NI Audio Kontrol 1 Questions

Hello, I’m new to the forums and have a questions about the NI Audio Kontrol 1, which I’ve just installed. I just bought it a couple days ago.

Do I need to download any of the Driver updates that are offered in the service center?

I did download and install the latest Driver update 2.0 I believe. I guess it’s working fine. It said that windows needed to shut down and restart to complete installation. When windows came back on, nothing more happened. It was finished. Is that how it is?

Do I even need the newest driver? It’s 64bit right? Isn’t 24bit damn good? Do you even notice a difference?

The firmware update doesn’t install. It says that my interface is up to date. I guess that’s the case because it’s so new and was just installed.

In the Audio settings of my DAW (FL Studio) I choose “Audio Kontrol 1” as my soundcard driver. That is an ASIO driver, correct?

I notice a popping in my headphones during playback of certain things. My latency settings are fine and my CPU is fine too. So why do I have popping sometimes? I really noticed it while playing some guitar riffs back on the tape deck of guitar rig 3.

Also, ever since I installed the NI Audio Kontrol 1, my computer doesn't shut down all the way. It gets stuck during the shut down process, any ideas?

Anyway, any help clarifying this would be great.

 

Welcome =)

If you went through all the found new hardware screens- yeah, the restart was all you need. I can't remember if they come before or after the restart, though; I haven't installed the latest driver yet. And yes, 2.0.10 is the latest.

The 64 bit refers to the fact that AK 1 will now run on x64 Windows systems. It's not referring to the bit depth (which the 24 bit refers to). And you should always be running the latest driver version.

Yep- you should be up to date.

AK 1 has ASIO drivers; correct. However, it also has WDM and Direct Sound/MME drivers as well. Make sure you have the AK 1 ASIO driver selected.

http://www.native-instruments.com/knowledge/questions/19/USB optimization for audio interfaces

That happens on some systems. See if after you've followed the tips in the knowledge base article it shuts down normally.

ew

 

^^^ Ok, so I turned the power management off for the USB hubs. It only works on "USB root hubs" right? cause I didn't have the option on some others. It helped to give me some CPU back, but that wasn't the problem. It just might be the audio on this certain sample I'm playing. Hey, it never hurts to have more CPU though!

The power is still not shutting off. The only way I've found around this is to close my laptop lid and enter hybernation mode. It allows the computer to turn completely off. Is it safe to do this all the time? The only problem is I can't turn off my power strip, that's not a big deal though.

 

Yep.

?

Hibernation's not a good idea with USB devices- they usually won't wake up properly. It sounds to me more as if you're taking it out of hibernation and shutting down normally when you close the lid.

ew

 

Also, there are some pretty big pops in my phones when I turn my computer on and off. I think it's do to the activity in the AK1 because it turns on and off with the computer. Are these pops damaging to my headphones or are they natural? also, is there a way around having the AK1 open and close with my computer? couldn't I select the AK1 to turn on after my computer starts? or to turn off before I shut down my computer? maybe this would solve the issue.

Thanks.
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yeah, I don't know. When I try to power off the normal way, it gets stuck on the blue screen and never turns off. At least when I shut the lid, the computer's power is off. But I don't want a problem with the AK1 not waking up correctly. Man, there got to be some way around this.

 

The only way to do that would be to use the safely remove hardware icon in your taskbar and disconnect it before shutting down- sorry.

ew

 

That works! I just go to the icon and select "safely remove audio kontrol 1 audio" and I can turn my computer off. When I start back up, AK1 starts back up. No problems.

Thanks for all of your help!