Mix Editor's included synths. Not exactly optimal, but considering Mix Editor isn't even installed on my computer and is cloud based service, I'm kinda amazed & ultimately fascinated that it works at all.

For Reason I just select the preinstalled Reason Map & all is well, although I'm sure I customized and it tweaked it out a bit thru the years although I don't really remember how or what. That's one of the benefits of spending extra upfront for having a high quality MIDI controller, they last a long time and you don't have to think or worry about stuff like that until you get a new one and have to start all over. ? I'm pretty confident my trusty old familiar Impulse 61 will last in the music biz at least as long as me, if not longer.

Novation also has a map for Ableton Live but as a musician/composer I don't like or use Ableton Live or any software that auto loops or quantizes my playing into what it "thinks" is correct, so?????? I donno... Might as well use Automap with Abelton Live and make the nightmare complete and see what happens?....?.... ?.... But just because you "Can" doesn't mean you "Should".?

Edited June 4, 2021 by Steev

[Michael Fogarty]

thanks for your feedback. I personally never liked the action  on it.  It was good for organ but not good for rhodes, wurlitzer, other keys. I realize that is up to the users preference. I seem to lean toward Yamaha keyboards. Interesting they don't make controllers.

The new owner, as your self, is very happy though he had difficulty at first. By saying "only USB3" I guess I should have said "available" as he has a Thinkpad YOGA and plugs his RME into the USB 2 port.

The internet is full of stories of users that had problems with this keyboard. Yes, I tried support. As a side note, I do not own any Focusrite products. I am sincerely happy you are happy with it. I wanted to be. 

And oneofmany, in my case the powered USB hub didn't help me with my problems. I would be in the throes of recording a part and it would randomly reset itself.

I started this thread in November 2019.

Edited June 7, 2021 by Michael Fogarty