Problems with Native Instruments MK2-Keyboard DAW Port

Bome Products
#1

Good day,

I’m using the Native Instruments Mk-2 61 keyboard for a while now (Keyboards : Komplete Kontrol S49 / S61 | Komplete).
The software is using the BomeMIDI driver in order to communicate with the Ableton Live DAW.
For quite a few months to years now I’m experiencing big troubles with the communication of my Komplete Kontrol DAW port. Sometimes this device doesn’t show up in the Device manager. Sometimes this DAW port is missing in Ableton Live.
I’m talking with the Native Instruments support for quite a while now and they did a lot of investigation of my system and reinstalling of drivers and software applications. Nothing really works well.
The only time I can make sure that the BomeMIDI connection with the DAW port of my MK-2 keyboard and Ableton Live really works all the time is after directly starting Windows and having the keyboard connected to USB PRIOR than Windows start. If I connect the keyboard some time after Windows has already started sometimes Ableton Live doesn’t recognize the keyboard.
I’m not sure whether this problem is BomeMIDI related, whether it’s NIHostIntegrationAgent related that also is needed for the communication with the keyboards or whether there’s some mistake in Windows or in my Ableton Live 10 (for example with the script that Native Instruments has provided for the keyboard).
Thanks for any help and any ideas how I could get my Mk-2 keyboard to work with Ableton Live again! Interestingly everything works for controlling the Komplete Kontrol software within or outside Ableton Live. But controlling the DAW pretty often is not working when I connect the keyboard via USB after Windows has run quite a bit of time. Thank you!

#2

I’m not sure whether this will help or not but NI did provide some pointers for problems getting Kontrol Complete working. You might need to use google translate to translate the page.

In general, Windows is not very friendly when it comes to sharing MIDI ports. Basically the first application or device that opens a MIDI port wins and no other applications or devices can access that port. So if you are using virtual ports (whether NI, or Bome), it is important to connect to the desired virtual port instead of directly to the hardware instrument. You might want to open anything that use virtual ports first and then open Ableton Live Last and make sure you are pointing to the virtual port and not trying to open the direct instrument port.

Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care

Also available for paid consulting services: bome@sniz.biz
#3

Hi Steve,

thanks for your answer. Could you somehow check whether I have any software installed on my computer that could interefere with the BomeMIDI DAW port of my Mk-2 keybaord? I honestly have no clue what kind of driver, software or anything else could cause that the connection of my keyboard isn’t working properly through the DAW port of the keyboard with Ableton Live. Unfortunately Native Instruments doesn’t seem to figure out neither what could cause my connection problem.
Here’s all my installed software. Thanks for checking or any other advice! I appreciate your help.

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!

#4

I really can’t tell from a list of applications. I would shut all non-essential applications down and then add them one by one until you see a problem. That would tell you if you have something that is using MIDI when you get an error.

Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care

Also available for paid consulting services: bome@sniz.biz
#5

loopMIDI and rtpMIDI certainly handle MIDI but for devices, I would not worry about loopMIDI since it is pretty much application to application.

Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care

Also available for paid consulting services: bome@sniz.biz
#6

Ok, would you neither worry about rtpMIDI?? I remember that Native Instruments was telling me that each app or driver that uses MIDI loopback might be a problem for the virtual BomeMIDI port that the Native Instruments hardware is using. I was checking for other “virtual” midi software on my computer. As far as I understand you, these can be a problem for BomeMIDI to work correctly too since Windows is not very friendly when it comes to sharing MIDI ports. I yesterday updated the KORG USB MIDI Driver what is used for creating somewhat virtual connections to the KORG nanoPAD 2. Do you see anything that might interfere with BomeMIDI from this list? Thank you!!!
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#7

Hi, I’ve not had good experience with the Korg MIDI Driver. I would recommend you uninstall it and instead use the standard generic MIDI Driver. The Korg Driver seems to break ability to see other MIDI ports, especially if you have more than 9 physical or virtual MIDI devices. After uninstalling, you probably will need to go to device manager and manually select the generic driver instead of the Korg driver since apparently the Korg driver is now also part of the WIndows standard distribution.

As far as he others, hey can all co-exist, however you have to be careful that you know how each application behaves and that it doesn’t “grab” MIDI ports. For instanced, Ableton Live seems to do self discovery for any known devices (devices with MIDI remote scripts) and attempts to connect directly with the device rather than through MT Pro or any other software that exposes virtual MIDI ports.

Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care

Also available for paid consulting services: bome@sniz.biz
#8

Thanks for this explanation. I will try this out. So you think that the KORG USB Driver could be the cause for not always having Ableton Live DAW functionality by my MK-2 keyboard?

#9

Yes it is possible. Again, any time I’ve had the Korg MIDI driver installed, I’ve always experienced problems.

Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care

Also available for paid consulting services: bome@sniz.biz
#10

Ok. I have uninstalled it now… Hope this will solve my issues that I have with my MK-2 hardware and Ableton Live…

#11

Go to Dev Manager and then click on your korg port and then look at driver properties to make sure that you are using the Windows driver. Sometimes although it say the Korg driver is uninstalled, Windows may still be using it. It should say Generic USB driver as shown below.
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If you see “Korg” anywhere, then you are still using the Korg Driver.

Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care

Also available for paid consulting services: bome@sniz.biz
#12

Hi Steve,

unfortunately your idea of uninstalling the KORG USB Driver and resetting the nanoKontrol 2 to a generic Windows driver did not solve my connectivity problems that I still am experiencing when using Ableton Live and my Komplete Kontrol MK-2 keyboard. Native Instruments was advicing me to disable most of the devices listed here. I practically disabled all of them. That did not solve the problem either. When I connect the keyboard while Windows is starting it always works. When I connect it after Windows has run for a while I sometimes experience the problem that the DAW functionality is not working in Ableton Live. Do you see any problematic drivers or have any other idea what could cause the keyboard to sometimes not work properly in Ableton Live?

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Thank you!

#13

Thank you - finally I made it :slight_smile:

Do you know whether the Windows driver of the KORG nanoKontrol 2 is able to make the nanoKontrol 2 work with several programs at the same time - e. g. if using it in a DAW and in the KORG Kontrol Editor at the same time? As far as I remember the USB Driver by KORG was exactly made for such a scenario that it is possible to use the KORG nanoKontrol 2 in several instances at the same time. You know something about that (if not, never mind… if this is solvin the problem that I have with my Komplete Kontrol keyboard I’m happy having the KORG USB Driver uninstalled)…

#14

None of the audio, video or Webcam stuff needs to be disabled. I’m not sure about teVirtualMIDI. I think Komplete Kontrol MK2 MIDI is your keyboard and it is possible that Ableton Live is trying to talk to it directly which is OK if you don’t want to use MT Pro.
The VB-Audio VoiceMeeter sometimes used MIDI so best to go to the MIDI settings and disable the MIDI configuration. Make sure M.I.D.I input device says “Not Selected”

The same would be true for any other applications that might be using MIDI.

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The Macro buttons in Voicemeeter also have a menu on the Macro Screen the lets you define your MIDI OUT devices which should be disabled.

Are you trying to use Ableton Live with MT Pro? If so, start MT Pro first and when you open Ableton Live, point to the BMT port instead of your Komplete Kontrol MK2 MIDI device. MT Pro will need to get in between your device and Ableton Live.

Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care

Also available for paid consulting services: bome@sniz.biz
#15

Ok. I recently installed Voicemeeter. The problem with the not working DAW controlling of my MK-2 keyboard exists much longer. However I checked Voicemeeter (Banana) and there is no MIDI input device selected. I couldn’t find the MIDI output configuration for the Macro Screen but I have never used that before…
The teVirtualMIDI driver apparently is part of rtpMIDI and loopMIDI (see virtualMIDI | Tobias Erichsen), which I am not actively using but I had to install it in order to use touchAble Pro from ZeroDebug (Zerodebug) that also has a Server that needed to be installed (I do not really know what the server is doing but normally don’t use it when starting Windows)… Is there anything of these programs/apps/devices that could cause the problems with the DAW access of my MK-2 keyboard?? I’m not using MT Pro and only want my MK-2 keyboard being able to control Ableton Live as this still was possible a few years ago… Thanks for any further help…

#16

You are welcome! Of course, this board is really more for help with Bome Products as opposed to general MIDI.

It seems to me around the time of Ableton Live 10 release, this became more problematic. I think that Ableton 10 might be a bit more aggressive on MIDI device recognition even if it is incorrectly assigning devices.

Steve

Steve

#17

I see. But why is it working then after I start Ableton Live directly after the computer starts and my hardware is connected? I experience problems only when I connect the hardware after Windows has already started and then not always either… Native Instrument claims that there must be some kind of problem on my Windows machine and I should reinstall it then everything should work again. But I cannot really do this. They say it is tested and working on pretty much every other computer but not mine… What could be the cause for this?! It’s driving me nuts that I have this problem for years now - then Native Instruments brought up a fix and it worked and now it doesn’t work anymore. My guess is it has to do with the latest Windows 10 2004 update. But am not sure about this… It’s so annoying if a 500 Euro keyboard is not working properly…

#18

Do you think there could be any issues regarding the installed touchAble Pro Windows UWP app on my computer or regarding the touchAble server that is installed as well (and is normally not used when I use Live?). Also I have the Xoto and Iso Pad installed on my computer (see https://feelyoursound.com/) that also use somewhat a virtual MIDI link. Do you see any problems in one of these apps just regarding that I have installed them (even if not using them when I am using the MK-2 keyboard and Live)?? Thanks for your answer.

#19

Is there any way you can somehow control or diagnose whether the virtual BomeMIDI is working correctly under Windows and whether there is a connection established to the MK-2 keyboard or not?? This might help a lot in order to know whether there’s a conflict with another driver or app installed in Windows or whether it’s an Ableton Live thing that something get’s wrong with the connection there (what not really should be an option according to Native Instruments that claims that the script and the connection is working on other machines)… Thanks very much for all your help!

#20

This product is licensed and supported by Native Instruments and you really should go to them for the support. Thanks for your understanding!

Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care

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