Need help with a long and complicated process involving MIDI, VSTs, Kontakt, etc

[albitrary]

Hello! I am a brand new Reaper user and I have no idea what I'm doing.

Here's what I am *trying* to do: import MIDI files to Reaper, then assign VSTs or Soundfonts to make my MIDI sound like it's not an MIDI anymore.

After watching a few tutorials, I've managed to get my MIDI to playback sound using a VSTi on a specific instrument track, and even loaded the Synthfont VSTi to assign a Soundfont.


Problem #1: If I load each MIDI channel into separate Reaper tracks, then I have to assign a Synthfont VSTi to each track to get all of the instruments to play correctly. This of course immediately crashes the program when I try to play the song as there are then 14 instances of Synthfont VSTi running (12 different instruments and 2 drum tracks) and I assume it's just too much going on.

I tried loading the MIDI as a single multi-channel track, then added in Synthfont - hoping that it would recognize all of my different instruments and assign them automatically and maybe have less processor load. It crashed immediately again when I tried to play it.


Problem #2: Assigning Kontakt Komplete Kontrol to a track seems to do nothing - it won't play any sound when I play the track. It does play sound in the Komplete Kontrol player itself (sometimes??) Kontakt is completely new to me as well, so I don't know if I have to do something within the player itself or what.


So the whole reason I am trying Reaper is this:

My process for making music probably is a bit different than most. I don't actually know how to play any instruments, I just write everything in sheet music. Up until now I was writing the sheet music in Noteworthy Composer, exporting to MIDI, importing to Synthfont, then assigning soundfonts/VST effects and exporting to MP3/whatever from there. There is an upper limit to what I can do this way, however; as large soundfonts + VST effects + more than a few channels causes Synthfont to stutter or just stop functioning completely.

I was hoping that Reaper would be able to handle a bigger load, but after watching it crash immediately I'm now wondering if maybe it's just what I'm trying to do is too much. For the record, I have 32gb of RAM so I'm pretty sure that's not the issue.


Anyway, I am open to suggestion and any advice or help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

[Philbo King]

Problem 1: Put all the split midi tracks into a folder. Put the single VSTi in the foler track.

[albitrary]

Originally Posted by Philbo King

Problem 1: Put all the split midi tracks into a folder. Put the single VSTi in the foler track.

Did exactly as you said and it still crashed immediately on trying to play. Switched to BassMidiVsti (Falcosoft) and that does indeed work as intended - all tracks are playing and auto-detected all of the instrument changes in the original midi file. Works like a charm, thanks!

Still haven't had any luck trying to get Kontakt to play, though. And I guess at this point the problem I'm having with Synthfont is just... Synthfont.

[solger]

Originally Posted by albitrary

Problem #2: Assigning Kontakt Komplete Kontrol to a track seems to do nothing - it won't play any sound when I play the track. It does play sound in the Komplete Kontrol player itself (sometimes??) Kontakt is completely new to me as well, so I don't know if I have to do something within the player itself or what.

Regardless of using the Kontakt plugin or loading a Kontakt Intrument in the Komplete Kontrol plugin, make sure that the MIDI channel of the Kontakt instrument is either set to OMNI or matches the MIDI channel of the incoming MIDI (file).
More info in the Defining a MIDI port and channel... chapter in this article (the 'Activating your MIDI Device' chapter is only relevant for using Kontakt Standalone outside of Reaper): https://support.native-instruments.c...ler-in-KONTAKT

In addition to the MIDI channel also check if the MIDI notes are inside the playable note range of the loaded Kontakt instrument.

In general, there can also be different standards (usually depending on the region of the software/hardware manufacturer) for defining the middle C note: C3 or C4, ...
So depending on the MIDI file, plugin, etc. it might be necessary to transpose the notes up/down by one (or more) octave(s).


As a general side note:

You can change the plugin view in Komplete Kontrol via the menu: View > Additional View or View > Edit View.
But in your case it's probably better to use the Kontakt plugin directly instead of going through Komplete Kontrol (since you can load multiple Kontakt instruments - reacting to different MIDI channels - into a single Kontakt plugin instance)

[Steviebone]

I would check your Windows Event log for errors. Your crashes may be plugin related. Are they 32 bit? Is your OS 64? Using JBridge to try and run 32 in a 64 bit OS can cause crashes. It works for many plugins fine, but others, not so much.

[albitrary]

Thanks for all the advice! I've got Kontakt working on the individual instrument tracks now.

The issue I have now is: I need to re-load a newer version of the MIDI file that I'm using into Reaper - is there a way to do this without having to make a new project? Basically, I realized there was a mistake in the notation in the MIDI so I had to go back and fix it in Noteworthy Composer.

Seems like a simple enough concept, but a quick google search isn't helping, and I'm not seeing anything like what I'm looking for in the help wiki. Any ideas?

[foxAsteria]

Originally Posted by albitrary

The issue I have now is: I need to re-load a newer version of the MIDI file that I'm using into Reaper

right-click item/item properties/choose new file (down at the bottom)

[Geoff-h3o]

...... or delete the old midi item and drag the new file in from Explorer to your track