Old 08-21-2017, 11:43 PM   #1
Delta T
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Default Beatstep Pro drops first step...

I'm experiencing an odd problem that I'm hoping is just a setting I'm missing somewhere. Recently picked up an Arturia Beatstep Pro (BSP) to have a hardware sequencer to twiddle around on. The BSP (v2.0.0.2) is synchronized to Reaper (5.40) and tracks time fine. BSP is feeding midi via USB to track 1 which has Expert Sleepers Voice Controller plugin and goes thru a hardware output to my synth. Works great. I can add other tracks with midi playing VSTi synths and no problems.

BSP has a feature where the sequences can be transposed by pushing on one of its pads or via midi input. When running if I push a pad to transpose it changes right on the spot. I created a track thats only purpose was to send midi out to the BSP to transpose sequences while running. The routing was done in the I/O section to midi hardware device - Beatstep Pro. If I set the tracks input to a keyboard the BSP will transpose exactly when I press a key on the keyboard.

However - if I put a midi event with notes so I can have the transpose happen at specific times it always misses the first step and the transpose won't take effect till the second step. I guess I could lay out the changes, select them all and back them up a bit...but considering that I can use a keyboard input and works correctly, seems like something may not be setup correctly or its some sort of bug. While typing this I was thinking I should try putting the midi notes on a different track and Send them to the BSP track and see if it works that way...I'll try that later tonight when I get home.

Any ideas what may be causing this?
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Old 08-22-2017, 10:06 PM   #2
Delta T
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So I had a chance to try sending midi to the BSP transpose track and it didn't seem to fix the issue. Something I did find interesting is that if I loop the section after the first pass and it loops back to the beginning everything is in sync.

EDIT: To rule out the BSP I used two different sequencer programs on my iPad and saw the same results. This appears to be a bug in Reaper.

EDIT 2: Well might not be a problem with Reaper as I tried this with Live and I'm getting similar issues. Guess I'll need to compensate the transpose midi sequences until I can figure out exactly what's happening...

Any BSP users out have a similar issue?

Dave

Last edited by Delta T; 08-22-2017 at 11:20 PM. Reason: Update
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Old 08-25-2017, 08:50 AM   #3
Luster
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Didn't used the BSP in the way you described but I believe the problem is the buffering / latency. No DAW knows which MIDI signals should go first and when you first press play it cannot "prerender" / prepare a thigh sending. My BSP also needs one measure to "groove" in when clocked to Reaper. The only thing you can do is compensate manually by putting the transpose notes before the actual change a little.
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Old 08-25-2017, 02:27 PM   #4
Delta T
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Thanks for the input. I understand what you're saying. What is so strange about this is if I am looping the section - let's say the piece actually starts at measure 2 so we avoid the glitches at the beginning - and have the loop set from measure 2 to measure 9 (8 bar section). When it first starts the transpose always misses the first step of the BSP sequence (the sequence is 16 steps lasts 2 bars). When Reaper hits the end of the looped area and jumps back to the beginning of bar 2, everything is working great and transpose happens when it's supposed to. Tempo is running about 115 - I tried lowering the rate and when really slow it works fine.

Seems like I might have to loop the whole piece and start it 2 bars from the end. :-) If there was a way to delay the clock going to the BSP that might help too.

Dave
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Old 08-25-2017, 04:21 PM   #5
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The second incarnation of the looped area works because Reaper is already running and can "prebuffer" the transpose events.
Generally I would recommend to leave some air at the beginning of every song. You can adjust this offset in the project settings so the measure counter is still spot on.
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