Problem using REAPER live

[klausbert]

Hello folks,

I really need to resolve this, because it affects some of my playing while in a gig.

I have several background tracks for different songs (separated by markers), and I can't sustain a single note I play.

As soon as I stop/play the background tracks meanwhile I'm playing live, the midi notes stop playing.

Can somebody give me some help ? Some time ago I was using this same setup with Nuendo and I didn't have this problem.

Notebook Dell Latitude D610 with the latest ASIO4ALL.

Thanks a lot in advance!

[viscofisy]

Yeah, I understand your problem.
The problem occurs when a playback ends and the "live" midi VSTi signal is cut.
I'm not sure if there's a way to continue VSTi midi playback during a stop in the playhead.

Could you give a more exact description of your intended transition between backing track songs?

Could you explain why - if you have your backing tracks lined up on one track - you have to press stop at all between songs?

Are you playing through the end of one song, then improvising while cueing up the next song, or something like that?

[klausbert]

Yeah, I understand your problem.
The problem occurs when a playback ends and the "live" midi VSTi signal is cut.
I'm not sure if there's a way to continue VSTi midi playback during a stop in the playhead.

Could you give a more exact description of your intended transition between backing track songs?

Could you explain why - if you have your backing tracks lined up on one track - you have to press stop at all between songs?

Are you playing through the end of one song, then improvising while cueing up the next song, or something like that?

The background songs have markers to locate them, all of them in the same track.

In certain songs, I have to play live a pad as intro, let's suppose, and when the band requires it, I have to start a background track as accompaniment, so, as I said, when I play "PLAY" in my controller, the midi notes in the pad stop.

I don't need to cue anything, because we don't do any improvising.

Thanks for your reply my friend!

Claudio from Argentina.

[viscofisy]

Hi Claudio - I'm not even sure that this can be achieved in Reaper.
(I just tried in Ableton Live, and sustaining a note through activating PLAY works there - though activating STOP stops all "live" midi throughput.)


Unfortunately I can only think of workarounds, like playing your backing tracks through a separate wav or mp3 player, but I realise that adds hassle and might not be suitable; or leaving a silent gap between PLAY and the backing track ....but again, that wouldn't work if you need to sustain a note and have the backing come in exactly on cue.

I think you should ask this question on the General Discussion forum - ( the mods will move it to another forum if they see fit :) )

Someone knowledgeable might know a workaround.

Maybe ask : "Is it possible to sustain "live" midi notes while activating PLAY?"

or something similar.

Edit.....I just started the thread for you......got impatient as I'd like to know why this behaviour is the default :D .......

http://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=164245

[klausbert]

Hi Claudio - I'm not even sure that this can be achieved in Reaper.
(I just tried in Ableton Live, and sustaining a note through activating PLAY works there - though activating STOP stops all "live" midi throughput.)


Unfortunately I can only think of workarounds, like playing your backing tracks through a separate wav or mp3 player, but I realise that adds hassle and might not be suitable; or leaving a silent gap between PLAY and the backing track ....but again, that wouldn't work if you need to sustain a note and have the backing come in exactly on cue.

I think you should ask this question on the General Discussion forum - ( the mods will move it to another forum if they see fit :) )

Someone knowledgeable might know a workaround.

Maybe ask : "Is it possible to sustain "live" midi notes while activating PLAY?"

or something similar.

Edit.....I just started the thread for you......got impatient as I'd like to know why this behaviour is the default :D .......

http://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=164245

Thanks a lot Viscofisy !!!

[viscofisy]

You're welcome Claudio. Looks like there are complicated workarounds but no easy answer!

Maybe you should try one of the performance oriented VST hosts?

I messed around with a few some years ago, but I'm out of touch with those softwares now so I can't personally recommend any.

I know it's tempting to stick with Reaper for everything because it's very stable and configurable and inexpensive - but there are some scenarios it just wasn't designed for, and it looks like you found one :D


Live performance VST hosts seem to have become a popular niche lately - for example BloXpander is only €69 ......though you'd have to check that they can play VSTis without interruption while triggering audio.

Cantabile is another, maybe Bidule, but there seem to be a variety out there.

Anyway, good luck on whatever route you choose.

Edit .....looks like Lazarus has come up with the answer over on the other thread :D

Hopefully that solution will be useable Claudio....I just tried it and you can indeed sustain your VSTi notes while triggering PLAY.
It also sustains your sound while hitting STOP.
Reaper and its users never cease to surprise :)

[shabbyroad]

Suggestion: can you play the 'intro pad' on a separate stand-alone VST which is hosted outside of the Reaper application?

[Andy Hamm]

The background songs have markers to locate them, all of them in the same track.

In certain songs, I have to play live a pad as intro, let's suppose, and when the band requires it, I have to start a background track as accompaniment, so, as I said, when I play "PLAY" in my controller, the midi notes in the pad stop.

I don't need to cue anything, because we don't do any improvising.

Thanks for your reply my friend!

Claudio from Argentina.

So why are you starting and playing segments? If it is one performance, and you aren't improvising, just leave a single track play for the duration of the performance while you are playing with silence in it.

[4x4uk]

+1 to andy hamms comment above

it is no different to running with a hardware sequencer, track length of the sequence should be same as song performance length even if its doing nothing, you never know when you may want to add something else

[Dstruct]

Maybe ask : "Is it possible to sustain "live" midi notes while activating PLAY?"

In 5.12 there is (at least for VSTi plugins, not sure how external MIDI is handled):


Enable both

"Don't flush synthesizers on stop/reset"
"Don't send note-offs ... on stop/reset"

under Preferences/Plug-ins/VST


Having them both enabled at the same time will give you hanging notes for MIDI items on manual playback cursor move. So be careful. Usually only one of them should be enabled.



Then there's all the MIDI reset options under

Preferences/Audio/Playback
Preferences/MIDI Devices


Maybe you need to disable more of them too.

[klausbert]

In 5.12 there is (at least for VSTi plugins, not sure how external MIDI is handled):


Enable both

"Don't flush synthesizers on stop/reset"
"Don't send note-offs ... on stop/reset"

under Preferences/Plug-ins/VST


Having them both enabled at the same time will give you hanging notes for MIDI items on manual playback cursor move. So be careful. Usually only one of them should be enabled.



Then there's all the MIDI reset options under

Preferences/Audio/Playback
Preferences/MIDI Devices


Maybe you need to disable more of them too.

I will try that and keep you informed, thanks in advance!

[serr]

I'm not a MIDI guy... maybe this is different from audio...

Could this be you simply have the option in Preferences/Audio "Close audio device when stopped..." enabled?