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01-02-2019, 05:18 PM
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#1
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Aug 2017
Posts: 88
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First Midi ever - Roland A49 keyboard controller
Hi, and thanks for stopping by.
I've been using Reaper for about a half a year now and loving it. This is my first foree into Midi however and can use a little direction.
I run Windows 7 and have a Focusrite Scarlett 6i6 2nd gen interface.
Santa brought be a Roland A49 Keyboard controller that I primarily want to use for mapping and playing sounds I've made with granular synth (Mangle).
I see that the A49 is connected and powered with a USB cable but also has a Midi port. The Scarlett 6i6 also has Midi ports.
As a first curiosity, will the Roland A49 USB also be transferring midi data besides powering the keyboard? Or will the Midi cable port also be necessary? If there is a choice, does it make sense to use one over the other?
I figure if I get that part it straight it will be less confusing going forward in setting it up with Reaper.
Thank you all! Really excited to map out The Mangle to it, make some use out of those massive fuzz bass tones!
Best, Phil
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01-03-2019, 03:27 AM
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#2
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Jun 2015
Posts: 8,704
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You can use either USB or MIDI connection, in practice you won't see a real world difference in performance. A USB connection provides both power and a data connection, no need to buy and attach a separate wall-wart. OTOH you will need to attach a wall-wart to the A49 keyboard to use the MIDI connection.
The MIDI connections on your Scarlet are useful for connecting MIDI hardware keyboards and so on. So if you had a hardware synth with MIDI in/out only then it can communicate with the DAW.
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01-03-2019, 07:09 AM
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#3
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Aug 2017
Posts: 88
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Roland A49
Thank you Softsynth,
Where the USB on the A49 is both power and midi signals it makes sense to just use that if there are no benefits to using the midi port plus USB for power only.
That makes moving forward quite a bit more clear,
Thanks for the clarifying, very helpful Softsynth.
Best,
Phil
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01-03-2019, 07:26 AM
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#4
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Jun 2015
Posts: 8,704
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No problem, it should be just plug in and play basically. If you get detectable (to your ear/brain) latency look to the sound device first.
Consider the MIDI connection in this case as a fall back option were you to suffer unforseen issues with the USB connection. I've typicaly got 8-10 MIDI devices connected via USB at home playing nicely.
MIDI connections are nice to have on a MIDI controller to connect hardware synths without their own keyboards (or synths with their own inferior mini keys).
I had a intermittent reliability issue (MIDI only, everything else connected via USB was seemingly fine) with a powered 7 device USB3 hub with multiple MIDI USB devices but after explaining it to the manufacturer they sent met another (so far) 100% reliable unit. So quite pleased with Aukey.
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01-05-2019, 12:25 PM
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#5
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Aug 2017
Posts: 88
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Getting A49 to play
Hello SoftSynth, hoping I could pick your brain.
I'm not having success as of yet although the Roland A49 driver install seemed to go well with a message that its working with the keyboard controller.
My goal is to get Reaper, the Roland A49 and a VSTi called "Superwave Performer" working together. I like the brass sounds in Superwave so I downloaded the 21 day trial version. ha, I have about 12 days left. I'll probably buy it.
I went into Reaper preferences, MIDI, to activate the A49. The Roland A49, or driver was recognized there so I activated it in the Input window and the Output window. At this point I'm really not sure what else to do. I also assigned the VSTi to the tracks FX, set the input to be MIDI all Channels. I tried the VSTi in both the track FX and also the tracks input FX not really being positive which one a virtual instrument should go. I was assuming the tracks FX in the same way I call up "The Mangle" granular synth to work-which works like a charm.
Im all ears if you would have any direction or corrections for what I'm doing wrong or missing. I'm a total MIDI newbie although have been going deeper and deeper into Reaper over the last 6 months.
Thanks for anything you can advise me on!
Phil
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01-05-2019, 02:37 PM
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#6
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Aug 2017
Posts: 88
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Made connection Yeah!!!
Hi Softsynth, hope your proud of me!
I finally got to hear the VSTi through a track. Sounds quite nice, I knew I'd like this VSTi from the demo.
Something I did in Reaper preferences make the A49 show up in the track-MIDI-input listing. I enabled something in preferences in a way that I guess hadn't before.
But, there is that latency that you mentioned. I'll need now to get what you are describing and fix it. Getting to that now.
Thank you again Softsynth, step by step I guess.
Phil
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01-06-2019, 04:24 AM
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#7
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Jun 2015
Posts: 8,704
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Use ASIO or WASAPI drivers, preferably the former, but the latter can often be just as good in practice.
You want to minimize the size of the ASIO/WASAPI buffer to something you are comfortable with, giving you imperceptible input lag. This will depend on your individual system as to how low a figure you can get away with.
Have a look at Kenny's videos on this site too.
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01-06-2019, 12:26 PM
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#8
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Aug 2017
Posts: 88
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ASIO driver
Thank you,
Are you referring to "Media buffer size" as found under "Audio" in Reaper preferences? Just keep decreasing the size until latency is acceptable?
I recall setting the driver for ASIO but am not finding it now.
Thanks,
Phil
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01-06-2019, 01:38 PM
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#9
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Jun 2015
Posts: 8,704
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Quote:
Originally Posted by pjd3
Thank you,
Are you referring to "Media buffer size" as found under "Audio" in Reaper preferences? Just keep decreasing the size until latency is acceptable?
I recall setting the driver for ASIO but am not finding it now.
Thanks,
Phil
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Leave that alone for the moment (FWIW my block size here 448, YMMV - amount of tracks, CPU load of VSTs, amount of tracks and so on).
Instead go to Audio>Device. You can do this in preferences or click on the right hand top side of Reaper to go directly to the sound device.
Make sure it is on ASIO, if that is not working as desired (or available - it depends on your sound device) alternatively choose WASAPI.
Click on ASIO configuration. That should take you to your devices driver control. Try reducing the ASIO buffer size there. For instance on my machine currently using ASIO4All I have it at 192 samples. See what you can get away with (going lower can make some things struggle, others fine). Ideally you want to give it a bit of headroom, not just shoot for the absolute lowest and expect everything to be fine at that.
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01-06-2019, 08:30 PM
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#10
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Aug 2017
Posts: 88
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That did it1
Nice Softsynth, Thanks!
That's what it needed. I actually set the buffer as low as 70. But this was just to play in real time by itself, no recording, plugins, etc...
So that takes care of running this in my laptop that has a CD player/burner.
Now, to get this happening in my dedicated Reaper DAW offline desktop that doesn't have a CD player/burner. I'm hoping that I can transfer the Roland A49 driver using flashdrive. I don't see whynot, that seems to have worked for other applications, plugins and things. I only put that dedicated computer online when its totally necessary, too afraid of corrupting things from online exposure. Thats has been problematic however, causing some plugins to not show in the VST list. Strangely, Valhalla Shimmer showed up but Ubermod did not. Checked the file path very carefully. I think I need to let Windows fully update to get all the necessary security updates to allow some plugins to show up in Reapers VST.
Thanks Softsynth. This MIDI is a whole new world to me, my first keyboard, and the results were great sonically.
Phil
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01-08-2019, 02:53 AM
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#11
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Human being with feelings
Join Date: Jun 2015
Posts: 8,704
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Quote:
Originally Posted by pjd3
Nice Softsynth, Thanks!
That's what it needed. I actually set the buffer as low as 70. But this was just to play in real time by itself, no recording, plugins, etc...
So that takes care of running this in my laptop that has a CD player/burner.
Now, to get this happening in my dedicated Reaper DAW offline desktop that doesn't have a CD player/burner. I'm hoping that I can transfer the Roland A49 driver using flashdrive. I don't see whynot, that seems to have worked for other applications, plugins and things. I only put that dedicated computer online when its totally necessary, too afraid of corrupting things from online exposure. Thats has been problematic however, causing some plugins to not show in the VST list. Strangely, Valhalla Shimmer showed up but Ubermod did not. Checked the file path very carefully. I think I need to let Windows fully update to get all the necessary security updates to allow some plugins to show up in Reapers VST.
Thanks Softsynth. This MIDI is a whole new world to me, my first keyboard, and the results were great sonically.
Phil
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No problem.
Yes it should be easy to transfer the driver over for the keyboard. I don't remember having any issues with getting any of the Valhalla DSP plugins to appear (demo or full) but then Windows is always kept up to date.
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