Troubleshooting USB Midi Controllers - not listed as compatible (yet)

controllers
midi
usb

#1

a quick about what we need to know if you find a USB MIDI controller thats not working, or missing functions...

  • Is is listed in the USB Midi Controllers thread, if its listed as working, then others have it working so it may be your setup.
    (this thread is only about controllers we don't know about yet, but read on, it may still help you)
  • There is only support for USB class compliant midi devices, this thread is only about hosting such devices.

some notes:

  • Its obviously impossible to test every controller, there are 1000's of them, so its a community effort, and helps to find someone else who also has the same controller to see if they have similar issues. Also it should be noted, many controllers have 'modes', some of which may need midi messages to be sent to the controller to activate.
  • most (not all!) modern midi devices with USB are class compliant, but this was not always the case, older hardware very often is not. IF you need to installed a driver on a computer to get it to work, it probably is not class compliant, so will not work with Axoloti.

some basic info, about the USB hosting provided by Axoloti

USB devices can share a number of ports (as opposed to channels which are different), it then sends all messages as 4 bytes (yes, even 2 byte midi messages, and sysex are also split up), so if you get one message type, then this shows Axolotis hosting is working... its only in the Axoloti objects (e.g. midi/in/keyb) do we start splitting messages up.

This is why, Axoloti should (and does) just work with most controllers, as long as they follow the specification.

before we start:

  • ensure your device is connected directly to axoloti NOT via a hub
  • please check you are using the latest firmware (etc) for the device.
  • if the device accepts external power, try with external power ... some devices draw too much current to be bus powered.
  • ensure your device is class compliant, so test on a computer *without any** manufactures device drivers loaded... if you need to load drivers, its likely not to be class compliant.
  • please test your patch with another midi controller (din/computer) first, or at least test with the demo patch first e.g. electic piano or organ ... it could be your patch is not setup correctly, which is much easier to fix.

to be able to possibly help, we need more info:

  • when axoloti starts, it prints some details to the console when the USB devices attaches... please post this.
  • connect the usb device to a computer and get a midi dump (snooze midi monitor is good on OS X), we will need to see CC/Notes etc, and both directions if applicable
  • in the midi dump, can you see the messages on the same midi port (not channel) ?
  • when you use on the computer with other applications (e.g. daws) do you have to select any kind of driver/control script?
  • Its extremely helpful if you can post a link to the midi specification for your device, (not just the user guide, which may or may not have the info we need).

one thing to look for, when axoloti starts, you will see it prints interfaces/end point information, in particular it prints the 'class and subclass' for each device
for a USB MIDI class compliant device, you should see:
class = 0x00 (Audio class) , subclass = 0x03 (MIDI streaming)
if your device doesn't have this, its unlikely its class compliant.

as mentioned, it may be your device needs some special midi messages sent to it to work correctly, if this is the case then you can write a patch to do this.or try to convince someone else to that has the device. (again, this has to be a community thing, as no-one has all controllers)

once you have all tested the above, and have collected the above information, please create a separate thread, in the hardware category, with the device in the title e.g. "abcs usb midi device not working"


USB Midi Controllers
Akai APC key25 - no note on/off from keys
#2

4 posts were split to a new topic: Serial line debugging


#3

moved to a new specific topic, this topic is for describing how to troubleshoot devices (in general) rather than troubleshoot a particular device.

2 posts were split to a new topic: Akai Midimix - not working when usb hosted


#4

moved to a new specific topic, this topic is for describing how to troubleshoot devices (in general) rather than troubleshoot a particular device.

2 posts were split to a new topic: K-Mix as USB midi device, not working