Getting Akai MPK Mini MKIII software to work

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brainsweetiesss
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Getting Akai MPK Mini MKIII software to work

Post by brainsweetiesss »

Hi guys,

First off sorry if there are similar threads. I used the search and couldn't actually find the same questions being asked.

I'm also new to making music and audio in general on Linux so please bare with me. A couple days ago I read on MIDI USB keyboards and I loved the idea of having one, so I decided to go buy an Akai MPK Mini (3rd Gen) but I'm wondering if you guys managed to get their official software running on Linux?

I tried with WINE and couldn't get it to work. The steps I followed:
- Install win32 (also tried with win64) WINEPREFIX
- Set WINEPREFIX to run Windows 10 (also tried Windows 7)
- Install 'basic' packages on this WINEPREFIX , such as corefonts/vcrun2015/vcrun2017/dotnet40/d3x9 (cause why not)
- Download the MPK.exe installer from the official site and run it inside the prefix.

Unfortunately the installer won't even open properly with a 64 bit prefix, it does open with win32 though... But as soon as the installer opens up there's a pop up giving me an error and pointing me out to the WINE DB for details. This is a good detail from Akai cause they know linux users are running their installer via WINE, but not really a lot of extra info is given after that. If I close these pop up errors (a few of the same show up) , then the installer 'runs'.

At this point I thought I was going to get this working but once I reach the part during installation where the software needs to be downloaded, the downloads won't start/are stuck at 0%.

Did anyone actually manage to get this working somehow? If so, how?

More details about my setup:
- Running Fedora 33
- Running JACK + Qjackctl + Cadence
- Using latest kernel available 5.10.12
- Using latest WINE version. WINE 6.0
- Connecting MIDI keyboard on front USB panel.

Thanks in advance!
Baggypants
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Re: Getting Akai MPK Mini MKIII software to work

Post by Baggypants »

It's unlikely you'll get it to work even if you got past the download part. Apps running under wine typically can't access the usb devices directly.

You'd be better looking for some of the sysex editors available and see if they can work with the MKIII

e.g. https://github.com/gljubojevic/akai-mpk-mini-editor

or https://github.com/PiOverFour/MPK-M2-editor
ehanuise
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Re: Getting Akai MPK Mini MKIII software to work

Post by ehanuise »

I have the same experience using wine 6.2 on ubuntu 20.04 : I can install the akai multi-installer software using wine, but once it starts all downloads are stuck at 0%.

The MPC software can be downloaded directly from the akai web site and works fine under wine, but the mpk mini mk3 editor can only be downloaded through that multi-installer that can't download in Linux/Wine :(

The Akai support was everything but supportive, thet will not provide a direct link to the mpk mini mk3 editor download, and will not provide any support for the multi installer.

There is a linux native editor for the mpk mini mk3. It doesn't save/load to disk but can save/load to/from the device RAM so it's already something...
https://github.com/tsmetana/mpk3-settings

When you see the novation components software running in chrome, platform independent, it's a pity akai can't provide similar tools.
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