Solved: Having Trouble Setting Up My Midi Keyboard

[xtianstar12]

I installed KXStudio, and I got every set up. Now I just need to get my midi keyboard to work in Ableton Live.

I am a complete newbie with KXStudio but I can find my way around.

I simply have no idea how to get my USB midi keyboard to work in Ableton Live.

Can someone help? Thank you.

[xtianstar12]

Thank you for your quick reply. I appreciate it.

Yes I am running it through Wine. I installed it through PlayOnLinux.
I followed the instructions your provided and I still have the same problem.

When I connect the USB keyboard in Jack to any Midi Port, I start hearing a crackling. And If I load an instrument and I hit any note, I got a forever lasting beep.

Everything else is working. If I use my computer keyboard to play the notes, it works great. But not with my midi keyboard.

Any other other ideas? I'd appreciate it. I am so close to ditching Windows completely.

[Spanner]

If I were in your position, I would first try to isolate any issues with the keyboard or its interface by doing something along these lines:

1. [not in ableton live] fresh boot. start zynaddsubfx or yoshimi and connect the appropriate output via jack to sound system

2. open zyn or yosh virtual keyboard

3. play on virtual keyboard, see if it makes sound; change instrument, make sure it works as expected.

4. Connect your midi keyboard via jack to zyn or yosh, play, see if it works as expected.

5. if not, try disconnecting and reconnecting usb keyboard at the usb port. [NB: I have found that some usb midi interfaces give unpredictable results unless all midi connections are connected--i.e.: all midi plugs connected to the instrument or stack of instruments--although I do not know exactly why, I suspect that this may be a grounding issue or some other physical connector-related issue.]

6. If your keyboard works as expected with syn or yosh, then next try ableton live...

7. If your keyboard does not work as expected in ableton live, but it does work as expected in the soft synths, there may still be an isssue with the interface. For example: if ableton live is trying to send or recieve anything other than basic midi information and the interface fails to respond within the parameters required by ableton live, there may be unpredictable results. And as I above mentioned: [I have found that some usb midi interfaces give unpredictable results unless all midi connections are connected--i.e.: all midi plugs connected to the instrument or stack of instruments--although I do not know exactly why, I suspect that this may be a grounding issue or some other physical connector-related issue.]


It's not much, but I sincerely hope this information may be helpful to you.

[xtianstar12]

If I were in your position, I would first try to isolate any issues with the keyboard or its interface by doing something along these lines:

1. [not in ableton live] fresh boot. start zynaddsubfx or yoshimi and connect the appropriate output via jack to sound system

2. open zyn or yosh virtual keyboard

3. play on virtual keyboard, see if it makes sound; change instrument, make sure it works as expected.

4. Connect your midi keyboard via jack to zyn or yosh, play, see if it works as expected.

5. if not, try disconnecting and reconnecting usb keyboard at the usb port. [NB: I have found that some usb midi interfaces give unpredictable results unless all midi connections are connected--i.e.: all midi plugs connected to the instrument or stack of instruments--although I do not know exactly why, I suspect that this may be a grounding issue or some other physical connector-related issue.]

6. If your keyboard works as expected with syn or yosh, then next try ableton live...

7. If your keyboard does not work as expected in ableton live, but it does work as expected in the soft synths, there may still be an isssue with the interface. For example: if ableton live is trying to send or recieve anything other than basic midi information and the interface fails to respond within the parameters required by ableton live, there may be unpredictable results. And as I above mentioned: [I have found that some usb midi interfaces give unpredictable results unless all midi connections are connected--i.e.: all midi plugs connected to the instrument or stack of instruments--although I do not know exactly why, I suspect that this may be a grounding issue or some other physical connector-related issue.]


It's not much, but I sincerely hope this information may be helpful to you.

I appreciate you taking the time to respond. I did everything as instructed.

Everytime I use Jack to connect the usb midi keyboard to a midi port, or a device, daw, etc... i start hearing a crackling noise. And when it's crackling, if I put anytype of sound, a loud beep happens.

Let me note that this only happens when I have Jack connected. My midi keyboard is read and works when Jack is turned off.

You can say I am a newbie with working with Audio in Linux. But I can find my way around Linux quite well.

If anyone else has more suggestions it would be greatly appreciated.

[xtianstar12]

Very discouraging on my end. I have really researched all I can to try and fix the crackling for about a year.

Even had to go back to Windows for some time so I can get some work done. But I hate being on Windows honestly.

I guess I am just going to have to go back to Windows.

[Seph]

i am assuming you tried changing the latency. I am new to linux and jack and kxstudio and I am in midst of trying to get my Korg K61P recognised and I keep running into the issue (in win 10 and in linux too) where the scroller on the korg keeps taking over as my mouse movements controller. I couldn't figure it out in Windows and I hope to resolve it here.

RE Latency

The system defaults to 1024

In my brief linux stay I have noticed I can reduce the glitches (xruns) by raising the samplerate to 4096 in Cadence. You have to stop all services and configure. The enable and restart and also restart alsa if required. I have been having latency issues too, but I am using my laptop internal card so its a bit to be expected tho I was hoping Linux could do better than Windows at it. So far, meh.


Same as adjusting latency in Win Asio

I am also using Wine and was able to install both asio4all and Nuendo 4. Anyone know how to make them connect to Jack?

Thanks

hope this helps you somehow, somewhere

I do like all the kinky plugins to play with in Ardour. Love JACK. Its awesome and I noticed lots of progress in the Win version. I'll hop to it in Win when they make it a one click install without all the coding on the exe etc

[xtianstar12]

Okay I changed the settings in Cadance. And I still get the same bad glitch.

One question, does ASIO4ALL work without jack for you?

[xtianstar12]

Update!

Okay I found the problem. It seems that my Audio Interface (M-Audio M-Track) doesn't work. As soon as I tried it on my internal sound card, it worked.

Unfortunately that means I have to buy a new Audio Interface?

[Spanner]

I use several "audio interfaces"

1. the motherboard sound system

2. a usb mixer, peavey pv8usb

3. an old soundblaster live card with game port midi interface that happens to work very well for me

4. a cheap usb midi interface I bought for usd $3-$4 on amazon

I run several keyboards, an old KORG synth, and an old midiman velocity-sensitive keyboard controller. They all work for me.

If I need to connect mics, synths, guitar, bass etc., I run them through the peavey mixer. Depending on the latency requirement for the type of audio I need to record, I alter the jack settings: buffer size / periods/buffer.


Glad to hear you got the problem figured out.

[xtianstar12]

Just to be clear, my audio interface is fully functional. It works with Windows perfectly. It just seems that when on Linux + Jack, it doesn't want to work. I have tried different buffer settings etc... With no luck.

So I am just guessing it is the Audio Interface.

[xtianstar12]

Update:
I fixed it, and I am up and running with my M-Audio M-Track audio interface.

Here is what I did:

I changed the

Periods/Buffer to 3.

It was that simple. And it got fixed.

Now I am having trouble with CPU at 20% when I am using only 1 instrument. It normally wouldn't go this high with Windows.. But I am excited that at least it is working now.

Any idea why my CPU is so high?
I turned off my Bluetooth, my network, and change my CPUFreq to Performance.

But it hardly made a dent.