Multiple USB controllers on a MacBook

Antimon

I ran into a weird problem. I had jacked in a BCR2000 and a Korg MicroKontrol into my MacBook Pro, preparing for some fun with Live, but when I tried to map the MicroKontrol pads to clips in Live nothing happened. I tried the MK's keyboard - nothing. I figured it was something wrong with the MIDI settings, so I fiddled around a bit in the MIDI preferences - nothing. I restarted Live (you never know), and then I could play the keyboard. Yay! I hit a pad and then I couldn't play the keyboard anymore.

If I restarted Live (doing nothing else) I could play the keyboard, but as soon as I sent a control using a pad or a knob Live stopped responding to anything from the MK. Also, if I just played the keyboard Live stopped responding after a couple of minutes. Hmm.. I started up Garageband instead, and it reacted in the exact same way! Big hmm. I turned off the BCR2000. The MK started working! I could assign pads to clips in Live and everything.

Does anyone know what's going on here? Can't you connect more than one USB controller at a time to a Mac?! Sad

I also have a M-Audio firewire sound interface and a USB hub.

/Stefan

P.S. The spellchecker doesn't recognise "Korg" or "firewire" .

elektro80 · Posted: Tue May 16, 2006 1:32 pm Post subject:

This sounds really weird. In general, there would be no limits as such. There might be bugs in the macintel compiled code, but I don´t think so. Whenever you see shit like this on a mac, that is usually about really stupid drivers. I dunno. Let me think about this one.

Trivia: I might be picking up a black new Macbook ( one of those that Apple announced earlier today )

Antimon · Posted: Wed May 17, 2006 12:19 am Post subject:

OK, thanks. I'll try some more combinations later to see if other combinations cause the problem, or if it works when I don't use a USB hub.

/Stefan

Antimon · Posted: Wed May 17, 2006 11:30 am Post subject:

OK, I tried it now again, and now there's no problem. Live accepts control changes from both MicroKontrol and BCR2000 at the same time. Maybe it was because it was the first time I plugged them in at the same time, and the Mac needed a restart to get used to it. Rolling Eyes

I turn the things on and off on the fly, it could be that too. Anyway, if you don't see anything more in this thread this is probably nothing to be worried about...

/Stefan

Antimon · Posted: Wed May 17, 2006 11:32 am Post subject:

By the way, it's curious how many applications and drivers demand that you reboot the Mac before you can use them. Isn't this supposed to be a Unix-derived system? What if I was running servers on it and stuff? Sure, rebooting the Mac is fast, but still...

/Stefan

elektro80 · Posted: Wed May 17, 2006 6:46 pm Post subject:

Well, there is not a known number I can quote. It all depends. Bottom line is that very few drivers and stuff require a reboot, and some do anyway no matter what because that is how they have configured the installer. BTW: Some drivers don´t always do what you think they do and in some instances yes.. they really do require a restart. As for USB devices, most are unproblematic, but osme driver/device combinations will go deaf if you unplug the device and then reconnects it. Then you need a restart. Very little of this has really much to do about OS X as such though.

BTW: Some Epson USB scanner drivers are very amusing. Rolling Eyes

brinxmat · Joined: Oct 24, 2005 Posts: 262 Location: Norway