Making megababy work

[Heantrad]

So, I'm trying to start learning some basic stuff on reaper and music creation in general and that lead to trying to learn to use a sequencer, I watched a tutorial were they used some samples with samplomatic, then when they setted up megababy it played the samples no problem. After replicating it I didn't manage to make it work, and after some quick searchs I wasn't able to find a solution to the problem I was having.

I did put megababy at the top of all the fx's, before all the samples, but I did set up the samples in samplomatic through some audio files I imported and not directly through midi files, so the question is, do the samples need to be created through a drum software for example or is it not working for other reason.

[solger]

Welcome to the Reaper forums!

Are you referring to this video?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtNOJsAEjPE

I did put megababy at the top of all the fx's, before all the samples,...

Since you mention 'at the top of all the fx', do you have any other fx loaded on the track besides megababy and samplomatic ?

... but I did set up the samples in samplomatic through some audio files I imported and not directly through midi files, so the question is, do the samples need to be created through a drum software for example or is it not working for other reason.

Megababy basically sends out MIDI notes triggering the audio samples loaded in Samplomatic which are assigned to the same MIDI notes (see 'Note start/end' and 'MIDI Chan' parameters in Samplomatic).
So first thing to check would be if the MIDI channel and MIDI notes between Megababy and Samplomatic are matching.

EDIT:

Looks like there might be an octave offset between these two by default (like Megababy C3 triggers Samplomatic C4).
To adjust for that, you can for instance change the octave_offset=-1 parameter inside the Megababy code (line 97) - accessible via the [EDIT] button at the top right in the Megababy plugin window.
Or have a look at the MIDI octave name display offset option under Preferences > Media > MIDI.

[Heantrad]

Hey sorry for the late reply, thought I did check the email notifications but seems I didn't, thanks for the help though

Originally Posted by solger

Are you referring to this video?

Yeah, that's the one

Originally Posted by solger

do you have any other fx loaded on the track besides megababy and samplomatic ?

Only those two

Originally Posted by solger

So first thing to check would be if the MIDI channel and MIDI notes between Megababy and Samplomatic are matching.

I think I did check that, will do another check as soon as posible and see if those didn't match

Originally Posted by solger

Looks like there might be an octave offset between these two by default

I checked several of the octaves just in case, nothing at all

Edit:
Did a quick check with a single sample and megababy, the sample was set to channel 0 automatically, so the first try was probably on all channels it seems, changed it to channel 1 to test and didn't work neither, couldn't find what channel megababy was on.

Here are some images of how the fx are setted up in case it helps https://imgur.com/a/2DUETD7

[solger]

Originally Posted by Heantrad

Edit:
Did a quick check with a single sample and megababy, the sample was set to channel 0 automatically, so the first try was probably on all channels it seems, changed it to channel 1 to test and didn't work neither, couldn't find what channel megababy was on.

By default the midi channels on all grid rows in Megababy are set to MIDI Channel 1 - indicated by the channel numbers shown in the first column with blue background below the [DM] button (these can be changed via click & drag up/down)

Some other things to double-check:

• Is audio output working in general (for instance when importing & playing back audio samples or files directly on a track)?
• Did you insert a pattern in the Megababy grid via mouse click? (I can't see any in the grid area the screenshot is showing)

[Heantrad]

So, I got some time to try it out again and it seems the problem was the octave difference between the samples and megababy, seems I didn't check hard enough on that, but now a pair of problems have showed up.

Everytime I stop the sequencer it starts again at exactly where it left off, with no way of resetting it so it starts in the beginning (first column), the closest way to a reset I've reached is the sequence starting on the fifth column instead of the first.

And when I try to record the sequencer, nothing shows in the preview, although if I render the project, the sequencer does seems to play all thorough the track, is that just how it works or megababy getting recorded is supossed to do show a preview.

I've included this image https://imgur.com/a/8QHs7ns where it's shown that the track is armed and that if I use the virtual midi keyboard (right part of the track) a preview is shown, while the one where I just let the sequencer play is totally blank (left part)

[solger]

Everytime I stop the sequencer it starts again at exactly where it left off, with no way of resetting it so it starts in the beginning (first column), the closest way to a reset I've reached is the sequence starting on the fifth column instead of the first.

In general, there are two different play toggle Actions:

• Transport: Play/stop
• Transport: Play/pause

The first one (Play/stop) stops playback and moves the play cursor back to the last edit cursor position (to where the playback started). The second one (Play/pause) pauses at the current position and then continues from there.
The shortcut assignments of these and other Actions can be swapped or changed in the Action List: https://www.reaper.fm/videos.php#tzg9fifza0s

And when I try to record the sequencer, nothing shows in the preview, although if I render the project, the sequencer does seems to play all thorough the track, is that just how it works or megababy getting recorded is supossed to do show a preview.

For recording the Audio or MIDI output of a Track, you'll need to set the (same or a receiving) Track to an Audio or MIDI Record: Output option: https://www.reaper.fm/videos.php#nVbGhnS_sQM


In case you haven't already found them, I'll highly recommend to check out the User Guide (https://www.reaper.fm/userguide.php) and Videos section (https://www.reaper.fm/videos.php) in general. Lots of useful info there for getting started.

[Heantrad]

Alright, then that's it I think, thank you so much for your help