Problem with MIDI USB cable

wanta1 · Post by **wanta1** » Thu May 16, 2013 2:14 pm

Hello everybody !

I just bought a midi usb cable for my Korg sp-250 and it works fine when i turn it into slave and play MIDIs sent by my PC.
BUT, when i try to turn it into master, my pc detect a MIDI Input but doesnt get any information when i press keys on the piano ...
I'm using MIDI-OX for my tests but i tried on other softwares and it is the same.

I searched for hours the solution but didnt find. Do you have any idea ?
Thanks so much !
Wanta

wanta1 · Post by **wanta1** » Thu May 16, 2013 5:55 pm

Maybe the problem comes from my laptop? Do i need to install drivers like KORG USB-MIDI Drivers tools?
By the way, i'm on windows 8.

wanta1 · Post by **wanta1** » Sun May 19, 2013 6:38 pm

Up !

Please some help would be sooooo nice ...

synthjoe · Post by **synthjoe** » Sun May 19, 2013 7:10 pm

Can you link a picture what that cable looks like? What connectors do you have on both ends?

wanta1 · Post by **wanta1** » Sun May 19, 2013 9:14 pm

Thanks for the answer,

The cable I bought is exactly this one:
http://www.connectic.fr/index.php?actio ... s=usb+midi

I plugged the USB in my laptop (Dell Inspiron 15R, windows 8 ) and the 2 MIDIs in my Korg sp-250

synthjoe · Post by **synthjoe** » Wed May 22, 2013 10:42 pm

wanta1 wrote:Do i need to install drivers like KORG USB-MIDI Drivers tools?

No, you don't.

doesnt get any information when i press keys on the piano

What do you mean by this? MIDI-OX does not display any data?

wanta1 · Post by **wanta1** » Thu May 23, 2013 7:46 am

What do you mean by this? MIDI-OX does not display any data?

Yes, exactly. I chose my piano (USB MIDI 2.0) as input midi device, but when i check the midi inputs, nothing is displayed. I can press keys, change the instrument, turn on the metronome... nothing is displayed by MIDI-OX.
Only when i turn out and in my piano that something is displayed.

Thanks for helping !

axxim · Post by **axxim** » Fri May 24, 2013 5:19 pm

Hi wanta1,

I repost here a known problem with Windows and USB MIDI devices from an early thread. This issue has been treated in this forum several times but I coudnt find where. This may be the problem but I am not sure if W8 still has this malfunction which would be a shame for MS.
Even if you don't have or need the Korg drivers, the linked tool is very helpfull to inspect the assigned MIDI ports and delete the unwanted ones

I don't know if it is the same with W7 but with WXP there is a problem with USB-MIDI devices. Each time such a device is connected on a different USB port, a new MIDI port is generated ( midi0, midi1, midi2...etc.) but Windows only is capable to map midi0 to midi9. If your device drivers get assigned a port greater than 10, then even if the driver is installed, Win doesn't finds it. KORG has a tool called KORG MIDI Driver Uninstall Utility (UnInstDrv.exe and UnInstDrv64.exe) that is included in the KORG USB-MIDI Driver.

The Drivers are here http://www.korguser.net/html/Installati ... Manual.HTM

Once the uninstaller is started and after analyzing the Reg, it will show you where the KORG drivers are installed. If you click on the button "Options" it will ask you if you only want to delete KORGs devices. Uncheck the option and it will show you all the installed midi devices, a lot of them like Webcams, Bluetooth, etc. which in the fact have nothing to do with midi at all, but that is Windows!

Hope this helps
_________________
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Only a Radias, VP-770, SP-170S and iPad2
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wanta1 · Post by **wanta1** » Fri May 24, 2013 7:47 pm

Hello axxim and thanks a lot for your interest.

Actually I've already seen the link you gave, but didn't manage to understand well what to do.

I have installed the KORG USB MIDI Driver Tool. But when i plug my piano, and then i run "Install KORG USB-MIDI Device" i get the message "Error : No device is plugged in".

When I try uninstalling (I run Uninstall KORG USB-MIDI Device), i get this screen (after uncheking "Delete KORG MIDI Device only"):
http://postimg.org/image/lvby1y3xd/
Looks like it is what you are talking about.

What should I do ? Sorry I'm a beginner with that stuff...
Maybe I should have a look at the (un)installing manually part?

Thanks again

Wanta1

axxim · Post by **axxim** » Sat May 25, 2013 10:37 am

The problem I described happens when the list has more than 10 logical midi ports (midi10 and greater). This happens when you connect several USB devices in different USB ports, windows increases the port number without limiting it. In my case I had a device installed at midi13 but win itself only recognizes up to midi9.

You don't need the Korg utility for your piano. It is only usefull to see what drivers are installed and for deleting the ones that are not needed.

In your case I would unplug your USB cable/device, start the Korg utility and remove midi2 to midi5 (all that have the same name) by selecting the checkboxes, press the "next" button, confirm and close the utility. Then connect your USB cable again. Mark or remember the port where you connect it and try to connect it always at the same USB port each time then otherwise it will create a new logical port again. Next look on your sound and audio device settings (don't know how its done in win8) and look if the MIDI selection lists your USB device. Try now if it works. If not try to ask a friend with other non win8 laptop to try it since I don't know if win8 works fine with MIDI. Remember that you also need to select the correct midi port in your music program.

I have a similar USB MIDI cable and it has a Tx (transmit) and Rx (recive) LED, which helps to see if the master device is sending MIDI data or not.

Bonne chance!

wanta1 · Post by **wanta1** » Sat May 25, 2013 1:25 pm

I tried what you say :

I unplugged my device, uninstalled drivers thanks to KORG's uninstalling tool, then plugged again my device.

But as soon as I plug it, windows install again the driver. On the device settings of win8, there is still the USB 2.0 MIDI device and it says that the driver installed is from windows and is well installed. On MIDI-OX the result is the same. Well in a word nothing changed.

I tried on another laptop, with win7, but everything went all the same exactly (same result on MIDI-OX, and driver installs itself when I plug my piano).

By the way, i also have LEDs on my cable, there are 3:
- RED, turn on when I plug my piano into the laptop
- ORANGE, turn on when the laptop send informations to the piano
- GREEN, I guess it should turn on when my piano send informations to the laptop, but does not.

The only message I catch with my laptop is my piano being turned on, the green led turns on for a little second, and I catch this message on MIDI-OX Input :
http://postimg.org/image/5e1gb7we1/

A last thing, that may sound silly but maybe can give us informations about the problem is that :
(with piano UNPLUGGED, so red LED off) When I switch the MIDI connectors on the piano (OUT and IN) and I turn it on (the piano) then the RED LED turns on every time I press/unpress a key or change the instrument or transpose the tone of the piano. This is strange because it should be the GREEN LED that turns on and not the red...

I hope I made myself understandable, if no tell me please.
Thanks a lot for helping

axxim · Post by **axxim** » Sat May 25, 2013 1:52 pm

It is normal that the driver gets installed when you plug in the USB cable. My intention in the prior message was to clean up all logical ports and that a new one gets installed.

Even if I dont have used MIDI-OX, I am wondering why there is no port number displayed instead of the "--"

That the red LED goes off when you reverse the MIDI cables and play or change a control in your piano is an indicator that your piano is sending MIDI data. Until there is no option in MIDI-OX to set the port, or you test it with other program (do you have a sequencer/recording SW like Cubase, Ableton etc?) i would say the problem could be the USB MIDI cable or a missing setting in MIDI-OX

wanta1 · Post by **wanta1** » Sat May 25, 2013 2:04 pm

Before setting up MIDI-OX (which i didn't know before) my first intention was to use the MIDI in Synthesia (GuitarHero-like) and Sibelius (Music Notation Software). Both softwares recognize the device, but the MIDI INPUT is not working...

In synthesia the OUTPUT (laptop matser / piano slave) works very fine, i can send any MIDI file to my piano.

Maybe the problem comes from the cable as you said. I feared that when I bought it, and asked the seller but he answered "don't worry it works on all OS, you just have to plug and play". I went back to see him but he was not able to solve my problem, he said i should look on forums...
I think i'm going to another shop buy another cable and see the result !

Thanks

synthjoe · Post by **synthjoe** » Sun May 26, 2013 12:38 pm

It looks like the MIDI IN side of your interface (cable) is not working. The seller should replace. Or demonstrate if it works - but I highly doubt it is functional.

wanta1 · Post by **wanta1** » Mon Jun 03, 2013 7:40 pm

Finally, i bought a new cable, a prodipe, and it works fine!

Thanks for helping!

Wanta1