Stuck MIDI notes with synth plugins

[EvilDragon]

Originally Posted by Starpainter

Actually, I do this all the time, layering.

Plugins, sure. I was talking about hardware devices through MIDI out. You do NOT want to be doing that scenario to a hardware device. You would layer on the device itself (if it has facilities to do so), but send over a single MIDI channel at a time, and not from more than one Reaper track to the SAME MIDI out port and MIDI channel. That is just asking for trouble.

[Starpainter]

Originally Posted by EvilDragon

Plugins, sure. I was talking about hardware devices through MIDI out. You do NOT want to be doing that scenario to a hardware device. You would layer on the device itself (if it has facilities to do so), but send over a single MIDI channel at a time, and not from more than one Reaper track to the SAME MIDI out port and MIDI channel. That is just asking for trouble.

Ofcourse, anyways, Kontakt, Play, ... all of em have this 'hung note' stuff. Strangely enough though, spitfire albion one, in kontakt, doesn't do that at all. And, difference there is, if you start playing in the middle of a legato note, the albion one will play that note from that point on, the others will start playing when encountering the next note, not that 'in the middle starting of the legato note'.

[EvilDragon]

Yeh, scripting in Kontakt can influence a lot of things, and how it's done can impact certain behaviors.

[Starpainter]

Originally Posted by EvilDragon

Yeh, scripting in Kontakt can influence a lot of things, and how it's done can impact certain behaviors.

But couldn't that be a 'hint' to what is going on? I mean, not starting to play in the middle of a note, and not stopping in the middle of a note at times? Maybe something a daw could force send something?

[efflux]

Update from me.

I tried the latest Reaper 6.12c after having to ditch Reaper for a while because of this issue. On initial tests this version is not creating the stuck notes on hardware synths. The DX7 which was the worst culprit has no stuck notes. Hopefully this is solved because I want to continue to use Reaper.

[efflux]

I spoke too soon. No stuck notes when I just play MIDI through Reaper but the minute I start transport stuck notes all over the place. I'm finished with Reaper now. Although Reaper licence is cheap, Cockos will never get another penny from me. All these new features but useless MIDI. Reaper MIDI is completely useless with this issue.

[vitalker]

Originally Posted by efflux

I spoke too soon. No stuck notes when I just play MIDI through Reaper but the minute I start transport stuck notes all over the place. I'm finished with Reaper now. Although Reaper licence is cheap, Cockos will never get another penny from me. All these new features but useless MIDI. Reaper MIDI is completely useless with this issue.

Report the bug. Help them to solve the issue. These words won't help.

[EvilDragon]

I really have to ask how are the following Preferences pages set up for you:

Preferences->Audio->MIDI Devices
Preferences->Audio->Playback

[n997]

I seem to have found a way to reproduce a hanging note problem.

Here is a .RPP (saved with 6.19 +dev0106) to demonstrate:
https://stash.reaper.fm/41047/REAPER...1-01-08%29.RPP


So far, I've found the following synths to have stuck notes with above linked .RPP:

Image-Line IL Harmor VSTi 1.3.39 x64 and newer
u-he ZebraCM VSTi 1.1.0 x64








How to reproduce:


0. turn down your monitoring volume


1. open above linked .RPP

2. start playback before first MIDI item, then let REAPER play through the time-selected section on loop (make sure the time selection remains on - it should be of same length as the MIDI item as project opens).

Let it loop several times, pressing play/pause occasionally, until stuck notes result. Middle C will probably be among them.

3. start playback from the second MIDI item to test (or press MIDI keys on your MIDI keyboard). The way a synth responds to hanging notes might be different for different plugins.




For fellow users who have encountered the stuck notes problem:
please test whether the above linked .RPP can reliably trigger hanging/stuck notes in plugins you use.

Hopefully we can make a list of plugins with which this problem is evident.

[LittleMags]

Originally Posted by n997

I seem to have found a way to reproduce a hanging note problem.

Here is a .RPP (saved with 6.19 +dev0106) to demonstrate:
https://stash.reaper.fm/41047/REAPER...1-01-08%29.RPP


So far, I've found the following synths to have stuck notes with above linked .RPP:

Image-Line IL Harmor VSTi 1.3.39 x64 and newer
u-he ZebraCM VSTi 1.1.0 x64








How to reproduce:


0. turn down your monitoring volume


1. open above linked .RPP

2. start playback before first MIDI item, then let REAPER play through the time-selected section on loop (make sure the time selection remains on - it should be of same length as the MIDI item as project opens).

Let it loop several times, pressing play/pause occasionally, until stuck notes result. Middle C will probably be among them.

3. start playback from the second MIDI item to test (or press MIDI keys on your MIDI keyboard). The way a synth responds to hanging notes might be different for different plugins.




For fellow users who have encountered the stuck notes problem:
please test whether the above linked .RPP can reliably trigger hanging/stuck notes in plugins you use.

Hopefully we can make a list of plugins with which this problem is evident.

I am getting hanging notes in Windows Reaper 6.18 x64 using the following synths (directly opening plugin with default initial settings in second track of the provided project):

Arturia JUP-8 V3 Version 3.6.2.3882 VSTi
u-he Diva Rev 9707 VST3 x64
u-he Repro 5 Rev 9669 VST3 x64
u-he Zebra 2.9.2 Rev 10409 VST3 x64
u-he ZebraHZ 2.9.2 Rev 10374 VST3 x64

Hopefully this issue can be fixed in the future, as it's pretty irritating and one of the few major flaws with Reaper.

[beingmf]

@n997 and LittleMags: You also get those hanging notes with ReaControlMIDI (or MidiSanitizer) before the VSTi?

Because that cured it for me.

[Jorgen]

I had a problem with hanging notes. This was a midi file from Ghosthack. As an experiment, I made a new midi item on the track (leaving a space of one bar) and draw in some notes. Same thing happened -- the notes hang for about 40 seconds.

I opened the midi editor on the Ghosthack file and deleted the pedal hold events. The problem went away. Both files obeyed note off.

I imported the Ghosthack midi again, the hanging returned on both items. But I could solve the problem with my own midi item by simply removing the Ghosthack one from the track. Now my midi item played as expected. Same thing if I placed the Ghosthack midi AFTER my own midi item.

So -- apparently, a rouge midi item can "infect" other midi items if they are placed later on the timeline. You do NOT have to play through the rouge one, just place it on the track and the following midi will hang.

I tried perhaps 10 different instruments, and there are patches that are more prone to the problem, like pads. But even some plucked patches hung. A certain piano patch did not, but that was the odd exception.

A strange behavior indeed.

Edit: Reasynth shows the same behavior.

[samlletas]

In my case decreasing the buffer size to 32 solved the issue, no stuck midi notes anymore.