Snow Leopard and MK-249C

[Nils F]

Hi there,

Ive installed the new mac OS on my macbook and now my good old trusty MK 249C doesnt seem to be able to connect properly anymore. I looked at the list of Snowleopard Driver updates on the M-Audio support section and it says there that my keyboard should be still connecting via apples coremidi drivers... but somehow it doesnt.

i tried scanning the midi busses in apple audio midi setup but the icon of my keyboard doesnt light up there.
It does however show up when i inspect the usb ports via the about this mac menu. And it gives all the info about the product there.

but i tried it in 2 different sequencers and some standalone apps but i cant get midi in from it nor can i select it as midi input device :<

anyone has any idea what i can do to make my keyboard work again?

Regards,

Nils

[Jared]

Do you have Pro Tools installed?

Have you repaired disk permissions recently?

Did you format your HD and do a clean install of 10.6 or did you upgrade an existing installation of 10.5?

[GJO]

I have the same problem with my macbook running OSX 10.6.2 and my trusty MK-229C. I updated OSX from tiger, so no clean install.
I installed the 'MIDI_USB_OSX_3_4_0'

If i look at the USB bus from within the OSX system profiler it doesn't see anything connected to it, while the mk-249c is directly plugged into that bus and switched on. It's even using usb power.

Please any help much appreciated.

[Jared]

The Evolution keyboard are plug and play and do not require a driver. I've heard that when upgrading from Tiger, formatting and doing a clean install is recommended. The problem may be the keyboard. Can you test the keyboard on a different computer to see if it's recognized?

[GJO]

After updating to Snow Leopard i got this message:

System extension cannot be used
The system extension "/System/Lybrary/Extensions/Evolution_USB-Keyboard.Kext" was installed improperly and cannot be used. Please try reinstalling it, or contact product's vendor for An update.

I removed the kernel extension manually because the warning came back every 15 minutes or so. The M-Audio driver update wasn't yet available.

Any idea what i could try? besides connecting the keyboard to another computer. Thanks.

[GJO]

since i connected it to another mac running 10.5.8 were it was recognized, it now suddenly is recognized again by the USB bus of my mac with snow leopard, however not by any app's listed in the midi ports nor show up in the OSX Audio midi setup.

please . . . what to do next?

[Jared]

Do you have a USB hub you can try connecting the keyboard to?

[GJO]

My mac can see the mk-249c even when connected via a usb hub, but still it won't activate (or show up) in the OSX AudioMidi Setup.

[Jared]

You could try deleting the following AMS preferences files:

Macintosh HD>Users>UserName>Library>Preferences> com.apple.audio.AudioMIDISetup.plist
Macintosh HD>Users>UserName>Library>Preferences>ByHost> com.apple.MIDI.letters&numbers.plist

Then repair disk permissions. On your OS X system drive, go in the Applications>Utilities folder and double-click the Disk Utility. Select your system boot volume on the left (the named drive), click the First Aid tab on the right, and then click the button on that page that says Repair Disk Permissions.

If the problem persists it could be a problem with having updated from Tiger without doing a clean install.

[dklawson]

Same problem here. Using a Power Mac G5 and trying to get my MK-249C to work. Did a fresh OS install, then upgraded to Leopard (10.5.6). I can see all the info about the MK-249C under the USB devices listed by SystemProfiler. There is power going to the keyboard. I changed the MIDI over USB setting on the keyboard to "Yes". But any apps that I try do not receive any MIDI messages. The keyboard works fine when I plug in to my Windows PC.

JA, I also tried your suggestion to delete the two .plist files and repair disk permissions. No luck. What is the next step?

[GJO]

JA, i deleted the pref's, but no change so far. BTW couldn't find any file called letters&numbers.plist on my mac.

usb bus check gives:

USB Bus:

Host Controller Location: Built-in USB
Host Controller Driver: AppleUSBUHCI
PCI Device ID: 0x27c9
PCI Revision ID: 0x0002
PCI Vendor ID: 0x8086
Bus Number: 0x3d

MK-249C USB MIDI keyboard:

Product ID: 0x008e
Vendor ID: 0x0a4d
Version: 2.00
Speed: Up to 12 Mb/sec
Manufacturer: Evolution Electronics Ltd.
Location ID: 0x3d100000
Current Available (mA): 500
Current Required (mA): Unknown (Device has not been configured)

Looks ok too me. definitely a software thing indeed, O.K. what can we trash next?

[prickstein]

I'm in the same boat here guys. I just bought a new 27" iMac running Logic and I can't get my mk249c to be recognised but it shows up in the system profiler.
I also have a "miditech i2 control 25 which works fine but is only 2 octaves.:(

[GJO]

JA, i bought a new laptop, because my macbook is broken. so now i had the chance to check out the MK249c with a clean installed snow leopard. And also here it doesn't show up in the osx audio midi setup . . .

[Airotique]

Hey guys,

try this: http://www.m-audio.com/index.php?do=support.drivers&f=596

Cheers

[GJO]

Hey guys,

try this: http://www.m-audio.com/index.php?do=support.drivers&f=596

Cheers

Sorry to say, but if you don't put more info in your post it will not be useful to anyone! please always post your system spec's and osx version.

We're having this problem specifically on intel mac's running Snow Leopard (OSX 10.6.x) It would be highly unlikely that a patch from 2005 will help us here. However if it did, JA would be on top of this already . . . i don't mind to be proven wrong here, i even wish someone could . . .

[paolee]

hi guys,

i got the same problem. I have a completely new macbook pro with snow leopard. My mk-249c doesn't work.

I hope someone finds a solution.

Thanks

[florin]

Hi guys,
Any updates on this thread? I'm having the same issue and none of the above helped
Cheers

[GJO]

nop, so far so bad . . . probably not all that interesting for Apple and Avid. It's all about commerce, and making money is other then helping people (support costs money).
Helping us means that we don't buy their new stuff . . . So let me ask you, where will you buy your new midi controller to get back on track with snow leopard? i'm not buying any M-audio products anymore, i guess . . . year but the real problem is Apple .. . and Coremidi .. . well other company's drivers do still work! listen to me pale, if they want they can fix it in one day

they really should come up with a solution by now . . . i hate to throw my beloved controller in the trash as if it is a waste of plastic . . . it makes me sad

[prickstein]

Helping us means that we don't buy their new stuff . . . S
Not helping us means I just went a bought a new controller from the opposition, Novation.
Sorry Avid, I need tools that work now. My Pro Tools 8.03 Snow Leopard doesn't allow me to use my 002 for any application except Pro Tools. Thanks to this, my decision to jump to Logic and use Novation controllers from now on became a lot easier. I have been a PT and M-Audio/Evolution/Midiman user for 15 years til now. Goodbye Avid.
I really look forward to what the future holds for Logic now that Dave Lebolt is at Apple.

[GJO]

Great Prickstein! i'm not a big fan of protools either, i work on a daily basis with it and it is still a good multitrack audio editor. But nothing more. For advanced music production i use Logic. BTW audio editing goes even better with logic today.

I was planning to buy a Novation Nocturn 49 controller keyboard to fill the MK249c gap. which Novation controller did you get? do you use the Automap software?

PS: i hope Avid won't buy Novation to spoil the market again ;-)

[blackch]

Well, I have my old MK249 (not the 249C) working under Snow Leopard 10.6.2 64bit mode.
Basically you need to install the Evolution_USB-Keyboard.kext from the driver package linked above by Airotique. Just decompress the .sit file and execute the EvolutionUsbExt.pkg. Or you can do it manually extracting the Evolution_USB-Keyboard.kext with Pacifist.app and installing it with Kext Utility.app.
Looking a bit into the driver the supported devices are MK249, MK249C and MK361.
Thats all to it, you must see the keyboard under MIDI Devices control panel and should be aviable in your sequencer of choice too.
I hope you didnt trashed your keyboard yet!

[GJO]

Interesting! Well, whenever i install the EvolutionUsbExt.pkg i get a OSX error nagging me about the Evolution_USB-Keyboard.kext not being compatible.
Did you have this at first?
Is the Kext Utility.app fixing something here?

And, just to make clear, does the keyboard show up just in the daw software or also in the Audio and Midi devices Setup from OSX?

[lyran]

I have a first gen Macbook (1,1) running Snow Leopard 10.6.2, 32 bit. I had done everything suggested in this thread: installing the old drivers, running Disk Utility "Repair Disk Permissions," but nothing would enable my MK-249C to be seen. Then I followed blackch's advice, and ran "Kext Utility" 2.4.2 (from kexts.com) which did its own "repair permissions" thing and that seems to have done the trick!

Thank-you blackch!

[lyran]

@GJO: the keyboard now shows up in Audio Midi Setup, and is auto-detected. In Reason at least, Auto-detect didn't work, I had to click add in "keyboard & control surfaces" then select the manufacturer & model; from then on it was available.

[GJO]

THANKS BLACKCH & LYRAN,

It did the trick. I installed the Evolution_USB-Keyboard.kext and got immediately the system warning about incompatible system extension after that i just started up the Kext Utility and it repaired something in the system extension folder and NOW IT WORKS !!!

[myles_ahead]

BLACKCH & LYRAN.... Thanks Thanks Thanks!

This keyboard was just about to go in the bin, but I've got it up and running again. I've been having to use the computer keyboard as a midi controller for ages now so this will be great!

[florin]

BLACKCH & LYRAN, thank you!

To tell you the truth, I did not think it would work but it did. You guys made my day and saved me a few quids. Thanks a lot.
Cheers!!!

[jonathad]

Hi there,

My MK has stopped working on my old mac, and doesn't work on the new one - in the past I have been able to download the old 10.1.5 patch to get my MK working, but since I've upgraded to a new imac, it doesn't work anymore. Anyone else still having these issues?

Before I pull it apart to see if it's mechanical, has anyone got any bright ideas - I still don't believe that this model is plug and play, every mac I've had I've needed to put software on to make it work.

Cheers,

J

[Jared]

It sounds like the early versions of these units were not plug and play. For these units, the only available driver is this old version. (http://www.m-audio.com/index.php?do=support.drivers&f=596) Although not tested on recent operating systems, it sounds like it does still work. If your keyboard still isn't working, you could try connecting its MIDI output to a different MIDI interface and using it as a stand-alone MIDI controller.