Midi Question

[BALKIS]

I use the Motif Classic as my Midi Synth and use Reaper as my daw host & i was wondering if their were any software free or paid that would allow my motif to read the midi notes inside reaper and play em back in my Motif. Anybody know of any software that will allow me to do this?

[Andywanders]

Reaper will send MIDI to the MIDI OUT port on your computer, just make sure that it's connected to the Motif's MIDI IN.

Also, you will need to set the Reaper track to output MIDI on the correct port. I'm not sure how to do that but if you ask on the 'Hosts' forum, I'm sure you'll get the answer.

Or post here...

http://www.cockos.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=20

[BALKIS]

So you mean i could actually have my Motif playback the midi that's inside reaper? If so this would be awesome then i could use my keyboard sounds instead of a vsti synth.

[Andywanders]

You definitely can record MIDI into Reaper from your keyboard and then play it back from Reaper into your keyboard. I've done it with my keyboard.

Problem is, I don't use Reaper - I was just trying it out - and I can't remember how to get it to work (it's some setting in the in/out dialogue of Reaper's tracks I think). It took me ages to figure it out at the time but believe me, it did work. Maybe a Reaper user will chime in with a better answer.

Good luck.

[BALKIS]

Well the guys over at the motif forum are saying you have to directly insert midi files through a smart media card in order for the motif to playback midi. Is this some sort of joke?

[jupiter8]

Well the guys over at the motif forum are saying you have to directly insert midi files through a smart media card in order for the motif to playback midi. Is this some sort of joke?

Those guys are smoking crack.Of course you can sequence your Motif (or any synth for that matter) from Reaper. Check manual page 20 on how to enable your midi interface (you do have one,right ? ) and then page 61 on how to record and route your midi. Piece of cake really.

[BALKIS]

yes i have a midi interface. I've never tried to playback midi before i usually would always control a vsti synth with my motif but never actually playback midi with the motif's own sounds. which is what i wanna learn how to do.

[james0tucson]

Well the guys over at the motif forum are saying you have to directly insert midi files through a smart media card in order for the motif to playback midi. Is this some sort of joke?

Either they are pulling your leg, answering some strange question, or are too ignorant to be allowed to post on a forum. Or maybe they haven't yet heard that there are MIDI interfaces and software for computers now???

Think about it. Why would the Motif have a Midi-In jack?

[jupiter8]

First of all you need 2 midi cables, One from the Motif to the computer and one the other way. Midi only goes noe way.

Second of all you need to set the the Motif to midi local:off. You don't want the Motif to play from the keyboard.You want it to play from the computer that is controlled by the keyboard.Check the Motifs manual how to turn this off.

Then it should be just a matter of selecting the the right midi port on the midi track output and record. Note that it will probably be named after the midi interface.It will not say Motif as it is no way for the computer to know what's in the other end of the midi cable. You can probably rename this but i'm not sure.No biggie either way.

If you set the Motif to multimode you can have 16 different sounds on different midi channels.This is probably what you want.

Note that i've never used either Reaper or the Motif but this is how it should work.Hope it helps. I've done this lots of times with other sequencers and synths though.

[BALKIS]

yeah these are the answers they have given me now.

1. Save the MIDI files on an external mass storage device supported by the Motif Classic (SmartMedia Cards or SCSI Mass storage devices) and load it into a song or pattern in the Motif; or
2. Play the MIDI from Reaper to the MIDI output port connected to your Motif and record the MIDI data into a Motif song or pattern.

Having done either of these, you can then change the mix for the song or pattern - selecting voices, effects, stereo pan positions, relative volumes, etc. appropriate for playing back your song on the Motif. Once you have completed mixing your song, you would store the mix to the song and then save it to SmartMedia or SCSI mass storage. (Song and Pattern data as well as mixes are not preserved on the Motif - so you must save them externally and reload them whenever you power cycle the instrument.)

[BALKIS]

they give me all this extra junk like i actually like to use the motif's sequencer? all i wanna do is use the motif's sounds and use it for my midi playback inside reaper for gods sake.

[james0tucson]

they give me all this extra junk like i actually like to use the motif's sequencer? all i wanna do is use the motif's sounds and use it for my midi playback inside reaper for gods sake.

I don't think it's anywhere near as hard as your other contacts are making it sound. I don't have a Motif, and I don't use your sequencing host. Nevertheless, I am quite certain that you can setup your Motif so that it can be like this (and this is how I'd do it):

On several MIDI channels, your Motif plays several voices. Say, one for the drum track, one for bass, one for strings. Several sequencer tracks on your computer play each of these -- and perhaps in sync with some software instrument or some other instrument on your hardware rack.

WHILE that's playing, YOU ALSO have control of the keyboard and can play piano -- or maybe a layer of instruments -- or -- get this -- play other hardware instruments in your rack AND/OR play one of the software synths in your sequencer.

This kind of configuration isn't really that hard to setup but you should do it one step at a time.

How are you connecting your keyboard to your computer? USB?

Somebody more familiar with your sequencer should be able to walk you through the following: Set the Motif to a piano patch ... arm a sequencer track ... record a take ... playback the take with the hardware synth as the sound generator. This is pretty basic stuff. To hell with the synth's "internal sequencer" or "memory card", that stuff is probably pretty nice on a new Yamaha, but you don't need any of it for this.

Get past the "player piano" stage and it's a short hop to multiple channels with multiple instruments, live accompaniment, etc.

Personally I don't really take this much further than having my synth play my string arrangement while I play piano on top of it. But I could have the thing play a 128 voice orchestration if I wanted to work hard

I think you need to get away from that Motif forum. It sounds like you're getting bad advice and misinformation from people who really don't know what they are talking about. Rather, it sounds like you're corresponding with people who don't use a software sequencer (there are people who haven't seen the light, and insist on using things like hardware sample players and the sequencers built into their synths.)

Not that this is a bad thing -- I actually *like* the sequencer onboard my Roland. It promotes creativity in a certain way. Separate issue, don't mean to digress.

What I meant to say is, even though I don't know how, I am very sure you can play one or more (probably 16) MIDI tracks through your Motif, with the Motif as basically a "dumb terminal" if you will. No need for a memory card or a "recording and playback" step. Sounds like your correspondents are all about the synth as a one-stop-shop, which has its strong points, mind you. Here on KVR most people end up using the hardware synth as a controller for the good stuff in the computer...

[james0tucson]

First of all you need 2 midi cables, One from the Motif to the computer and one the other way. Midi only goes noe way.

I think the Motif's have USB. They should show up in the sequencer as midi-in and -out devices, right? At least if that's his only synth, he should be ok.

There's some strange advice we're getting via "the telephone game" from some Yamaha users' forum.

It's pretty easy to wire Reaper to drive a midi device, but arming the Motif to listen, setting channels, selecting voices, etc. is something another Motif user is going to have to answer. Wish I could -- I decided to make a house payment instead of buying the ES8 I had my eyes on

Not only should it be easy to make the Motif play, it should also be pretty simple to use as a control surface.


Look at the manual starting around p.142.

It should be really easy to make it play, or to use it as a controller. Setting up the sequencer to send the right SYSEX and such to select patches other than the GM bank might be a bit tricky, but that's usually the case --- and it *can't* be worse with a Yamaha than with a Roland.

[james0tucson]

yes i have a midi interface.

If you only have one synth, the "TO HOST" USB connection might in truth perform better.

[BALKIS]

Hey guy's thanks for all the kind help. This is like 20x better than that Motif forum. The Motif has both a usb way to connect midi and my audio interface has midi in midi out but i don't have a usb cable to connect my midi through usb so i'll have to use my audio interface instead. I hope this isn't a problem. Yeah those guy's use the motif as a all in one go type of thing. I don't. I don't have the extra memory for the motif or the expensive scci drives or smart media card writer/reader and extra smart media cards to use & i guess they don't understand that. Also the sequencer on the motif is just plain out horrible. All i wanna do is be able to playback the midi chord patterns i load in reaper and let my motif trigger the sound.