Solved Komplete Kontrol S49 Freezing, etc.

Hello,
Just jumped ship from the M-audio keyboard and received a Komplete Kontrol S49 keyboard this week and I am unfortunately having problems right from the start. Here's my specs first off:
2020 iMac Big Sur latest version
Pro Tools 2021.10
Connected with provided USB cable along with an extended 6' USB cable to a powered USB hub.
Powered with Native Instrument power supply.

Problems I'm having:
AT first when I installed all of the software and connected the keyboard and updated all firmwares it worked in standalone and let me control the instruments from the keyboard. But when I setup it up in Pro Tools from the instructions on native instruments website it wouldn't let me use any buttons on the keyboard. No buttons worked at all. But it did display the instruments on the keyboard for a bit and it let me select things and adjust things in the plugin and the keyboard would still works and record great!

Then I go to see if its working in standalone again after having that problem in Pro Tools and it then does the exact same thing and no buttons on the keyboard work. But the keyboard still is playing fine and outputting the instruments fine even with the buttons not working.

I then shut everything down and unplug everything and connect the keyboard directly to the iMac and then it freezes on the initial screen that says "Kontrol Komplete." In order for me to get past that screen I had to unplug the usb cable and then it would start as normal.
This is where I am stuck right now.

Additional things I have tried: Resetting PRAM, SMC, and unplugging everything from computer, trashing pro tools preferences.

I am running out of ideas of what to try to fix this. Mind you my computer is only 8 months old and everything else I connect to it works just fine. I did re-connect my M-Audio keyboard and that still works fine. It's having a hard time communicating with this keyboard. I feel like there's something in the operating system or system that's preventing it but not sure where to look. It's not he privacy either because I gave it Full Disk Access.

Anyways I do have support helping me as well but as you know its a long drawn out process of emails and so far they haven't figured it out. I'm hopeful its an easy fix somewhere. It's super frustrating being that I just got it and it's not working right out of the box but I think it can be fixed.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Chris

 

It doesn't sound like it is "freezing" but some things I would suggest.

I assume you have an series 2 keybaord?

First I would suggest remove the USB extension from the setup and also the power supply as the MK2 can run from USB power, just as a test to see if the same issue occurs.

Next use only the standalone software as a test so you can confirm if the issue is more a keyboard or a DAW/Setup issue. In the KK software check the MIDI INPUT tab and ensure only the MIDI input is selected, not the DAW port

If you have some response from the keyboard (such as instruments display on the screen but you cannot play them) try this trick (which I have to do as it seems a bug to me):

- Press the MIDI button then press the PLUGIN button.

I have found for whatever reason when the keyboard switches on it starts in MIDI mode and when a KK instance launches the display switched to NKS mode but it still appears the keyboard is in MIDI mode and not working correctly. If I prese MIDI then PLUGIN it sets the focus back to NKS and all is fine from there.

Takes some patience with issues on Mac these days, it's not as "plug and play" as it was 10 years ago, all the security prefs and OS updates have caused rather a mess so never assume just because something else is working that anything will work. Sometimes computers don't do what you expect.

 

Hey JesterMgee! Really appreciate the reply and suggestions to fix the problem.

So here's where I'm at and what I did to get it working normal again outside of Pro Tools:

I finally got the keyboard to work again on the iMac consistently. It's working in standalone now as it should as long as I don't open Pro Tools it lets me adjust the settings on the keyboard with no problem. In order for me to get to this spot though I had to delete the .plist Controller editor and Komplete Kontrol and applications and then unplug the keyboard and then the restart computer and then re-install the software and plug the keyboard back in. After that's its worked great! I also didn't select the DAW port.

So I believe Pro Tools is the culprit here because after I played it for about a half an hour with it in Standalone and quitting the app and reopening it many times it kept working perfectly fine. But then I tried another test and opened Pro Tools and it did the same thing again and wouldn't allow me to use any buttons on the keyboard and then it froze on that "Komplete Kontrol" screen again. I then had to go through all of the steps above to get it back to working normal again which is where I am now.

So currently it's back to normal and I haven't opened Pro Tools since returning it back to normal. What should I try next now that we know that Pro Tools is the problem?

Thanks for the help,

Chris

 

Cant really help with PT, it's not a daw I use and although I do have PT and a macBook, it's only used for support reasons and I don't use KK witch my mac, nor Pro Tools. I'm on Windows and using Ableton and like this because in 7 years I have never had a single issue to speak of really.

 

That’s cool to know. I hope when I get it to work in Pro Tools I can use it for many years without a problem like your setup. I saw Native Instruments new YouTube video with it working in Pro Tools so hopefully I can get it working like that at some point.

I appreciate all of your advice. I’ll try troubleshooting it again tomorrow and hopefully support will get back to me with what’s hanging it up in Pro Tools 2021.

 

Even tho I cannot assist, may be helpful to post the MIDI settings and configuration you have done in PT. I know there are plenty of users using PT and KK together so it should certainly work

 

Sounds good! Here’s what I’ve tried in Pro Tools and my midi settings:
1. Trashed Pro Tools preferences.
2. Started a brand new session.
3. Added Komplete Kontrol in Periphals with the new Komplete Kontrol MIDI selection.
4. Created an instrument track and loaded Komplete Kontrol on insert A.
5. Also I selected the DAW in the MIDI tab in the Komplete Kontrol preferences.

 

So I got some killer news! Support got back to me and apparently Pro Tools has some stock plugins that aren’t compatible with the Komplete Kontrol plugin. I removed all of the FB360 plugins and bam it worked! It’s really cool and I’m freakin loving it. I’ve waited 6 years to have a keyboard that works like this with transport and plugin controls right from the keyboard and it was worth the wait.

Everything is working perfectly except for the tempo and quantize button which aren’t working. Not that big of a deal as everything else is working perfectly, and I did let support know so maybe they’ll have a fix for this too. I can always use my keyboard to active the click track and I don’t need to quantize because I play the piano perfectly in time lol! J/K.

Anyways I thought I’d post this update and what fixed it as there isn’t a forum post that has all of this info in one place so hopefully it will help someone else as I’m sure there will be a lot of Pro Tools users joining the force soon with the new integration into Pro Tools.

 

Update: Support confirmed that Tempo & Quantize doesn't work with Pro Tools at this time. Not a deal breaker. Also I mistakenly thought tempo was for turning the click track on and off but the "METRO" button does that. Thank God that works! I use that a ton.

If anyone sees this in the future and needs help please let me know anytime.

This post is officially SOLVED!