Written by Mario and Lucky

We have recently talked to the guys from Nektartech, and they promised to implement accessibility options in their devices in the future.
They were really interested in this idea, so let's hope it's not just another empty promise, 
because functionality and flexibility of this device is incredible, and potentially able to give us much much more than Komplete Kontrol does.

Let's start with description:

Layout description

Back side of keyboard

 If your Panorama T4-T6 is in an operating position, with keys in front of you, let's take a look at the back side of the instrument. 
From left to right you'll find: 

• 1 Power switch (to turn the keyboard on or off. Off position is when the switch is turned towards the left side of the keyboard.)
• 2 Quarter inch socket to plug in expression pedal
• 3 Quarter inch socket to plug your sustain pedal in. If your pedal doesn't have a polarity switch, you need to connect it before the keyboard is turned on. If you plug the pedal with the keyboard on, it might work opposite than expected.
• 4 Standard 5 pin midi connector to plug other midi devices to your Panorama T4-T6, that's midi out.
• 5 USB socket for USB cable to connect your keyboard to the PC.

Top panel

 If you are sitting or standing in front of Panorama T4-T6 keyboard, and starting to explore it from left to right you will find as follows:

1. Two rows that consist of two small half globe shaped buttons each, and two wheels.
• Upper row: Octave down, and octave up
• Lower row: Key repeat, and pad repeat
• Pitch bend and modulation wheels below the buttons.

Fader section

 

Going towards right and touching above the keys, you will find a section with nine faders. If you are using your Panorama T4-T6 with DAW integration software for Reaper, each of the first eight faders will control volume for one of your first eight tracks.
Underneath each of the first eight faders, you will find a small round slightly indented button. Each of these buttons will Mute/Unmute the corresponding track. 

 Under the ninth fader, there is a small round, but not indented button. If you move the ninth fader without pressing anything, you will control the volume of the currently selected track, and if you press and hold the ninth fader button and move the ninth fader, you will control the volume of the master track.
Press and hold the ninth round button and press one of eight small round slightly indented buttons to Solo/Unsolo a corresponding track. 

Display section

 

In the center of the keyboard, you'll find a display with various buttons surrounding it.
Let's start with the buttons to the right of the display where you will find a column of four rectangular buttons and underneath that column, one slightly separated button.
From top to bottom, they are as follows:

1. Mixer mode button. If DAW integration software is installed, this is a default active mode.
2. Instrument mode button is used to focus Nektarine instances. On press, the keyboard mapping will change and default mapping for Nektarine will be loaded. Currently, not accessible.
3. Multi mode button is also a mode for Nektarine,but for controlling multiple instruments and effects in a single instance of Nektarine. Currently, not accessible.
4. Internal mode button. All midi settings, from basic to advance are changed here. You can use Panorama to control whatever you want to control, even the plane! Ha ha!
5. Slightly separated button is a setup menu button. On press, it will open the setup menu. More about it below.

 

Underneath the display, you will find a row of four, also rectangular, but thinner buttons.
Those are display buttons, and on touch, they seem like they are built right into the display.
Their function is changing depending on mode or menu of the keyboard. If you are in default mode (Mixer mode), they are as follows: 

• 1 Pan button. Not important to us, but if you can see, you would be able to see pans of eight selected tracks on the display. If you press the mixer mode button you will see volumes of eight tracks.
• 2 Sends button. If you press it you will be able to control up to eight sends with eight encoders on selected tracks.
• 3  This Button does nothing in mixer mode.
• 4 This button is called Write, and it turns on Latch automation  mode. So press that, then press play and start to move your faders and encoders and all changes will be saved, so before you start doing that, we strongly recommend you to save your project!

 

Below display buttons, there is a row of six rectangular shaped buttons. They are from left to right as follows:

1. Shift button.
2. Previous track button. (equivalent to 'up' arrow)
3. Next track button (equivalent to 'down' arrow)
4. Browse button. It opens the Nektarine browser for active instances,  and I hope it will be accessible soon.
5. View button. Opens FX dialogue for currently selected track. (equivalent to pressing the letter ' f').
6. Focus button. It focuses on only one control on the display. Completely unnecessary rubbish button! We hope that pressing it with shift will be turning accessibility mode on or off! If you press it with shift now, it does absolutely nothing, so Nektartech, what are you waiting for?!

 Behaviour of some of these buttons changes if pressed together with shift. 

• If you press the previous track button with shift, it is the previous bank button and it will move you eight tracks up.
• If you press the next track button with shift, it is the next bank. It will move you eight tracks down.

 
Note: Above two commands will work only if you have more than eight tracks in the project.

• If you press the view button with shift, it toggles between zoom in and zoom out.

Encoders section

 To the right of the display section there are eight encoders.
They are in two rows, upper row: encoders 1 - 4, and lower row: encoders 5 - 8.
So to control the pan of track 1 you will use encoder 1, first one in upper row. 

Transport bar

 Underneath encoders is your transport bar. It contains six buttons, and they are as follows: 

1. Repeat button. Turns repeat on/off. (Equivalent to CTRL+R)
2. Rewind button. If you press it once, it moves you one beat backwards, if you press and hold, it will do a rewind function, (equivalent to ctrl + page up)
3. Fast forward button. If you press it, it will move you one beat forward If you press and hold it, it will fast forward through a project. (equivalent ctrl + page down)
4. Stop button. Self-explanatory, (Equivalent to pressing space bar while playback is active)
5. Play/pause button. Self explanatory. (Equivalent to CTRL+space bar)
6. Record button. Self explanatory. (Equivalent to pressing the letter R)

 

In combination with shift, these buttons have the following functions: 

• repeat button with shift, moves you to the start of time selection. (Equivalent to Home button).
• Rewind button with shift, sets left edge of the time selection (equivalent to left bracket).
• Fast forward button with shift, sets the right edge of the time selection (equivalent to right bracket).
• Stop button with shift, Undo, (equivalent to ctrl + z).
• Play button with shift, toggles metronome on-off. (equivalent ctrl shift + m)
• Record button with shift toggles between midi record modes, midi lach/replace mode and overdub mode.

Pads Section

 If you look to the right of the transport bar, you will find one small round shaped button, similar to the ninth fader button, but a little bit bigger than that one. It's a pad bank  button and it switches between two pad banks.
On the right of the pad bank button there are two rows of pads, four in upper, and four in lower row.

 That's it considering the physical description of the keyboard. Now, let's go to the global settings.

Global settings

 To enter the global settings of the keyboard, press octave down and octave up buttons together.
It consists of 3 pages.
In global settings, display buttons get new functions, so, to move through the pages you will use the first and  the second display buttons which function as previous and next page buttons in here. 

 This menu is wrapping and yes, we know that we,wicked blind people hate wrapping of the menus for inaccessible non - talking devices, but there is a solution for that,as well.  When you are not sure what page you are currently on, just press one of the mode buttons to get out of global settings.Then press two octave buttons together and you will be on  the first page of global settings again.
 Each page has 8 items, and encoders are used to change corresponding settings.

Function of display buttons in global settings. 

• Button one, previous page.
• Button two, next page.
• Button three, panic button, it sends out all-notes-off messages plus reset all control midi messages on all 16 midi channels.
• Button four, backup settings. It is not necessary to press this to save settings to the keyboard, but with that you can save settings directly to your DAW of choice, and call it back when you need them. You can, therefore,use your Panorama with another DAW or device, and simply call back your settings when you are back with Reaper again.

 

You can even save different settings to different reaper projects.
Check the official manual for details. 

First page:

• Encoder 1, change current octave settings, (-3 / +4)
• Encoder 2, Set different transpose settings. (12 semitones).
• Encoder 3, global midi channel, 1 - 16, pads will send via the same channel unless another channel is specified.
• Encoder 4, midi output internal, use internal mode to send midi directly through midi out
• Encoder 5, send midi program messages, 0 - 127 as value is changed.
• Encoder 6, sends midi bank LSB messages
• Encoder 7, sends midi bank MSB messages
• Encoder 8, daw control nektar, MCU PTools, here you setup daw control when daw integration is not used.

Page2

• Encoder 1, keyboard velocity curve. (There are 6 curves available: soft2, soft1, standard (default one), hard1, hard2, and fixed).
• Encoder 2, pad velocity curve. (There are 4 curves: soft, standard, hard, and fixed).
• Encoder 3, aftertouch delay. (0 - 255). Aftertouch can be turned off completely in the setup menu under control edit.
• Encoder 4, encoder curve. Adjust sensitivity of encoders. (there are 3 modes: slow, standard, fast).
• Encoder 5, expression pedal type. (Type1 default, and type 2. If for some reason your expression pedal doesn't work automatically, simply change this settings to type2).
• Encoder 6, display contrast
• Encoder 7, inverse on/off
• Encoder 8, mapLink on/off. If MapLink is on, pad maps 1-8 will load with presets 1 - 8. Calling presets 9 and 10 will load pad maps 1 and 2 respectively.

 Panorama t4 - t6 has 10 available presets inside. So turning on the above option gives you the possibility to make 8 presets of completely different mappings, and call them as necessary from your pads. Check the official manual for detailed procedure.

Page3

 

This page is reserved for adjusting sensitivity for each of 8 pads.
By using encoders, you can adjust it one by one, or if you want to set the same sensitivity to each pad, simply hold a shift and move encoder 1 to adjust it accordingly. <

Firmware upgrade installation

 We'll explain this part only because there's a bug in the software which you need for firmware upgrade.
Due to the bug, software closes itself after you choose a firmware file, and that's the reason why you'll need a sighted assistance, some black belt master probably, because he/she needs to be really fast.
Well, let's go through the process.

 When you turn on your Panorama T4-T6 for the first time, on the display of the instrument you will have a message which tells you that you firstly have to install the firmware upgrade.
After you register your device on the Nektartech page, you'll be able to download manuals, firmware upgrade files, and DAW integration software for Reaper and or other DAW-s if you choose so.
When you're done, connect the keyboard to a computer and make sure it's turned off.
Now press and hold shift and  the ninth fader buttons on the keyboard together and turn on your device.
If done correctly, the panorama display will be white, which literally means that you're in firmware upgrade mode.

 Next step is to choose a firmware file, t4 or t6, depending on your keyboard model, and press open.
After this button is pressed, the app will close after a few seconds and that's the bug we mentioned at the beginning of this section.
However, before it closes, there's a programme button which has to be clicked in order to start upgrading your keyboard firmware.
Both of us needed sighted assistance only because of this, and literally that's the only complaint on this device from our side.

After you manage to click that "Programme" button, you should just restart your device, either manually or through the app which will stay opened after the Programme button is clicked, and firmware upgrade is completed. 

Setting up Reaper DAW integration software

 

This part is really easy.
Make sure your keyboard is turned on. Unzip the archive of DAW integration software, and depending on your keyboard model, choose either t4 or t6 DAW integration file and install it in the usual way.
Now go to the Reaper preferences and find there Control/osc/web.
Tab to the add button and press enter on it. 

 A list with several items will open. Use arrow keys or the letter P to select panorama preset, and tab to the OK button and press enter on it, press enter once more to close the preferences.
That's it, your Reaper DAW integration is installed and you can use it.

 Note: If you want NVDA to report changes you make with your keyboard, you'll then have to turn on the osara feature for that.

 Press CTRL+F12 to open the osara configuration, use arrow keys to find the option which says: report changes made via control surfaces and check it, and then press enter to close the osara configuration dialogue .

Additional bits and pieces

Here are a few things that you may find useful. They are explained in the manual as well,but we put them here for convenience.

Soft takeover function

 

This is a feature which you can find in Reaper, but Nektartech includes a soft takeover feature in all of their devices.
Soft takeover features don't allow your faders and encoders to change value  until you firstly come to the current set value of the corresponding track.
This feature is turned on in all Nektartech devices by default, but if you want to turn it off, you can do that by pressing Shift and the  ninth fader button.

Mapping pads to different notes

 

Panorama t4 and t6 devices allow you to easily change your pad mappings one by one, and it allows you to map up to 6 different notes to one pad.

 You should press Shift and pad bank button to enter the pad learning mode.
Hit a pad you want to assign different notes to, and press 1 up to 6 different notes which you want to assign to the selected pad.

Note: If you want to assign more then 1 note to a pad, make sure that you press all those notes at once.

 After you release keys, the learning process for the selected pad is done.
You can repeat this process for the rest of the pads in the same way as explained above.
After you are satisfied with your new mappings, press shift + Pad bank buttons to close the learning mode and to save those new mappings onto the keyboard.

Note: Although this keyboard has 8 pads only, we have already said that it contains two banks of pad mapping, so you can actually have 16 different mappings.
While you're in the pad learning mode, and you mapped all 8 pads but you need more, simply press that pad bank button to switch to the second bank where you can do new mappings for those 8 pads.

Setup menu

 

We will write the contents of this menu here as a reference, but if you want to play with these settings, either find some sighted assistance, or learn these things, or write them down somewhere so you know what is where.
In  the official manual, the procedure for backing up and restoring your keyboard settings is comprehensively explained so check it out before you start messing around.


 In the setup menu, display buttons have the following functions:

• 1 Next button. No mistake,the first button is really the next button whereas in global settings dialogue, the first button is the previous button.
• 2 Previous button.
• 3 Button, no function
• 4 Enter button. Works as usual enter, use this to open any of the below settings.

 Options in menu:

1. Global. This opens  global settings which you can open with pressing octave down and octave up buttons together, explained above.
2. Control edit. Self-explanatory, but in short, here you'll find all related settings to midi mapping either for panorama keyboard or for external devices.
3. Port setup. Here you set up which virtual USB ports are used.
4. Save. For saving presets
5. Load.For loading presets

Conclusion

 

That's it guys. There are a lot more things related to this keyboard, but this will be more than enough to help you to get started with this incredible device.
For all those other things, consult the official manual which is written with beginners in mind,so,there won't be any problems understanding things,whatsoever.Keep in mind,though, that there are two manuals, one for the keyboard itself, and another one for DAW integration. The latter one is more or less covered here, but check it out anyway.

Enjoy