Roland A88 mkII MIDI 2.0 bug

[WesG]

I have a new Roland A88 mkII with the latest firmware (v2.10) and configured it to be in MIDI 2.0 mode per the Roland documentation. The keyboard works great in Logic Pro and UVI Workstation standalone and Pianoteq standalone. The keyboard is connected via USB through a TB3 hub.

However, in Cubase - both 14.0.40 and 15.0.5 - as soon as Cubase starts (at the Hub window) it begins to send a stream of SYSEX messages to the keyboard and the keyboard replies with a stream of SYSEX messages as well. The stream doesn’t stop and after a few minutes, after opening a project and loading a VI, the keyboard response is “sluggish”. Eventually, after leaving Cubase up for several hours, the keyboard has completely “crashed” and does not send MIDI information at all.

I’m wondering if anyone else has seen this behavior? The keyboard works great in MIDI 1 mode, so I’m currently using it that way, but I’d like to have the additional resolution of the knobs in MIDI 2.

I have a ticket open with Roland and Steinberg US support but I’m kind of hoping a dev might see this and maybe have a contact at Roland or be willing to look at a MIDIMonitor save file of the SYSEX messages to see what’s going on. There’s definitely some sort of issue in the capability negotiation phase as it seems that Cubase and the keyboard never stop exchanging messages.

Further details:

• MacBook Pro 16”, 64GB RAM
• macOS Sequoia 15.6.1
• RME Fireface UCX II, 128 buffer size, 48kHz sample rate

[Johnny_Moneto]

I can’t really be of help to you. However, I assume the first question to you would be about the status of the option to use MIDI-CI (in the preferences).
Is it enabled or disabled?

[JRoeper]

Hi @WesG . Thank you for the report. I don’t have an A88 mkII available here, but the symptoms you describe seem to indicate a problem with MIDI-CI discovery. Therefore the hint from Johnny seems reasonable. Did you try to make sure, that MIDI-CI Support is turned off? (Main Menu/Edit/Preferences…/MIDI)

I’d expect that the symptoms should disappear when “MIDI-CI Support” is turned off.

… be willing to look at a MIDIMonitor save file of the SYSEX messages to see what’s going on

Yes, I’d like to have a look at such a file. It may help to understand and avoid the problem.

Thank you!

[WesG]

Yes, so turning MIDI-CI off does appear to solve the problem. At least so far, as I’m not seeing a stream of SYSEX messages. I’ll see how the keyboard behaves the rest of the day (its morning here where I am).

I’m also going to update the open report I have with Roland about this as it might help them understand what’s going on.

I’m attaching the MIDIMonitor file here.

Thanks for your help and thanks @Johnny_Moneto for the tip about turning off MIDI-CI.

InOut.mmon.zip (753.3 KB)

[JRoeper]

Thank you! I looked into the MIDIMonitor file and I can confirm, that there’s some miscommunication going on related to MIDI-CI. So for the time being, I recommend keeping “MIDI-CI Support” off in Cubase, when using A88 mkII. Turning it off shouldn’t have any relevant negative impact because there is very little support for MIDI-CI in MIDI devices so far. Nevertheless we’ll look into the issue, trying to find a solution for it.

Thanks!

[JoPiano]

I hoped, but this advice did not solve my problem with my Midi 2.0 keyboard controller.

Could you look into it, JRoeper? Bug: Cubase 15 Midi 2.0 keyboard controller doesn‘t work anymore on MacOS