Nektar Panorama T4

By Bob Thomas

Nektar's Panorama T4 takes their already impressive DAW integration to a higher level.

Nektar have built up a strong name for themselves through their Panorama and Impact series of USB MIDI controller keyboards, both of which feature Nektar's DAW integration software that allows control of DAW parameters directly from the keyboards' faders, encoders and pads. Enhancing the DAW integration of the latest members of the Panorama line — the 49-note T4 reviewed here and its larger 61-note T6 sibling — is Nektarine, a VST, VST3 and AU plug-in that can host VST, VST3 and AU instrument plug-ins. This setup allows you to control these plug-ins directly from the new controllers, either through the pre-configured mapping that Nektar have created for many popular instruments, or through your own custom maps.

T4

Somewhat petite, rather than small, the T4 is USB class-compliant with Windows XP and higher, Mac OS 10.5 and greater and Linux (Ubuntu). For someone like me who still runs XP because of some crucial legacy hardware whose support got 'sidelined' in Vista, this is an important consideration. Unsurprisingly, the Nektar DAW integration software requires Windows 7 or higher, and Mac OS 10.7 or greater, and this again helps to support users of legacy operating systems.

With its control topology laid out on its black fascia in the familiar Nektar fashion above the keyboard — faders and switches to the left of centre; LCD screen and mode and performance control switches in the centre; encoders and transport controls centre right; and pads to the far right — the T4 packs a significant level of functionality into a relatively small space.

Keys & Pads

The T4 is equipped with a 49-note version of Nektar's second–generation synth-action keyboard, which features aftertouch, five velocity curves and one fixed velocity (127) that can be programmed to be varied in real time by a fader or encoder. The octave shift buttons above the pitch-bend and modulation wheels can shift the T4's keyboard up four octaves and down three. The eight velocity– and pressure-sensitive pads have tri-colour LED illumination (green/red/orange) and can be programmed to transmit either MIDI Note On, Switch or CC messages with four curved velocity options and one fixed. These settings can be saved in 16 (two banks of eight) preset Pad Maps that are recalled by a combination of the Pad Bank switch, the Shift display button and the appropriately numbered pad.

Both keys and pads can be set to repeat using the independent Key and Pad Repeat buttons that sit to the left of the keyboard above the pitch-bend and modulation wheels. This intriguing feature can give some great results as its tempo can be set either from the T4 or driven by an external MIDI Clock and, using the encoders, the note length, repeat rate (quarter to 1/96th notes), swing, accent velocity and the interval between accents can all be continuously varied. Diving deeper into its setup, you can pick a velocity source (aftertouch/pad pressure, expression pedal or mod wheel), make the repeat buttons either momentary or latching (you can also change this on the fly), and set the sync point — either...

Published September 2019

Prologue Sessions with Thaddeus Dixon - Sound Creation Process

Light, fantastic: ROLI's colourful new controller

Published 3/7/19

24-key modular controller keyboard appeals to both keyboard beginners and pros

LUMI, by ROLI.

ROLI have been impressing us with innovative controller designs since the launch of their otherworldly Seaboard Grand four years ago (see the review in SOS September 2015). Their latest product offers all the depth and innovation of their previous products, but channelled in a very different direction. As its name suggests, it's all about light.

Like ROLI's earliest products, LUMI is a controller based around a keyboard-like interface, but the loose resemblence ends as soon as you power it up, because in stark contrast to the monochromatic Seaboards, LUMI comes alive in a riot of colour. Each of its 24 keys is lit evenly along its entire length from underneath by super-bright variable LEDs — so each one can be a completely different colour.

This simple idea is used to excellent effect to assist a major part of LUMI's target market: those of any age who are learning to play the keyboard. Thus it ships with a proprietary iOS or Android music training app with a library of songs, and if you select one, the keys will light up brightly in sequence, allowing keyboard learners to follow and play the melody (and accompanying chords, if you wish) for the selected song by following the lights. While there have been educational keyboards with 'followable' LED strips or lights above the keys before, we can't call to mind any on which the entire key can light up so brightly and in such a wide range of colours before — and the intuitive impact of being able to follow the lights as an aid to playing is not to be understated. For songs already in the LUMI app's library, there is a wealth of extra content to help you master playing, from videos showing you optimum fingering to performance training routines, where you accompany a scrolling score on the app, a piano-roll display, or simply follow LUMI's lights, and the app rates your accuracy and speed.

The library will cover music from classical to cutting-edge; at the demo we attended, it was still under development, but already contained works from Bach to the Beatles, Sia and Calvin Harris. However, the app will not be limited to audio material already loaded in its library — in time, the plan is that it will be able to analyse the music in any audio file presented to it and swiftly provide a light-up key sequence for the melody, and a best guess at the key and chords too. We saw an early demo of this aspect of the app in action: we were asked to freely pick a well-known track completely at random. Slightly mischievously, we chose one not in the LUMI library — The Beatles' 'Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds', well known for its various key changes — and watched as the app not only identified the keyboard and vocal melodies from a quick playback on Spotify, but also tracked the key changes through the verse into the chorus and back again. Once this feature is fully working, it could in theory allow fledgeling keyboard players to learn whatever songs they like quickly and easily.

If your initial impression is that you have no need for this kind of educational aspect to a controller, and the 24-note span and light-up keys call to mind countless cheap plastic kids' keyboards or even the atonal early 80s warblings of Hasbro's circular toy Simon, think again. LUMI is a fully specified, modular and highly portable self-powered MIDI controller, with polyphonic aftertouch. In the studio, it integrates smoothly with DAWs and ROLI's own Studio Player and Dashboard software, and also physically with other hardware; each LUMI 'unit' features ROLI's proprietary magnetic 'DNA' connectors along its edges, as used on their innovative Blocks control hardware, so ROLI's control Blocks, Lightpads or Seaboards can be instantly attached if required. What's more, if you want or need a larger keyboard, you simply snap LUMI keyboards seamlessly together (up to maximum of four).

LUMI in action.

The keyboard itself and its action have been carefully designed for playability by pros as well as beginners, with a 'plunge' almost as deep as that of a grand piano and keys corresponding to the Donison Steinbuhler 5.5 standard, seven-eighths of the width of a standard piano keyboard (for those unfamiliar with DS5.5 keyboards, their dimensions are widely believed amongst music educators to be more approachable and playable than standard-sized piano keys). Measuring 282x141mm, only 27mm thick, weighing 600g per 'unit' and with an approximate battery-powered life of six hours when fully charged, LUMI also fits into a rucksack for easy use outside the studio. How many other controller keyboards are portable and modular, allowing you to assemble a backpackable 96-key 'Imperial' controller?

Even if the educational aspects of LUMI's light-up design are unimportant to you, there are many possible pro applications for the coloured keys in a live or performance context. Because the colour of each key is individually customisable in ROLI's Dashboard software, you could colour keys depending on the samples assigned to each key during live performances as an unforgettable aide-memoire, or colour different zones of the keyboard to highlight split points... or, yes, if you like, draw attention by giving your keyboard a completely different colour scheme for every song in your set, simply because you can. It's surely only a matter of time before LUMI is a major visual component in someone's super-hip video...

Reflecting the new keyboard's broader appeal to learners and non-technical musicians as well as the pro musicians that have formed most of ROLI's customer base since their launch, LUMI is initially being sold using a crowdfunding model, via Kickstarter, rather than through pro-audio distribution channels or via the main company site. At the time of writing, a few days after its launch, LUMI has over 5000 backers and has exceeded by more than tenfold its initial funding goal of £100,000, which suggests this model was a shrewd approach! It's expected to be on sale from October (with one eye on the Christmas stocking market, perhaps?) and will retail then for $249 in the USA, although as of the start of July, it's still possible to secure LUMI for under $200 by signing up as a backer on Kickstarter. See the link below for details.

by (SOS) 2019

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/playlumi/lumi-the-smarter-way-to-learn-and-...

Prologue Sessions with Lynette Williams - Favorite Settings

Q. Why does my Mackie Control make strange noises in Cubase?

By Sam Inglis

The Mackie Control works via MIDI, so keep an eye on the input assignments of your MIDI tracks.

I'm using a Mackie Control control surface with Cubase SX, and it works fine on audio tracks. However, whenever I select a MIDI track within Cubase, pressing buttons on the Mackie Control seems to trigger random MIDI notes, and using the other controls sometimes seems to make my synths go out of tune. What's going on?

Jeremy Carter

Features Editor Sam Inglis replies: Mackie Control and similar control surfaces communicate with Cubase via MIDI, and they use ordinary Note On and Continuous Controller messages to tell the computer that a button has been pressed or a fader moved — but not ones that will have any musical relevance to your song! Meanwhile, the default preference in Cubase SX is that whichever track is selected is automatically record-enabled, and all MIDI tracks default to accepting MIDI input from all connected sources. This means that if you have, say, a controller keyboard and a Mackie Control connected, Note On and Controller messages from both will be recorded on the selected track. Even when you're not recording, all MIDI messages from all sources will be routed to whatever synth is attached to the selected track.

The solution to this is to change the input selection for each of your MIDI tracks. InCubase's track Inspector, change the MIDI input from 'All' to a specific device that's not the Mackie Control, or 'None' if you don't want them to accept any MIDI input. If you're not planning on recording any MIDI, you could also achieve the same result by visiting Cubase 's Preferences and deselecting the 'Record enable selected track' box. 

Published January 2006

KORG prologue 2.0 Update: Installation Tutorial

Cubase Pro: Riff Maker

By John Walden

Don't fear the Logical Editor! Even a simple preset can help generate some interesting musical ideas.

Stuck in a musical rut? Cubase Pro might just be able to provide the inspiration you need.

A number of third-party tools aim to offer the spark of musical inspiration around which you can build a project. Nobody expects them to cough up the sort of fully formed melody that could grace the next chart-topping hit, but by combining elements of key/scale 'rules', a dose of randomisation and a little user input — to influence the general direction of the riff-making process — they can be a great source of new melodic ideas. Happily, Cubase Pro 10 users need look no further than their own DAW for a toolset that allows you to experiment with this sort of random-but-guided riff generation. To follow the examples, you'll need a MIDI clip as a starting point. Anything will do; a simple two-bar sequence of 16th notes, all set to C3 and a velocity of 80, will suffice. Use this MIDI to trigger a staccato-style synth patch.

Iterative Inspiration

You can manipulate note velocity in various ways using the Logical Editor, whether that's subtle randomisation (above) or note muting (below).


Published November 2019