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www.nektartech.com Using Impact LX+ with Presonus Studio One
Installing and Setting Up Studio One
The Nektar Studio One integration is compatible with Studio One 4 or higher.
Installation
Here are the steps you need to go through to set up Studio One with the Impact LX+:
• Locate the “Impact_GX_LX+_PreSonus_Support” installer Image
downloaded with this package and run it. 1
• Plug-in your Impact LX+ and make sure it’s switched on (if you
didn’t do so already).
• Booting up Studio One you will see an initial setup screen similar to
image 1. Click on “Configure External Devices…”, highlighted in the
red box in image 1.
• Next you will see the Preferences menu. Click on “External Devices”.
The Preferences window should now look like image 2.
• If your Studio One program already show 2 Impact LX+ devices,
you are ready to go. Use the following steps for troubleshooting. If
only 1 Impact LX+ device shows up, you’ll need to complete the Image
following steps. 2
• Click “Add” to open the “Add Device” Window.
• Locate the Nektar folder, click the expand arrow and then click on
the Impact LX+ Keyboard option. Click “Ok” to close the window.
• In this window make sure that all the MIDI channels 1-16 are high-
lighted in light blue. If they are not light blue, click the “All” button,
just above the indicators.
• In the “Receive From” field select MIDI 1 or MIDIIN1. The window
should now look like image 3.
Image
• Click “OK” to exit the “Add Device” menu and “OK” again to exit the
3
“Preferences” menu
Studio One is now set up to work with your Impact LX+.
With the controller set up successfully, each time you start Studio One
or power cycle Impact LX+ the “Default” and “User” LEDs will both
illuminate for 2 seconds before both turn off.
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Studio One and Impact LX+ Working Together
Presonus Studio One comes with it’s own documentation which cover all its functionality and powerful features. It’s a good
idea to read and reference the documentation regularly to get the most out of your Studio One product.
But before you dive in to the Studio One documentation, lets go through a few basics here first and in particular cover how
Studio One and Impact LX+ work together.
All Working Fine?
First make sure that everything is set up correctly.
• From the Studio One Start-up window, click on “Create a new Song” on the right hand side
• The main Studio One arrange and browser window appear on your computer screen (Arrangement).
• Press a few keys on the Impact LX+ keyboard. As you press them, the orange arrow next to the MIDI icon in
the bottom left corner of the window should light up. If it doesn’t, you should go back and recheck your setup.
• Next press the [Play] button on the Impact LX+ transport. Studio One should start to play. Press [Stop] to
stop playback
• Create a few audio tracks in Studio One via the Track menu.
• Press the [Mixer] button. With the audio tracks created, move the faders on Impact LX+ up or down as indicated by the
display (“up” or ”dn”), starting with number 1 and up. Each of the audio tracks volume indicators change when you move
the faders through the Studio One mixer channel positions.
• Next press the buttons below the faders. This should activate mute for each of the corresponding tracks.
If every thing at this point is working correctly, you are ready to learn more about how Impact LX+ works with Studio One. If
you are not getting the results described, please check your installation one more time as well as the Nektar support tab on
our website www.nektartech.com
Transport
The transport buttons give access to activate or deactivate the following transport functions: Cycle (loop), Rewind (in 1 bar
decrements), Forward (in 1 bar increments), Stop, Play, Record.
In addition the buttons double up with functionality that’s accessed by holding down the [Shift] button. The chart below tells
you what each button and button combination does and how they behave.
Key Combination Description
[Cycle] Switch the loop/cycle between the Left and Right locators on/off
[Rewind] Rewinds in steps of 1 bar. Press and hold for fast rewind
[Forward] Forward in steps of 1 bar. Press and hold for fast forward
[Stop] Stop playback. Press twice to goto zero
[Play] Activate play
[Record] Activate record. Press again to deactivate record but continue play
[Shift]+[Cycle] Goto Left locator
[Shift]+[Rewind] Set Left locator at current song position
[Shift]+[Forward] Set Right locator at current song position
[Shift]+[Stop] Undo last changes. To undo while in record, press [Record] first to deactivate, then
undo to remove your recording.
[Shift]+[Play] Switch the Click/metronome on/off.
[Shift]+[Record] (Mode) Switch Input Quantize (the IQ button in Studio One) on/off.
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Soft Take-Over Control Explained
Soft Take-Over
As you control different parts of Studio One with the same controls, you would normally experience parameter jumping. This
is what happens when a control’s physical position is not the same as the position of the parameter you are controlling.
To avoid parameter jumping your Impact LX+ is equipped with Soft Take-Over. This means that if a control is not in sync with
a parameter, moving the control will not cause a change, until it’s position matches the value of the parameter.
When the a control’s position does not match the current value, the display indicates if the control should be moved up or
down in the display (“up” or “dn).
Let’s say the faders have been used to control an instrument in Studio One. Now you are ready to control the Studio One
Mixer and need the faders for that. When you move a fader it’s unlikely that it will be in sync with the mixer channel volume
that it’s controlling because it was just used to control an instrument parameter.
The Impact LX+ therefore reads the parameter value from Studio One. If a fader is positioned at 0 and the Studio One
parameter it is controlling, is positioned at 100, moving the Impact LX+ fader will not immediately cause the parameter to
move. No data is sent by the fader until you reach value 100 at which point the Studio One parameter will update it’s
position.
Disable Soft Take-Over
Soft Take-Over is on by default when you use Impact LX+ with Studio One.
It’s possible to disable/enable the feature by pressing [Shift]+[Fader button 9].
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Studio One Mixer Control
To control the Studio One mixer, press the [Mixer] button to select the mixer preset. The button’s LED is illuminated while the
preset is selected and the Studio One mixer is being controlled.
Open/Close the Studio One Mixer Window
If the Studio One mixer is not in view, pressing [Mixer] will open it. Press [Shfit]+[Mixer] to close/open the mixer window.
While the Mixer preset is selected, your Impact LX+ continues to control the Studio One mixer, even if the mixer window is
closed.
Channel Volume & Pan
With the mixer preset active, moving faders 1-8 will control the first 8 mixer channels in the Studio One Mixer. The 8 pots
control pan for each or the corresponding channels. Make sure the LED next to the “Default” label is illuminated. Press [Page]
if it’s not.
Fader 9 controls the channel corresponding to the currently selected track so as you change tracks, you can quickly change
volume as you are working. If you have 15 tracks in your song and the currently selected track is 12, that would result in
faders 1-8 controlling mixer channel volume 1-8 and fader 9 controlling channel volume 12.
Channel Settings Macros & Inserts Control
• Press [Page] to illuminate the LED next to the “User” label. When this page is selected, the pots are assigned to control
Macros. Studio One 5 only: If Perform Mode is active, the pots control performance controls 1-8
• Press [Shift]+[Page] to switch the view to Inserts. The 8 pots control inserts for as long as the window is in view. If you
close the window, the pots revert to controlling the Macros when the User page is selected.
• Press [Page] again to select the Default page to control Pan.
Learning Insert Plugin Parameters to User Pot Controls
You can learn insert plugin parameters to the 8 pots in the “User” page when the plugin is in focus.
• Make sure the “User” page is selected and move one of the 8 pots.
• On LX+, press and hold [Shift] while clicking on a parameter in the instrument plugin’s GUI.
Learned plugin parameters are remembered by Studio One so you only have to set this up once.
Navigating Insert Effects
To navigate insert effects, make sure the ‘User” page is selected and press [Shift]+[Page] to bring the Insert Effects window
in to view. Remember, the plug-in in focus is the one you control and it’s parameters will be visible in the Focus window.
With multiple effect plug-ins inserted on a track, press [Shift]+[Fader button 7] to go to previous insert and [Shift]+[Fader
button 8] to go to next insert (see image below).
Press [Shift]+[Page] to assign the pots to control macro’s or [Page] to assign the pots to control Pan.
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Studio One Mixer Control
Mute & Solo
Fader buttons 1-8 control mute for each of the tracks the faders are assigned to control. If you prefer to solo tracks, you can
press and hold fader button 9 while pressing fader buttons 1-8. The 8 buttons will now control solo for their corresponding
tracks.
Banks Over (1-8), (9-16) etc
If your song contains more than 8 mixer channels you can bank over so the faders 1-8 control the next group of 8 channels.
• To do this, press [Shift]+[Bank>] (the second fader button). The faders, pots and fader buttons are now assigned to
control channels 9-16. Push the same key combination again to control 17-24 etc.
• To go back you press [Shift]+[<Bank]
The safest way to work with the Studio One mixer is to keep a group of 8 channels that you want regular mixer control over,
as the first a tracks in your song and then use fader 9 as you navigate through tracks to adjust volume for all other channels.
Master Volume
You can control the Master Volume fader of the Studio One mixer by pressing [Fader button 9) and then move fader 9 while
the button is pressed.
Upon release of the button, fader 9 will revert to control the current channel volume.
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Studio One Instrument Control
Press the [Inst] button to select the Instrument preset. The button’s LED is illuminated while the preset is selected.
To control an instrument you must however be on an instrument track. To create one, first click on “Instruments” in the
Studio One browser home window. Next click on Mojito and drag it in to the Studio One arrangement window.
First-time Setup
If this is the first time you are using Impact LX+ with Studio One, please check that the control surface selected to control
instruments is “Impact LX+ Control”.
• On Mojito (or any other plugin) make sure the GUI button for the
control is orange as shown in the image on the right
• Next click on the arrow to the left of the orange GUI button for a list of
your control surface options
• Select “Impact LX+ Control” as show in the image on the right
Once done, you should not have to worry about this again unless your setup
changes.
Open/close the Instrument Window
When you are on an instrument track, pressing [Inst.] brings the instrument GUI window in to view. Press [Shift]+[Instr.] to
toggle open/close the instrument window.
Impact LX+’s Instrument preset will control the parameters in the plug-in window that’s in focus. You can read more about
how this works in the Studio One Reference Manual, Chapter 11.5: Global and Focus Mapping. To find this document go to
the “Help” menu.
Controlling Instruments
Impact LX+ is pre-mapped to control Studio One’s own instruments. On Impact LX+, press the [Page] button until the blue
LED button, labeled “Default”, is illuminated.
• When Default is selected, the mapping of Mojito corresponds to the blue printing on your Impact LX+.
• Moving the faders therefore now control ADSR envelope parameters in Mojito and Fader 9 is assigned to control
instrument volume.
• Press [Page] again so the LED labeled “User” is illuminated. This page does not have any default mapping but it’s easy to
learn parameters to the page as described in the following section.
Parameter Learn
You can learn parameters to any of the 9 faders, 8 fader buttons as well as the 8 pots. The pots can be assigned when either
the Default or User page is selected, for a total of 16 parameter assignments.
To learn a parameter to a control:
• Move a control or press one of the 8 fader buttons.
• On LX+, press and hold [Shift] while clicking on a parameter in the instrument plugin’s GUI.
Learned plugin parameters are remembered by Studio One so you only have to set this up once.
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Studio One Instrument Control
Changing Patches and Controlling an Instrument
You can step through instrument patches and control essential instrument parameters from Impact LX+ which makes it easy
to change and tweak sounds while you play. Here is how to do that:
• Make sure the instrument GUI window is in focus. If not, press [Shift]+[Inst] on Impact LX+
• Change instrument patch by pressing [Patch>] to go to the next patch or [<Patch] to go to the previous patch
Instrument Mode with Studio One 5 Perform Mode
Instrument mode is able to control the current Performance arrangement when Studio One’s Perform mode is active.
You can assign any of the 8 pots, 8 faders and 8 fader buttons to performance assignments. See the Studio One 5
documentation for details.
Fader 9 is not assigned in Perform Mode.
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Studio One Impact Drum Instrument
The Studio One Impact (no relation, really) Drum instrument can be played from the Impact LX+ keyboard or 8 pads.
Operating the drum instrument works the same way as any other instrument and using the Pad maps 1+2 you are able to
play drum sounds straight away. However you will notice that that the first pad on Studio One Impact is assigned to the MIDI
note B0. Pad map 1 starts at C1 so neither Pad map 1 or 2 will by default allow you to play this pad.
In addition, you may prefer to create a setup where the 8 pads play a specific selection of any of Studio One Impacts 16 pad
sounds. Thankfully there is a learn function for that.
“Learning” Studio One Impact Sounds to the Pads
It’s easy to change a pad note assignments using the Pad Learn function. It works as follows:
1. Press the function button labeled [Pad Learn]. The display will now blink, showing P1 (pad 1) as the default selected pad.
2. Hit the pad you want to assign a new note value to. The display blinks and updates to show the number of the pad you
selected.
3. Press the key on the keyboard that plays the Studio One Impact sound you want to assign to the pad. You can keep
playing notes on the keyboard until you have found the note you want.
4. When you are done, press [Pad Learn] to exit and start playing your pads with the new assignment.
You can keep repeating steps 2. and 3. until you have created a complete Pad Map. The settings are stored over power
cycling so you will not lose them as you power down your system. However it’s a good idea to save setups that you may want
to have access to regularly in the future to one of the 4 pad map locations in Impact LX+. To learn how to do that, go to the
“Setup Menu” section in this manual.
Controlling Pad Parameters
When you hit a pad on LX+, the pots are automatically assigned to control the parameters for that pad:
Control Pot 1 Pot 2 Pot 3 Pot 4
Parameter Pitch Pan Drive Punch
Control Pot 5 Pot 6 Pot 7 Pot 8
Parameter Cutoff Resonance
Control Faders 1-4 Faders 5-8 Fader 9
Parameter Filter ADSR Amp ADSR Gain
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