Another completely reproducible S61 pitch touch strip fault

Not sure if this is same as everyone else's problems, but at least this is totally reproducible.

On power up and loading an instrument in KK the pitch touch strip works fine 100% of the time - the lights track my finger fine and spring back to the centre when I lift my finger. If I press the top of the bezel at the top of the pitch slider the "spring" stops working. The pitch slider still tracks perfectly but when I lift my finger it doesn't spring back to the centre position. If I power the S61 off and on again without touching anything else it starts working again. Press the top of the bezel again and it stops again. Power off and on and it works again.

This does NOT happen with the modulation strip.

So, I'm pretty certain this is a firmware lockup rather than a genuine hardware fault - guessing pressing the top of the bezel generates an out of range value for the slider which confuses things.

Anyone else seen this, and is it reproducible on otherwise fully working keyboards?

** UPDATE **

After a quick bit of investigation it's not actually the bezel - if you tap the very top of the touch strip using something thin like a guitar plectrum WITHOUT touching the bezel the fault still occurs.

Mike

 

If I remember that correctly, this phenomenon was reported in one of the other touchstrip threads too and it was a hardware problem.

 

If it was purely hardware I'd not expect the same behaviour tho. I'd expect it to lock up totally rather than still track perfectly and have no springback. The tracking and everything else is fine, it's like the spring has been turned off in the firmware.

Mike

 

Search through the Kontrol-S forum, where you'll find several reports about the touchstrips issues.

 

Yep ... there are lots of reports about the touch strips being stuck at the top, bouncing back to the top when released etc. These faults seem to affect both pitch and mod. This is a different fault, as everything works apart from the spring return action on the pitch which is why I think this particular problem is more likely to be a bug with the firmware.

It might well be brought on by the hardware sending an unexpected signal, but bearing in mind everything else is fine it should be fixable in firmware. I've dropped support a pretty comprehensive bug report so hopefully they'll look into it.

Mike

 

I would drop them a phone call, because email support is pretty much non existent currently regarding user reports.

 

I am having similar but not identical problems with both my pitch and mod strips on my S25. My mod strip acts just like your pitch strip. If I touch the very top of the mod strip it stays there unless I hit the strip somewhere else and hold it there, otherwise it returns to the top. My pitch strip is exactly the opposite. If I hit the pitch strip at the bottom, it stays there, unless I hit it elsewhere and hold it, and then it goes back to the bottom once I let it go (doesn't return to center). This happens when using Kontrol software in both standalone mode or using really any Logic plugin. It happens every time. I did email NI, and they asked for a video of the behavior, which I just sent to them, explaining that it happens every time I use the keyboard regardless of the software (so they don't automatically try to blame it on some other application, DAW or plugin issue).

 

i to have a strip problem, but i guess i'm invested in it now being that i had it for a while now, and i don't want to send it it... i hope it's a software problem though, because i can only use my strips for a little while before i have to turn it off and on to get it functioning correctly again... so i try not to use it.

 

If it would be a firmware problem, why then does my S49 work properly and is not affected?

 

i have the s49.

 

Me too and mine works flawless, which should be a clear proof, that it is not a software, but a hardware issue in your case, shouldn't it?

 

i'm not sure, i had it since day one, i never had this probably before, but granted i really never used the pitch bend much.. but i don't recall it sticking until i upgraded the firmware... but i could be wrong, because now when i touch the space in the middle of the strip (not the strip) the little black plastic piece in the middle, my strip moves, sometimes... so it could be hardware... i'm going to try an NI certified USB cord in a moment, i changed it because i wanted my keyboard farther away from my computer, hopefully this will solve my problem. Fingers crossed, but other than that i really don't use bend, and i do have other controllers.. I just want what i paid for that's all, so i hope it works.

 

Same experience here. If I reboot the device, the strips are fine for about 30 seconds, but if I play with them a bit, they start acting like I have my finger pressed on one edge. The pitch strip thinks my finger is at the bottom, and the mod strip thinks my finger is at the top. Pitch no longer springs, and the mod wheel no longer functions properly. Both strips think I have my finger in place; the pitch is stuck in the down position and I can't reset it, and the mod wheel also stays put. I had a feeling there might be something wrong with the device because I saw that the NI website is out of stock on all the keyboards, but the stores had a few left. Makes me wonder if they paused production to fix an issue.



I'm going to send a support ticket now and see what they say.

For the record, all my software is up to date and the firmware as well. I'm using a PC, Ableton Live 9.1.7 (32-bit) on a 64-bit OS (Win 8.1), Komplete 9. The keyboard is connected via a 6 ft USB cable, plugged directly into the MB (no USB hub).

 

I had a look in the German NI shop, where it says "currently unavailable in Asia (East and Southeast) and Oceania", so a temporary production stop is very unlikely, especially because mainly the S61 was affected by touchstrip issues and not the other two.

 

Yep, just got my S49 out of the box, and I have the same problem with both the Mod and Pitch sliders. Not happy! Now I have to returnb it to Dawsons, at my own cost I might add, for a repair or replacement!

 

I ended up having to send mine back for repair, but I got a complete new unit returned rather than fixed which was a nice surprise since I've had it since launch day. NI paid shipping both ways so apart from about 10 days without the keyboard it didn't cost me anything so really I'm pretty pleased.

Mike

 

Be very careful in your decision to send your Kontrol Keyboard in for repair/replacement. I had the same touch ribbon problems. I sent an email, they requested a video of the problem. I sent them the video. They agreed to take a look at it, sent me the shipping sheet to FedEx it to them. I did. They confirmed receipt. That was a month ago. I haven't heard a thing from them. Several days ago, I asked for a status update. Haven't heard a thing. I have owned Complete 8, 9 and 10. Before that I owned Absynth 2, 3, and 4. I own a Machine Micro Controller and software. I have purchased separately Session Strings Pro and Molekular and several expansions for Maschine. Can you imagine a more loyal long term customer? And this is how they treat me. I am so frustrated with NI, even though I do actually get a lot of enjoyment from the software, after the way they have treated me in this case, I wish I could get all my money back from them and take my musical purchases elsewhere. Sorely, sorely disappointed. I am not sure I will ever get my Kontrol keyboard back. I wouldn't even care if I hadn't put $500 into it. Not a fan of NI at this point!

 

Call support by phone. Several people reported, that this helped much more than email correspondence.

 

Have to say from personal experience NI support have been pretty good at fixing things. I've had to send back an Audio10, an S4 and the K61 and every time it's been turned around in about 10 days from me dropping the parcel off at the local UPS pickup point to being delivered back. Compare this to Pioneer who took about four weeks to turn around an encoder fault on a DDJ-SZ and NI seem pretty good.

Mike

 

Thanks Aymara, I may try this when I have the time, and if I have the need. Mike, I am glad you have had much, much, better luck than me. I will likely never purchase hardware of any kind from NI again. I should have stayed with their software. I will also recommend to others to stay far away from NI hardware. After five days, NI finally responded to my email. They have my S25. They agree it cannot be fixed and needs to be replaced with a new unit (e.g. not a software issue for sure), and they apologized for the delay (doesn't mean much when I am without a keyboard for over a month that I have paid to use). They are not able to tell me when I will get a new unit. They said the delay is due to not being able to obtain sufficient quantities of the replacement units. I take this to mean either that the number of bad units already out there is sufficiently high that they cannot keep up with demand for replacements, or they are only using units for replacements when they have sufficient numbers of units for retail (e.g. new purchases). Obviously, this is only speculation, but I can't think what else could justify such a delay in turnaround. Just in case the issue is that they haven't wanted to order too many S25s due to low numbers of new purchases, I offered to give them an extra $100 toward an S49 in case they have some of those available for resale, or to refund my purchase amount because I paid for something they cannot give me. I also asked them to give me some kind of idea of when they'd be shipping me a unit. Not surprisingly, given my very, very poor customer support from NI, they have not responded, despite my email being sent in response to their email several days ago. So, it has now been over five weeks since I sent them the unit. They told me they can't get sufficient units to replace my unit, and won't give me any idea of when I can expect a new unit.