MIDI Preferences - what does Virtual Midi mean?

[pax-eterna]

IN the MIDI section it shows attached MIDI devices (but not a bluetooth Midi dongle) and is lists "Virtual Midi"

Can someone please explain that? I could not find it in the manual. I mean I understand what virtual means, but in this context I'm not sure what Reaper means by this.

[nicholas]

https://virtualmidisynth.en.lo4d.com/windows

[beingmf]

Originally Posted by pax-eterna

IN the MIDI section it shows attached MIDI devices (but not a bluetooth Midi dongle) and is lists "Virtual Midi"

Can someone please explain that? I could not find it in the manual. I mean I understand what virtual means, but in this context I'm not sure what Reaper means by this.

Maybe your bluetooth dongle has to be routed via something called "Virtual Midi"? Have you searched for a program of that name?

[mschnell]

(In the other thread "pax" stated he was on Linux ?!?!?!)

What is a "bluetooth dongle" regarding Midi ? (My mouse came with a "bluetooth dongle" .)

In Windows Midi via bluetooth is not a normal Misi device, but something decently exotic and not accessible by "normal" DAWs.

AFAIK there is some software ("Midiberry" ? ) by Roland that converts a bluetoth Midi thingy into a normal Midi device.

-Michael

[pax-eterna]

yeah thanks all. On linux, but I am assuming this nomenclature appears on windows/mac versions too.

It is something that Reaper sticks there?

I am using the Widi-Master (but it's essentially the same as Yammie MD-BT-1, Quicco, et al) which shows and is usable as a valid midi input device for my LV2 and VST3 instruments in standalone mode, however Reaper refuses to see it at all. Which I why I thought this "Virtual Midi" source might have been Reapers "cryptic" way of listing it.

I mean, I have tried enabling it of course, but nothing happens

[mschnell]

Widi-Master uses the BlueTooth "receiver" in the PC. Hence Windows does see Bluetooth. Hence nogo in Windows with "normal" DAWs relying on Windows Midi devices (without additional converter software).

"normal" LV2 or VS3 "instrument" plugins don't feature any "Midi" interface to hardware. The VST standard requires them to receive Midi from the DAW. (otherwise they are not strictly "VST-instruments".

NI "Kontrol" is such a weird hybrid thingy that in some funny way directly talks to NI keyboards (via some propriety drivers and a propriety USB spec).

A DAW is not supposed to mess around with such stuff. (AFAIK, the ReaKontrol plugin is able to relax some of those restrictions.)

-Michael (still no info whatsoever about how all this is handled in Linux)

[pax-eterna]

Well, as an update here...seems the virtual midi in Reaper needs to be connected to the WIDI-Master BLE device, and I have found a way to do this via qjackctl.

So I can now use bluetooth midi in Reaper, albeit it MUST be via qjack...simply run qjack select the graph and drag a line between widi-master and virtual midi, which is called Virtual Raw MIDI btw in qjack.

Also it seems, so far, that even when I shut down qjack after that, the links remain until I shut down Reaper...not fully tested this however with opening additional VST instrument tracks, AFTER qjack is closed.

I can still run ALSA in Reaper for the audio.

[mschnell]

Congrats !
The ALSA / JACK / PipeWire stuff in Reaper still seems a bit of a moving target...
Abyway. Great that this - other than in Windows - is possible in with pure OS means.
-Michael