Connecting a MPC to Reason WITHOUT using a midi keyboard

Hi everybody,

First of all, I know there's a lot of tutorials who explains how to connect an MPC to Reason, or any other DAW. So I noticed there are two ways of connecting an MPC to reason:

1) The Midi out of the MPC is connected with the Midi In of a Midi Keyboard Controller. The Midi out of the keyboard is connected to the Midi in of a MIDI/audio interface, which is connected to the computer with USB. If I understood well, since you configured Reason so that it recognize your Midi keyboard and since the MPC in relation to the keyboard is slave, everything should work fine. If a reason bus is used by your keyboard and a channel of this bus is a sound module such as redrum for example, when I play on pads, Midi information is sent from MPC to keyboard and from keyboard to the sound module (it is to say a redrum). With that configuration, you can use Reason "as a sound module" for your MPC.

2) The MPC is connected directly to the Midi/audio interface, using its midi in and out connections. In this case with don't need any keyboard. If I understood well - don't hesitate to correct me if I'm wrong - I just have to set a bus to the midi/audio interface. I don't need to "detect a new surface" (and anyway, Reason cannot recognize anything else than midi keyboards and midi controllers). I can use a channel in this bus to connect my MPC to a sound module (like Redrum, etc.). So, as I play pads, midi data is sent from the MPC to reason and from Reason to MPC.

I'm only interested in the second configuration since I have a M-Audio Oxygen 49 with no MIDI connections at all. And I don't understand how it should work, and how you must precisely - I insist on that because I'm a total noob... - set up the MPC and Reason. If there's no MIDI surface - in this case the MPC - detected, how it should work? Anyway, I heard there was many problems with recording MPC sequences to Reason. So... is that configuration just possible? Does it work?

I want to use Redrum to make my rythms and Dr Rex to use different slices of a sample and create rythmic effects with it. How could I if I don't have a midi keyboard?

Thanks in advance for your help

You can manually add a midi input.
Go to preferences and select keyboards and control surfaces, then click add and select other from the manufacturers list.
Then select your midi input.

Some other things you might want to know.
Could depend on what MPC you have but you probably need to set up the output somewhere in the MPC (I only ever used a 1000 for this)
There is no midi output from reason to the MPC it only takes midi in.
Reason can have a 'master keyboard' which will only control the currently selected track, you can turn this off and use the 16channel bus. Go to Advanced control in the preferences to set this up. Also set up the sync input here if you want to sync them (MPC master).
The midi notes on a standard MPC program are all over the place compared to the norm in reason so you probably will want a chromatic program. Depending on your model you might have to change the notes manually and save a copy. Check your manual.

will turn your mpc into a usb midi controller like an mpd etc minus the faders and knobs

your mpc pads will trigger notes in reason and you can control the transport( start/stop etc & tempo)




6 dollars 19 cents

http://cgi.ebay.com/USB-MIDI-Cable-Converter-Adapter-to-PC-for-XP-Vista-Mac_W0QQitemZ350280376893QQihZ022QQcategoryZ41784QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp4340.m444QQ_trkparmsZalgo%3DCRX%26its%3DC%252BS%26itu%3DSI%252BUA%252BLM%252BLA%26otn%3D5%26ps%3D63%26clkid%3D8724695957242973931

dbz wrote:You can manually add a midi input.
Go to preferences and select keyboards and control surfaces, then click add and select other from the manufacturers list.
Then select your midi input.

Some other things you might want to know.
Could depend on what MPC you have but you probably need to set up the output somewhere in the MPC (I only ever used a 1000 for this)
There is no midi output from reason to the MPC it only takes midi in.
Reason can have a 'master keyboard' which will only control the currently selected track, you can turn this off and use the 16channel bus. Go to Advanced control in the preferences to set this up. Also set up the sync input here if you want to sync them (MPC master).
The midi notes on a standard MPC program are all over the place compared to the norm in reason so you probably will want a chromatic program. Depending on your model you might have to change the notes manually and save a copy. Check your manual.

Thanks for your response. I connected the MPC the way I described it in my initial post (second configuration). Everything is synched, my MPC 1000 works as master and reason works as slave. I just have a few questions:

- Midi out... I don't know how I could do to export midi to reason. With rewire and Cubase for instance? But i dunno how to do it precisely again (I don't use Cubase at all but I can find it)... And I don't know if it will work...

- How can I use the Midi keyboard I have to record something since reason is slave and MPC master? Anyway, I use the soundcard from the MIDI/audio interface (the one who connects MPC to Reason). I was wondering if it has some impact on the problem since I cannot record anything from the USB midi keyboard even if I use another bus...

You can't connect an MPC to Reason with no midi ports. Reason has to have a physical midi in that the midi out of the MPC connects to. There is no way around it. Get yourself a midi interface of some sort or that little dongle BG posted. This is like asking how to make your computer control the internet without having your modem plugged in!

DJ Hellfire wrote:You can't connect an MPC to Reason with no midi ports. Reason has to have a physical midi in that the midi out of the MPC connects to. There is no way around it. Get yourself a midi interface of some sort or that little dongle BG posted. This is like asking how to make your computer control the internet without having your modem plugged in!

Yeah I understand. And I got a midi/audio interface whose midi in and out
are used by the MPC... BUT - to reformulate my question - how can I get midi out in reason? How must I configure Reason? DBZ tells its possible. I guess so but how?

MrMojoRisin wrote:

dbz wrote:You can manually add a midi input.
Go to preferences and select keyboards and control surfaces, then click add and select other from the manufacturers list.
Then select your midi input.

Some other things you might want to know.
Could depend on what MPC you have but you probably need to set up the output somewhere in the MPC (I only ever used a 1000 for this)
There is no midi output from reason to the MPC it only takes midi in.
Reason can have a 'master keyboard' which will only control the currently selected track, you can turn this off and use the 16channel bus. Go to Advanced control in the preferences to set this up. Also set up the sync input here if you want to sync them (MPC master).
The midi notes on a standard MPC program are all over the place compared to the norm in reason so you probably will want a chromatic program. Depending on your model you might have to change the notes manually and save a copy. Check your manual.

Thanks for your response. I connected the MPC the way I described it in my initial post (second configuration). Everything is synched, my MPC 1000 works as master and reason works as slave. I just have a few questions:

- Midi out... I don't know how I could do to export midi to reason. With rewire and Cubase for instance? But i dunno how to do it precisely again (I don't use Cubase at all but I can find it)... And I don't know if it will work...

- How can I use the Midi keyboard I have to record something since reason is slave and MPC master? Anyway, I use the soundcard from the MIDI/audio interface (the one who connects MPC to Reason). I was wondering if it has some impact on the problem since I cannot record anything from the USB midi keyboard even if I use another bus...

Are you recording your notes in the MPC or in the reason sequencer?
You can't physically get a midi output from reason. You can send the audio through rewire to cuebase (reaper is also good btw) etc but if the midi data is in the MPC it won't come through on mixdown. You either have to export the midi data from the MPC and import it into reason (or cubase, but that is more tricky). Or record the audio tracks real time in cubase as the song plays by rewire.

You can add your midi keyboard as another controller in reason if it's USB or even connect it to the MPC if it has a midi out port.

dbz wrote:

MrMojoRisin wrote:

dbz wrote:You can manually add a midi input.
Go to preferences and select keyboards and control surfaces, then click add and select other from the manufacturers list.
Then select your midi input.

Some other things you might want to know.
Could depend on what MPC you have but you probably need to set up the output somewhere in the MPC (I only ever used a 1000 for this)
There is no midi output from reason to the MPC it only takes midi in.
Reason can have a 'master keyboard' which will only control the currently selected track, you can turn this off and use the 16channel bus. Go to Advanced control in the preferences to set this up. Also set up the sync input here if you want to sync them (MPC master).
The midi notes on a standard MPC program are all over the place compared to the norm in reason so you probably will want a chromatic program. Depending on your model you might have to change the notes manually and save a copy. Check your manual.

Thanks for your response. I connected the MPC the way I described it in my initial post (second configuration). Everything is synched, my MPC 1000 works as master and reason works as slave. I just have a few questions:

- Midi out... I don't know how I could do to export midi to reason. With rewire and Cubase for instance? But i dunno how to do it precisely again (I don't use Cubase at all but I can find it)... And I don't know if it will work...

- How can I use the Midi keyboard I have to record something since reason is slave and MPC master? Anyway, I use the soundcard from the MIDI/audio interface (the one who connects MPC to Reason). I was wondering if it has some impact on the problem since I cannot record anything from the USB midi keyboard even if I use another bus...

Are you recording your notes in the MPC or in the reason sequencer?
You can't physically get a midi output from reason. You can send the audio through rewire to cubase (reaper is also good btw) etc but if the midi data is in the MPC it won't come through on mixdown. You either have to export the midi data from the MPC and import it into reason (or cubase, but that is more tricky). Or record the audio tracks real time in cubase as the song plays by rewire.

You can add your midi keyboard as another controller in reason if it's USB or even connect it to the MPC if it has a midi out port.

I'm recording my notes in the MPC... (there is no other way to do it...). Is it possible to slave the MPC to Reason? Is it possible to use the MPC as a MIDI instrument (like an MPD 32, etc.) and not an external sequencer? Thanks.

reason doesn't support midi out


http://www.futureproducers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12227

For Cubase, there's what's call the "input transformer" that you can select for any given midi track, that'll filter certain incoming midi data.

So if you're using your mpc as the master controller like you said, then this is what you'll want to turn to so you can overcome this delima before you get to it.

MrMojoRisin wrote:I'm recording my notes in the MPC... (there is no other way to do it...). Is it possible to slave the MPC to Reason? Is it possible to use the MPC as a MIDI instrument (like an MPD 32, etc.) and not an external sequencer? Thanks.

If you set your midi input (mpc) as the master keyboard in the preferences it will control whichever sequencer track you select. Then you can forget about the 16ch master bus and record straight to the reason sequencer.
Sounds like this is what you want.

You can't have reason as the master - no midi out