padkontrol- three issues need help troubleshooting

[bobbybass]

hey guys. my first post on this forum.

recently purchased this unit, korg did a pretty great job cramming features in to this unit, and the price is really fair.

I have three major issues with this unit so far.

1-no octave shift buttons and or bank buttons. I wish that these had been designed into the unit, but have gotten around it buy programming my own scenes, but was fairly tedious since i was not able to get the editor software to transmit/ recieve (see #3 below). there will be many people who purchase the akai mpd 24 instead of the pad kontrol because of the lack of this feature. yes I know you have to hit one extra button (scene and scene pad #) as a workaround for octave shift, but forgive me as saying i this see as a design oversight on behalf of korg.

2- I was told by a sales rep at the music store that i bought this from that the way the padkontrol was designed - when you hit one pad hard, it triggers another pad randomly because of the the way the circuitry was designed (ie probably some kind of conductive metal and or traces that sense how hard the pads were hit). Im not sure of whats inside the padkontrol since i have not opened it, but i do know that when you hit a pad, it often triggers another pad randomly and transmits a midi note from that pad as well. this made me pretty dissapointed. if others can verify this bug or know work arounds please let me know. im not sure that this is an issue that can be resolved with a firmware update since it seems to be hardware based.

3-i was unable to find proper information in the manual about how to get the padkontrol editor to transmit/receive in the manual or in these forums. have tried both usb and midi connections. I set the device to transmit/recieve via usb and then midi with no luck either time. i am getting both 'Transmit scene set failed: device is not specified" along with another message- but am forgetting which error it is, similar to the message above.

I was also intrested in using the 9v adapter (which should be standard and not optional) as a last resort to use the unit in standalone mode instead instead of having it be bus powered, but cannot find any information on how many milliamps the the adapter should be. i would much prefer to use my own adapter instead of paying usually exorbitant costs for adapters, if the adapter is fairly priced and in stock somwhere, please let me know. If anyone knows how many milliamps the adapter for is for the padkontrol or if the polarity is not standard 9v- please let me know.

one final question- is the battery template assigned only to the first 16 cells of battery? would i have to manually assign the rest of note #"s for the remaining cells? what functionality is in this template besides note on/ off


if you made it this far in the message thanks for taking the time to help me out and listening to my gripes and greivances !!

[DigitalTechnic]

1-no octave shift buttons and or bank buttons. I wish that these had been designed into the unit, but have gotten around it buy programming my own scenes, but was fairly tedious since i was not able to get the editor software to transmit/ recieve (see #3 below). there will be many people who purchase the akai mpd 24 instead of the pad kontrol because of the lack of this feature. yes I know you have to hit one extra button (scene and scene pad #) as a workaround for octave shift, but forgive me as saying i this see as a design oversight on behalf of korg.

There's no point in a octave shift buttons. This is a pad controller not a keyboard. Not sure why you need these extra bank buttons(there would have to be 16 if that's the case since a scene is a bank in which case holding the scene button and hitting a pad(they made use of the existing pads which is smart)) is sufficient.

2- I was told by a sales rep at the music store that i bought this from that the way the padkontrol was designed - when you hit one pad hard, it triggers another pad randomly because of the the way the circuitry was designed (ie probably some kind of conductive metal and or traces that sense how hard the pads were hit). Im not sure of whats inside the padkontrol since i have not opened it, but i do know that when you hit a pad, it often triggers another pad randomly and transmits a midi note from that pad as well. this made me pretty dissapointed. if others can verify this bug or know work arounds please let me know. im not sure that this is an issue that can be resolved with a firmware update since it seems to be hardware based.

Unfortunately I too have the same problem but you literally have to pound at it and in which case one shouldn't really be hitting the pads that hard anyway. But it is annoying nevertheless.

3-i was unable to find proper information in the manual about how to get the padkontrol editor to transmit/receive in the manual or in these forums. have tried both usb and midi connections. I set the device to transmit/recieve via usb and then midi with no luck either time. i am getting both 'Transmit scene set failed: device is not specified" along with another message- but am forgetting which error it is, similar to the message above.

I had a similiar problem but it was because I chose the wrong settings in preferences window of the editing software. For MIDI In choose "padKONTROL 1 PORT A" and for MIDI out choose padKONTROL 1 CTRL. Now keep in mind I'm using these settings with USB so it probally won't work with MIDI cable but nevertheless it should help. After that you should be fine.


I don't have any answers for the rest of your questions but hopefully this helps.

I'm at the point where I might end up selling the PK off at a lost to get the MPD24. Now I don't want to do that because IMO the MPD24 is backwards for people like me. Anyway more than likely this will happen and if down the road Korg makes a better PK then I'll get that too but $200 price tag for such an oddity(hitting pad hard issue).

[Daz]

FWIW ... I just got a padKontrol and I am not getting the effect you guys describe where you get two notes triggered when hitting one pad with vigour. The serial number of my pK is in the 7000 range and came from a new batch that Sweetwater just received.

Daz.

[DigitalTechnic]

FWIW ... I just got a padKontrol and I am not getting the effect you guys describe where you get two notes triggered when hitting one pad with vigour. The serial number of my pK is in the 7000 range and came from a new batch that Sweetwater just received.

Daz.

Lucky you


Sadly this annoying feature is more than likely going to make me never purchase anything from Korg again.

[Obsolet]

2- I was told by a sales rep at the music store that i bought this from that the way the padkontrol was designed - when you hit one pad hard, it triggers another pad randomly because of the the way the circuitry was designed (ie probably some kind of conductive metal and or traces that sense how hard the pads were hit). Im not sure of whats inside the padkontrol since i have not opened it, but i do know that when you hit a pad, it often triggers another pad randomly and transmits a midi note from that pad as well. this made me pretty dissapointed. if others can verify this bug or know work arounds please let me know. im not sure that this is an issue that can be resolved with a firmware update since it seems to be hardware based.

Confirmed! Even when I hit the PAD not very strong it creates a ghost note on the PAD below. E.g. I hit the second pad from left in third row from top on it's upper range the PAD below sends a note with vel. value of about 20-40!

[bobbybass]

i ended up selling the unit, in favor of the akai mpd 24. between the ghosting issue and the lack of a dedicated octave shift bank, i was not into this unit very much at all.

i know there are many features in this unit that i never explored, but honestly was looking for something to turn on and go as simple as that sounds.

[jerrythek]

It seems that some info I shared has gotten lost in the "bytes of time" here in the forums. Here it is again - Daz/Sharp - this should really be made a sticky for easier viewing by users:

Pad calibration:

I have learned that the Factory has a hidden setup for calibrating the pads. It is currently set to the most sensitive/expressive because we feel that it plays the best in this setting. But it can be "de-sensitized" if desired.

So to try this do the following when powering on the PadKONTROL:

a. Current settings hold both the[VELOCITY]& [SCENE]keys
b. Slightly less hold both the [VELOCITY]& [MESSAGE]keys
c. Even less hold both the[VELOCITY]& [FIXED.VELOCITY]keys
d. Least sensitive hold both the [VELOCITY]& [PROG CHANGE]keys

These settings will be remembered with no other action taken.

Regards,

Jerry

[bobbybass]

this information should be posted on the korg support website.
i sold my unit because of the sensitivity issue, but would not have if i had access to this information

[Daz]

Sticky created - useful tip, thanks JK.

[Poumtschak]

I was also intrested in using the 9v adapter (which should be standard and not optional) as a last resort to use the unit in standalone mode instead instead of having it be bus powered, but cannot find any information on how many milliamps the the adapter should be. i would much prefer to use my own adapter instead of paying usually exorbitant costs for adapters, if the adapter is fairly priced and in stock somwhere, please let me know. If anyone knows how many milliamps the adapter for is for the padkontrol or if the polarity is not standard 9v- please let me know.

Have you looked at the back of the unit?
It's a 9v DC adapter, + on the outer ring, - inside.
The Specs section in the manual clearly states:

Current consumption
When using USB bus power: 150 mA (MAX 180 mA)
When using DC9V adapter: 150 mA (MAX 180 mA)

[EoN]

Current consumption
When using USB bus power: 150 mA (MAX 180 mA)
When using DC9V adapter: 150 mA (MAX 180 mA)

Can anyone confirm if it is ok to use a power adapter with the following specifications for the padKONTORL?

DC9V 1AMP

As far as I know you CAN use higher ampage than what the unit requires. However i'm not sure I've ever matched up an adapter/unit with such a big difference. Any help would be much apprecaited

PS - I definitely think the unit should come with a power adapter. USB provided power is unstable, unreliable garbage IMO.

[Kurt273]

I was getting ghost notes on my padKONTROL as described in this forum. When I hit one pad, another pad triggered it's self at the same time without being touched. I tried the pad calibration from the sticky, but that did not change anything. I then removed the screws from the padKONTROL case, and futher removed the screws attaching the circuit board and pads onto the inside of the case. Upon investigation, I found many small white plasic bits and shavings between the pads and their circuit board conacts which may have come from the case housing and screw holes from assembly. After removing all of these plasic particles and reassembling the padKONTROL, everything appears to be working normally now and I have yet to have any more inadvertant pads being triggered on their own.