Getting My M-Audio Keystation 88 to Work with Sonar

I am taking off the dusty cover of my M-Audio Keystation Pro 88, and trying to use it for my work once again. (It's been more than 6 years if I recall correctly). Yes I have finally ran out of space with the Korg NanoKey2's 25 keys and my cramped fingering and limited voicings :)

I remember getting it to work in Sonar 1 or 2 as a control surface. After 6 years and 6 to 7 versions of Sonar later, I could not manage to figure out how to do it in Sonar 8.5.

I searched the forums, and someone mentioned that Sonar 8 and above should have M-Audio Keystation series of keyboards listed as a control surface preset. I could not find it listed. I went to the M-Audio official resources, and they led me to download a U33 control surface preset (and Keystation pro 88 in the same download, so they say) for Sonar 2. You can imagine the date they released that one. I gave up without even completing the intallation.

After searching a bit longer, I found 2 very useful links. One of them is from YouTube and the other one from a CG artist! Here are the links. Although the YouTube one shows how to set-up M-Audio Oxygen series of controllers, I believe it is so straightforward that we can use that on any other MIDI/USB controller too.

Here they are, enjoy!


And here is the link from Ariel Chai's CG and music website:
http://www.arielchai.com/tutorials/keystation88/tut_p01.html

As for my Korg Nanokey2 25-key controller...

I reckon I'll still be using the NanoKey for single lines or quick fix / record / edit stuff, just because it is super small sitting just in front of my laptop. If you've seen the photo of my room from one of my previous posts, you will see how far away the Keystation Pro 88 is located from my work desk. It means I have to keep moving between the laptop and the M-Audio controller in between takes and editing of the data.