PLEASE READ:Familiar with Reason 5 via laptop?

[ollie0186]

Calling all Reason Gods..
*before I start, unfortunatley a midikeyboard is not the solution as I'm travelling and using a laptop for transport reasons*
Can anyone help please?, its a pretty ridiculous problem and to think I haven't sorted it already is just embarrassing, basically just installed reason 5 and near enough everythings running perfectly my laptop keyboard will start the project and stop it by pressing the space bar, BUT when I want to highlight an instrument and hear the notes by typing on the keyboard nothings working. The only way I can get any sounds off my keyboard is by opening this onscreen keyboard box. But even then that's just basically showing me how the notes will sound with each instrument and it won't write the notes to the project for me, or when I highlight an instrument it won't play any notes either. Any ideas how to do it instead of buying a midikeyboard as I'm only using reason on my laptop as its portable and convenient. It works fine on FL studio but I want to get into reason 5!

[ollie0186]

Seems this is all I can manage to find, which only let's you use your keyboard to play the notes as demo, when infact I just want to highlight an instrument and then use the keyboard on the laptop to write notes to the track and also testing sounds/melodys

[rcbuse]

You need to make sure your device you want the notes to trigger is highlighted on the left hand of the sequencer window, not highlighted in the rack.

[ollie0186]

You need to make sure your device you want the notes to trigger is highlighted on the left hand of the sequencer window, not highlighted in the rack.

Yes I have highlited an instrument in the left as well (the lanes window) and it still won't play anything on my keyboard, it only works when I open the on screen keyboard. So does this defiantly work on reason 5?
Thanks for your reply!

[ollie0186]

You need to make sure your device you want the notes to trigger is highlighted on the left hand of the sequencer window, not highlighted in the rack.

(Screenshot attached)
See look, I opened the combinator and highlighted it on the left like you said and when I press the correct keys on the keyboard nothing happens. If I press the actual keys on the screen next to the part where you draw the patterns, it plays the instrument. And if I open on screen keyboard it gives me a demo! But won't pencil anything in for me or play/write when highlited like you said.
Any ideas please!?

[tibah]

This is the way it works.

You can only use your computer keyboard for entering notes, with the on-screen piano window open. 

Take "S" for example. It enables/disables snap to grid by default, but changes to the note D with the on-sceen piano keys enabled/open. Recording works fine here, when recording with shown on-screen piano.

I hope this makes sense, unless I'm totally getting this thread wrong or they changed something about that behavior post Reason 5.

[ollie0186]

This is the way it works.

You can only use your computer keyboard for entering notes, with the on-screen piano window open. 

Take "S" for example. It enables/disables snap to grid by default, but changes to the note D with the on-sceen piano keys enabled/open. Recording works fine here, when recording with shown on-screen piano.

I hope this makes sense, unless I'm totally getting this thread wrong.

No that's correct! But isn't there a way to play back notes via keyboard by selecting instrument in the lanes window? I'm sure that worked on my PC with a midikeyboard when I had R3 a few years back but not certain, if you could I can't see why I can't do it with the keyboard without that onscreen keyboard thing being the only option.

[pushedbutton]

I'm pretty sure you haven't selected the device in the sequencer, otherwise it would be working.

[rcbuse]

This is the way it works.

You can only use your computer keyboard for entering notes, with the on-screen piano window open. 

Take "S" for example. It enables/disables snap to grid by default, but changes to the note D with the on-sceen piano keys enabled/open. Recording works fine here, when recording with shown on-screen piano.

I hope this makes sense, unless I'm totally getting this thread wrong.

No that's correct! But isn't there a way to play back notes via keyboard by selecting instrument in the lanes window? I'm sure that worked on my PC with a midikeyboard when I had R3 a few years back but not certain, if you could I can't see why I can't do it with the keyboard without that onscreen keyboard thing being the only option.

You have to keep the virtual keyboard window open for it to keep working.  When the window is open, your keyboard will work like the master midi keyboard, everything else is the same.  You just select the instrument in the lane like you did, then notes from the virtual keyboard will go into that device.

[Gaja]

Basically what they all said, plus I can see in the image you posted, that the track is highligghted, but not record enabled. There's this red dot which has to be activated as well. If the instrument is highlighted, it is ready to receive MIDI data, but can't record unless it is also record enabled, which it should be upon highlighting. What I believe happened is, when you muted the same sequencer track twice you also switches off record enable.

[ollie0186]

Basically what they all said, plus I can see in the image you posted, that the track is highligghted, but not record enabled. There's this red dot which has to be activated as well. If the instrument is highlighted, it is ready to receive MIDI data, but can't record unless it is also record enabled, which it should be upon highlighting. What I believe happened is, when you muted the same sequencer track twice you also switches off record enable.

Thanks for your reply! So if I enable the record will it enable me to use my keyboard without having the onscreen keyboard box open aswell??

[rcbuse]

Thanks for your reply! So if I enable the record will it enable me to use my keyboard without having the onscreen keyboard box open aswell??

You always need to keep the onscreen keyboard up.  Otherwise Reason just goes back to using the regular keyboard shortcuts.

[Gaja]

Thanks for your reply! So if I enable the record will it enable me to use my keyboard without having the onscreen keyboard box open aswell??

You always need to keep the onscreen keyboard up.  Otherwise Reason just goes back to using the regular keyboard shortcuts.

exactly.
If the Reason why you want to close the on screen keyboard is that you want to access shortcuts, I'll recommend making your own shortcuts for these tasks. Right click on the button and select "edit keyboard override settings", choose your key and activate keyboard override in the options menu. Very useful for laptops, as you might see, when you try it out.