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Old 07-05-2017, 02:35 PM   #1
mikeroephonics
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Default Make Project 'MIDI Hardware Outputs/Inputs' Persist Across OS Installs?

Hi.

One of the few problems I have with REAPER is that if I reformat my operating system disk and load up projects built during a previous operation system installation, the 'MIDI Hardware Outputs' assigned to Track outputs is lost. Track MIDI Input assignments are also lost after reinstalling my operation system.
I'm using virtual MIDI ports called LoopBe30, which I use to send MIDI signals out of, and back into, REAPER.

Is there a flag in the .rpp files that I can set to reassign the Tracks to the correct virtual MIDI Outputs and Channels? Would I need to perform some sort of registry edits for the virtual MIDI ports in addition to editing the .rpp? This is a rather cumbersome task which I'm afraid I would have to perform on .rpp files for each operation system installation.

I'm running Windows 7 64-bit if it matters. Thanks!

- Mike
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Old 09-19-2017, 05:18 PM   #2
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Bump. Has anyone ever encountered this?
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Old 09-19-2017, 08:02 PM   #3
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I think it should be saved in the config. Did you export it before formatting or otherwise preserve your User folders?

You also need to set up your LoopBe ports again with identical names for Reaper to recognize them. I've had an issue like that due to the virtual MIDI port assigning some number to the port name I am unable to change.
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Old 09-19-2017, 09:07 PM   #4
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Are we sure that there isn't some link/reference back to the original hardware (virtual or otherwise) - if so, even with the exact config on the new OS the hardware entry will be a different GUID potentially aka the underlying reference in the registry. Could be wrong, just a thought.
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Old 09-20-2017, 02:37 AM   #5
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Thanks for the replies!

Upon closer inspection, it seems the LoopBe30 MIDI port assignments have indeed been preserved across Windows 7 installations! My orchestral template is a bit convoluted due to MIDI routing and I was checking the wrong TCPs when checking for the assignments. I've also had my DAW unhooked for a few months due to some frustrating life situations. But it's back up now and appears to be working!

However, despite it working, I still wonder exactly how it's working. I bet it's something along the lines of a GUID, if not precisely that, but I'm a registry n00b at best. I wonder if I were to install some other virtual MIDI ports in addition to LoopBe30, but in a different order than the previous OS installation, would REAPER or any other DAW software for that matter be able to load up a session built from the previous OS installation with the virtual MIDI port routing still intact.

There's always that "what if" lurking in the back of my mind...
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Old 09-20-2017, 09:02 AM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mikeroephonics View Post
Hi.

One of the few problems I have with REAPER is that if I reformat my operating system disk and load up projects built during a previous operation system installation, the 'MIDI Hardware Outputs' assigned to Track outputs is lost. Track MIDI Input assignments are also lost after reinstalling my operation system.
I'm using virtual MIDI ports called LoopBe30, which I use to send MIDI signals out of, and back into, REAPER.

Is there a flag in the .rpp files that I can set to reassign the Tracks to the correct virtual MIDI Outputs and Channels? Would I need to perform some sort of registry edits for the virtual MIDI ports in addition to editing the .rpp? This is a rather cumbersome task which I'm afraid I would have to perform on .rpp files for each operation system installation.

I'm running Windows 7 64-bit if it matters. Thanks!

- Mike
If you install/enable the hardware devices in the same order, they'll have the same device ordering and channel config. In the same way for example, that the first device you add to an aggregate device becomes the first block of I/O channels in the aggregate device.

Another data point:
If you swap interfaces around and open a project that was made with a different configuration, you'll find that the I/O "slots" (my word) stay in the same order. eg. If you had something routed to output 7 on the previous interface, it will still be routed to output 7 on the current interface or aggregate device. Even though output 7 was an analog output on the 1st interface and now it's a SPDIF output on the current one (for a made up example).
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Old 09-20-2017, 09:24 AM   #7
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great thread. i have approaching 25 loopbe midi ios and another handful of ipmidi ios as well and have shuddered at the thought of reverse-identifying them.

granted they could be narrowed down to fewer ios using different channel assignments etc but that would be a huge pain as well.
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Old 09-20-2017, 03:11 PM   #8
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Fortunately, all I need is LoopBe30 and no others. 30 virtual MIDI ports is far more than I'll ever need, so hopefully when I install it on future OS partitions, it'll work just like it did this time around.

I found where REAPER stores MIDI (virtual) hardware device stuff:
C:\Users\Me\AppData\Roaming\REAPER\reaper-midihw.ini

The device data seems to be grouped into 3 lines per-device, like so:
on30=1. Internal MIDI
oa30=[LoopBe30]_[Output-01]
ot30=1484552952

- For the 1st line, I think "n" means default device name. "30" seems to be the device index, as "31" shows up for "LoopBe30 Output 2" below and varies for all other MIDI device entries in the .ini. "1. Internal MIDI" is the default device name.

- For the 2nd line, "a" means alias, as this is the alias I gave the device.

- For the 3rd line, I'm not sure what "t" means. The number 1484552952 is curious. It shows up 75 times in my reaper-midihw.ini for (some) LoopBe30 ports, but also for my Scarlett 18i20's 5-pin MIDI input, my QuNeo drum pad, my Roland A-Pro keyboard and other devices. So this number isn't tied exclusively to 1 device. It's shared. At least in this instance...

Here's the info for "LoopBe30 Output 2". Differences from Output 1 are indicated in bold:
on31=2. Internal MIDI
oa31=[LoopBe30]_[Output-02]
ot31=1484552952

Here's where I get confused. Another number, 1478575254, shows up for all "loopMIDI" ports and ONLY for "loopMIDI" ports. Yet another number, 1478830283, shows up for all "Vmidi" ports and ONLY for "Vmidi" ports.

So I have some questions regarding these numbers:
1.) What do these numbers mean?

2.) Does REAPER generate these numbers (1484552952, 1478575254, etc.) itself or is it pulled from the Windows registry? I'm clueless. (EDIT: I've been told via a Facebook REAPER Group that this is timestamp data. Here's a converter to make it human-readable: https://www.epochconverter.com/?TimeStamp=1484552952

3.) What determines if a given number is shared across multiple MIDI devices or is exclusive to a given device?

This is getting interesting...
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Last edited by mikeroephonics; 09-22-2017 at 04:46 AM.
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