So, I recently bought an Akai MPK49..

I was going to use it as a controller for my iPad and all the synths within. I did try it out in the store a really liked the feel of the knobs, keys and sliders before looking for a used one online.

Found a seller and then bought the keyboard after a few minutes of testing and fiddling with it connected to Logic. When I came home I immedietly connected it to my iPad with the CCK and got the error message that the power was too low.

Ok, no worries there I didn't have an AC adapter and thought I'd just pick one up tomorrow..

Cooked some dinner and suddenly got the bright idea to power the MPK with the usb and then connect the ipad with a usb midi cable, (one i have tested my MPC with before and that worked). But soon after realized it was not working. Later read that the MPK won't send midi while it's connected with an usb interface [1] ?!

Thing is, I really have no idea what I'm doing. But still, if it sends midi on midi channel 1 and i have a working interface receiving midi in on channel 1, and all my apps recognizing USB MIDI as an input, why wont me pressing the keys send anything to the iPad? Please help me I'm really looking forward to let loose with this beast but seriously have no way of wrapping my head around this.

Lastly, english is not my native language so please excuse all the horrible grammar.

I don't think you will be able to get the MPK49+iPad MIDI working over USB without an extra power source. The alternate method will still use the Camera Connection Kit though.

Your first problem as you mentioned is that the iPad/CCK won't produce enough voltage to power the MPK. Not surprising, iPad/CCK only can power things like the Korg nano Series and other MIDI controllers with very low voltage consumption.

Your first thought for the MPK+iPad/CCK might be to use USB to connect to the MPK to the CCK and have a DC adaptor plug to power the MPK. The problem there is the MPK/MPD series when used over USB will always expect the power to go over the USB cable, even when a DC power plug is used.

So you will still get the "Not Enough Power" error message from iOS.

You will need one of these (There are many others, this is just one example) -



http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/ ... 4AodtXkAOw

And one or two of these standard MIDI cables -



You would take the USB of the USB/MIDI interface and plug that into the CCK's USB. Then take the 2 MIDI cables and plug those into the MPK's MIDI In and Out. MPK's MIDI Out to the MIDI In on the USB/MIDI interface, MPK's MIDI In to the USB/MIDI interface's MIDI Out.

Use a DC wall plug to power the MPK.

You could also probably use a powered USB hub instead of the USB/MIDI interface+MIDI cables+DC plug.

In that case you would plug the USB hub into a wall outlet and plug it's USB into the iPad+CCK's USB. Then plug the MPK's USB into the powered USB hub.



http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/ ... 4AodJAUANw

To make sure the powered hub (or other USB ports) has full voltage being put out - Control Panel/Hardware And Sound/Power Options/Edit Plan Settings/USB Settings/USB selective suspend setting = "DISABLED".

(I would have to boot OS X to check where the USB power settings are on that OS.)

Hey Metatron, thanks for answering.

The USB-Midi cable did not work with a DC wall plug and the CCK. That's why I wrote here in the first place, because I couldn't get it to work.

I bought a powered USB hub yesterday and it worked on the first try with all the apps tested yet. You don't need anything else than the powered HUB, the CCK and two USB cables. The MPK needs no wall power when connected to the USB hub.