Early versions are in Windows Insider Canary builds, but disabled except for a few partners. In February, it will go into Windows Insider Canary, enabled for everyone. It’ll still have bugs though. Intent is to get additional verification from partners, enthusiasts, etc.
It’s that second set of user testing which will gate when we put it into the main OS builds. So it will be a few more months, depending upon what issues are found.
Because this is a complete rewrite of MIDI in Windows, and there are so many MIDI-using apps and devices out there (we’ve found bugs in a few apps and reported them to the authors) we really want to make sure this works and is backwards-compatible.
The Discord server is primarily geared towards developers, but it’s a good way to stay informed on this and the low-latency audio driver project.
And, of course, I’ll put out a blog post when we hit major milestones, including releases for Windows 11 and Windows 10 (those will be different dates, depending on the active servicing windows available at the time)
And videos from time to time on my YT channel.
Edit: I don’t know why that Windows MIDI and Music Dev still says “PAX - Media”. One of these days, I’ll figure out Wordpress
@Psychlist1972 pete does that mean when windows MIDI 2.0 is launched Steinberg Cubendo will incorporate this into them and we will no longer have the MMCSS and windows RT issues on windows?
I can’t speak for Steinberg. It’s up to them and their product requirements/prioritizes. Of course, I hope they will That’s part of why we’ve been making developer previews available to partners over the past year.
To date, we’ve been working with them and have developer prototype builds that integrate with Windows MIDI Services.
That’s the part that has been taking the longest and has required the most testing. We’ve put in code that integrates into WinMM as a MIDI driver, and then forwards everything to the new service.
In that process, we’ve found different bugs in apps out there, where they may use WinMM in an unexpected way. So getting this right is important. This feature is enabled in the February Canary Insider Build. I also have a couple videos of it in action here:
Here’s SurgeXT, without any code changes, using the new services. A MIDI 2.0 device is sending MIDI 2.0 messages, which are translated to MIDI 1.0 in the service and sent to Surface XT
Here’s REAPER using Network MIDI 2.0, over WinMM
WinMM apps won’t get all the new MIDI 2.0 features, but they’ll get multi-client MIDI, which is nice One reason for apps to move to the new API is they get much better device add/remove/update notifications than WinMM ever provided, and no more port numbers. Devices are identified by strings that are more reliable than an index.
The new SDK and Services also provide a unified view of endpoints, with one API to use regardless of MIDI 1.0 or MIDI 2.0, Network, app-to-app, loopback, (bluetooth, eventually, RTP, possibly), etc. Without the WinMM 32 character limit, it can also provide the endpoint names that the manufacturers wanted us to use.
You can see a number of different endpoint types annotated in the MIDI Console output here:
Thank you for your most detailed answer!
I have a few application where I’m using winmm plus one small programming library. It’ll be interesting to try and update them to the new services.
Unfortunately, I don’t have a nanoKey2 or nanoKontrol2, but I have the original nanoKey Studio, and it’s identified over USB without any issues, using our in-box class driver.
I looked at the nanoKey2 manual and it says it will work with the in-box Windows driver, but they recommend against it when you want to use more than one app at the same time with the device.
So something is up with your PC, but I have no idea what. It should be working with our in-box driver with both WinMM and WinRT MIDI 1.0.
No switch. I don’t think something is up with my PC, as it is almost completely freshly installed, no other issues. If I have any issues, it is just cubase that “complains”. Reaper works with no issues whatsoever, but I prefer cubase. Davinci Resolve (Not a DAW per se, but similar functions) works flawlessly with all plugins and drivers, and it even handles VST2.
I have read on quite a few forums that the Korg nanocontrol 2 is not easy to install if you have several USB midi devices as it needs to be early in the “midi cue” to function. Korg nanocontrol 2 is my “oldest unit”
In any case, directly plugged in with no driver, nothing installed, the manufacturer says “Korg” (which I don’t see as strange at all in fact) but only shows up in device manager when plugged in. Windows comes with quite a few drivers preinstalled/recognized. I don’t see it a conflict that it recognizes Korg, but might still use a default USB. I also assume windows “looks” for the driver automatically. Clicking uninstall driver makes no difference. It will show up again, as I plug the unit in, but only in device manager
But this unit absolutely needs the korg midi driver in order to then work at all. Probably because it is more advanced than just a keyboard in terms of what it actually can do. It has various scripts, one is made directly to control cubase for example. It has transport and channel control, or can be used as mackie.
Hi, I recalled that my Korg Keystage works perfect in WinRT on my music PC but it is not recognized when in WinRT on my dev PC! So, watching this thread I decided to check it more closely and see what I can do about it.
Here’s what worked for me:
I went to the Device Manager, found all items connected to this Korg device and COMPLETELY uninstalled them, i.e. I CHECKED also the option to remove the device driver (file) not just the device element. This was it! I now see my Keystage also as a winRT device. Hope this helps. By the way, it now shows Microsoft as the driver vendor, NOT Korg as expected.
Thanks for this. I have unfortunately tried this option the way you describe it and there is no change.
The difference is that I have a korg nanocontrol 2 which is probably why we have different results.
If you keep seeing the Korg driver in the device manager, that just means that you never properly removed the driver and it keeps getting installed.
Here’s what I would do.
Disconnect from the Internet. Figure out where the Korg Driver resides. Disable and remove the driver from the device manager and double check that the file is actually gone. If not, delete it manually. Disconnect your device and reboot. Reconnect your device once Windows is back up. Windows should at this point detect your device as a new device and install its generic driver for it. If at this point you still see the Korg driver in the device manager, that just means that you never properly removed the driver and it keeps getting installed.
Here’s what I would do.
Disconnect from the Internet. Figure out where the Korg Driver resides. Disable and remove the driver from the device manager and double check that the file is actually gone. If not, delete it manually. Disconnect your device and reboot. Reconnect your device once Windows is back up. Windows should at this point detect your device as a new device and install its generic driver for it. If at this point you still see the Korg driver in the device manager, that just means that you never properly removed the driver and it keeps getting installed.
Here’s what I would do.
[…]
If it is plugged in and says “Korg” as the manufacturer, then you were not able to completely remove the Korg-specific driver. The driver was still installed. We don’t pre-install the Korg MIDI drivers; it’s there from your install. You have to remember when removing it to select the option to completely remove the driver.
But again, it’s a class-compliant device. It’ll work with the in-box drivers.
The way Windows works, is if there’s a vendor-specific driver installed for that specific device, it will always take precedence over our in-box class drivers.
Mackie Control works over MIDI 1.0.
To completely remove a vendor driver
Under “Sound, video, and game controllers” (not under Software Devices), Right click the device in device manage
Choose “uninstall device”
When prompted to try to completely uninstall/remove the driver, select that checkbox
The thing is that if we check the “Start installation blah blah” and “Install” which is quite frequent I guess, then every time Win starts (and perhaps in the middle of a session), this Korg’s utility will silently re-install the drivers.
In my previous post for completely uninstalling the drivers, which is what you actually suggest as well, I forgot to mention that in order to be on the safe side, I first uninstalled Korg’s USB MIDI Driver Tool:
There is a tool called “KORG MIDI Driver Uninstall Utility”.
This tool shows you all listed Midi Devices.
A known issue is, that the Korg drivers must be registered within the first 10 devices (midi0 to midi9). Then it should working correctly.
The rest of my MIDI stack here is different from what you have, so testing that won’t show anything (but glad to see it’s working with the new Windows MIDI Services). However, the driver was the real item in question, and that’s fine, as long as you can get out from the reinstaller that appears to be running on your PC.
That’s part of why we’ve been making developer previews available to partners over the past year.
