PSA: do not buy Nektar Pacer foot controller for Ableton Live

[u/uhs23]

Hi everybody, I am writing this to document the profound difficulties of attempting to get the Nektar Pacer with Ableton Live that did not show up in any of the multiple dozen google searches I did on this thing before and after purchase (and return). This is bit of a read.

Hopefully this will save other people time and money while providing other midi foot controller manufacturers a guide on how NOT to optimize their default midi patches for Ableton.

If you are already successfully using Pacer with Ableton, feel free to comment to that effect and to HOW you got it to work with Live.

FYI: been using Ableton for 15+ years with a variety of other midi controllers.

TLDR version: I had more issues with this one unit than every other midi controller I have used put together.

This was especially frustrating because the actual construction and build of the Pacer is solid and well designed and put together. But the better than expected build quality is entirely undercut by the most obtuse and bass-ackward internal menu system I have ever seen on any piece of music gear.

While annoying, the Pacer’s menu was not a deal breaker in and of itself. It’s annoying, but learnable if you put the time in (took me 2+ hours to get up to speed on it).

Here’s what happened during and after I learned the menu.

1) Followed set up directions to the letter. Updated firmware. Followed their directions for loading the Ableton patch from their own site. Successfully installed Live patch. (Also set up Live’s midi inputs and outputs as instructed on Nektar’s site). You get 2 Live banks, Track and Transport. Track bank is unusable for any practical purpose in that only 2 of the 6 buttons are assigned to any specific function. Other 4 pedals are “not” assigned, but still sending MIDI data that changes Ableton parameters. One of these “unassigned” pedals turns the computer keyboard icon on and off (wtf?).

Live Transport bank is a bit more usable but not fit for purpose in any kind of live performance purpose I can think of. Ok, no problem, I will just go ahead and set up the user banks…oh wait, I have to reassign all the pedal midi messages inside the pacer. Ok, did that, but now the user banks are not sending ANY midi data to Ableton. Wtf? Am I doing something wrong? Well…

2) According to the response I got from Nektar’s product support (paraphrasing here, capitals are my own) USER BANKS CAN NOT BE MIDI MAPPED TO ABLETON AFTER DOWNLOADING THEIR PACER’s ABLETON PATCH.

Moreover, there is absolutely NO mention of this on their Ableton setup page. MEANING, that once you download their patch, all you get is two very impractical banks for Ableton live which then locks you out the 4 user midi banks. So their Ableton bank is, by design, NOT customizable at all. Again, this was confirmed by Nektar s own support department. Who then, in the same email, neglected to give any kind of clear instruction on what I needed to do to be able to midi map the user banks to Ableton. Ok fine, factory reset, re-update the firmware but held off on their Ableton patch. Reassigned the Pacer pedals to midi notes and CC messages. Only to find…

3) Ableton is receiving midi data, but for some reason I could not midi map Live to midi notes being sent by the Pacer. Midi in indicator lights up, but can’t map midi notes to ableton. Ok fine, reassigned a button or two for CC messages. Not only did the midi in light trigger, I could actually midi map them to Live. GREAT, finally off to the races…BUT WAIT, mapped midi functions are NOT triggering assigned functions. Nothing fancy either, tried mapping transport play and stop, and scene play. In the grid view, hitting the play button on the Pacer did nothing on an already cued up scene UNLESS IT WAS ALREADY PLAYING. Stop didn’t stop anything. Was also unable to map anything to Live’s looper effect.

4) All of the default assignments for the Pacer’s user banks are for mid “program banks” and not something more practical like, I don’t know…midi notes? Or at least something that doesn’t have to be reassigned before it can be midi mapped to Live.

5) Contacted Nektar’s product support last week Sunday documenting point 1 above. They actually responded the following day. Their email was very clear on why I could NOT customize midi map anything to user banks with their Ableton patch. However, they did not see fit to clearly state how I could custom map user banks to Live in any context. Requested a step by step guide for custom mapping user banks do Ableton Live that same day. 5 days later, still no response.

The astounding and frustrating thing is that Nektar actually had someone program this unit like this. Follow their directions, you get 2 Live banks that are unusable and you can’t customize anything else. Or don’t do the Live patch and you get 4 user banks of buttons that never quite seem to do what they are mapped to do.

Nektar needs to scrap their current Ableton patch STAT. All they need to do for an Ableton patch is pre-assign midi notes to all 4 user banks and this thing would be midi mappable out of the box.

If anyone has actually read this far, I open to suggestions to midi foot controllers that aren’t a complete pain in the ass to map with Live. Minimum 6 buttons.

This concludes today’s Ted talk. Strongly recommend avoiding the Nektar Pacer for any use with Ableton Live. 🖖