Complete NOOB needing help. Akai MPK49 into a DAW questions.

Hi all. Just joined the forum in hopes of learning more about music production. I spent about 3 hours last night trying to get my new (to me anyways) Akai MPK49 controller to work.

My setup:

- Laptop: Lenovo Yoga 710. Pretty fast i7 processor and should be able to run any DAW with no issues.
- DAW: No CLUE as to which one to use. I tried Reaper and coupld not get any sound outta the MPK49 at all.
- Akai MPK49: Plugged directly into the laptop USB.
- Headrush Pedalboard: Plugged directly into the laptop USB. It is acting as my "interface" and as my guitar pedalboard. The way I understand it, anything that goes into the DAW I'm working with (including the MPK49) should be fed back into the Headrush and out to my speakers.
- 2 x Headrush 2000W FRFR Powered Speakers (plugged directly into the Headrush stereo outputs).

I'm thinking I MAY also need a USB mixer/interface, but the Headrush is supposed to have that built in if all I'm trying to do is have whatever I've put together in the DAW come out through the 2 speakers (plugged into the Headrush.

The problem I'm having is that I can't get any sound at all out of the Akai MPK49. I have no ideal how to "activate" it in the DAW (Reaper) so I can hear it. As a complete NOOB to this whole process, I also hae no clue how to work with or interface with the MPK49. What DAW I should use... Nothing... A friend suggested Reaper for all the tonal options built in for the Akai, but try as I might I can't find ANY settings to even get it to recognize the AKAI.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Yo dude... I think you bought a lot of gear without really understanding how it works.... let alone together.

Just start simple... you are right to hook the Akai MPK49 into the Laptop... but the MPK49 does not make sounds itself. You'll need a DAW (such as reaper), and learn how to get Reaper to accept midi info from the Akai MPK49 and route it to an instrument within the DAW.

Watch Reaper DAW videos... and see if they can get your brain around it

Example:

yes, just like NearTao said.
1. The Keyboard is a controller and doesn't make sound by itself but just send note on/off and control messages to the DAW on your computer
2. In Reaper you can load different VST instruments that then are controlled by the MPK.
3. You'll have to configure Reaper so it can recognize and record the messages from the MPK

Do the following

1. open Reaper
2. click options, the preferences (I recommend to use shortcuts no matter what software cause it's much faster than mouseclicking and the sooner you learn the shortcuts the better. So for Preferences its CTRL+P)
3. click on Device in the list. Set 'Audio system' to ASIO and for ASIO drive choose your Interface (in your case the Headrush)
4. Back to the list and click on MIDI Devices
5. The MPK should be there. Doubleclick on it and enable both options (Enable input and enable Input for control messages)
6. Close this window by clicking OK
7. Click on 'track' in the menubar an choose 'Insert virtual instrument on new track'
8. In the window that just opened click in the filter bar (in the lower part of the window) and type ReaSynth. Then doubleclick it in the window.

Now you should hear a simple sinewave when you play on the MPK. If not check the following settings in the track

* Is the track armed to record? If not click on the red record button in the track

* Is record monitoring on? (hover over the buttons and it will tell you what the button mean and its status)

* there should be a button called 'Input:' it need to be set to MIDI:ALL: All channels

Thats the just the very basic. Watch the tutorial videos from reapermania and reaperblog (start with reapermania)

Free VST instruments are availabe on KVR https://www.kvraudio.com/plugins/window ... ree/newest . Since there are tons of them (good ones AND bad ones) it can be overwhelming so you probably want to go to bedroomproducersblog to get a preselection of good (good in his opinion. but most times I can second his selections) https://bedroomproducersblog.com/free-vst-plugins/ scroll down to VST instruments

Download the vsts and install them.




WHAT you don't know howto install them?
Go back to reapermania and watch the videos agan


peace