Bitwig Setup and Troubleshooting: Impact

Impact Setup & Troubleshooting

If you are just getting started with you Impact GX, LX+ or SE49, follow these steps to activate your Bitwig 8-Track license.

  1. Create and activate your account at: Bitwig.com/register.
  2. Add your Bitwig 8-Track serial number to your user account.
    • The serial number will be printed on the flier that came with your Nektar controller.
  3. Download Bitwig 8-Track from your user account.
  4. Install Bitwig 8-Track, start the application and follow the on-screen instructions.

Have fun with Bitwig 8-Track!

Find out more about Bitwig 8-Track here.

Setup

The files necessary for using Impact controllers with Bigwig are included with the latest versions of Bitwig Studio and Bitwig 8-Track. Nektar’s Bitwig integration is known to work in the latest versions of Windows, OS X and Ubuntu.

  1. Plug in your Impact and make sure it’s switched on (if you didn’t do so already).
  2. Launch Bitwig Studio. Your Nektar controller should be detected automatically.
  3. Go to Files > Settings > Controllers to confirm that your Nektar controller is listed.
  4. Check the ports match that of images 1 (OS X) or 2 (Windows).
  5. If your controller is not automatically detected press the ‘Add controller manually’ button, choose your Impact model and ensure the ports are set up correctly as in images 1 (OS X) or 2 (Windows).
  6. Click ‘OK’ and exit Device Setup.

That’s it, setup is now complete and you can move on to the fun part, learning how it all works! Please refer to the user guide for further information on that front.

Troubleshooting

If Impact isn’t detected automatically, try adding the controller manually. The controller’s ports should be configured as shown in images 1 and 2.

If you don’t see your Impact controller listed under ‘Nektar’ when you click the ‘Add Controller Manually’ button, make sure that you have installed the latest version of Bitwig Studio or Bitwig 8-Track.

If you have deleted an Impact controller in the past and are trying to set it up again, it will not be added automatically. You will need to click the Add button as shown in image 3.

If you see an error which looks like the one shown in image 4, it means you have an older version of of our Bitwig integration installed. Since the most current support files are now included with Bitwig, you can simply uninstall the old files. You will find uninstallers in the following locations:

Windows: C:\Program Files\Nektar\Bitwig

OSX: //Applications/Nektar/Bitwig

Once you have run the uninstallers to remove the old support files, open the Settings menu in Bitwig, select the ‘Controllers’ page and check that your controller has been detected. If not, set it up manually.


Patch Changes
If you find that the [< Patch] and [Patch >] buttons don’t work when controlling a third-party plug-in, it’s likely because the plug-in uses it’s own patch browser. The Patch buttons on the Impact series control the patch navigation functions of the DAW, so you may need to save the plug-ins presets in your DAWs patch format, before you can use the Patch buttons on the Impact controller for patch navigation. You can find more information about saving patches in your DAW, in the documentation for that program.

If you’re still experiencing problems please contact one of our support staff.