Setup KORG NanoKontrol 2 MIDI Controller For Myriad Anywhere Pro (Cloud Hosted)

When you are presenting a live show remotely using Myriad Anywhere Pro (Cloud Hosted), you can more closely mimic the studio experience by use the KORG nanoKONTROL2 midi controller to remotely control the volume of microphones and media players as well as as some key control features such as pressing go!

These low cost controllers are available from music stores and online retails at around £50. In this article we will show you how to setup your KORG nanoKONTROL2 for Myriad Anywhere as well as outline the things you can do with it.

Before we get started, the video below shows the nanoKONTROL2 in action (along with the Behringer X-Touch) to give you an introduction to using a MIDI controller with Anywhere Pro.

Setting Up

Setting up a nanoKONTROL2 is simply a case of plugging it into a USB port on your PC or Mac and then configuring Anywhere Pro to use it.

Follow these steps:

1. Plug your nanoKONTROL2 into a spare USB port on your computer.
2. Login to Myriad Anywhere Pro.
   
   
   
   
   
3. On the Launchpad, click on Connect to Studio.
   
   
4. Click on the Anywhere Icon to access the drop down list, and select Options.
   
   
   
   
5. In the Options window, click on Studio Control option in the list on the left hand side.
   
   
   
   
6. In the Controller Settings section, select the Korg nanoKONTROL option.
   
   N.B The first time you use a MIDI device, you will be asked to allow MIDI control by the browser. Make sure you agree otherwise your midi controller will not work!
   
   
   
   
   
   
7. This will add two new drop down options for Midi Input Device and Midi Output Device. Make sure these are both set to nanoKONTROL2
   
   
8. Click on Save to save the settings and close the window.

This will trigger Anywhere Pro to reload in your browser but you will not have to login again.

Using the nanoKONTROL2

Once you have configured Myriad Anywhere to use your nanoKONTROL2, you will be able to control the following features by the controller interface:

• Microphone Fade Volume (mics 1-4 inc remote mics)
• Mic Channel On/Off (mics 1-2 inc remote mics)
• Mic Channel Selection (Talk/Live for mics 1-4 inc remote mics)
• Media Player Fader Volume (players 1-4)
• Media Players Play /Pause (players 1-4)
• Log Go
• Toggle Chain Type (for currently playing item)

Controls for the above features are hard coded to certain buttons or faders on the nanoKONTROL2 and cannot be customised. The control assignment is outlined below.

Button / controller functions:

1. Toggle chain type (red square / green circle) for currently playing item in Dashboard (live mode only).
2. Log Go - moves on to next item in the Log.
3. Switch microphone channel off (dedicated button per mic fader channel)
4. Switch microphone channel on (dedicated button per mic fader channel)
5. Switch microphone channel between Talk & Live (turn all way to left for Talk and all way to right for Live).
6. Microphone channel volume control fader (dedicated fader per mic channel).
7. Toggle Media Player Play/Pause (dedicated button per Media Player channel).
8. Media Player volume control fader (dedicated fader per Media Player).

None of the other buttons or controls are mapped to functions in Myriad Anywhere Pro and so will not do anything if you press them.

LED lights on buttons

You will also notice that the LED lights on some buttons will light up when they are in use or if they are available to press as an option.

Take a look at the image above. You can see that the S button on fifth channel is illuminated. As the first four channels are reserved for microphones, this it the channel for Media Player 1. The illuminated button tell us to things:

• There is a media item in Media Player 1
• Pressing the 'S' button on that channel will toggle between Play and Pause.

Other buttons that illuminate to display status include:

• Mic On 
• Mic Off
• Log Go
• Toggle Chain Type (shows red when Stop is set).

Other things to consider

Using MIDI controllers to interact with Myriad Anywhere undoubtedly makes the process more intuitive and much closer to a traditional studio experience but please keep in mind that when you move the faders on a MIDI controller, what is actually happening is that your web browser is sending a signal to Myriad Playout in your studio telling it to change the position of the volume fader in software, Myriad then needs to signal back to Myriad Anywhere that it has completed the task. If you are monitoring the audio via BR Live you will also hear the volume on the player drop. This is almost exactly what would happen in a studio using an audio mixing desk, but the nature of the solution means that the fading is not as instantaneous as it is on a audio mixing desk so try and anticipate this when presenting a live show and avoid rapid 'bouncing' of the faders while you talk as the response will be slower than if you were operating a studio mixing desk.

With a bit of practice, using a MIDI controller with Anywhere Pro will give you full control of the system allowing you to present dynamic and engaging live shows remotely using Myriad Anywhere Pro.