I have a simple Akai LPK25 MIDI keyboard attached to my PC (Win 10) via USB. It was working fine earlier today; but then stopped when I had to make a correction with CLT-Z. I have rebooted, and Dorico recognises that the keyboard is connected. But notes do not appear in the Edit window when I play. Cables are apparently in good condition.
This has happened several times today.
Has anybody had the same problem?
Many thanks in advance for any help!
David
Do you see the little green MIDI indicator light up in the bottom right-hand corner of the Dorico window when you play notes on the keyboard? Is any sound echoed back to you? If you show the caret and then play a note on your keyboard, is it input? What about if you try real-time recording?
Thanks for responding, Daniel.
This was working earlier, though I had trouble getting it started today, not having used it for a while.
I have never found the little green light!
At present, nothing is echoed, but it is when working.
Showing the caret, I can input notes from the computer keyboard, but not from the Akai.
I have not tried realtime recording.
Preferences/Play recognises it as a MIDI input device, when plugged in.
It last stopped working when I used CTL-Z to go back and erase several notes of wrong duration. It seemed as though I must have hit something on the computer keyboard that stopped the Akai working with Dorico.
David
UPDATE
In desperation, I plugged the Akai into a different USB port, and now it works. Iām not convinced that this is the final solution, however, as it did formerly work on the other port; but for the time beingā¦
David
The little green light is indeed invisible if the keyboard notes arenāt being received by Dorico. It only appears when Dorico receives a midi note - and it will be in the otherwise empty little square in the bottom right corner of Dorico. Itās the otherwise curiously empty bit of space to the right of the zoom controls / plus button. Easy to miss if you are looking at the score itself.
If switching USB ports works - Iāve usually associated that with Windowās ability to put ports to sleep if they appear dormant to the O/S, and then not waking them properly. I make no promises, but that would explain the periodically stopping during the day part. Maybe try going to your power settings, and tell Windows never to sleep USB ports while you are not on battery power - or maybe just never sleep them.
That was part of a general performance tuning for audio I did for Windows that made a major difference for me. I used a tuning guide from a competing DAW that I hesitate to linkā¦ Does perhaps Steinberg have one they would like to share?
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Thanks, Gdball.
I can now see the little green light, though I have look at it directly, and had probably had never noticed it before as it is outside my field of vision. It is too subtle for me and, as you say, I am usually looking at the score.
I have heard of the sleeping phenomenon, but this is not a battery operated computer, and the wireless mouse and keyboard have a receiver that is plugged into a USB port that always recognises them and wakes the screen up from sleep.
As usual, I blame Windows 10, with which I have more of a hate than love relationship!
David
The whole point of that dot is so you can look at it to see if dorico is receiving signals. If everything is working it can be completely ignored. So, this dot is your friend from a diagnostics perspective. If it is blinking in dorico and dorico isnāt doing anything, then dorico is malfunctioning. If itās not blinking, dorico isnāt even receiving midi message data which means the proble m appears earlier in the chain (ie- the keyboard or the OS).
A Google search revealed a ton of pages dealing with similar problems with MIDI devices and Windows, and some solutions. Most of the solutions either suggest editing the registry or USB properties in the device manager.
- Registry: about 20 years ago I recall a problem with a piece of hardware that kept adding registry entries. Eventually, having reached the limit for these, it would stop working. The maximum number of entries was about 10 or so, and the solution was to delete these every so often. I dont know whether this applies in my case.
-
Device Manager: I went in and searched every USB entry, eventually finding two that had a power management item activated (āAllow the computer to turn off the device to save powerā). I deactivated these, booted the computer and the LPK25 worked when I restarted Dorico.
However, I did not have this problem with the LPK25 until yesterday. An extremely possible reason is Windows 10 updates since I last used it. (I note that my hatred of Win 10 and its updates is mirrored in the Apple ecosystem!).
It now remains to be seen whether the LPK25 will continue to play ball. Thanks for all the suggestions.
David
And the answer is: No ā it still stops working after a pauseā¦
David
Not sure who wins - but I bet if your power profile says it can (which by default allows it) I bet the registry entries will get written over again. Maybe save your own power profile that does not allow it - and that should take precedence, though again no guarentees.
And if it works, after the next wonderful season of updates you can just reselect your saved profile again.
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I probably should not say this, but I think I may possibly have found a solution to my problem.
Having added a key to the registry on the advice of a webpage, with little improvement, other than the ability to restart the LPK25 after closing and reopening Dorico, I ventured to tick the box Preferences/Play/Recording/Filter out MIDI controllers.
I have no idea what this switch does, and I cannot find any mention of it in the Dorico manual, but since toggling it I have been able to come back to Dorico from using other programs, or from other non computer activities and find the LPK25 still active for note input.
David
As I feared, I did indeed speak too soon and, after some internet activity, I returned to find the LPK25 inctive. However, pulling the USB plug out of it and reinserting it did the trick ā at least, this time!
David
I wouldnāt expect the Filter Out MIDI Controllers to have any effect - that just removes MIDI CC messages from the list of recorded events. From a bit of googling, it does seem that other users have reported problems with the LPK25 on Reaper, Pro Tools, Logic, etc, which suggests that the problem could be in the LPKās firmware
https://forum.ableton.com/viewtopic.php?t=138417
One possibility mentioned in one of the threads is that the USB connector may not be connecting properly. I have an Akai MPD at home and the USB connector has quite a bit of āplayā, and so quite often when I move it the USB becomes disconnected from the OS until I jiggle the cable again.
Careful with that Paul!!! I had an external USB drive with a connector like that, on a Macbook Pro where as you know everything from the power cord to video is connected via the USB C ports. Thinking back, I think it was the first link in the accident chain that led to the Macās demise. First it was annoying for a few months. Then one day, I heard it sizzle and the drive and an iLok on the same converter dongle never worked after.
Replaced them (threw away the cord) and all was mostly okay for maybe a year. That port never worked exactly right again, but I had 4 soā¦ And then one fine pandemic day running power, video, and the replacement drive on the USB bus as I usually did (on different pots)ā¦ .pop goes the Mac and it never ran again. I still might take it to a shop, but that wasnāt possible with the restrictions at the time. Bought a Windows machine on Amazonā¦
Argh, thatās a pain. I also once fried the logic board of a macbook by merely connecting a MOTU interface via Firewire, back when everyone thought that FW was safe to hot-plug (Narrator: Firewire was not safe to hot-plug)
Perhaps that was a myth put about by MOTU to sell more interfaces! 
David
Well, much though I agree that USB connectors are potentially flaky, I dont think that is the problem, as the LPK never quits while I am using it.
I dont use Reaper or Ableton, but I guess I could try it with Samplitude. I only use this for audio, but it does do MIDI.
However, for the time being I can live with the LPKās foibles as long as they done get any worse.
David