Korg Forums

Hey all. Just signed up here to today. I posted in the Welcome forums first and was helpfully directed here with my problem. I'll just repost my question from there. Also I will add that I have installed Fruity Loops demo since the original post hoping I could get it working with that. No dice. Cheers.

"Essentially I've been a live musician for 20+ years. Guitar, vox, bass, drums, etc... I started getting into basic home recording about five years ago using Nuendo 2, a Layla Echo and a (now old) XP machine. I stuck to analog stuff (recording my bands and solo stuff) and have a general knowledge of how to capture live sound (I've never even attempted to use midi before). Unfortunately I can no longer play live due to physical limitations, especially drums, and am now in the process of setting up a newer and fancier digital studio so I can keep making music. I'm still waiting on building my new system but got a good deal on this padKontrol so I snagged it. At the moment I am trying to get it to work with my laptop (new but lower end Acer with Win 7 64 bit). Obviously I can't hook the Layla up to it as it uses a PCI interface so I'm hoping I can output through the headphone jack on the laptop. Not sure if that is possible but Windows seems to be recognizing the pK.

Here's what I've done so far:

Installed the librarian software

Installed Reaper trial (just to test the pK)

Downloaded a sample drumkit

aaaand now I'm stuck. I have the library software open and the sample folder open but I can't figure out how to get the samples into the editor and I'm sure I'll have trouble getting that into Reaper.

For now I just want to play the thing and maybe create some simple songs to get the hang of working in a midi environment and to get my fingers used to playing the kP.

Any help would be more than appreciated.

Thanks."

hmm... I managed to get some sound happening with FL but am having some serious latency/dropped hits issues. Notes seem to be sounding almost a second after I hit the pad. I'm assuming this is not normal.

But hey... at least it's making noise.

I'm a little burnt out on this stuff now so I'll check back tomorrow.

Cheers.

Okay... seeing as how this seems to be a very slow moving forum and I didn't get any replies I had to spend the past few days combing the padKontrol section of this forum and glean what I could about my problem and then research it externally. I'm going to post my n00b misadventures to help out any complete beginners such as myself, archive what I've learned so I can access it later and possibly give the pros here a chuckle at my struggles.

I have succeeded in getting some sound out of the pK and miraculously found a solution to my latency issue.

Again I'll say that I am a complete beginner to midi and the pK so seriously take this all with a grain of salt.

This install is for Win 7 64 bit and I am using the trial version of FLStudio (formerly Fruity Loops). Below is the link to dowload the demo. I used the Brothersoft mirror to download from and I had no problems.

http://www.image-line.com/downloads/fls ... nload.html

I will be trying various other sequencers eventually and will try to post the results here as I get around to them.

Now installing the pK.

So first off I wanted to start from scratch so I uninstalled everything from Korg that was on my system after my first failed attempts. I used CCleaner as it is much more thorough at wiping out any extra little bits of data that many program uninstallers (including Windows Add/Remove Program) leave behind. Below is a link to CCleaner but be very careful when using it because you can delete stuff you don't mean to.

http://download.cnet.com/ccleaner/

Once you get it installed go to "tools" on the left hand side of your screen and it will give you a list of all your programs. Click on anything from Korg relating to the kP (meaning if you have other Korg stuff that is NOT pK related you might want to leave it alone or you'll have to reinstall those programs/drivers as well) and then click "run the uninstaller on the right side of the screen. Now you can start from scratch.

Cruising this and other forums a few common issues kept being brought up.

1) Windows 7 only allows 10 midi slots so if you have already filled those ten slots it ain't gonna work. Unfortunately getting at the Midi slots in Win 7 is apparently impossible (at least that is what I've read many times and I sure couldn't find them through the device manager). There is supposed to be an M-Audio midi fixer thingy but as this is a new computer I haven't used any of them except for the kP.

2) The drivers that come on the disc with the kP are not for Win 7 so don't install them from there. You need to go to the Korg website and download them there. Here is the link to the latest drivers. I'm just showing you where they are. Don't download just yet.

http://www.korg.com/padkontrol

If you run any script blockers you will have to unblock Korg.com and if the link doesn't take you directly to the drivers click on the "Support and Downloads" link which will give you a list. Click on "Drivers" and it will show the latest drivers for Mac and PC. There is also a tab in the general list labeled "Software". Under that tab you can download the "Editor Librarian" and some other goodies I have yet to check out so if you bought the pK and it does not have the CD you can download the Editor Librarian from there.

3) If you do not have a sound card or the wrong type of sound card you are going to likely have some serious latency issues meaning when you hit a pad your hits will sound well after you've made the hit. I was experiencing almost a full second delay and some of the hits were dropping. That makes playing the thing almost impossible. The fix is a program called ASIO4ALL. Here's a download link but don't install it just yet.

http://www.asio4all.com/

I used the English 2.10 version as the 2.11 version is still in Beta. Scroll down a bit and you'll find English 2.10 as well as other downloads in multiple languages.

And those are the only major common issues I've seen or experienced so far so now I'll describe how I set my pK up. I have NOT installed the editor librarian yet and managed to get the pK working with FLstudio anyway. I'll experiment with that and post the results later.

Okay...

Do NOT plug in the kP just yet. It'll screw everything up.

Download the file under the driver list labeled:

PC:Driver:KORG_USB_MIDI_Driver_1.13_r6_PC.zip

I use Firefox so when I install anything from the net I usually just double click whatever I'm installing from the download window.

Windows 7 is going to confirm the action. Allow the install and click through the set up wizard.

Windows will bug you AGAIN to confirm the install (at least mine did) so allow that as well and click Finish on the set up wizard. The first time I did this I did not allow it the second time Windows tried to confirm because I thought it would end up being a double install but it actually just screwed up my installation and I had to start all over again.

So now you have your drivers installed.

Next we hook up the kP via USB. Before plugging it in ensure that the power button on the back of the kP is set to "Standby".

Pick the specific USB port you intend to use the kP on! Supposedly it doesn't like being moved from port to port so choose wisely.

Now set the power button on the back of the kP to "USB". It should light up. If it does not it is not getting power from the USB port so something is wrong somewhere. Sorry but I can't help with that problem. I'm still a n00b myself.

My system detected the kP and automatically installed the drivers (which frankly I did not want because I wanted to go through the whole procedure) but if it does not this is how you properly install the drivers.

Click the Windows "Start" button

Click "All Programs"

Click the folder named "Korg"

Click the folder named "Korg USB MIDI Drivers Tools"

Click "Install Korg USB MIDI Device"

At this point it will probably do a little installation dance so follow whatever prompts come up but as I said my comp auto installed.

After that's done...

Click the Windows "Start" button

Click "All Programs"

Click "Korg"

Click "Korg USB MIDI Driver Tools"

Click "Configure Korg USB MIDI Driver"

Now a little window will pop up. I have no idea what would happen if you fiddle with those settings but I'm sure they are there for a reason. However it seems the default is what us n00bs want for now as it worked for me. So just click "OK". Perhaps someone else here can explain what the dialog does in greater detail.

And that's that for installing the drivers. After doing this I was able to get sound from FL but as I said I was experiencing some serious latency issues as I do not have a dedicated soundcard on this laptop. You may not have these issues so I will skip directly to setting up FL and if you experience the same problems try the ASIO4ALL solution below this section.

Remember I am using the demo version so the full version may be different but I doubt it. Also this is my absolute first time using FL as well so these instructions are sketchy at best but they worked for me.

Open FLStudio (if you are using the demo version it will give you a prompt to purchase. Just click "Continue")

In the upper left hand corner of the screen click "Options"

In the dropdown click "MIDI Settings"

A pop up window will appear

You will see a list of devices in the "Output" and "Input" boxes. You should see the padKontrol listed in both. In my case I see the following:

Output:

Microsoft MIDI Mapper
Microsoft Wavetable Synth
padKontrol 1 MIDI OUT
padKontrol 1 CTRL

I don't know what that Microsoft crap does but I did not check those off.

What I DID do was click on (which highlights the selection)

padKontrol 1 MIDI and pressed the little button under the box that says "Send Master SYNC"

At that point in the dialog beside it's name it said "Sync"

I repeated that function for padKontrol 1 CTRL

I am not sure if that is necessary but it's what I did and it worked so that's what I am putting here. Someone else here may be able to explain and/or correct me on that.

I left the MS stuff alone.

In the "Input" box I saw the following:

padKontrol 1 MIDI IN
padKontrol 1 PORT A
padKontrol 1 PORT B

I highlighted each using the above method and in sequence clicked the little "Enable" button underneath the list each time. Now all of those entries on the list should say "Enabled"

Now beside the enable button beneath the input list is a dropdown labeled "Controller Type". One of the main tutorials I followed said to click on that and selcect "KORG microKontrol" from the list. Supposedly that is the closest option to the padKontrol. I have no idea what it does but it worked so I'm not gonna question it. So...

Click the "Controller Type" dropdown

Select "KORG microKONTROL"

NOW you should be able to get some sound. Close that window. You should see a box that has KICK, CLAP, HAT, SNARE along the laeft side. Click on "KICK" and hit some pads. You should get a different kick drum sound from each pad now. If you click the other buttons like SNARE you'll get a bunch of snare sounds or whatever.


Okay... so if you are just using onboard sound like I am (for the moment) or have the wrong type of sound card you may be experiencing some latency like I did.

Here's the fix (well it worked for me anyway). You should probably close FL and any other apps you have running.

Download and install ASIO4ALL from the link I provided above

Open FL

Click "Options"

In the dropdown click "Audio Settings" (a pop up box will appear)

At the top of the pop up box you will see a dropdown box. Click the dropdown and you should see a list of... uh... stuff. In it you should see ASIO4ALL.

Click ASIO4ALL and close the box

The latency issue should be gone.

A couple of things I've notice in the very short time I've had ASIO4ALL installed is it may screw up your regular onboard sound. I just switched back to the original setting, close FL and disconnected the pK and all was good again.


Hopefully that helps some people get started. I still need to figure out how to set up a proper drumkit and and synth stuff but that is my next adventure and I'll let you all know how it goes.

To the pros here please correct any errors I've made. I only did this because I had a bitch of a time trying to cobble together even just this basic function.


Peace out and happy pad slapping.

:-)

and sorry for any spelling errors/typos... which I apparently made many.

I was too burnt to fully edit the post.

Cheers.

Hello again. I've figured out a no fuss, no muss way to get a full drumkit set up with FL and the padKontrol. Now this is probably an extremely crude way to go about it but it works and literally takes seconds to do.

Now this merely makes it so you are able to play drums freestyle on the pads. For now that is all I wanted so I can get my fingers moving. I haven't delved into recording or reassigning the pads or anything. Just enough to get playing.

Again I will point out that I am a complete beginner to all things midi so this is certainly not expert advice. I'm just trying share what I learn as I learn it.

Also remember I am using the demo version of FLstudio 10.0. The full version has a whole crapload of extra sounds you can download but I'm not ready to drop any cash on it just yet.

Aaaaand I am using the onboard sound of my laptop (no dedicated soundcard) so it kind of causes conflicts with other stuff like any applications that use the onboard sound. For example I can't get any sound if I have Firefox open with a youtube video pulled up.

Okay, so I'm assuming at this point you've managed to get it working through the method I described in my other post.

So here's what you do...

Close any applications that may interfere with ASIO4ALL doing it's job

Put the pK on standby, plug it into your computer and turn it on (do this BEFORE you open FL otherwise FL won't detect it)

Open FL Studio

Now I think the box that has the buttons labeled Kick, Hat, Clap, Snare is called the step sequencer but if I'm wrong it doesn't matter. Just know that we are gonna be doing some stuff in that box.

On the left side of the screen there is a list of various instruments.

Locate "FPC" on the list and click it. A sub list will appear.

Now here's where I may have goofed up a bit but I'm not sure. On mine I see 4 options. They are Default, Empty, Gretsch Full and Tama. I may have inadvertantly imported the Gretsch Full and the Tama kits but I'm not uninstalling and reinstalling FL just to find out. If you don't see those two options there skip the next steps for now and try to import a kit which I'll attempt to describe after this set of instructions.

Now click and drag "Empty" over to our step sequencer thingy. If you release the mouse button

while hovering over any blank space in the step sequencer box it will create a new button and all the little step buttons just like the other four tracks (or whatever they are called in this environment). You can also drag and drop onto one of the buttons and it will replace the "track" that was originally there so if you don't care about having "Clap" or one of the other tracks you can just drag one of the kits directly to one of the buttons instead of creating a
new track.

We'll stick with the "Empty" slot though.

Pick a kit and drag it over the "Empty" button and release

As soon as you drag anything from the FPC submenu to the step sequencer a box with 16 pads like our pK will appear.

Click on the buttons within this box and you should hear all the noises from your kit. However if you hit the pads on your kP you will see that the pads on the kP do not correspond with the pads within the FPC thingy or they will not sound at all.

Here's what you do to fix that (and there are seemingly many ways to do this but this is the easiest)

On the FPC box just above the pads you will see a little dialog box that says "Pad 1/32" with arrows on either side pointing left and right.

Directly beside the arrow on the right side of the dialog is another arrow that points down. Click that arrow and a menu will appear.

Click "Map Notes For Entire Bank"

Then on the pK hit all the pads one at a time starting at the bottom going left to right for each row. The various drum noises will sound as you do this.

And now you have a full kit to play with.

Enjoy.


Now... if you don't see those kits then as I said I may have inadvertently imported them as I was fiddling around with some other stuff. If that is the case then here is what I did.

I googled "free midi drums" and looked around for non skeetchy sites with copyright free kits for download.

I then clicked FL's main File menu, went down to "Import" and selected "MIDI File".

I hadn't saved my downloads anywhere specific so it was in my Downloads folder. So in the Import dialog box I clicked browse > Computer > Drive C > Users > My Username > Downloads > picked a file and pressed "Open" in the Import Dialog box.

Now as I said I'm not sure if those kits were already there or not but if those kits did indeed come from my little import experiment somehow FL managed to put them directly into the FPC options.

Also at one point I had been trying to import a kit that apparently had a file extension FL did not like so I could see the folder but when I clicked on it in the import dialog box it said the folder was empty. Make sure what you are importing has one of the accepted file extensions. Your best bet is to probably stick with ".mid" files (which are obviously MIDI files) as I was eventually able to import some other samples with that extension.

I will also add that a good way to practice on the kP within FL is to select one of the other "tracks" on the sequencer thingy by pushing the main button with the track's name (I chose "Hat") and set up a basic 4/4 beat to play over top of. You just have to click on the first button and every fourth button on the track and press the Play button on the transport module at the very top of the FL screen. That way you are practicing in time which is obviously very important. I also tried setting up different grooves to play along with. Essentially creating a fancy metronome.


Anyhoo... I'm going to take a break from messing around with this thing for a few days and get back to my theory studies but once I figure out more stuff I'll be back to share my adventures.

Peace.

You're a legend! thank you for sticking with it and writing how you linked your pads to flstudio - I've been trying for months on and off to figure it out, and in one quick step my kontrol49 pads are useful... now to try and understand what the hell a midi message is exactly, and how I can make the sliders and encoders useful....
Again, thanks for the help!

Oh man, I wish you owned Cubase.