Korg Forums

[hbedient]

I am apparently missing something working with MIDI on my PA4X and Reaper software. I had my MIDI cable connected to my Focusrite 18i20 to the MIDI In port and the other end to the MIDI Out port on the PA4X. I had the keyboard in SEQ mode and Channel 10 selected. I thought I could tap some drum parts on the keyboard and have Reaper record the MIDI from it. Nothing got recorded. So I pulled out an ancient Yamaha DD-55 (toy) drum set, connected the MIDI In cable to the DD-55 MIDI Out port and played a little. Reaper recorded what I played. I referred to the MIDI section of the PA4X manual and on page 893 it covered installing a USB/MIDI driver. So I downloaded and installed the driver and it reported that it was installed correctly and recognized the PA4X. So in the Reaper preferences I enabled the new PA4X MIDI driver and plugged the MIDI cable once again into the PA4X's MIDI Out port. When I arm the track for record and select the PA4X as the MIDI source nothing happens and nothing is recorded. Is there something in the Global>MIDI section of the PA4X that needs to be enabled? I have browsed those sections, but don't see an Enable switch. Anyone else have some experience with this situation?

[hbedient]

Some further reading and experimenting revealed what I wanted to know. This is my first posting and I am not sure how this posting editor handles images. They may not show up. First, to enable MIDI output go to Global>MIDI>General Controls tab select preset 03 Player 1. Then your DAW should be able to record the MIDI that you play. I couldn't get that image to show. Now Reaper has the MIDI data, but the track is silent. Now in Reaper view the console view. The Route button might have a green stripe on it. Click the button and a routing box appears. Route the track output to your choice of MIDI device and your choice of channels. In SEQ view on the PA4X whatever voice you have assigned to MIDI channels 1-9 and 11-16 in the sequencer are the voices that will play. Of course, channel 10 is always drums. I hope this is a help to anyone trying some MIDI sequencing with the PA4X and Reaper.

[Korghelper]

Reaper’s flexibility when dealing with multi-channel VSTi’s is what leads it to be confusing when dealing with a single external MIDI out to external gear.

Just the price of progress, I guess!

All in all, Reaper still falls far behind Cubase or Logic when it comes to MIDI setup and editing. They tend to hold your hand a lot more than Reaper’s ‘roll your own’ approach. Probably a fair bit to do with Cubase and Logic being based on older sequencers from the simpler days of MIDI, and having a longer time to figure out the most logical approach. Reaper is still a work in progress, and started out as an audio DAW rather than a MIDI sequencer first and audio added later.

[hbedient]

I tired of the upgrade treadmill of SONAR and its associated cost. Also a friend was pretty sold on Reaper and made me aware of it. No doubt other DAWs are more intuitive. I'll stick with Reaper because I'm on retirement income now.

[Korghelper]

Isn’t Sonor free nowadays?

[hbedient]

I don't know. I bought my current laptop in 2016 and haven't installed SONAR on it. I may have gotten an upgrade notification in the year or two preceding and decided not to spend the money. The last time I paid attention it appeared they were going to a subscription model and I wasn't too interested and was hardly using SONAR at all. Now with the strong incentive to stay put in my home re-learning recording seems like a good and productive thing to do.

[keysman]

Reading this topic with interest as thinking of moving over to DAW recording from my trusty Yamaha AW16G recording equipment.
Looking at focusrite 4i4 interface & MacBook Pro with Logic Pro x daw software but would like to establish if midi clock (external/internal) for starting the PA4x sequencer from Logic Pro to record individual tracks onto the daw software is possible.
My AW16g has this capability which is a great asset for syncing everything together for recording.
Any help/advise would be appreciated.
Cheers
John
_________________
www.infinityduo.co.uk

[hbedient]

Giving you a "I don't know" for an answer may not be totally useless. My reason for posting was because I could not get *any* MIDI data to be recorded by Reaper when connected to the MIDI Out port of my PA4X. Not knowing if the fault was in Reaper or the PA4X, I connected the MIDI In of my interface to the MIDI Out of a Yamaha DD-55 drum set and played. Reaper recorded what I played on the drum set. Reading pp. 890-906 of the manual helped somewhat and I had to experiment a little. I had never run into an instrument that had dead MIDI I/O out of the box. It looks like the answer to your question is on pp. 905-906. I ended up using MIDI preset Player 1 or Player 2. I guess in your situation you would have to make sure the Send Clock box is checked on whatever MIDI preset you use. Good luck with your recording and let us know how it works out.

[Korghelper]

I checked. Sonor is now free. Full version.

If you are already familiar with its basic workflow, it’s a no-brainer.