Unreliable Midi

["Michael Peters" <mp@mpeters.de>]

I'm continuously pissed off by the way that my various USB midi controllers turn up or don't, or get confused, or disappear, on my Vista notebook. Advice needed!

 

I use Bidule but it isn't Bidule's problem, it is a Windows Vista problem. Does it get better with Window7? are there any tools that I can use to monitor what happens, or to better take care of the USB devices?

 

I regularly use two Nanokontrols and a Softstep. Sometimes I use a Nanopad, a Nanokey, and an Axon midi converter.  I usually load a Bidule first that only consists of Midi monitors so that I can see which devices work and which don't, so that I can unplug/replug them.

 

Some of the symptoms are

 

- the Softstep sometimes disappears. I have to unplug and replug it to come up again. Today it refuses to show up even though Windows makes a recognize sound when I plug it it.

- the various Nano devices get mixed up often, or don't all show up.

- when plugging them into different ports, everything gets mixed up

 

This is driving me nuts. I can't believe there is no remedy for this (and no, I don't want Apple products :)

 

Michael