Reaper, ARM MacBook, Nektar control surface

tbelknap · 11-17-2021, 04:33 PM

I'm speaking with Nektar support. But I wanted also to touch base with the Reaper community to see if there are any insights here.

I recently purchased an M1 MacBook, a decision I continue to regret. Since buying it, of course, I've been dealing with this bit of software or that not being compatible with my laptop. This includes Reaper, of course, though it seems to be running stable in the latest iteration of the ARM release.

I've also recently purchased a Nektar LX25+, at least in part because reviews of it specifically noted how well it worked with Reaper. However, after installing the software error-free, Reaper does not list the Nektar control surface for me to connect to. There are support documents at Nektar, which I've followed, including the troubleshooting directions, all to no effect.

The support person I spoke with at Nektar said they "probably" wouldn't be updating their software until Reaper's version is stable. That sounds a lot like something tech support says when they don't have a way to fix your issue.

I'm wondering if anyone with a Nektar reports a similar issue with Reaper or whether there really is some reason to believe that Nektar's software has to wait on Reaper, which really doesn't sound right.

Any thoughts or insights would be appreciated, thank you!

tbelknap · 12-05-2021, 03:36 PM

Ok, so now I'm looking at Bitwig because it came bundled with the keyboard. The transport control works just fine with Bitwig. So this an issue with Reaper and Nektar. Can anyone here help? Does no one use Nektar keyboards here? Help, please!

Matt Mayfield · 12-13-2021, 10:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tbelknap

Ok, so now I'm looking at Bitwig because it came bundled with the keyboard. The transport control works just fine with Bitwig. So this an issue with Reaper and Nektar. Can anyone here help? Does no one use Nektar keyboards here? Help, please!

I use a Nektar keyboard on Linux and have been disappointed by their lack of support there as well. It works fine if I run the Windows version of REAPER in Wine and install their Windows control surface DLL there, though I'd prefer not to use the Windows version of REAPER.

By analogy, though, I believe that you could use the regular Intel Mac version of their .dylib file in REAPER by running it (the Intel Mac version of REAPER) in Rosetta (Apple's Intel-to-ARM translation layer). I don't have access to an M1 Mac, but I believe it's a checkbox in the Get Info window (click on REAPER's application icon in Finder and press Command-I, unless Apple changed that shortcut recently).