MPC & Reaper Tutorials

I've recently acquired Reaper 4.52 and I've had my MPC for a month or so and love it, despite it's supposed shortcomings.

I haven't seen much threads on how to incorporate the MPC within (or around) Reaper but am eager to look more into this as Reaper is super nimble, capable and a ninja of the DAW world and if I can get the MPC to play ball with it then I feel it's a total winning combination.

Here's 2 strange phenomenons I noticed this morning after working the two together:

1) The MPC instantly acts as a midi controller for vsti's loaded in Reaper (brilliant!) however when I touch the q links they act as a note trigger in addition to whatever midi commands/controls I've set up. So, playing a pad on curve 2 [vst a] and turning the q links I've set up for various parts of the synth also trigger notes on Diva [vst b], Reaktor [vst c] and even the external midi hardware and so on.

How do I stop this? PS. I still want to keep the q link controlling the synths I set up (cutoff/resonance/decays/attack,etc...)

2) When using Reaper alongside the MPC software (not within Reaper but external to it: both programs loaded up) so I can record the sounds from Reaper into the MPC, the MPC hardware will crash soon after I record a sample or 2 at most. The software continues to act ok but the hardware requires a reboot and so does Reaper.

Anyone else had these issues and know of a workaround?

Also are there any good sites or videos/tutorials on using the MPC within Reaper?

On the grand scale of things I'm a rank amateur with Reaper and not a huge amount better on the MPC but I learn super quick and am here for any help you guys could pass my way

Peace

Quick Update:

The hardware freeze happened again and I turned the MPC off and back on again and it works ok with the software, no information lost, but Reaper doesn't recognize it and doesn't produce any sound so needs a reboot.

Windows or mac? If on mac you can run iac driver with multiple ports, and then run ren in standalone aswell.. (Where your midi tracks in ren software send out to those iaac driver virtual ports, and reaper recives them as input ports... )

There's a few cool things you can do with reaper in terms of midi learning and stuff..

You can set it up so that your mappings only come into effect if the vst is in focus...

For instance,
you have 3 tracks...
each track has a vsti on them.
You map each the first vsti on track 1 with ren.. When you do this make sure the option to only use mappings when vsti is in focus ... Or when track is selected...(you can also save these mappings as defaults so everytime you load the vsti the mappings are saved)

I would use the cursor keys on mpc ren as navigation... So setup "up" cursor to previous track and "down" cursor as next track ...

You can set reaper up so when you scroll or go through tracks it automactically puts your vst chain in focus, thus enabling vsti mappings to take over the mpc ren...

Q links send note info when touched.. And then when you twist the knob its a different controller/cc setting..

You could put a midi plugin before each vsti to filter the q link touch notes out so that they dont trigger you vsti's ...

I hope they make the ren have more flexible midi in the next updates... Would really turn the ren into something more of a central controlling station for your daw..

Thanks for that help.

Btw, I'm using a win7 pc.

Why do the q links send note on information? I'll try your solution to stop it but it really should be an easier thing to 'unselect'. The Ren seems like it could be a great controller within Reaper once I get it set up and there's a few software updates.

Nubian Mindz wrote:Why do the q links send note on information? I'll try your solution to stop it but it really should be an easier thing to 'unselect'. The Ren seems like it could be a great controller within Reaper once I get it set up and there's a few software updates.

They send note on data because that is how they programmed it to behave.

You need to wait for the new MIDI controller mode coming in the 1.5 update.

Nubian Mindz wrote:I've recently acquired Reaper 4.52 and I've had my MPC for a month or so and love it, despite it's supposed shortcomings.

I haven't seen much threads on how to incorporate the MPC within (or around) Reaper but am eager to look more into this as Reaper is super nimble, capable and a ninja of the DAW world and if I can get the MPC to play ball with it then I feel it's a total winning combination.

Here's 2 strange phenomenons I noticed this morning after working the two together:

1) The MPC instantly acts as a midi controller for vsti's loaded in Reaper (brilliant!) however when I touch the q links they act as a note trigger in addition to whatever midi commands/controls I've set up. So, playing a pad on curve 2 [vst a] and turning the q links I've set up for various parts of the synth also trigger notes on Diva [vst b], Reaktor [vst c] and even the external midi hardware and so on.

How do I stop this? PS. I still want to keep the q link controlling the synths I set up (cutoff/resonance/decays/attack,etc...)

2) When using Reaper alongside the MPC software (not within Reaper but external to it: both programs loaded up) so I can record the sounds from Reaper into the MPC, the MPC hardware will crash soon after I record a sample or 2 at most. The software continues to act ok but the hardware requires a reboot and so does Reaper.

Anyone else had these issues and know of a workaround?

Also are there any good sites or videos/tutorials on using the MPC within Reaper?

On the grand scale of things I'm a rank amateur with Reaper and not a huge amount better on the MPC but I learn super quick and am here for any help you guys could pass my way

Peace

I believe there is a solution to this as I do what you are doing with other DAWs. I am downloading Reaper as I type this. I'll post what I find.

Nubian Mindz, I think I got you. I just spent the past two hours trying to figure out Reaper and believe I found a solution for you.

I will record a video and post a link within the hour or so...stay tuned.....

1. Launch Reaper v4.52

2. Create 4 Virtual Instrument Tracks (MPC, Battery, Mini V, Wurlitzer)

3. Within MPC VST (not AU) create 3 MIDI Tracks, MIDI CH 1-3 respectively

4. Click the [I/O] for Reaper Track 2; select 'Add New Receive', choose MPC, and MIDI CH 1

5. Click the [I/O] for Reaper Track 3; select 'Add New Receive', choose MPC, and MIDI CH 2

6. Click the [I/O] for Reaper Track 4; select 'Add New Receive', choose MPC, and MIDI CH 3

Results -
Select Track 1 on your MPC Software and strike pads. You are now triggering the VST on Track 2 of Reaper. Select 2 on your MPC Software and strike pads. You are now triggering the VST on Track 3 of Reaper.

You can also simply use Track 1 of your MPC and change the MIDI channel to trigger the respective Track and VST.

See supporting video for more details:

Qlinks can be set to Note On or Real Time from the MPC Software Main Mode.

Additionally, you can use the MPC Software's 96 Qlinks to easily control the params of plugins within Reaper. Here is a quick walkthrough:

Got home from work to find this up. Fantastic work JAH. You are a star!

Thanks very much and I've tried this out and it works great.

No problem. Glad I could help out. Just remember this when I am running for Pesident or knocking door to door to get you to sign a petition.

I do want to spend some time looking into your other issue where you experienced crashes when using the MPC Software and Reaper side-by-side. If you can give me detailed information on how you had them set-up, this would be extremely helpful.

While looking into your issues, I noticed I got a lot of latency using Reaper and my MPC hardware. The latency went away when I open up a file menu within Reaper. But as soon as a close a menu, the latency would come back. I used my UAD Soundcard in Reaper and the performance was terrible. I don't have this problem with any other DAW to include Pro Tools, Logic, Cubase, Live, and Studio One.

Help please. I can't get Reaper to "see" the MPC VST.
I have been scratching my head for a few days now trying to use the MPC Studio as a plug-in in Reaper (and Studio One). I have searched and read all the threads on this topic in this forum (and the free tutorials in MPC-Tutor) but they all skip the first basic steps. I'm starting to think that this can't be done with the Studio, just with the Ren...? (for example, in the studio there's no transport->DAW option in the preference/other menu.)

Is there any settings one has to trigger in the MPC software before attempting the connection? The user manual is useless , all it says is that it can be done but it doesn't say how...if someone could post the very basics on how to do this...

thanks in advance!
ps: Win 7, MPC Software 1.4 32-bit, Reaper 4.52 32-bit

The MPC Software for the Ren and Studio are identical. If you do have 1.4 installed there should be a Transport Option. If not, can you post a screen shot?

I am not an expert in Win. But does the MPC VST show up in both the 32 bit and 64 bit plugin folders on your computer?

Keep in mind you can only use 32 bit MPC VST in 32 bit Reaper; likewise 64 bit MPC VST in 64 bit Reaper. If Reaper doesn't see these plugins, you must rescan your plugin folders.

Additionally, in the MPC Help menu, there are multiple reference documents. One of them is dedicated to helping you set up the transport to DAWs. Directions are for Pro Tools, Logic, and Cubase. You may be able to use them as a guide to setting it up with Reaper. If you don't figure it out, I will see what I can come up with when I get a home and post a video within the next 12 hours.

I could not figure out how to map Reaper's transports to the MPC Ren's transport.

If someone is an expert at setting up Reaper to be used with a generic controller or a device that it doesn't have a template for...please share. I may be able to use this info to set up the Ren's transport. Without basic knowledge of Reaper...I am lost how to do this.

That's another thing I couldn't figure out Jah.