Midi controller connected to usb hub constant activity?

Hi

I have a midi controller plugged into a usb hub and connected to MT. The activity light on the hub is constantly blinking when the controller is connected to MT, even in an idle state and there’s no active traffic. Is this expected behaviour? There’s no activity in the event monitor or log.

If the controller is plugged into the hub without MT running there’s no activity light unless the controller is used. Which is normal behaviour.

Just wondering if there’s more traffic than there should be.

I’d have to look at your project file. It is possible that you might be sending clock signals from your project file.

Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care


Also available for paid consulting services: bome@sniz.biz
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As far as I know I’m only using CC and keystroke messages. But then, I don’t really know much yet.

NanoKontrol Studio2.bmtp (11.0 KB)

I can’t see where MT Pro is introducing any traffic.

I do know that Korg has their own drivers and maybe that is what is happening. Maybe try the generic driver. Check this post.

Also, I believe the drivers for nanoKONTROL Studio introduce bluetooth so maybe it has something to do with that. Again, I would see no reason that MT Pro would introduce activity.

Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care


Also available for paid consulting services: bome@sniz.biz
1 Like

Thanks. I’ll do some investigation.

Well I can’t seem to find a solution. Even in a completely empty new project the moment the NanoKontrol Studio is selected as a midi input there’s usb activity. I’ve gone through all the settings I can think of, uninstalled drivers tried it, re-installed them, tried various permutations, no luck.

Interestingly I also have a NanoKontrol2 and it doesn’t do it with that.

Edit. It does the same with most other midi interpreters as well so presumably something dodgy internal to the device.

Did you try a different USB hub? What else is connected to the USB hub?

I tried direct into the computer. Also tried on another computer and it does the same thing.

What are your global settings for your device. If it is set for HUI (ProTools), then it will respond to a HUI ping message every time a HUI Ping message is received. Are you seeing anything in the log file? Did you try the Microsoft Generic Drivers? Did you turn bluetooth off on your computer? Is there a performance issue or is this just a visual concern since the activity light is blinking. When you say direct connect into the computer, does that mean without the USB hub? I thought it was the USB Hub LED blinking so not sure what you mean if you are bypassing the USB hub.

Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care


Also available for paid consulting services: bome@sniz.biz

What are your global settings for your device.

It’s in midi mode

Are you seeing anything in the log file?

No

Did you try the Microsoft Generic Drivers?

Yes. With the generic drivers there’s constant usb activity. With the korg drivers the constant activity only happens when an application is connected to the controller.

Did you turn bluetooth off on your computer?

Yes

Is there a performance issue or is this just a visual concern since the activity light is blinking. When you say direct connect into the computer, does that mean without the USB hub? I thought it was the USB Hub LED blinking so not sure what you mean if you are bypassing the USB hub.

I have a usb activity monitor which shows all usb activity. No other usb devices, including midi devices, have constant activity. I don’t know how much of a performance issue it is, but it’s not ideal to have a constant data stream going.

It’s not a Bome issue though. It’s a Korg issue, as it does the same thing on an other computer.

I would check with Korg then. Maybe their USB interface includes other type of activity outside of MIDI like HID (keyboard and mouse) messages.

Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care


Also available for paid consulting services: bome@sniz.biz

Will do. I don’t know if it’s just my device or the NanoKontrol Studio in general. The NanoKontrol2 doesn’t do it.

Thanks for all the help. Much appreciated.

I don’t have any kind of USB monitor, so not sure if my nanoKONTROL Studio is doing it or not.

I used this one https://freeusbanalyzer.com/

But maybe it’s better not to know!

It looks like with this software you could monitory the USB packets themselves to see what is going on. Probably just some sort of USB handshake activity. This would be totally outside of the MIDI realm.

Steve

This is what the activity monitor looks like. Constant stream on the left. No other usb device does that.

Interesting, but certainly not related to MT Pro.

What happens if your Bome Project does not open any MIDI ports?

Steve

If no midi ports are opened and the nanokontrol studio is using the korg drivers then there’s no constant stream, until a port is opened. If it’s using the generic drivers then the stream is always constant.

This may have something to do with exclusive access of MIDI ports which is a Windows thing. No two applications can open the same MIDI port at the same time so if your monitoring program is opening the port while another application has it open, then the port is probably blocked and your monitoring application keeps trying to open it. This would only be an issue if you have your monitoring application open while the Korg nanoKontrol Studio Port is already open as well. Unfortunately there is no way to test the theory since without the Monitoring application open, you would not be able to check activity. If there are no performance issues, I would not worry about it.

Maybe the Korg driver is multiclient which is why you don’t see the issue when using it. But the Korg driver has lots of other issues.

Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care


Also available for paid consulting services: bome@sniz.biz

Unfortunately there is no way to test the theory since without the Monitoring application open, you would not be able to check activity.

Apart from the blinking activity light on the usb hub which alerted me in the first place. It matches what the usb montior says - when there’s activity it blinks and when there isn’t it doesn’t. Also all other usb devices only blink when there’s activity.

Maybe the Korg driver is multiclient

It is, that’s one of the reasons Korg say why to use it.

But the Korg driver has lots of other issues.

I’ve started to experience some of those too. It doesn’t work on my windows 11 computer for a start.