ReasonTalk.com

Hi everyone

I understand Reason pretty much ignores channel info for MIDI, is there any way around this? I see there is the advanced MIDI options, there is not much information about this online but the manual states it is for external sequencers?

So there's no way I can have say, Subtractor1 controlled by MIDI channel 1 and Subtractor2 controlled by MIDI channel 2?
I'm talking about controling the knobs etc here, particularly by directional, like when using 'remote override mapping'

Might end up having to use some virtual MIDI stuff, but would prefer to do within Reason if possible

Cheers

Nobody can help me with this?

I'm sure I saw somone mention before that Reason is all channels only. But is there no way round it?

raccoonboy wrote:Nobody can help me with this?

I'm sure I saw somone mention before that Reason is all channels only. But is there no way round it?

Hey racoonboy-
I can try to help.
1st,where did you see ^this^ information? =not true.
Reason will respond to midi inputs.CC's get commanded via <advanced midi section> (although,it's not really that advanced imo)
4 busses,16 channels per buss.
1 Channel can control multitude of devices and recieve cc commands,globally,or per device.
If you work with another daw/midi sequencer,user can control multichannels simultaneously,or just any 1 channel at any 1 time.

For eg,i have a small keyboard control which only sends out 1 midi channel1- that's it..nothing else...no mod or pitch wheels... but another keyboard will send all 16 channels by switching at it's surface,1 channel at a time (<this keyboard also has 0 pitch or mod wheels.)

Not sure which keyboards or control surfaces will send out multiple channels simultaneously,i just use another daw (reaper) to do all this for me automatically,or close to as i do stuff. =perfect.

This trick is learning all the commands-- computers only work by commands,so i only try to become a better commander!!
Early versions of reason do not have midi output. but new versions do
There's advantages and dis-advantages to all methods- this method gets around 16bit rewire (i think it's 16bit only?,not sure)
With the newer midi controller device in reason now,midi information can be streamed and recorded in<>out both ways with modding between fairly painlessly.

BTW,your right,there is very very little info online about reasons midi inputs and how to control,not even from ph themselves?? i dunno-*shrugz*

Check out copperLAN, it's a free program that can route a midi input by channel into up to 16 virtual outputs without using another midi loopback utility. Then you can add the different midi devices as separate control surfaces in Reason.

Check this out. It's a multi channel MIDI Remote codec that will allow you to lock different devices in the Rack to different MIDI channels.
http://koshdukaimusicreason.blogspot.co ... emote.html

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I've gone for dioxide's option at the moment, and it seems to be working as intended so far

Hi Raccoonboy.

There are workarounds for recieving specific midi channels as inputs like the one above or using several virtual ports to act separate channels but I think the benefits of the channel-less system harks back to a time when Reason didn't have it's own audio tracking built in and many people, or me at least...lol. would regularly use Rewire to run Reason from another DAW.

The advantages of the channel free system then become apparent because you are not worried about the established conventions of midi using separate ports and channels because you can address any number of specific devices in the slaved Reason project as you wish directly via midi from the host DAW.

So historically the channel-less system made more sense then than it does now since Reason has become more DAWesque in it's nature so meanwhile we are still saddled with the workarounds or being prepared to use a host DAW still.


The Advanced Midi Device is another animal as you CAN use that to trigger devices from multi-channel inputs up to 4 midi ports coming from say an external sequencer. The disadvantage here is the fact you can't normally record the input coming from the AMD. I say you can't normally as I've found since Reason 9 you can now get it to trigger the new Player devices and record the output from those, which opens up a new set of possibilities that I've still yet to explore in any depth.

I hope that helps to put some of your questions into some kind of context as to how some of Reason's quirky midi stuff has come about and where the strengths and weaknesses are.

I'm running into a similar challenge.

Geist 2 drum machine has 8 engines, each with different patterns and sounds. Each is assigned to a different midi channel (1-8).

To trigger the engines independently, Reason needs to send notes to the different midi channels. Is there a way to do this?

You can to use multichannel midi control surface but you can't use more then one separate midi note input to lock for one of Reason's device simultaneously. VSTi might be received only one midichannel for note transmitting.

tobypearce wrote:I'm running into a similar challenge.

Geist 2 drum machine has 8 engines, each with different patterns and sounds. Each is assigned to a different midi channel (1-8).

To trigger the engines independently, Reason needs to send notes to the different midi channels. Is there a way to do this?

Not currently. there are more VST's that could benefit from this (for example Kontakt). I'd be surprised if this doesn't get added at some point.

raccoonboy wrote:Hi everyone

I understand Reason pretty much ignores channel info for MIDI, is there any way around this? I see there is the advanced MIDI options, there is not much information about this online but the manual states it is for external sequencers?

So there's no way I can have say, Subtractor1 controlled by MIDI channel 1 and Subtractor2 controlled by MIDI channel 2?
I'm talking about controling the knobs etc here, particularly by directional, like when using 'remote override mapping'

Might end up having to use some virtual MIDI stuff, but would prefer to do within Reason if possible

Cheers

There is a midi channel aware remote codec + map made by Koshdukai. It is available here : https://koshdukaimusicreason.blogspot.n ... emote.html

I use it in to split out MIDI from my Arturia Beatstep Pro which has 2 melody secuencers on MIDI channels 1 and 2, and a drum seqencer on channel 10.

You need the EMI module to get access to midi channels for vsts.

Oquasec wrote:You need the EMI module to get access to midi channels for vsts.

I was under the impression this isn't yet possible. Could you make some screenshots or a description to show how thats done ?

Not sure if there's a new method yet, but it's basically all the old methods.
Rewire.
EMi with an External vsthost and you use virtual audio cabling software or an interface with loopback drivers built in.

This is disturbing.

I can't see a way of triggering Geist's engines 2-8 via Reason Midi. It seriously ought to be possible.

Answering the earlier question, this, from the manual, is not promising:
This other section offers a glimmer of hope, but I'm struggling to make it work (or, really, understand that it means in light of screenshot above):

Edit: I've worked out what it means. Reason simply names includes the midi channel number in the track name. That's it.

So if you drag midi out of engine 2 of geist, it creates an ID8 "MIDI file track 1 Ch2"
And from engine 3 you get "MIDI file track 1 Ch3".

So Reason recognises the midi track number, but then it doesn't do anything with it. This is possibly because no RE or inbuilt instrument can use different midi channels. But now we have VSTs, this does need fixing.

tobypearce wrote: This is possibly because no RE or inbuilt instrument can use different midi channels. But now we have VSTs, this does need fixing.

Yes it does need fixing. Any multi instrument VST will need MIDI Channels so you don't have to have an instance per instrument. (Konatakt, Omnisphere, etc...)
In my personal case i need it for Maschine. They are probably aware of it and should be working on adding MIDI channels on the next update, hopefully fast.

done84 wrote:

tobypearce wrote: This is possibly because no RE or inbuilt instrument can use different midi channels. But now we have VSTs, this does need fixing.

Yes it does need fixing. Any multi instrument VST will need MIDI Channels so you don't have to have an instance per instrument. (Konatakt, Omnisphere, etc...)
In my personal case i need it for Maschine. They are probably aware of it and should be working on adding MIDI channels on the next update, hopefully fast.

Yep!

So first of all I agree this needs an update. I see the propellerheads' point in not having channels up to now but VST has really changed the game. I don't think they should be worried about musicians who are new to DAWs being hindered in their creative process.

For now, I still use standalone VSTs for the multichannel stuff with external midi instruments and loopMidi to connect it up.
https://www.tobias-erichsen.de/software/loopmidi.html

It's a nasty workaround and the automation sucks major donkey nuts but It beats having a dozen Kontakt VSTs in your rack.

So again, big ups for a channel selector on our note and automation lanes! Shouldn't be a biggie to implement.

Ah, so more CV outs from VSTs than from regular combinators is basically just a placeholder fix for a much bigger problem. I hope they are working on fixing it properly.

tobypearce wrote: ↑

11 Jun 2017

Edit: I've worked out what it means. Reason simply names includes the midi channel number in the track name. That's it.

So if you drag midi out of engine 2 of geist, it creates an ID8 "MIDI file track 1 Ch2"
And from engine 3 you get "MIDI file track 1 Ch3".

So Reason recognises the midi track number, but then it doesn't do anything with it. This is possibly because no RE or inbuilt instrument can use different midi channels. But now we have VSTs, this does need fixing.

Nearly 3 years on - Any update on creating midi channels 1 - 16?

specially if youve got an arranger{i think thats the name)that plays all 16 channels allways unless muted depending on the midi/style file 8 channelss of automation and 1to 4 channels of freehand and ive forgotten what the other 4 do and the manuals dense im going to see if i can make a midi file save it to a sd card open the sd card in windows ansd open the midi file in reason trouble is i carnt reverse the process without converting the midi file to a specific style file that fits my synth/arranger, gad names of kit i hate

dioxide wrote: ↑

30 Jul 2016

Check this out. It's a multi channel MIDI Remote codec that will allow you to lock different devices in the Rack to different MIDI channels.
http://koshdukaimusicreason.blogspot.co ... emote.html

Koshdukai's channel remote thingy has served me very well. No issues.

I think reason has released Version 11 as additional VST3 instead of Rewire to DONT have to implement this feature. You now have to buy / User another DAW and implement Reason Rack Plugin so you can use it with different MIDI channels. A big Minus Point

7 years later, still no multichannel feature inside Reason?!