I have issues to configure KordsKontrol to work with my controller!
The first time you launch the program, you are invited to select 4 MIDI ports that will be used by KordsKontrol to communicate, on one hand, with your controller, and on the other hand, with your destination instrument.
The first 2 ports are used to communicate with your controller. The MIDI messages coming from your controller (“fromCT“) are considered as an Input to KordsKontrol; while the MIDI messages sent to your controller (“toCT“) are considered as an Output of KordsKontrol.
The right choice of ports is critical. What is a little bit tricky is that, several controllers have many ports, and you need to use the ones that are compatible with their user /native / MIDI mode control.
For the controller that I own, since I already know the name of the ports that needs to be used, I have registered them inside the KordsKontrol code so that the software is able to automatically select them on the initial setup windows.
For controllers that I don’t own, the choice has to be done manually. If you have any doubt, do not hesitate to contact me with the list of the ports that pops up; not only I will be able to help you, but also I will add these ports names in my code so that, updates after updates, all the controllers ports can be recognised automatically.
On Mac OS, KordsKontrol is using a Third-party library to communicate Sysex messages to all the controllers (except Maschine controllers); this library is called CoreMIDI4J, and seeing the mention of this name in the controller port name is a good sign, it means that KordsKontrol is using the correct version of the port (the one provided by the library)
The third and fourth port used by KordsKontrol corresponds to the MIDI input (“fromOUT“) you can direct to KordsKontrol (it is used for external clock input, or to send a CC message that is allowing the use of an external switch pedal to control some features of the Performance page), and to the MIDI ouput to the destination instrument (hardware or via a virtual MIDI cable) that you want to use with KordsKontrol (“toOUT” port).
The ‘fromOUT” port is optional, if you do not need to use external clock or switch pedal, you can simply select ‘none’
These ports shall not be used by any other application to avoid conflicts. It is therefore recommended to disable it in all the music software (DAW, …) you use, or, at least to start KordsKontrol before any application that may request access to it.
KordsKontrol attempt to allow hot swap of controllers: which means pluggin it after the program start, or even, being able to unplug it and plug it back during the use of the software.
For unknown reasons, this feature seems not to work on Mac OS at the moment with the CoreMIDI4J ports.
Concerning Ableton Launchpads, it is important to disable these controllers as controller surface within Ableton Live, other while, if you use Ableton and KordsKontrol simultaneously, Live will force them to leave their Standalone mode (where you can access a programmer sub-mode that KordsKontrol is using) an enter so-called Live mode to control Live.
I am attempting to implement a feature that automatically detect if this happen, and allow KordsKontrol to recover from such issue, but I am not sure if my implementation is correct for all the controllers so it is disabled for a few of them. If you want to help me to work on that, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Also, KordsKontrol has to be exited properly to ensure MIDI resources are freed up. Please try to never kill the application, other while you may have issues when you launch application again (ports not freed, requiring a system reboot).
For the Korg padKONTROL, please also make sure that the USB drivers are properly installed. padKONTROL is not a class compliant USB device
http://www.korg.com/us/support/download/product/0/161/
For Native Instruments Maschine MKI and MIKRO MKI, please also ensure that the drivers are installed – Maschine MKI is not a class compliant USB device (it seems that these drivers are, by the way, not supported anymore on latest Mac OS releases)
https://www.native-instruments.com/en/support/downloads/drivers-other-files/
All Maschine controllers must be placed in MIDI Mode, with the KordsKontrol template corresponding to your device loaded. To achieve this, the use of the Native Instrument Controller editor is needed
Please visit Downloads page to get the right Controller Editor template.
For details concerning the Controller editor and Controller MIDI mode, please refer to Native Instruments documentation.
https://support.native-instruments.com/hc/en-us/articles/7083345683857-What-is-Controller-Editor-
https://support.native-instruments.com/hc/en-us/articles/210264145-How-to-Use-Your-Native-Instruments-Controller-in-MIDI-Mode
If the issue persists, try to reset your controller (OFF-ON), or restart your computer.
KordsKontrol is using Java, but installation programs comes packed with an included JRE. So, it should not be need to install Java your selves. In case you would need to do it:
https://www.java.com/fr/download/
And finally… please be patient :). The application generates a huge amount of data in the Chords database during the startup, which may take a few seconds.
My destination instrument is not playing!
First of all, you need to ensure that the selected output port “toOUT” is not be locked or used exclusively by another application, so that KordsKontrol can use it to send MIDI out.
If you are targeting Virtual Instruments in a DAW or Standalone, you must ensure that the “toOUT” port is properly configured as a MIDI input in your application, and that it is enabled for receiving MIDI events. On some software, you need to enable the ‘Monitor input’ function to allow the MIDI events to go through up to your instruments.
Please also check if you need a Virtual MIDI loopback cable port. You need either a third-party Virtual MIDI port (Windows), or a IAC Driver Virtual MIDI port (Mac OS) – See the User guide for more details.
If you are targeting an external Hardware Instrument, you must select for “toOUT” the input MIDI port of the instrument if your instrument appear as a MIDI interface on your computer, or direct “toOUT ” to a MIDI OUT port of your MIDI interface that is connected to the instrument.
For further explanation regarding MIDI routings, please refer to the User guide.
Last but not least, KordsKontrol is a 16 MIDI channels application. Some of the notes played are directed to MIDI channel 2, 3….. Please check that your destination is configured to receive MIDI from others channel than 1, or change the MIDI channels used by KordsKontrol in the settings file.
I have some issues with the sustain pedal of my destination instrument!
Some instruments may encounter issues with the automatic Sustain Pedal management (when a Sustain Pedal Off message is followed by a Sustain Pedal On message too quickly, the Pedal Off message is sometimes ignored) . The settings file allows to adjust timers parameters to enhance compatibility on this point. For further explanation, please refer to the User guide.
I have some audio jitters while using KordsKontrol!
KordsKontrol is able to generate a huge amount of MIDI data on its output MIDI bus. In some cases, a bus overload could lead to some audio jitters.
KordsKontrol is able to generate a huge quantity of notes simultaneously. In a virtual instruments multi channel configuration, KordsKontrol can easily overload your system computing real time audio rendering capabilities, especially when each MIDI channel is affected to a dedicated plugin, each of them consuming your system resources. In that case, adjusting the sample buffer size of you Audio device is recommended (the drawback being an increased latency).
Please also keep in mind that KordsKontrol is managing automatically the sustain pedals on up to 8 channels. So, please avoid to direct all the channels to a single destination target: this instrument will receive simultaneously a lot of sustain pedal messages coming from the different channels.
Please refer to user guide for more information on the MIDI channels configuration.
Last but not least, it will be a great pleasure to support you if you still meet issues to start the application. Don’t hesitate to ask!
KordsKontrol 