Importing a midi song file?

[gbuckels]

I too have learned a lot from this post and appreciate the answers and questions that arose. I've dabbed on and off with Reaper since an early number and even paid for it, but I have mostly used Cakewalk since before 'Pro Audio' and Reason since version 1. I keep forgetting Reaper uses scripting and programming but I'm gonna keep at it till I get it down.
Thank You, Gary

[MusoBob]

Try this:
right click Save Link/Target As
ReaTrak send selected midi tracks channels to track x and name tracks.lua
Drag your midi in then insert a new track at the bottom and set it to a Midi Out Synth or a VSTi/DXi
select all the instrument tracks leaving the send track that has the Midi Synth on unselected
run script and enter the Midi Synth track number.


Full Screen

[dave2002]

I have made great strides with Reaper partly due to this thread, but also by a certain amount of experimentation.

One concern is trying to identify which tracks should be associated with which instruments.

One suggestion is to take a known midi file, or generate one explicitly, and then put specific patterns into each track, so that when the midi file is imported into Reaper the tracks can be identified.

I don't fully understand why Reaper doesn't sort this out automatically - there may be some historical reason.

Once one has identified what each Reaper track should "really" be, then an appropriate sound or virtual instrument for each Reaper track can be assigned.

This is a lot of work for something which other DAWs seem to manage relatively easily - even if sometimes the actual sounds generated are not correct - for example a cello might get mapped to a piano sound - but at least one can see that there are cello tracks, rather than all the tracks being labelled as Piccolo.

Post number 20 may turn out to be useful - if I can figure out what it's doing, and get it to work.

I should mention that I don't use Windows - but am running with MacOS under Catalina, so some of the "solutions" here probably won't work for me.

[bobobo]

Here's what you can do with the lv2-plugins (x42 is your friend)

[Andaraginga]

My experience with midi is limited. I used to create midi melodies in the Reaper piano roll and never thought much about midi-specific stuff like midi channels or midi note events.

The way I looked at it, was this:
The midi I created would be played with the sound of the plugin that I put on the respective track's FX bin. Other settings for panorama, reverb or chorus would come from the track's settings or additional plugin but not from within the midi file.

Now, for the first time I was loading multi instrument midi files into Reaper. In my case I was experimenting with Jjazzlab, a tool that can be used to create backing tracks and save them as midi files, but I think the scenario would be similar if I had downloaded and used midi song files from other sources.

Most of what has been discussed in this thread is clear to me.
What I am mainly searching for is the best way to achieve the following things:

1. An easy and quick way to load the midi arrangement into Reaper to get a first impression or preview.

2. The option to make changes in the music.

3. The option to change sounds that is replace instruments, f.e. changing the fingered bass to a slap bass.

4. Be able to control and change the settings for panorama, chorus, reverb (which seem to be stored somewhere within the midi file, a things that I wasn't aware of until recently).


My go-to Midi plugin is BassMidi.
https://www.kvraudio.com/product/bas...i-by-falcosoft

1. Step 1 works okay. I put all the midi tracks in a folder and put BassMidi in the FX bin of the folder track only. So, the whole arrangement is there.

2. Step 2 works okay. Main learning is that I prefer to have separate midi tracks to make changes easier

3. In the midi file there is the setting that says channel 11 is for bass and it is set to be 34 "fingered bass". For changing instruments, I was hoping I could easily do that in BassMidi, but that is not the case. If I change instruments in BassMidi, it keeps switching back to the originally set instrument.

=> What do I have to do instead?
=> Highlight all the notes in the piano roll > right click and change that number?
=> Is there an easier way? Is it about re-routing all the notes with an extra tool in-between? (That is how I understood a post in this thread, but not sure if I got it right.)

4. I had tracks that were playing at f.e. 100% right although in the Reaper track I had the panorama setting at "center".
=> Where and how are these settings stored in a midi file?
=> How do I find them and be able to make changes like f.e. change it back to "center".

I hope was able to explain what I am doing and trying to achieve.
Other more far-reaching tips like for using other GM VST instead are of course also welcome.