All Things Midi Including Controllers

[howard]

Which is why I am not trying to talk anyone in to buying one.

She asked the question about why someone would want something like that; I answered

[sshoihet]

@PamPurrs

All I’m saying is if I could see a real world example of how these controls would benefit me while playing piano, I’d be all over it. Even if they could make Reaper better, I would be interested in them. They’re there in front of me, and I’d use them if I could find a purpose.
You do a lot more synth stuff than I could ever dream of doing, so I understand your affinity toward those controls.

I never use mine in Reaper, mostly because i dont have my keyboard with me when i’m working on stuff at Starbucks and also i’m too lazy to set them up … but my arturia keyboard automatically maps the controls to the different synths in Arturia Analog Lab V which is really nice.

The neat thing is that it changes the appearance of the keyboard in the software and the mappings based on which model of keyboard you have.

[PamPurrs]

@howard

I answered

… And did a fine job of it

[PamPurrs]

@howard

Re-Assign MIDI Controllers (Learn) in REAPER

@howard do you know how he got that pitch bend, modulation wheel, and that big thingy in the middle with all the knobs on it? He doesn’t explain that in this video.
Thanks

[howard]

“Big thingy” - you mean the synthesizer he is using? That just looked like a very simple synth VSTi plugin to me.

Pitch Bend and Modulation are physical wheels on the MIDI controller, pretty standard to all MIDI controllers. I am not sure where he got the onscreen display for that from, might be built in to Reaper; I haven’t used it (I always map things to specific controls in plugins).

This is what popping open a synth VSTi looks like for me in Reaper:

You can see along the top, mappings for the mod wheel and four macro knobs that I can map to the knobs on my synth to control the sound parameters of this patch.

Pretty representative project, 13 tracks plus the reference track I used to transcribe and figure out song structure; that gets muted permanently after that.

[PamPurrs]

I’m curious because my keyboard has these two wheel looking things on the left side that don’t do anything at all.

I was just wondering if I’m supposed to map them to something so they at least do something instead of just sitting there decorating the keyboard.
I saw those two little windows in Kenny’s video and thought that might be it.

[skydvr]

the pitch control doesn’t modify the pitch of the note that’s playing?

[howard]

Yes, that’s the mod wheel and pitch bend control he was using in that video. What you saw was him mapping exactly those two wheels to the knobs and sliders in that synth he was using.

In my example, the Mod Wheel is mapped to the Mod Wheel control in the synth patch I have up there.

I am a little surprised the mod wheel and pitch bend aren’t doing anything for the software Piano you are using; usually those two are automatically mapped. Maybe in this case the piano is just playing back samples and doesn’t support them.

[PamPurrs]

@skydvr

the pitch control doesn’t modify the pitch of the note that’s playing?

Nope! It doesn’t do a thing

[PamPurrs]

I just tried the mod thing and the pitch thing in the bass guitar plugin I have, and they both worked. I guess it’s just Piano One that doesn’t work.

Thanks, I’ve got that one solved!

[PamPurrs]

They work in the organ plugin also

[howard]

Yeah they are pretty ubiquitous; those two controls have been on nearly every hardware synth and MIDI keyboard made for the last 40 years.

[PamPurrs]

I’m new on this planet (MIDI) so I will be asking many more stupid questions. Please be patient with me.

[howard]

No worries

It’s a big world, just take it slowly.

[howard]

@Sully

@howard as you know many can have way more than that as you start layering on sounds.

Another tip here - pick a good drum VSTi

If SSD5 didn’t have its own per-drum faders and proper compression I would have an additional 10 or so tracks to worry about. As it is now I just use the normal VSTi outs as a drum bus and mix the kit inside the VSTi. The tracks would blow up fast if I couldn’t do that (or the kits weren’t compressed well). I’ll have to do this if I ever use the raw drums but so far I am liking the preset kits.

[PamPurrs]

@howard

pick a good drum VSTi

Suggestions?

[howard]

You don’t need one, you have a drum machine

There’s lots of good drum plugins, though. A lot of people like Addictive Drums. I use Steven Slate Drums 5. There’s some other really good ones.

[PamPurrs]

@howard

You don’t need one, you have a drum machine

I’m thinking of selling it

[howard]

In that case, if you do, you might like EZDrummer, Addictive Drums, SSD5, several others. But realize these are musical instrument plugins and won’t be the same as jamming along to your drum machine. You can make them do the same thing, but only in the DAW. these are for making music with more than using as practice tools.

That said, I do use mine as a practice tool. But I never play away from my computer.

[joergkutter]

Yeah, why not use @gcancella’s grooveful applet instead!? Awesome for grooving along and exploring rhythm and how to shadow a drum groove etc.