I recently got a second Launchpad X for my setup and experienced some unusual behaviour while setting up my Midi Translator project.
When connecting the first LPX it gets discovered by Bome as ‘LPX MIDI 1’ and ‘LPX MIDI 2’ (Both for Midi IN and OUT). Plugging the second one in it gets discovered by Bome as ‘LPX MIDI 3’ and ‘LPX MIDI 4’ (Both for Midi IN and OUT).
Now when i unplug for example the Second one not only LPX MIDI 3 and 4 get disconnected but also LPX MIDI 1 and 2 .
The Log confirms this behaviour while unplugging the first one afterwards. The log now shows ‘Vanished MIDI INPUT : LPX MIDI 1,LPX MIDI 2’ and
‘Vanished MIDI OUTPUT : LPX MIDI 1,LPX MIDI 2’
Also, when both are unplugged and i plug in the second one it gets discovered as LPX MIDI 1 and 2, is there a way to set up Aliases based on the Serial of the device?
Right clicking LPX MIDI 1/2 or LPX MIDI 3/4 it correctly shows the 2 different Serial # yet it somehow gets confused which is which. Is this a known phenomenon? I attached a full log with Markers inbetween the steps i took for a more detailed overview over my problem.
My goal is to have the 2 LPX act individually without interfering each other (When both are connected it seems that they work fine but the confusion while disconnecting concerns me, also there is the possibility that one of the pads disconnect mid set for some reason…)
Unfortunately the Host Operating System has control on what the attached MIDI devices are named and they don’t seem to pay attention to the device serial number.
They general name the ports similar to what the vendor has decided to call them as part of the USB protocol. But then when the operating system is enumerating them, it has the final decision on the device name.
The only things that I can recommend is:
Always plug the devices into the same USB port. This is bullet proof but reduces the risk of them getting them renamed.
Always leave both controllers plugged in so that the operating system doesn’t take action on re-enumerating and renaming them.
Always use alias and if the operating system has them backwards, change the aliases to match the actual devices.
What concerns me most here is that neither device should ‘drop’ unless you physically unplug it so perhaps you have a bad USB cable. Alternately, if you are on Windows, then applications cannot share devices and the first application will take control of the device. In order to avoid problems, it is best if you start Bome MIDI Translator Pro, before any other MIDI applications so that it can get control of the MIDI device. Then the applications should be setup to read MT Pro virtual ports than the actual physical device. This can especially be problematic with Ableton Live Which uses MIDI Remote Script to select ports.
Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care
Also available for paid consulting services: bome@sniz.biz
Thanks for the welcome (and sorry for the late reply)!
I did some more research on this topic and found a solution that worked out for me so i thought i might aswell share it here in case anyone else runs into such a problem.
My guess what happened:
It was indeed a problem in Windows as you hinted or at least it was the root cause.
The Launchpad X gets listed as ‘LPX MIDI’ in the Device manager, no matter how many are connected.
Bome midi translator appearently correctly notices that these were 2 different devices (unlike Novations own software btw) and gives the second one a (2).
My only explaination for the phenomenon that both disconnect when the second one gets disconnected is that it still looks like ‘LPX MIDI’ got disconnected for both Windows and Bome which is why the midi channel of ‘LPX MIDI’ gets closed and bome closes ‘LPX MIDI (2)’ too because it knows that actually this one got disconnected.
My solution:
So knowing that the Name of the Device in Windows is the root cause i attempted to find out how to get around this. I found out that the ‘Parent’ Property in the Device manager properties actually contains the Serial Number of the Pads next to the USB Path of it. Searching for this USB Path (Something like ‘USB\VID_xxxx&PID_yyyy’) in the Registry (I used nirsoft’s USBDeview to find the registry entry) you will find the String entry ‘FriendlyName’ which you then can change to ‘LPX MIDI A’ or whatever else fits to differenciate the 2.
After doing this I was able to properly configure both Controllers individually without problems and disconnecting one of the 2 or switching USB Ports didn’t cause any issues and both showed up with their correct names (Tried this Scenario on different machines just to be sure it works).