I'm guessing that this is for Tony, but there might be some Reaper folks out there.

I'm using the evaluation version of Reaper, v5.04 on a Windows 10 core i7 Toshiba laptop. I'm having a problem with MIDI.

The MIDI out of the Roland D-50 is connected to an E-Mu USB midi adapter, to the MIDI in. The MIDI out of the E-Mu goes to a Proteus FX. (Yes, I know, buncha legacy gear).

If I add a midi track in Reaper, and set it to say MIDI channel 10, and have my Proteus set to receive data on channel 10, I expect to be able to select that track in Reaper, and have the Proteus make noise. It doesn't.

If I record, I see that MIDI events are silently being recorded. Then, on playback, I can hear what was recorded.

It just seems to me that I should be able to select a MIDI track, and be able to play whatever synth voice is configured for that track.

Most DAW programs don't enable MIDI THRU by default because in some setups it causes the notes to get doubled depending on how things are set up. It's something you'd have to turn on yourself.

Look for an option in Reaper to enable MIDI THRU on the DAW, or perhaps just the track itself. I don't know where it is exactly because I haven't ever tried to do MIDI recording in Reaper. There may be additional complexity there, such as a way for Reaper to filter or modify the MIDI that's being passed thru, such as passing through only notes but not MIDI controller messages, or changing the overall velocity curve before it passes the notes through, or changing the MIDI Channel that the data is being passed through to, or that sort of thing.

Perhaps something in here: http://wiki.cockos.com/wiki/index.php/Recording_MIDI

Something else worth trying: Instead of using an external synth, try one of the plethora of virtual instrument plugins that can be used directly in the DAW. Reaper may even come with some. You won't have to enable MIDI Thru to get those to work.

I'm not sure that I'm talking about MIDI Thru.

I understand that I'd potentially see note duplication, stuck notes, etc if Thru was enabled.

I've used Cakewalk Home Studio for years and got used to the ability to:
- create a midi track
- select what midi channel the track would output to
- select the track and be able to play notes on the keyboard and hear the notes played on whatever was configured to receive midi data on that channel, be it one of my three hardware synths or a soft synth on the laptop.

Maybe that is MIDI Thru behavior, but if so, it was enabled on a channel by channel basis, as the individual tracks were selected.

Such behavior is required for any MIDI enabled DAW, I should think. After all, you need to be able to hear the notes that are being played on the keyboard (at least, I do) as you are recording them.

The documentation Wiki for Reaper indicates that the process should be easy. I follow the steps and no joy.

What an oddment. I'll pursue this a while longer...

I guess what I'm saying is that the midi path in a situation like this is normally:

Keyboard -> Midi In on interface -> DAW software -> Midi Out on Interface -> sound module.

Sometimes the interface, or the DAW, are designed to forward the incoming notes thru to the out port. Sometimes they are not.

There should be a way to configure that in Reaper. (In Logic Audio, it's a shiny button labeled "THRU", and it's off by default).

One reason it might be off by default is it's assumed that you're wanting to use Virtual instruments instead of external instruments to make the sound. And some people when they plug in their systems plug in both the IN and OUT cables to the same keyboard thus getting doubled notes because of a loopbacked THRU.

Cakewalk Home Studio might simply have had THRU enabled by default and you never had to change it. I'm saying maybe Reaper is different.

Well, it is working, and I can't for sure say why. There's only four settings that need to be set correctly for it to work, but I might not have had one of them lined up right.

So, I'll keep looking at Reaper. Like any tool, one needs to know how to use it before judging it.

Sorry, I replied without reading your prior post.

Yep, that is pretty much how I configured my MIDI network (sort of a laugh of a network, but that's what you call it.)

I think that you are right that in comparison to the old Cakewalk HS, Reaper is built around the notion of virtual instruments. It's true that CWHS had support for virtual instruments, but the computer hardware of 2004 wasn't much like the hardware these days, so the real focus was on physical sound modules, and not so much on soft synths.

Reaper has to be more complicated because there is more complication out there, and I suspect that was my problem.

You sure are a wealth of information, Tony. You are probably one of those people that wrecked the curves in college classes, making life rough on the rest of us.

Thanks for the help and the suggestion to look at Reaper.

Thanks!

I didn't mess up college grading curves because I was really bored and irritated with college and school in general. I did some college, and when they ran out of computer courses to give me, I just stopped going.