using Edirol PCR800 midi keyboard with Logic Pro X

[Al Hinds]

I recently upgraded to Logic Pro X and am having problems getting my Edirol PCR 800 keyboard to talk to it. I've had this midi keyboard for many years and no longer have an installation disc or handbook to give me any help. Has anyone else had this problem and found a solution to it? 

[Bobby Simons]

I used two PCR-800's with Mainstage for years, they were great. A buddy of mine in Florida picked one up  exactly like mine  on eBay to have for me in advance of a visit to jam, I figured it would be a piece of cake. Wrong. I could not get my Mainstage to see it at all - no matter what I did. It is a mystery to me to this day.

[ElmerJFudd]

This PCR 800 is not class compliant, so it requires a driver for macOS.   Roland supported it up to 10.9 Mavericks but you can see if the driver will still function on your version of macOS.  
 

https://www.roland.com/global/support/by_product/pcr-800/updates_drivers/

 

If not, you are in luck, it has standard MIDI io.   You can hook it up with MIDI cables if you just pickup a 1x1 midi interface, pick a class compliant one so you don’t run into this problem again.  
 

iConnectivity mioXC 1x1 USB-C MIDI Interface $49 for example. 

 

After that,  the feature you are looking for is MIDI learn.   You can assign faders, knobs, buttons to whatever you like.  

[Reezekeys]

6 minutes ago, ElmerJFudd said:

This PCR 800 is not class compliant, so it requires a driver for macOS.

 

Wrong. It requires the driver when the setting below is "ON." Turn "Advanced Driver Switch" OFF and you gave a class-compliant keyboard. Same deal with the Edirol's replacement, the A300/500/800 Pros.

 

This setting may very well be why Al is experiencing the issue prompting his post.

 

PS - I have never experienced any differences between these two settings when playing my A800s. Use what works. The midi ports the OS sees are identified differently though. On my Mac, in Bidule, the class-compliant midi input is "Port 2" and the "advanced driver" input is "A-PRO 1."

 

 

[ElmerJFudd]

6 minutes ago, Reezekeys said:

 

Wrong. It requires the driver when the setting below is "ON." Turn "Advanced Driver Switch" OFF and you gave a class-compliant keyboard. Same deal with the Edirol's replacement, the A300/500/800 Pros.

 

This setting may very well be why Al is experiencing the issue prompting his post.

 

 

Good find, and a very interesting feature for Roland/Edirol to include.  I hope it does the trick!  
 

Just looking at what’s around these days - if not successful and not wanting to invest in a 1x1 interface, Arturia has a similar keyboard controller product 61k which sells for $269.   

[ElmerJFudd]

34 minutes ago, Bobby Simons said:

I used two PCR-800's with Mainstage for years, they were great. A buddy of mine in Florida picked one up  exactly like mine  on eBay to have for me in advance of a visit to jam, I figured it would be a piece of cake. Wrong. I could not get my Mainstage to see it at all - no matter what I did. It is a mystery to me to this day.

So, it may have been this setting that Reeze found in the manual - which would change its behavior.   Or, it’s really common for inexpensive controller keyboards to have a USB printer port connector that fails after repeated plugging in/unplugging.  I’ve experienced the latter over and over again with MAudio.   

[Reezekeys]

I just looked at Roland's support page and it appears the latest driver for the PCR-800 is Intel only, so if you have a newer Mac with Apple Silicon, it probably won't work, although I suppose you could try. I would just set the PCR-800's "advanced driver" to OFF.