I received a message from a producer who was having trouble with his M-Audio Keyboard not connecting to Logic Pro.
We arranged a time to connect, established a remote connection and I had a look at his system. First, I checked inside Logic’s MIDI environment and in OSX’s Audio MIDI Setup to see if the keyboard was being recognised by Logic and macOS. I confirmed that it was being recognised, but when my client pressed a key, no MIDI data was being sent into Logic. An unusual problem.
We started with a few basic troubleshooting steps, such as reconnecting the USB and testing the connection by swapping USB cables. Neither made a difference.
I downloaded the free and excellent MIDIPipe software to remove Logic as a variable. MIDIPipe allowed me to view raw MIDI data being set to any port of the Mac and I was able to confirm that no MIDI was coming from the Keystation. Since Logic and MIDIPipe were showing the same results, this indicated that something was wrong with the keyboard itself.
I downloaded the manual to access the codes for the Advanced Function keys and I talked my client through the button and key combinations to access the MIDI on/off features. After testing more variables using the Advanced Functions, we ran the Factory Reset combination and MIDIPipe suddenly started displaying normal MIDI key press data.
We reopened Logic Pro and confirmed that the MIDI was now working fine. I spent the remainder of the one-hour session by creating written instructions for my client on how to run the factory reset procedure on the Keystation again if the problem came back.
About the Author
I’m the owner and lead technician for Audio Support, a small company based in London, UK that connects remotely with clients worldwide to help them with their music technology issues. I’ve run Audio Support since 2005 and in that time I’ve seen and solved thousands of recording studio problems.
Outside of Audio Support, I run music workshops at a local school, play bass in a 90s tribute function band and perform modular synth jams with friends on Twitch.
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