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Old 03-14-2017, 06:32 AM   #1
ANITIX87
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Default REAPER "Cannot Import 1 of 1 Item! (Midi Import)

Hello, all. I downloaded Reaper last night to play around with generating good mockups of my compositions.

I've tried every method of importing MIDI files from Finale (click/drag, using Reaper's Insert -> Media File, etc) and NOTHING has worked.

I get the following error:
"Could not import 1 of 1 item!"

I am running a 2013 iMac on OS 10.11. I got the 64-bit version of Reaper, and am running Finale 25, 64-bit.

I uninstalled and re-installed. I even paid for a license on the off-change the functionality wasn't active in the trial version.

Help, please! (And thanks!)
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Old 03-14-2017, 07:24 AM   #2
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Hello ANITIX87 and welcome to these forums. You'll find many helpful people here and a lot of useful information. Make sure that you:
Can you post a problem MIDI file (ZIPped up) as an attachment so that we can have a look and see what's (not) happening?
How to post attachments (in Post #1)
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Old 03-14-2017, 07:29 AM   #3
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Thanks for the resources. Here is a zipped up file with two MIDI entities in it.

NONE of my .mid files work, so I included two in here just in case. One has just two tracks (piano an violin) and the other has 27 (full symphony orchestra).
Attached Files
File Type: zip midi_files.zip (196.0 KB, 292 views)
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Old 03-14-2017, 09:32 AM   #4
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Greetings:

I was able to import (via drag/drop) your .mid files into REAPER 3.76, but only after opening them in Finale and re-saving as Type 1 MIDI files. The violin/piano example defaulted to Tempo Map when using "Save As" in Finale, so the Type 1 radio button had to be selected.

I chose Type 1 because that treats MIDI channels as separate tracks, whereas Type 0 combines all MIDI channels into a single track.

Hope this helps. PM if you have further questions.

Dan
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Old 03-14-2017, 09:35 AM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dfackler View Post
Greetings:

I was able to import (via drag/drop) your .mid files into REAPER 3.76, but only after opening them in Finale and re-saving as Type 1 MIDI files. The violin/piano example defaulted to Tempo Map when using "Save As" in Finale, so the Type 1 radio button had to be selected.

I chose Type 1 because that treats MIDI channels as separate tracks, whereas Type 0 combines all MIDI channels into a single track.

Hope this helps. PM if you have further questions.

Dan
Thanks, these were already Format 1 MIDI files, with all channels on separate tracks.
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Old 03-14-2017, 09:37 AM   #6
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Hmm. Then I'm out of ideas. The files you posted would not import, but the resaved files would.

At least it gives you another data point.

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Old 03-14-2017, 09:41 AM   #7
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Change the .midi file extension to .mid

Also, set this:


I think that there's another one somewhere, but I cannot remember where.
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Old 03-14-2017, 09:43 AM   #8
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Quote:
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Change the .midi file extension to .mid
That worked. Thanks for confirming my stupid. I wonder when (why) Finale changed their MIDI export file extension.
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Old 03-14-2017, 09:49 AM   #9
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Finale 2010 saves MIDI files with the extension '.mid'.

Problem solved.

So often it's the simple things. "Computers don't make mistakes; they just do what they're told"

Thanks, DarkStar!

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Old 03-14-2017, 09:52 AM   #10
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You're both welcome
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Old 03-14-2017, 09:56 AM   #11
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And now I don't hear playback in Reaper. Nor do I know how to assign instruments.

Clearly, I just need to keep reading up on this software. The learning curve on this thing is going to be brutal, but I'm looking forward to it.

Good thing today's a snow day in the Northeast!
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Old 03-14-2017, 10:08 AM   #12
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MIDI is 'only' data, not sound. If you heard it in Finale it was probably sending it to some sound synth. You're on Mac aren't you? IF so, that lets me off.

Don't try to learn it all - just what you need . And the learning curve on other DAWs would be steep too.

Anyway, now you have your tracks you need something on each one to convert the MIDI into audio. Have you used plug-ins before? Synths, Samplers, Reverbs and so on? Reaper comes with several effects plug-ins, but very few instrument plug-ins. That way, users can pick exactly the ones they want (some are free, some end up costing thousands of $).

I saw that one of the tracks mentioned ARIA Playwr - have you used that? Or Garritan?
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Old 03-14-2017, 10:10 AM   #13
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Backing up a few posts, was there some older version of Finale that exported MIDI as .midi rather than .mid? If so we can add .midi drag/drop support for .midi files.
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Old 03-14-2017, 10:17 AM   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DarkStar View Post
I saw that one of the tracks mentioned ARIA Playwr - have you used that? Or Garritan?
Yes, my Finale playback was linked to Garritan's Arria Player, and I'm using Garritan's "Personal Orchestra 5" collection of instruments. Reaper is linked to it (it shows up in Preferences -> Plug-Ins -> VST). I have exhausted Finale's playback capabilities to try and make more realistic mock-ups but there's not enough complexity in there, which is why I've decided to explore DAW.

Quote:
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Backing up a few posts, was there some older version of Finale that exported MIDI as .midi rather than .mid? If so we can add .midi drag/drop support for .midi files.
It's the other way around. The NEWEST versions of Finale export as .midi. I had to deleted the last character to make it .mid for Reaper to recognize it.
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Old 03-14-2017, 10:18 AM   #15
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ANITIX87 View Post
It's the other way around. The NEWEST versions of Finale export as .midi. I had to deleted the last character to make it .mid for Reaper to recognize it.
Oh, ok. Wonder why they did that? In any case, we'll add drag/drop import support for .midi in the next REAPER build.
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Old 03-14-2017, 11:14 AM   #16
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ANITIX87 View Post
Yes, my Finale playback was linked to Garritan's Arria Player, and I'm using Garritan's "Personal Orchestra 5" collection of instruments. Reaper is linked to it (it shows up in Preferences -> Plug-Ins -> VST). I have exhausted Finale's playback capabilities to try and make more realistic mock-ups but there's not enough complexity in there, which is why I've decided to explore DAW.
Good oh; now we're talking You won't understand all of this right now, but this is just to get you started and some sound out of Reaper. Later on you will find many other approaches.
  • start a new project
  • load the "Comptine dun Autre Ete.mid" file and expand it to two tracks.
  • open the FX Browser, find GPO and drag it to the empty area below the Track Control Panels (TCPs) for the 2 'MIDI' tracks
  • in the Build Routing Confirmation dialogue window, click [Yes] - this creates multiple tracks for GPO's audio output and routes to them automatically.
  • disable RecArm on the Garritan / ARIA track (we already have the MIDI)
  • select the 2 'MIDI track TCPs,
  • right-click the [ROUTE] button on one of them, select 'Sends' then the Garritan / ARIA track
  • the Violin MIDI is on MIDi channel 01 and the piano is on MIDI channel 02, so we do not need to do any more routing in Reaper.
  • in GPO, add a Violin instrument, set it to receive from MIDI channel 01 and send to the first two outputs
  • then add a Piano instrument, set it to receive from MIDI channel 02 and send to the next two outputs.

Click Play and listen in wonder

Here's the equivalent, using a different theme and SampleTank 3:

>>> https://i.imgur.com/3zLKrOy.png

You can see the 2 'MIDI' tracks, the SampleTank 3 (ST3) track and the tracks for the audio output from ST3. The pop-up window shows the track routing - from the two 'MIDI' tracks to the ST3 track, and from the ST3 track (Reaper created multiple channels for the audio on that track) to the 'audio' tracks.

The yellow lines in the Mixer tracks 1-3 show the MIDI activity and you can see the audio levels in the meters for tracks 4 and 5.
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Last edited by DarkStar; 03-14-2017 at 11:52 AM.
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Old 03-14-2017, 11:24 AM   #17
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DarkStar View Post
You won't understand all of this right now, but this is just to get you started and some sound out of Reaper.
This was a HUGE help. One question, though. When opening the FX Browser, I can select the "Instruments" plug-in and then I see both "AUi: Garritan: ARIA Player" AND "VSTi: ARIA Player (Garritan)". Are these different? Should I use one over the other?
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Old 03-14-2017, 11:30 AM   #18
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VSTi is (probably) better. They are different format plug-ins. AU is just for you Mac guys.
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Old 03-14-2017, 11:35 AM   #19
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Originally Posted by DarkStar View Post
VSTi is (probably) better. They are different format plug-ins. AU is just for you Mac guys.
I followed your steps, but didn't get a Build Routing Confirmation window. Instead, it just added a "ARIA Player" track. I then did the rest of the steps and sent both the violin and the piano to "Track 3: ARIA Player." However, this seems to have linked them, even if I go into the ARIA Player and set the violin and piano to separate channels.

Do I need to manually add a whole bunch of ARIA Player tracks since it doesn't seem to be triggering the Routing options?
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Old 03-14-2017, 11:49 AM   #20
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You're getting there (maybe I have set a Preference to pop up the BRC dialogue - can't remember).

Anyway, what you have are both tracks going into ARIA and triggering the instruments there. As the ARIA track is a standard stereo track, leave the outputs within ARIA set to the first two outputs. You'll hear both violin and paino on the same track.

With the BRC the output can be sent to separate tracks so that you can mix them, add different FX etc.

For the moment I wouldn't add any more tracks; we need to work out why the BRC window did not pop up. Double-check that you dragged the Garritan plug-in onto the empty area below the Track Control Panels (TCPs) for the 2 'MIDI' tracks, not onto a TCP.
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Old 03-14-2017, 11:53 AM   #21
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You're getting there (maybe I have set a Preference to pop up the BRC dialogue - can't remember).

Anyway, what you have are both tracks going into ARIA and triggering the instruments there. As the ARIA track is a standard stereo track, leave the outputs within ARIA set to the first two outputs. You'll hear both violin and paino on the same track.

With the BRC the output can be sent to separate tracks so that you can mix them, add different FX etc.
Well, that's the whole objective of exploring DAWs. Playback was never a problem with Finale, but I need that mixing, FX, and key switch functionality to make real mock-ups.

I can't find anything relating to Routing Confirmation or anything in the menus in Reaper. I do find a "Routing Matrix" but it doesn't seem related.
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Old 03-14-2017, 11:58 AM   #22
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As ever with Reaper, here's another way.
  • get to the stage where you loaded Garritan (and do not get the BRC window).
  • open the FX chain for that track if needed (click the FX button)
  • select the GArritan plug-in
  • click [Options], then select "Build multichannel routing ..."

Or, a third way - have a look at section 17.10 in the excellent User Guide.
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Old 03-14-2017, 02:34 PM   #23
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... any news?
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Old 03-15-2017, 12:05 PM   #24
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... any news?
Sorry, I wasn't home the rest of the day yesterday. I made a quick video of the behavior I'm seeing, with the lack of routing options (at 0:23 I go the options from the FX panel and when I click either of the two routing options I get the following error: "Could not get channel info for effects (are they multichannel?)"
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Old 03-15-2017, 12:14 PM   #25
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In that case the plug-in is not multi-channel, so you can ignore those steps. All the output would go to a single stereo pair of channels on the track. After you have loaded it onto the track what does it say in the top-right corner?



And what does it show when you click on that button? Just for info, the above indicates that it is a 32-channel plug-in on a 2 channel track.

Just to check, did you use the VSTi?
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Old 03-15-2017, 12:27 PM   #26
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And what does it show when you click on that button? Just for info, the above indicates that it is a 32-channel plug-in on a 2 channel track.
I did use VSTi.

The top-right just says "2-out". However, I have another option called VSTi: ARIA Player (Multi) (Garritan) (32 Out)". When I select that, I do get the routing confirmation pop-up you had mentioned, and if I click YES, I get an ARIA track that says "32 out" on the top right (but not 2/32 out like yours did).

This creates 16 tracks, all called "Out [odd number]". I then right-click the routing on the TCP, assign to the ARIA Track, and then select instruments for each channel (violin channel 1, piano channel 2).

This seems to work perfectly (I can mute/solo individual instruments) but only the "Out 1" track shows anything in the histogram.

When I get to something more complicated, like my full orchestra work, will I have to create two ARIA player tracks to get more than 16 instruments? Also, how do I know which channel the instrument is (or should be) on?
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Old 03-15-2017, 04:02 PM   #27
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AH, so there are different VSTi versions with different numbers of outputs. I knew that some devs did that -can't remember the reason why.

My last screenshot said 2/32 as I just dragged it onto an existing track, so the BRC dialogue was not invoked. If I had followed my own instructions I would have got "32 out" and the BRC dialogue etc.

Anyway, you've made some more progress Once you have finished the BRC you will have the 16 'Out' tracks and they will be automatically receiving from the ARIA track.

You've loaded the instruments into ARIA and selected the relevant MIDI channels; but, from what you've said you haven't yet routed the output of each instrument to the different audio outputs.
Quote:
  • in GPO, add a Violin instrument, set it to receive from MIDI channel 01 and send to the first two outputs
  • then add a Piano instrument, set it to receive from MIDI channel 02 and send to the next two outputs.
>>> https://i.imgur.com/uTFiyAI.png
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Old 03-15-2017, 04:03 PM   #28
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Yes, you are right, such plug-ins support up to 16 MIDI channels. If you need more than 16 different instruments you will need another instance of ARIA/ Garritan. If you have 33 instruments you'll need a third one. And so on.

Looking at your Symphony file, the Flutes are on MIDI channels 1 and 2 respectively, running up to the trumpets on 14 and 15. Use of channel 10 is skipped as that channel is traditionally for MIDI drums. So, I would route those tracks to the first instance of ARIA/Garritan.

Trombone 1 is on channel 16, Trombone 2 is on channel 01, Bass Drum is on 10 and Bass Trombone is on 11. I would route those tracks to the second instance of ARIA/Garritan.

How did I find out the channels used for the notes on each track?
  • select the Flute 1 MIDI clip,
  • right-click and open it in the MIDI Editor,
  • drag the corner to resize it, as needed,
  • click on [Contents] and select "1 MIDI Editor" > "per project",
  • click on [View] and select Mode:Event List,
  • you'll see which channel is being used,
  • now, click on the Flute 2 MIDI clip,
  • it should open automatically in the MIDI Editor,
  • look at the MIDI channel,
  • repeat for the other tracks.
Before you go much further I recommend reading up on the steps I have described in the User Guide.
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Old 03-15-2017, 04:52 PM   #29
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[VARIOUS HELPFUL TIDBITS AND INSTRUCTIONS]
Thanks so much. I'm confident I'm at the point where I can start playing around and really diving deep into this software.

Can I set both flutes to the same output (and the same with both oboes, etc) to cut down on my total number of channels? (So instead of 7 channels for all my winds, I'd only have 4 for flutes, oboes, clarinets, and bassoons)

Your help is very much appreciated!
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Old 03-16-2017, 01:43 AM   #30
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Yes, if you only want to mix / pan/ apply FX to the combined audio for each type of instrument, not the individual instruments.

At the risk of confusion, you could also put the 4 winds tracks into a folder track so you can mix / FX them as a group. But that's for another day.
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Old 03-16-2017, 08:43 AM   #31
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Your help is very much appreciated!
It's truly inspiring to see people give so much to others.
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Old 03-16-2017, 09:39 AM   #32
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ANITIX87 View Post
Thanks so much. I'm confident I'm at the point where I can start playing around and really diving deep into this software.

Can I set both flutes to the same output (and the same with both oboes, etc) to cut down on my total number of channels? (So instead of 7 channels for all my winds, I'd only have 4 for flutes, oboes, clarinets, and bassoons)

Your help is very much appreciated!
You can do this, but you may experience 'fluttery' crescendi and diminuendi.

D
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