Recording - January 2017 - 59

transport/function keys, and the Pads. The
display is a backlit color TFT affair surrounded by mode select buttons (Mixer,
Instrument, Transport, Internal) and five
soft keys, plus a Shift key and dedicated
controls for mixer channel or patch/bank
navigation. The graphic display shows
faders with current physical settings and
"ghost" current software values, provides
parameter numbers and values for the
knobs, has labels for Macro knobs that
change automatically, menus for global
settings and things like tempo and preroll,
and much more, all at your fingertips.
The Mixer controls include eight
45mm faders with pan encoders and
backlit select buttons, plus a ninth fader
that's generally used as a master volume
control. The eight Macro encoders are
above 11 transport buttons that can be

converted to user-programmable function
buttons with the Function key. The 12
pads can be programmed to send MIDI
notes or Control Change values, and
feature adjustable velocity curves and
pressure sensitivity. They're fairly stiff but
have a quite playable velocity range.
Add on the keyboard action (velocity
and pressure sensitive), backlit pitch and
mod wheels, and two assignable left-hand
buttons, and the total tops out at over 90
different controls! That's enough to keep
most folks happily busy for a long while.
Overall build quality is impressive.
Some keyboards built on plastic bodies
feel like toys, but the Panorama has a
reassuring solidity without being insanely heavy (even the P6 only weighs 17
pounds). The keyboard action has a
slightly resistive touch that feels good
playing piano patches, and the faders
and buttons have a smooth and positive
feel. The flared "fins" on the side are
supposedly to reduce drag and improve
aerodynamics (hey, I like a manual that
makes me smile), but they also make the
Panorama easy to pick up and carry.
In use
I tested the P6 in Internal Mode with
Ableton Live and PreSonus Studio One and
found it a very transparent experience. I
was able to save presets that worked well
for each DAW and made general operations very simple. The P6 stores 20 internal
presets, and comes with premade maps for

some DAWs, virtual instruments, and a couple of hardware synthesizers as well. If you
know how to navigate your DAW's MIDI
Learn functions, you'll be up and running
on the Panorama in no time.
It's worth noting that even if there isn't
a dedicated communication protocol for
a particular DAW, it's still possible to program the Panorama in Internal mode to
get you a more "customized" user interface than a lot of other control surfaces
can manage. For example, the Panorama
comes bundled with an entry-level version
of Bitwig Studio and with PreSonus Studio
One Artist. Bitwig is fully integrated with
Panorama, but there's a configuration file
you can download to give you a lot of
control depth in Studio One. As a fairly
frequent Studio One user, I appreciated
having this option available.

Capitan, this function no longer works, as
the driver for the Panorama is no longer
proprietary and is instead class-compliant.
Bummer, but Apple's fault, not Nektar's; it
worked beautifully on Windows and on
my OS X 10.9 machine.
While none of the supported DAWs is
one I spend a lot of time with, I could
appreciate the fine degree of interaction the
Panorama supports. No matter what function you select, the display seems to give
you exactly what you need, and it's easy to
do a wide variety of tasks without ever
looking at your laptop screen. Very slick!

I did most of my testing with Bitwig
Studio, a less-known DAW that's growing
in popularity around the world, with a
nice combination of conventional music
recording functions and performer-friendly
features for live use. Each integration
package comes with its own installer, and
a customized PDF manual that walks you
through how each control on the
Panorama interacts with the DAW in question. The 20-page Bitwig integration manual took a couple of read-throughs, but
once I was familiar with the layout, using
Bitwig Studio was an absolute blast.
When integrated in this way, every
control on the Panorama maps to common DAW functions, and I found myself
jumping between Mixer and Arrange
views, calling up instruments and finding
presets, tweaking automation data, and
taking advantage of tricks like Device
mode (where a virtual instrument can be
tweaked by the Macro knobs while still
retaining control over the Mixer).
Speaking of Macros: the Panorama can
also send QWERTY keyboard instructions
to your DAW, with up to eight key commands sent in sequence with a single button press. Eleven of these can be stored
under the Function keys. The only limitation here is that as of OS X 10.11 El

set of intriguingly-named "MIDI FX" that
don't appear to send any MIDI data when
activated. Because there's no documentation on these anywhere (online or in the
manuals), I had no way of knowing if I
was using them properly.
My other wishlist items were in the
"while I'm dreaming" realm; if the
Panorama had a crossfader and/or an XY
control pad, it would do pretty much
everything I'd ever need from a keyboard,
while offering unparalleled control-surface
capabilities. That's a pretty small list of ifonlies for a controller that does so darned
much!
If you're not familiar with the Nektar
Panorama keyboards, you should be.
They're stable, well made, fun to use and
play, and make your studio tasks a lot easier,
all while being a lot more affordable than
you might expect for all this power.

Final thoughts
There were very few hiccups in my
overall work time with the Panorama,
which lasted several months. Firmware
upgrades are trickier than they need to
be, with the user expected to hunt around
for a binary file buried in his system
library, but once that's done, the actual
update is pretty straightforward. You can't
assign MIDI Control Change values to the
left-hand pushbuttons above the pitch and
mod wheels; the available options appear
to be transpose, program change, and a

Prices: Panorama P6 (61-key, as
reviewed), $599.99; Panorama P4 (49key), $499.99; Panorama P1 (desktop
module), $299.99
More from: Nektar Technology,
www.nektartech.com
Photos courtesy Sweetwater,
www.sweetwater.com
RECORDING JANUARY 2017

http://www.nektartech.com http://www.sweetwater.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - January 2017