A tip on APC40 setup with USB Audio Device.

[swonderme]

Well, I've tried everything from this thread and the thread under BUGS. Nothing. APC shows up as USB Audio Device and even if I use "USB Audio Device" as the input and output for AP40 under midi control surface in Live, it does nothing.

I've deleted stuff from the registry regarding the "lowerfilters", I've read the RME discussion and deleted midi entries in the registry that passed 9 and no luck.

It does the light show when plugged in, and that changes once it's plugged into the pc, but the thing just doesn't do anything but install a generic USB Audio Driver (not an APC40 driver) and then not respond from Ableton.

I went to the akaipro.com website and registered my product, unfortunately when you go to "support" for the APC40 on their website it comes back with a "page not found". I tried calling, but they're closed. I'll try again tomorrow but I'll be at work during their open hours which makes it hard to debug.

Not sure what to do next, anyone got any ideas? Seems like there's enough people with this problem that we could get a stickie with some fixes or something going.

Good sounding idea to make it plug and play.....but I sure could do with a specific driver right now that forced it to work.

Thanks if you've got any ideas!

[Tone Deft]

did you try what I found to work? used it two nights in a row with that working.

turn off all your stuff
power up the computer, let it settle.
power on the APC.
power on your other midi gear.

it didn't matter when/how I powered up my USB sound card, this only applies to midi controllers.

[moxie38]

+1 to the above. All my issues are resolved. The Abes sent me a message saying exactly what Tone Deft is saying and it worked.
I turned off my PC and all controllers, which also meant pulling out my padKontrol since it's powered through the USB port. Turned my computer back on and let it all settle.
Then I turned on the APC40 and waited for the sound to trigger that means Windows recognized it.
I turned on my keyboard. Wait for the sound that it's recognized
I plugged in padKontrol and waited for the sound.
Then I fired up Live 8.03 Suite.
GOLDEN!! All is right with the world.
except I'm at work now, exhausted after playing all night!

[dburns]

Tone's got it right.

It looks like Windows assigns usb audio devices in the order in which it sees them. So, if you always start APC40 first, it will always be UAD #1. Of course, that is what you would choose in Live's preferenced for the APC40 in/out.

But, if you start another UAD (say, an EWI USB or nanoKontrol) before the APC40, it will no longer be UAD #1, it will be UAD (2...3), etc. But Live still hooks APC40 up to UAD #1, which Windows now defines as UAD(2). So, now the APC doesn't work.

I've found that if I leave all my USB conrollers plugged into the same ports, turn them all on, and then boot the computer, there are no problems (after the initial setup in Live). But, if you change what devices are connected, or what USB ports they are on, Live may get it wrong.

This is a Windows problem, as far as I can see. What we need is a Windows that can remember what UAD is what.

Also, even though I have the nanoKontrol drivers working, and recognized in Sonar, it still shows up as UAD(some number). I had the nano defined as a control surface in Live 7, I just have to go do it again in Live 8, I guess.

[swonderme]

Tone Deft....I thought I had tried what you said, but tonight when I get home I will go through your process exactly and see if it works.

Thanks for the help.

[swonderme]

Man, got home and tried it really slowly a couple of times and still no luck.

I never get a "beep" after I turn on the APC, but, it does seem to recognize it, change it's pattern, and install the USB Audio Device Driver.

I unplugged absolutely every external piece on my rig, including stuff like external hard drives and whatnot, still no luck. The other gear I'm using is a Line 6 Gear Box, a padKontrol and a nanoKey. I also have a syncrosoft usb for Cubase, but I've pulled that out as well. I've got Midi Yolk installed, I don't know why that would break things, but who knows I guess. I run nativeKontrol which is a 3rd party app that uses native mode to program the padKontrol. It's got a bunch of scripts that set up Midi Yolk, but again, I don't know why that would mess anything up, as it's just using the padKontrol driver anyway.

Let me ask you guys a question, are you literally seeing "USB Audio Device 1" or "2" or whatever....actually seeing the number (1, 2, 3 etc..). All I see is "USB Audio Device", no numbers after it or anything.

Not sure what else to try, I've done the basic stuff like using a different usb cable and all. It seems the APC is working just from watching it react to the different driver installs and stuff.

Anybody have any other ideas, feel free to chime in. I feel like it's gotta be something stupid or simple at this point. Maybe I'll uninstall the padKontrol and nativeKontrol software just to try something, although I hate to do that.

Thanks for the help dudes!

[Tone Deft]

under Control Surfaces, I see
USB Audio Device <--- APC
USB Audio Device (2) <--- BCR
USB Audio Device [2] <--- dunno, probably for a device connected to the APC.

under input MIDI Ports I see
APC40 Input (USB Audio Device)
BCR2000 input (USB Audio Device ( <--- the name gets cut off
USB Audio Device [2] <-- not used by me

under output MIDI Ports I see
APC40 Output (USB Audio Device)
USB Audio Device (2) <--- BCR
BCR2000 Output (USB Audio Device <--- name gets cut off
USB Audio Device [3] <--- not used by me



between the BCR and APC whichever is plugged in first get the [] brackets and USB Audio Device without brackets, the second one gets () brackets.

[swonderme]

under Control Surfaces, I see
USB Audio Device <--- APC
USB Audio Device (2) <--- BCR
USB Audio Device [2] <--- dunno, probably for a device connected to the APC.

under input MIDI Ports I see
APC40 Input (USB Audio Device)
BCR2000 input (USB Audio Device ( <--- the name gets cut off
USB Audio Device [2] <-- not used by me

under output MIDI Ports I see
APC40 Output (USB Audio Device)
USB Audio Device (2) <--- BCR
BCR2000 Output (USB Audio Device <--- name gets cut off
USB Audio Device [3] <--- not used by me



between the BCR and APC whichever is plugged in first get the [] brackets and USB Audio Device without brackets, the second one gets () brackets.

Interesting, I don't have any numbers, but I also don't seem to have any devices that use that generic driver so that makes sense. Maybe I need to add another generic device so I can get numbers and put the APC first. Kidding..but sadly would probably work.

Anyway, I'm gonna uninstall some of the custom stuff I have going on with Midi Yolk just for kicks....see if I can get down to a bare minimum and give it a couple more shots. Gonna grab dinner first and see if I can clear my mind....I've tried this about 30 times so far and it starts to get blurry with all that starting and restarting.

After that I guess I'll get in touch with Abe (sure would be nice if they chimed in here!) and Akai.

Who knows, maybe my hardware is broken.

Tone Deft, thanks so much for helping out here, I really do appreciate it man.

[dburns]

On my system (WinXP SP3), the first device shows as "USB Audio Device," the second as "USB Audio Device (2)," and so on. Only the first has no number. I have three devices, the APC40, USB EWI, and Korg nanoKontrol.

[swonderme]

On my system (WinXP SP3), the first device shows as "USB Audio Device," the second as "USB Audio Device (2)," and so on. Only the first has no number. I have three devices, the APC40, USB EWI, and Korg nanoKontrol.

Gotcha. Yeah, I guess I only have one USB Audio Device (the APC), so it doesn't show a number.

I tried a few more times and am coming up with nothing.

One more question, when I start from scratch, I get two installs.....the first one says something like "found new hardware APC40" and then it installs "USB Composite Device". Then, a moment after that finishes I get another one that installs "USB Audio Device". Sound right to you guys?

Well, I'm coming up pretty empty and not sure what else to try. I haven't touched my guitar all night which bums me out, so I guess I'm gonna start up Cubase 5 and play a little. I was hoping to be playing with the APC this weekend though.....the wifes out of town which gives me all the time I need and I hate to be spending it on setups!!

Seriously, thanks guys......you went above and beyond in describing your fixes for me when you could be playing. I am surprised I haven't got it working yet....but I do thank you for your time.

If anyone's got an other suggestions bring it on, otherwise I guess I'll try to contact the companies.

Thanks,
Kent

[Tone Deft]

I know how it feels. after an hour of fail I was staring at a $400 brick asking wtf?

download the latest version of Live.

uninstall other midi devices.

post screen shots, sometimes it gets to this point and it's something really obvious.

try all the combinations of names in the midi settings. I'm sure you have, just saying.

what do your midi in indicators show when you hit a pad, move a fader or twiddle a knob?

you did start with the computer off and all your gear off and not a reboot?

try different USB ports?

[Tone Deft]

update.

booted the computer with the Novation SL on, BCR and APC off. I let the computer boot up, then turned on the APC, then the BCR.

this issue might only be between devices that want to be named USB AUDIO DEVICE.

[debu]

Edit. The registry fix worked for me.

[swonderme]

Just wanted to chime in that I've been out of town for a week and haven't had a ton of time to work on this, tried everything one more time and still nothing.

I'm gonna give it more go, and then I guess I'll have to assume it's broken and return it?

Glad you guys got things going though!

[arcadekid]

this may help some people having trouble with the APC40 device not showing up.

If you have or have ever had a logitech or labtech web cam you may have an extra file associated with USB AUDIO CODEC.

disconnect all other USB devices -

go to device manager,

sounds, video and game controllers,

find USB AUDIO DEVICE on the list

go to properties

drivers,

driver details

see how many drivers you have - if you have more than 8 in XP and you have driver ending in lvusbsta.sys - driver provider - logitech - it sounds like you're having the logitech camera problem

if you have vista - and you have more than 5 drivers then you may have the logitech problem.

if the provider on the extra driver is logitech, that makes it clear.

sometimes simply uninstalling the logitech webcam software and disconnecting the webcam solves the problem.

If that doesn't solve it there is the lowerfilters.reg fix (XP only, as far as i know) that solves it as well

lastly, you can also go to the file location manually and delete the problem file.

akai tech support has a document that walks you through the process, they also have the lowerfilters.reg if you need it.

over and above that - sometimes you have to add the INF and PNF files for USB audio codec, if they are missing.

and sometimes you have to re-add the USB audio Codec driver files themselves, contact
Akai tech support for those.

again, USB audio Codec is a built in driver and normally people have no problem with it.

these solutions are for people that have exhausted all the other troubleshooting options.