Connecting a MIDI home keyboard to Reaper

[FrankF]

Afternoon!
I'm trying to record MIDI into Reaper via a Casio keyboard (an AT-3, MIDI via USB).
I have tried this many times, and each time I give up because there are too many options available.
Can someone help convince me that DAW recording isn't a complete pain-in-the-proverbial before I give up forever and go back to my multitracker!

The AT-3 is "enabled" in Reaper's MIDI Devices, but no signal shows on the track's meters when I play the keyboard/drums/songs (the Reaper track is armed).
I've tried "force MIDI", and "audio and MIDI" in Reaper's input options for the track, but still no signal.
The AT-3 has very few MIDI options: it transmits on ch. 1-16, apparently, and I've set the MIDI channel to 1.

What box have I failed to tick/untick?

[FrankF]

Here's the relevant MIDI imp. manual from Casio:

https://support.casio.com/storage/en/ma ... idi_EN.pdf

[The Elf]

Can't help you with Reaper (or that keyboard), but I can assure you that DAW recording IS DEFINITELY worth the effort!

[Wonks]

As long as 1) you know the MIDI channel the keyboard is set to, 2) the Reaper VSTi track is set to receive data from the AT-3 and 3) the VSTi is set to the same MIDI channel as the AT-3, it should all work.

[Drew Stephenson]

Are you getting the red meters bouncing with input when recording is primed? That will help narrow things down.
What are you playing into? Some VSTis are happy with the midi coming in on any channel, so you can set the channel input to Midi, all channels. But some will only play with the midi coming in on a specific channel (normally 1 or 10 for drums).

[FrankF]

There's no visible meter bouncy bouncy.
I'm just trying to record midi data, so no VST - is that what I'm doing wrong? Or do I have to record the kbd audio at the same time? Surely not.

Because I'm a mediocre kbd player, the idea is to record midi, then correct it and feed it back to the Casio and send the resulting audio into the daw, via my AI.

[Drew Stephenson]

Ok, this is progress. No you don't need a VSTi instantiated.
No red bars jumping up and down = no signal being recognised by the track.

Excuse me teaching egg-sucking but for the sake of completeness let's go right back to basics.

In the midi devices menu in preferences. If you double click on the device in question are both the input boxes checked (or at least the Enable input from this device).

On the track in question, the input record option should just be Record: input (audio or midi).
The input channel selector should be set to Midi - all channels.

Then when you rec-enable the track you should get the bouncy red bars of progress when you hit the keys.

Assuming your keyboard is actually outputting midi? Have you got another bit of software (midiox maybe?) or another device it can plug into to check that?

[N i g e l]

Assuming your keyboard is actually outputting midi? Have you got another bit of software (midiox maybe?) or another device it can plug into to check that?

MIDIOX is a good utility for checking your KB is outputting MIDI and on what channel etc.

Recording MIDI with the synth as the source & destination is a perfectly sensible requirement.
Whether this is for notes, knob twiddling, sound changes makes no difference.

Key things to look out for are
1[enabling MIDI output over USB]
2[setting TX channel]
3[local on/off]

[James Perrett]

I've found that Reaper's MIDI isn't as intuitive as audio recording so once I eventually got it working I saved the project as a template immediately.

[Jimmy B]

Since you may be new to Reaper, I wanted to check that you have found the Kenny Gioia video tutorials. These two seem to be the relevant ones:

https://www.reaper.fm/videos.php#LmEy49PH9p8

https://www.reaper.fm/videos.php#aQ1iHnkqiXA

If all of the above fails, then as others have said, it is good to break the problem into parts, and MIDIOX (a free download) is a good way to see if anything is actually coming into the PC. You can also try to get Reaper recording from its virtual midi keyboard, to get some confidence in Reaper.

[Sam Spoons]

We're assuming FrankF is on a Windows PC, Midiox is Windows only, I liked the look of a simple midi monitor but I am on a Mac so if anybody reading this needs a Mac version there's one here https://www.snoize.com/midimonitor/

[FrankF]

Thanks for the suggs, chaps.
MIDIOX now installed: it can see note on / off, and some cc data, so I guess my Reaper setup is where I need to look.

Kenny G's using an older version of Reaper, so I'm a bit flummoxed with what he's seeing. The Casio is i/o Enabled in Prefs, but (unlike Kenny), I can't see it in the track's MIDI dropdown menu.

Question: Does Reaper auto. search for MIDI on ALL channels?

[Jimmy B]

OK, that's eliminated a lot of things that could be wrong, so we are making progress.
If your device is showing in "preferences-midi" as "enabled+control" or just "enabled" then it should appear in the track "input" dropdown menu, even in the latest version of Reaper. (note: NOT the track "record" dropdown menu). If it isn't, then something unexpected is happening.
To maximise the chances of something working first time, I usually start with "input midi- all devices- all channels" in the track input menu. It may be worth trying this, but I don't necessarily expect it to solve the problem.
I don't have a Casio keyboard to try (I'm doing this with an Arturia, but it should work the same, as you are seeing input in MIDIOX). It would be good if someone who does have a Casio and has got it working via midi can intervene at this point.

[The Elf]

Do we *know* that this Casio transmits keyboard/note data via USB MIDI? I downloaded the manual, but I don't see anything that makes that clear. Although it would seem odd (and unusual in the extreme), I'm wondering if it only uses USB to transfer internal data to/from a computer.

[Jimmy B]

Yes, I think that the OP said that he is seeing midi data from the Casio in MIDIOX?

[The Elf]

Yes, I think that the OP said that he is seeing midi data from the Casio in MIDIOX?

Fair enough. I just felt that someone should ask. It would be a very odd implementation that didn't offer MIDI note data over USB, but they do exist.

[FrankF]

If your device is showing in "preferences-midi" as "enabled+control" or just "enabled" then it should appear in the track "input" dropdown menu, even in the latest version of Reaper. (note: NOT the track "record" dropdown menu).

How do you open the Input dropdown Menu?
I can only see the Record Input dropdown menu, that is,
the word IN with a down-arrow next to it in the track box.

[Jimmy B]

You need to record- enable the track (the red button). Another dropdown then appears to the right of the first one.

[Jimmy B]

I am looking at the track view near the top of the screen, not the mixer at the bottom. And you might need to enlarge the grey panel view of that track by dragging the divider to the right (just past the "M" and "S" buttons)

[FrankF]

Sorted! Thank you, Jimmy!
Problem is, I have no idea how...
I simply stretched the track box down, and there was the Casio's very own dropdown menu.
So why on earth would Reaper have a default track display that fails to show all the info you need? I mean, it's only ONE extra line of graphics in this case.
Perhaps there's an option in Preferences which I accidentally ticked, entitled as follows:
"Hide Crucial Info just to pish off tyros and make them hate our software" ...

[The Elf]

Maybe you can understand why I still prefer Cubase!

[Jimmy B]

Glad to be of help.
The problem with Reaper (which is also its strength) is that it is so configurable that nearly everyone is looking at something different. That drop-down wasn't hidden on my system, but I just guessed that it might be on yours.

[Jimmy B]

Maybe you can understand why I still prefer Cubase!

When I started on this hobby in a very small way, I chose Reaper because it was available fully featured at a price which matched what I was prepared to spend at that time. Granted there was a lot of learning to do, especially as I didn't have any experience of any DAW at that point.

Now that I have invested the time to understand how it works, I don't have any desire to learn any other DAW, and I don't see any need to, as I have yet to find anything that I want to do that it can't do.

I quite understand why other people feel exactly the same about whatever DAW they have learned, including Cubase.

Our personal knowledge and experience is our most valuable resource.

[FrankF]

Here we go again!
I've recorded some MIDI into Reaper from the Casio, but on playback the keyboard is silent.
For recording the MIDI, I chose "all channels" in the Reaper track, but I can't see a similar option for Reaper's output.
I have of course ticked "Enable output to this device" for the Casio, which sends and receives on channels 1-16, according to the manual, and there is no option to switch "MIDI Receive" off, so that's not the problem.
Also, I can only select 1 MIDI ch. on the Casio (presumably for both directions - it doesn't say).

Any ideas?

[Sam Spoons]

The best DAW is the one you know, when I returned to computers after spending 10 years using hardware recorders I decided that I was, effectively, starting from scratch so any DAW would have a learning curve so rather than waste time trying to learn two or three to decide which suited me best I chose Reaper and resolved to make it work for me. It's a decision I haven't regretted for a moment.