How do I Get Midi Input into a computer?

[PhantomX]

Do I need a Driver for Midi Input? Im using a ctx-3000 
Im using usb (ctx-3000) to thunderbolt (PC)

[Jokeyman123]

You must have some system of midi devices!  From what I understand, your computer must have a Thunderbolt port, updated Thunderbolt firmware in the bios if it doesn't already, and of course a Thunderbolt hardware device. I am pretty sure you cannot connect a USB cable directly to a Thunderbolt computer port, although if you have a USB "C" cable used for USB 3.0 it should work providing everything else in your computer is set up to work with thunderbolt. Most of the hardware interfaces-Presonus, Apollo, Focusrite etc. seem to have their own software and drivers to configure the device, regardless of what you are connecting to it. This might help....

 

https://www.lacie.com/support/kb/important-using-thunderbolt-3-on-windows-007783en/

 

And although the Casio is a "class-compliant" device for use up to USB 2.0 protocols and speeds, the Thunderbolt device must be installed and configured properly to connect it to anything. Since Thunderbolt devices apparently are oodles faster than even firewire or USB 3.0, I have no idea how the CTX might do midi transfers, should be way more than you need for throughput for audio or midi, Thunderbolt is supposed to be backwards-compatible.   These seem pretty expensive-most cost 3 times more than your Casio.

[Jokeyman123]

One other question I omitted to ask...are you using a Thunderbolt 3.0 port on a Windows machine, or the older Thunderbolt mini display port, which I believe is completely incompatible with any midi device, it is only designed for video and embedded audio in video files-I don't see any compatibility for use with a music keyboard, regardless of cable adapters. and when you refer to a PC, I am assuming it is a Windows, not a MAC? I think most of this will apply regrdless of platform but i don't know the Apple world as well as i do Windows and Linux.

[Brad Saucier]

I don't think we've ever seen a thunderbolt related question on the forums.  Usually everyone is using a USB port on their computer.

[r_1159]

18 hours ago, PhantomX said:

Do I need a Driver for Midi Input? Im using a ctx-3000 
Im using usb (ctx-3000) to thunderbolt (PC)

You just need a printer cable and a software that can read and play midi . Plenty avialble for free 

 

[PhantomX]

On 4/28/2021 at 1:03 PM, Jokeyman123 said:

One other question I omitted to ask...are you using a Thunderbolt 3.0 port on a Windows machine, or the older Thunderbolt mini display port, which I believe is completely incompatible with any midi device, it is only designed for video and embedded audio in video files-I don't see any compatibility for use with a music keyboard, regardless of cable adapters. and when you refer to a PC, I am assuming it is a Windows, not a MAC? I think most of this will apply regrdless of platform but i don't know the Apple world as well as i do Windows and Linux.

I have windows sry for the late reply
As for thunderbolt port im not sure do you know a way to check for that?

 

[PhantomX]

On 4/28/2021 at 2:19 PM, r_1159 said:

You just need a printer cable and a software that can read and play midi . Plenty avialble for free 

 

So I have Embers will that work?

[PhantomX]

and I actually have a thunderbolt in my io in my pc so I should be good to go

[Chandler Holloway]

I would say just use one of the regular USB ports on your computer and a USB printer cable. Much easier that way, and you can save the Thunderbolt port for something that actually needs that protocol or something that can take advantage of the higher transfer speeds. Using thunderbolt for something as simple and lightweight as USB-MIDI serial transmission is a bit of a waste.

[PhantomX]

57 minutes ago, Chandler Holloway said:

I would say just use one of the regular USB ports on your computer and a USB printer cable. Much easier that way, and you can save the Thunderbolt port for something that actually needs that protocol or something that can take advantage of the higher transfer speeds. Using thunderbolt for something as simple and lightweight as USB-MIDI serial transmission is a bit of a waste.

thing is lol I don't have a printer cable and lol I don't use the thunderbolt cable that much soo

[Chandler Holloway]

Well, the other thing is that the Thunderbolt cable isn't working, and we don't know how to troubleshoot your Thunderbolt i/o card on the software side of things (we never get this question here because everyone just uses a printer cable).

 

There are no drivers needed on the Casio side of things, so outside of trying a different cable, I can't offer you any solutions besides pursuing an answer from whomever manufactured your I/O card on that PC.

 

Printer cables are extremely cheap (I see some for $7 on Amazon), and very versatile if you ever acquire any other music/recording gear, webcams, capture cards etc in the future. They're so commonplace among USB accessories that I'm surprised you don't already have one, and I would recommend double checking whatever drawer you've stuffed all your cables in (we all have one, haha) just to make sure. See my attachment for reference.

[Jokeyman123]

IO in your PC? Not sure what this means, is this an adapter card? 

 

 A true Thunderbolt port in a Windows desktop or laptop will look like a USB 3.0 port, but must have a little "lightning" icon next to it. if it doesn't, its a USB 3.0 or 2.0 port. I have both USB 2.0 and 3.0 (not Thunderbolt) ports on my laptops-almost identical although the one laptop colors the 3.0 USB port blue inside, and the USB 2.0 are black although I'm sure this is not a standard way of differentiating the 2.  Look at your USB ports-if you have both USB 2.0 and 3.0, you can see the difference. and again, as others already said, there is no need to use USB 3.0 or Thunderbolt for your connection to the CTX. You will not see any benefit from the increased throughput speeds, the CTX will send and recieve data at USB 2.0 data rates regardless.

[Chandler Holloway]

On 4/27/2021 at 6:31 PM, PhantomX said:

Do I need a Driver for Midi Input? Im using a ctx-3000 
Im using usb (ctx-3000) to thunderbolt (PC)

 

Before we go forward, can you show us a picture of the cable you're using? It's possible you're plugging into the wrong USB port on the CT-X. People often accidentally plug into the flash drive port ("To Device") instead of the USB-MIDI port ("To Host").

 

If this cable is going to work, it needs to have USB-B on one end and Thunderbolt on the other, which is pretty rare but not unheard of. Most Thunderbolt to USB cables I've seen terminate in USB-A on the other end, commonly used to connect USB-C phones to standard full sized USB wall chargers or directly to USB slots on a computer. You might be ok if it looks like this:

 

Something like this (much more common) won't work at all, in which case you should buy a printer cable and not bother with Thunderbolt:

[PhantomX]

On 4/30/2021 at 4:49 PM, Jokeyman123 said:

IO in your PC? Not sure what this means, is this an adapter card? 

 

 A true Thunderbolt port in a Windows desktop or laptop will look like a USB 3.0 port, but must have a little "lightning" icon next to it. if it doesn't, its a USB 3.0 or 2.0 port. I have both USB 2.0 and 3.0 (not Thunderbolt) ports on my laptops-almost identical although the one laptop colors the 3.0 USB port blue inside, and the USB 2.0 are black although I'm sure this is not a standard way of differentiating the 2.  Look at your USB ports-if you have both USB 2.0 and 3.0, you can see the difference. and again, as others already said, there is no need to use USB 3.0 or Thunderbolt for your connection to the CTX. You will not see any benefit from the increased throughput speeds, the CTX will send and recieve data at USB 2.0 data rates regardless.

Next to the thunderbolt port it says ss and the usb icon

[PhantomX]

On 4/30/2021 at 5:41 PM, Chandler Holloway said:

 

Before we go forward, can you show us a picture of the cable you're using? It's possible you're plugging into the wrong USB port on the CT-X. People often accidentally plug into the flash drive port ("To Device") instead of the USB-MIDI port ("To Host").

 

If this cable is going to work, it needs to have USB-B on one end and Thunderbolt on the other, which is pretty rare but not unheard of. Most Thunderbolt to USB cables I've seen terminate in USB-A on the other end, commonly used to connect USB-C phones to standard full sized USB wall chargers or directly to USB slots on a computer. You might be ok if it looks like this:

 

Something like this (much more common) won't work at all, in which case you should buy a printer cable and not bother with Thunderbolt:

It looks like the first picture

[Chandler Holloway]

Ok, so, connect it to the computer with that cable, turn on the CT-X3000, open up your MIDI software of choice and select "CASIO USB-MIDI" as an input device. You won't need drivers, it's class compliant USB-MIDI. If you just want a simple, free software you can use to test if the MIDI input is working, MIDI-OX is a common recommendation for troubleshooting connections like this.

http://www.midiox.com/

 

If it's not appearing as as a MIDI Input device, then the problem is with your I/O card, in which case, I can't offer you any advice besides buying a printer cable and using a USB slot. If you really want to use this cable and that Thunderbolt port, you should pursue troubleshooting and support from whomever manufactured that card or your PC.

[Jokeyman123]

From what I've been able to research-although my USB 3.0 ports aren't marked this way, the "SS" logo is another symbol for USB 3.0, but not Thunderbolt. This is why i dislike using computers for music so much. So technically, you could use a regular USB printer cable (like the first picture) in this USB "SS" port, and it will probably work fine-but most keyboards as of 1:36 PM Eastern Daylight Savings Time on May 5, 2021 are still only able to transfer at best USB 2.0 data rates. That could change tomorrow, or even this afternoon.             

 

A picture paints a thousand words, unless its fingerpaint, take a look here for some pretty clear pictures of various USB ports. and i just discovered-I also have a USB 3.1 port-which looks different than all of these, and is not compatible with either 2.0 or 3.0, aaarrrggghhh!!!

 

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=usb+2.0+vs.+usb+3.0+ports+pictures&t=brave&page=1&sexp={"biaexp"%3A"b"%2C"msvrtexp"%3A"b"}&iax=images&ia=images

 

 

 

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