MIDI controller conflict

Support
1

I’m trying to setup Ableset for the first time. I have 2 midi keyboards connected to my computer. When Ableset opens, my Akai MPK-249 automatically connects to Ableset and becomes non-responsive in Ableton. In Ableton preferences, the Akai ports turn orange indicating that the controller is in use by another program. I have to close Ableset and reboot the Akai keyboard to get it to function in Ableton again.

My second keyboard (MAudio Oxygen Pro) remains connected to Ableton and does not show up in Ableset, which I suppose might trigger another question later :stuck_out_tongue:

How can I keep my keyboards connected to Ableton?

I guess I had assumed that midi controller data would go to Ableton first and then be routed thru to Ableset rather than Ableset taking exclusive control of the hardware. Is that not the case? If not, how do other users play vst instruments live and use Ableset simultaneously?

  • **OS and Version: Win11
  • **Version of AbleSet: 2.6.7
  • **Version of Ableton Live: 12
2

Hey @Bhammer, welcome to the forum!

This is an issue with Windows – unfortunately, only one application can access a MIDI device at a time, so to make this work with AbleSet and Ableton Live, you’d have to do some virtual MIDI routing to split your input into two devices – one for AbleSet and one for Ableton Live.

Here’s a thread I found of someone who had a similar issue: https://www.reddit.com/r/midi/comments/w7whhb/comment/ihmu5j0/

The framework AbleSet uses to access MIDI devices seems fairly greedy. It tries to claim all MIDI devices automatically, so I’d recommend starting Live before AbleSet in this scenario. I’ll see if I can improve this behavior in a future version.

I hope this helps! :slight_smile:

3

Thank you for the reply. As a workaround for now, is there a way to toggle the midi off in Ableset so that it doesn’t try to claim any midi devices?

4

Unfortunately not yet, but I’ll see if I can implement this in the next update as a workaround.