KVR Audio

steve84010 · Post by **steve84010** » Tue Nov 25, 2008 9:49 pm

I have a most perplexing problem that I'm hoping someone else has gone through before and can help with.

I'm trying to connect a Casio MK-200 keyboard to the computer I use for recording (Windows XP SP3) via USB. Following the Casio instructions, they say there is no need to install a separate driver as the keyboard is USB/MIDI conforming and the General USB-Audio XP driver will auto-install and work.

Indeed, upon connecting the keyboard XP recognizes it as a Casio device and installs the USB Audio driver. In Device Manager I see the USB Audio device and properties show it as a Casio Keyboard. Here's where the problem begins. My recording and virtual synth software does not recognize the keyboards existence at all. So I found and downloaded a utility called MIDI-OX which is useful for identifying any available MIDI devices and verifying they are communicating with the computer. MIDI-OX does not show the device as available at all even though I can clearly see it in device manager.

I've messed around with disabling all unused devices just in case there is a problem related to IRQ conflicts, etc. but to no avail nothing I do helps. I know the keyboard is okay as I have connected it to two laptops, one XP and one Vista and MIDI-OX immediately recognizes it. If anyone else has run up against this sort of problem before your help would be greatly appreciated.

ew · Post by ew » Tue Nov 25, 2008 9:56 pm

Turn off power management to the root hubs in device manager.

ew

steve84010 · Post by **steve84010** » Thu Nov 27, 2008 4:43 am

I tried turning off power management, no luck.

UltraJv · Post by **UltraJv** » Thu Nov 27, 2008 4:54 am

It sounds as though its being seen as an audio only device but its actually a midi only device. I found no info on this keyboard on Google except you asking about it! The keyboard is clearly a rarity, you will have trouble. Your post on the Acoustica forum is confusing, you say its seen by Midi ox in one post then you say it isnt in the next!? Have you tried another host other than Mixcraft? Is the model number really mk200?

http://demon.acoustica.com/bbs/viewtopi ... 549116403c

ZenPunkHippy · Post by **ZenPunkHippy** » Thu Nov 27, 2008 5:09 am

Windows does not use the name "<brand> Midi Keyboard" when it presents a midi keyboard device to an application. In my experience it is usually called "USB Audio Device" or similar, which is what you would select in Cubase or whatever app you use.

Unless you are having trouble with other USB devices (e.g. a thumb drive, mouse) on the same port, it's not an IRQ conflict. Midi via USB is nothing terribly special, it's a kind of "USB to serial" converter which is why most devices will work with the default Win XP drivers.

If you have other USB ports available, have you tried those? Swap the keyboard with another USB device e.g. a mouse or webcam. Check if they still work as usual. That is one way to check the port is not flakey.

You could also go in the the hardware properties of the device and click "reinstall driver" or "update driver" (can't recall exact term) ... the problem could be that the driver has become corrupted and needs refreshing ... you may need to have a copy of the Win XP disk handy, or be connected to the Internet to download the files from Microsoft.

The fact that MIDI-OX does not see the device at all is extremely suspicious ...

Peace,
Andy.

steve84010 · Post by **steve84010** » Fri Nov 28, 2008 4:31 pm

UltraJv wrote:It sounds as though its being seen as an audio only device but its actually a midi only device. I found no info on this keyboard on Google except you asking about it! The keyboard is clearly a rarity, you will have trouble. Your post on the Acoustica forum is confusing, you say its seen by Midi ox in one post then you say it isnt in the next!? Have you tried another host other than Mixcraft? Is the model number really mk200?

http://demon.acoustica.com/bbs/viewtopi ... 549116403c

UltraJv, sorry mk200 is a typo. The model number is actually WK-200.
Sorry about the confusion regarding MIDI-OX. What I meant to convey is that when I run MIDI-OX on my main DAW workstation it does not show the keyboard at all. In order to try to eliminate the keyboard itself as the problem I loaded MIDI-OX onto two different laptops that I have (one running XP and one running Vista), in both cases MIDI-OX saw the keyboard with no problem at all.

steve84010 · Post by **steve84010** » Mon Dec 01, 2008 8:41 pm

I have tried to update the driver, windows just tells me that no "more suitable" driver exists. I don't see an option to "reinstall", there is an option to "uninstall" the device which I have tried. But upon re-connecting the keyboard windows simply reconfigures the device again using the already existing driver. I can't find any way to physically reinstall the driver within windows.

One final option...
I have an M-audio Fasttrack Pro which has MIDI In/Out built in. Is it possible to convert the USB output from my keyboard (it has no 5 pin MIDI jacks) to the 5 pin MIDI on the Fasttrack somehow? I know that cables exist to do the reverse of this (convert from MIDI out to USB).

steve84010 · Post by **steve84010** » Thu Dec 04, 2008 3:40 am

Solved! Thanks to Pascual in this thread.
http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=234866

It turns out that Logitech's webcam driver has caused problems for a lot of people. I tracked down the instructions that Pascual refers to being in his Akai troubleshooting guide and they worked like a charm. Sure would have been nice if Casio had published this.

Just in case anyone else has the same problem. The detailed instructions can be found in the last message of this thread:

http://forums.techarena.in/windows-xp-music/559307.htm

Problem with USB Audio device