Ableton 12, Windows 11, Korg MIDI controllers seen by Windows not Ableton

[cfrensley]

Hi!

Up until a couple weeks ago, three Korg MIDI controllers I use:

* Nanokey2
* Nanopad2
* Nanocontrol2

were working fine with Ableton 12 Suite, on my laptop. The typical plug-and-play experience worked fine.

Windows did an update and I installed Korg drivers after from the Korg web site.

Now, these devices are never seen by Ableton 12.

I have tried full uninstall of the Korg drivers, and this has no effect. I have tried fully reinstalling Ableton 12, as well. No effect.

These devices are in the Windows Device Manager and Windows claims that they are using the correct drivers.

How do I restore the functionality?

[yur2die4]

The Korg / windows driver experience is notoriously finicky.

You might have to search forums, as this is a common problem. I don’t recall the exact solution this second.

It has to do with drivers , limited number of listed midi device drivers, and the 16 vs 32 bit midi driver support. Not combined, but I can be one or the other.

Best of luck

[cfrensley]

I appreciate the response. I haven't found a solution yet, I am sitting down to work on it yet again. I do not think that Ableton is fundamentally the problem. The internet seems to have years of Korg driver pain documented in it. Going to the Korg web site, I am deeply unimpressed by the investment that firm seems to have made in support, and you would think that they would prioritize stable compatibility between every MIDI device they make and one of the most popular professional-grade DAWs in the world.

If I find a solution, I will post it here, in an attempt to create a record. Today, I will see if "wait a month, then try again" works.

[cfrensley]

There are lots of "try this and see if it works fixes" out there.

This is the best summary: https://www.reddit.com/r/Korg/comments/ ... t_drivers/

I have tried:

* Total uninstall of all Korg software.
* Reinstall of specified Korg software.
* Use of MIDI-OX to try to detect any of: NanoKey2, NanoControl2, NanoPad2
* Download and install of some guy's registry edit/hack software off the 'Hub

What I can say:

I purchased the Korg units. They were plug and play successful with no further download, at that point, with Ableton 12 Suite. After Windows update & Korg driver installation, everything was totally broken, forevermore. Using the guy's registry hack software, I can see that there are 8 different Korg-identified drivers named in the registry. The one thing I could do is try to uninstall all drivers using the Korg software, then manually edit the Windows registry to delete all registry keys corresponding to anything identified as Korg, then reinstall Abe 12, then see if it all just magically works again.

But you know what? I am not going to do that. It is almost 2026. We are losing our jobs to AI chatbots that answer questions on our little handheld phones. And Korg "support" identifies for us a forums page (korgforums) that has "latest news" on it from 2013, and, otherwise, directs us to go scope out youtube, where we learn that some guy put something up on the 'Hub a few years ago that might clean up and reorder our registries sufficiently for their products to be compatible with the dominant DAW system of the modern era.

I have identified my own solution:

* I am ordering an Akai MIDI minicontroller that subsumes the functions of the three devices identified above.
* I downloaded and installed the TouchOSC app.
* I will place the three units identified above in an electronics recycle.
* I will never again in my life by a Korg product.

2026 and I am manually editing my registry??!

NO.

My Ableton installation doesn't deserved to be dirtied by contact with garbage controllers. It is doing me a favor by not recognizing whatever broken configuration & registry mess Korg leaves us with as some sort of legit setup.

Thanks for reading!