Nektar T6 DAW Controller Panorama,Black

This company started out focusing on controllers for Reason, which may have been reasonable at the time, but Reason has more or less been left behind. Still, Nektar has kept up with supporting other DAWs, and I'm using this with Logic. That works better than one might expect, when everything cooperates of course. Most of those controller setup problems probably mostly stem from Logic not this. I have tried many controllers for Logic, none are rock solid, but most are useful.Nektar also have a special plugin host called Nektarine, it comes with the unit free, and you can control your plugins by adding Nektarine as a plugin and scanning and adding your plugins inside Nektarine. This is a great idea too, although it's somewhat limited as it follows the old Reason policy of "MIDI In, Audio Out." Would be great if they allowed Audio In from the sidechain input, and MIDI routing macros that let you control the plugins following your instrument as well.The keybed has somewhat mixed reviews, but I've decided I like it. I completely see the criticisms, the white keys have quite a deep travel, are a bit mushy down, and a bit noisy coming back up. This is explained by the design objective, which is channel aftertouch that's actually good enough to use for once. For decades, aftertouch has been summarily ignored because the keybeds weren't designed for it. This one is, and it works well, without an abrupt all-or-nothing trigger curve. That causes the mushiness. The loud return isn't so very bad. Some people play hard but are afraid of sound and keep their headphones or speakers low, these are the people bothered by this noise. I don't hear it with headphones at a normal 85dBSPL. I don't think overall the keybed is so bad as to reject the unit, but maybe some perfectionists will.There are lots of well-thought out features beyond the controller and aftertouch. There is an expression pedal input as well as sustain; this is a huge win in my opinion and sealed the deal with my choosing this. Expression pedals and aftertouch mean you don't need expensive breath controllers to do two-fisted expression on sustained instruments. The wheels are nice on this too, the pads are great, very convenient shortcuts like shifting the pad octaves quickly, eg for keyswitches. Build is nice for the price.The nice thing about Nektar is, unlike Arturia or NI, they aren't trying to sell you anything but the controller and its needed software, so it works well with virtually anything. I ended up also getting the Panorama P1 so I could add this controller to my Hammer 88 weighted keyboard. I swapped out the fader knobs with standard mixer fader knobs I prefer. The faders start stiff but break in fine. The company has an enormous challenge supporting a giant matrix of DAWs and plugins but is keeping up well. Nektarine and the Logic integration are both Apple M1 Silicon ready. It's all an excellent value and should be carefully considered as you shop for controllers.

It took a little while to get it to wrok, but my limit knowledge was the reason for this, once I understood how thing worked, it did what it was build to do for. So many options, and it even came with a nice surprice, a lot of free software from Cherry audio to use as stand alone, or as plugin for your DAW. highly recomanded.

I’m a piano player trying my second T6. The T6 is a sleek machine that may offer great composing possibilities. First off, why don’t they label these boxes as fragile? The first arrived in a smashed box, partly opened. The interior box seemed unscathed, but when I plugged it in and tried it with GarageBand, the lower octave black keys did not regularly sound and required greater force than the other keys to produce any sound. Amazon sent a replacement T6 in a less banged up box, partly opened. The interior box seemed fine. There is no manual, just a short pdf to download with software. Set up is not intuitive. The black keys in the lower octaves don’t always produce sound and when they do, it is a softer than the higher octaves. Amazon was unable to answer my setup questions and referred me to the manufacturer. To their credit, Nektar answered my email by the end of the day to affirm that I can set up the T6 on GarageBand with the LogicX download software. I recommended they put that into their website/manual. I downloaded the appropriate Nektarine software, and it crashes on my MacBook Pro. Looking forward to much assistance. I would really have liked a manual.

I've been a long-time Reason user, and this keyboard is an excellent tool for the DAW. The action of the keys is great, and the 8 encoders are a blast to use. They really help me dial in a good sound from my soft synths without having to touch my keyboard/mouse. It does a take a bit of setup, but the instructions are really clear and I had it up and running in no time. I had an issue after setting it up, so I sent nektar support an email. In less than 24 hours, they had the answer and I was back on track. I haven't had any other issues since. As a Reason user, I think I'll be picking up Nektar products in the future!

I'm super excited and happy with this purchase totally satisfied with this product. It does more than I expected

Its great, just wish you didn't have to install software or drivers. Real Plug and play means to literally plug into your computer and go, that's it. Other than that, i love everything. 8 more pads would've been nice as well but for the price, its a nice buy.

I really really want to like the Panorama T6. It connects to so much of my software and hardware that I would like to make it the centerpiece of my main setup. However, the first unit had a key that would not respond to velocity (it only worked when hit hard), so I reached out to Nektar support. They walked me through testing that the keyboard was not sending anything over midi unless I pressed that key harder, so suggested that I replace the unit through Amazon. They were fantastic!However, I've just received my replacement unit - and one of the fader knobs is shorn clean off! Fader 3 i s bent and Fader 4's knob is broken off. I'm very frustrated that this is the second unit IN A ROW that has had a hardware fault out of the box. I've reached out to Nektar support to try replacing it through them, however, if it cannot be resolved, I'll have to look to another brand. Will update when my THIRD keyboard comes in.

I'm not a fan of the menu organization but I am a fan of the unit over all!