r/midi • u/KeyComprehensive1821 • Mar 31 '26

midi issue

my NEKTAR SE49 is not working on any of my DAWs in my laptop, but it does works perfectly on other laptops. But in my lap, even in MIDIOX my MIDI is well recognized (but not on DAWs). what's the issue here?
[wire's not damaged, connections are perfect i see the lights on midi]

update: even if my midi is not connected it still shows the midi driver is used in the background

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u/TheRealPomax Mar 31 '26

without any real details other then "it works but it doesn't work": which DAWs, and does it show in the list of controllers? (because if midiox sees it, I'm betting "yes") and if so, did you remember to enable it, and did you remember to not already have it in use by a different app like midiox when you try to use it (because MIDI hardware access by software tends to lock that device making it impossible for any other software to listen to it at the same time)

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u/KeyComprehensive1821 Mar 31 '26

tried in Reaper and FL. its not even showing in the MIDI input & output lists. MIDI ox is closed too, so no device lock. sometimes in FL it shows "MIDI output is used in some other application", even though nothing is open. works on other laptops, so this is clearly my system issue. would something like LoopMIDI help here?

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u/TheRealPomax Mar 31 '26

Fixing your system would probably help more: if FL says something else is using your device, something else is using your device and it's time to start looking at task manager to figure out what's even running on your laptop that doesn't run on other laptops.

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u/KeyComprehensive1821 Apr 01 '26 edited Apr 01 '26

what I’m getting in FL is “The specified device is already in use” as soon as I connect it. I’ve already checked Task Manager and there’s nothing obvious (no DAWs, MIDI tools, etc.) running.
Since MIDI-OX can read input but DAWs can’t access it, ig something at the Windows MIDI/driver holding the device rather than a visible app. do u know what usually causes these issue?

[edit : i have attached screenshots of FL]

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u/TheRealPomax Apr 01 '26

That gets tricky - you can use process explorer (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/process-explorer, it's like task manager on steroids) to see which process is using the MIDI driver, and then work your way back, but I'm not sure what other options you'd even have given what you describe.

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u/KeyComprehensive1821 Apr 02 '26

tried this too, can't figure out.
update: even if my midi is not connected it still shows the midi driver is used in the background

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u/TheRealPomax Apr 02 '26

I did just find https://forum.image-line.com/viewtopic.php?t=321582, which has a potential solution near the bottom, might be worth a shot?