[Andrew9999]

I use the popular DAW "Reaper" (and Jamulus, with a Focusrite sound card) to play in real time with people over the Internet.  On the whole this works very well and we have good regular sessions despite the impact of COVID restrictions, with low enough latency to not affect us.

Before COVID I would just play Piano, and occasionally pick up other instruments.  But with COVID I've discovered the wonderful world of MIDI keyboards and virtual instruments - so now I fill in with a variety of "virtual" sampled instruments when needed, from the keyboard.  I am often switching between sets of virtual instruments during or between songs.  I do this manually by arranging the instruments as different tracks in Reaper, and arming them for Record as I need them.

This works, but is a bit clunky - I've explored MIDI Smart Buttons in Mobile Sheets but I can't find a way to send e.g. control commands from MS to Reaper to automate virtual instrument selection.  The MIDI Smart Button function appears to be designed to send control commands to a MIDI device, not act as a MIDI device in the eyes of the DAW (which is what I think I need).

Has anyone managed to implement this sort of automation?  Thanks.

--Andrew

[Zubersoft]

You would need to use something like loopMIDI (https://www.tobias-erichsen.de/software/loopmidi.html) to create virtual MIDI ports that you can connect Reaper and MobileSheets to. 

Mike

[Andrew9999]

Thanks for that tip (and the quick response!) - I'll test loopMIDI.

--Andrew

[Andrew9999]

So I got this working brilliantly.  Here's how, in case anyone else is interested:

- Installed loopMIDI and added a new virtual MIDI port with it.

In MSP:
- Created a Smart Button
- Chose Send MIDI commands action
- Chose loopMIDI as the destination (note it was listed just as "MIDI")
- Created a control code action for a MIDI channel I don't use

in Reaper:
- Enabled loopMIDI for input in Midi Devices
- Created a dummy Track to receive the loopMIDI control codes relayed from MSP
- Armed that track and chose loopMIDI as the in FX source
- Installed ReaLearn (see https://www.helgoboss.org/projects/realearn/)
- Used "Learn Source" in ReaLearn and clicked the Smart Button - this automatically picks up the Smart Button CC I send, relayed via loopMIDI
- Used "Learn Target" to record the track I wanted to arm (could be any other Reaper action)

I repeated this with different control codes for each track I wanted to arm, and each track I wanted to disarm, adding all the mappings to ReaLearn - I only have to do this once.  I started at CC 100 but that was arbitrary.

Then in the MSP Smart Button for a Song I added multiple Send MIDI commands for disarming and arming the tracks I wanted for that song.   Now when I click the Smart Button in a Song it automatically arms/disarms the tracks corresponding to the virtual and physical instruments I want to use with my MIDI keyboards/pads/instruments for that song when playing "live".  Magic!

--Andrew

[mulugod]

Hi, I am using an old Yamaha ES7 as a midi controller, at least I am trying to do so. I am working with REAPER as well and it does not recognize my synth as a midi input device. I does recognize it as a midi output device . I don't know if there is an actual updated driver for the Motif ES7?? Is there? I also have a Yamaha portable grand that 'is' recognized by REAPER both as input and output but is is not a versatile in general as the Motif so I'd like to get some mid flowing from Motif to REAPER. Any suggestions? I noticed there is a virtual midi controller available online but I don't know if I trust that product (from Tobias Erichsen). Any advice or information you could provide would be appreciated. Thanks.