Reason + Roland Boutique JP-08

[Thousand Ways]

I'm having trouble getting my Roland JP-08 to record into Reason. Can anyone advise on this? I've downloaded the Boutique driver (http://my.roland.com/support/by_product ... ers/351009). I can get the JP-08 to work as a USB controller (ie. record the notes I play on it, but into an existing synth in Reason, and using that synth's voice), and I can get Reason to play out loud through the JP-08 (using the JP-08's built-in speaker). I don't want to do either of these things. I want to be able to play the JP-08 directly into a track on Reason, and have Reason record both the notes and the sound of the JP-08. Is this not possible?

Any advice would be appreciated. Beyond using a MIDI controller keyboard with Reason, I know very little about recording into Reason from a synth.

[chimp_spanner]

It's possible! But it requires some setting up. On Mac you could create an aggregate audio device, where your main audio interface (either dedicated or built in Mac sound) is the output device, and then you add the Boutique as an input device. This would allow you to send MIDI over USB as well as receive audio as well. You'd just have to create and monitor an audio track using Bouqitue USB as the input source. So that's one option, although some people will tell you aggregate devices are more trouble than they're worth.

Alternatively, just use USB to power and send MIDI to the JP, and then connect the output to your interface and record conventionally. That's probably your best bet, provided you have an interface with audio inputs.

Hope this helps!

[eusti]

I like Chimp_spanner's answer... He beat me to it... But just in case:

Have you been able to record audio into Reason before?

What I do is the following: I record the midi into Reason first. That way I have a chance to correct my crappy playing... Then I solo that track and select an audio track to record into. What you might do prior to that is select the proper audio driver to allow the Boutique's audio be recognized by your computer. On a Mac you would need to create an Aggregate Device in Audio Midi Setup. You might need to select that setting in your Reason preferences as well. Then you should be good to go.

D.

[raymondh]

I'm having trouble getting my Roland JP-08 to record into Reason. Can anyone advise on this? I've downloaded the Boutique driver (http://my.roland.com/support/by_product ... ers/351009). I can get the JP-08 to work as a USB controller (ie. record the notes I play on it, but into an existing synth in Reason, and using that synth's voice), and I can get Reason to play out loud through the JP-08 (using the JP-08's built-in speaker). I don't want to do either of these things. I want to be able to play the JP-08 directly into a track on Reason, and have Reason record both the notes and the sound of the JP-08. Is this not possible?

Any advice would be appreciated. Beyond using a MIDI controller keyboard with Reason, I know very little about recording into Reason from a synth.

Apologies if any of this is insulting to your intelligence, but here are the fundamentals;

There are two types of data you stream in and out of Reason. MIDI and Audio.

MIDI: As you say, your keyboard controller is sending MIDI notes to Reason, which can play the internal Reason software synthesizers. It can also play notes on the external midi device in Reason, which re-routes MIDI data to some hardware MIDI device (your JP-08).

Audio: You have Audio output from Reason, going out through your Digital Audio Interface. I use a Focusrite audio interface but there are many other types. The Roland Boutique synths have a built in audio interface which you can use. But think of the JP-08s audio interface as something distinct from the JP-08's synthesizer.

You can also record audio into Reason, from a digital audio interface. I record it from the inputs on my Focusrite interface, but you might record it from your JP08s built-in audio interface. To record audio into Reason, you need to create an audio track in reason and then tell that track what audio interface input to 'listen' to.

If you decide to use your JP08's audio interface, then you don't need any extra cables because the JP-08 can play it's synthesizer directly into it's audio interface.
I prefer to cable the JP08s output into my Focusrite's audio input and then record from a Focusrite audio input...

I'm not on a Mac so I can't advise on your software configuration. But on a PC, most (?) ASIO audio drivers only support a single audio interface, therefore to use my Focusrite audio interface, I cannot use my Boutique synth audio interfaces. That's why I use the synthesizer analog outputs into Focusrite interface inputs.

So in a nutshell;
- You 'play' your JP-08 using an external midi device track.
- you record your JP-08s audio into an audio track.

Hope that helps...

[Thousand Ways]

chimp_spanner, eusti, raymondh – thank you so much for these helpful replies.

Apologies if any of this is insulting to your intelligence, but here are the fundamentals;

No, not insulting at all. My understanding is that one can record either MIDI audio events or audio recordings into Reason, and I've done little of either before. I've previously used the soft synths, drum machines, etc, that are part of Reason, or I've recorded audio (eg. a vocal line) completely separately, using a digital recorder, and then imported that vocal from the recorder into Reason. Pretty long-winded way of doing it.

The Roland Boutique synths have a built in audio interface which you can use.

What I had hoped was to be able to connect the JP-08 direct to my Mac via USB (this is what I've done so far), without any separate audio interface, and record direct into Reason as an audio track. Is that not possible?

I do have access to a friend's AVID MBox Pro – this kind:
https://www.avid.com/static/resources/c ... -DS_EN.pdf
so presumably that can work as an audio interface for the JP-08, although I'm unsure how. As I say, I'd hoped to be able to patch the JP-08 direct into Reason (as audio), without the middleman of a separate interface.

[raymondh]

What I had hoped was to be able to connect the JP-08 direct to my Mac via USB (this is what I've done so far), without any separate audio interface, and record direct into Reason as an audio track. Is that not possible?

Yes you can get by just with the JP08, using that for your audio interface, connected via USB.


cheers

[Thousand Ways]

Is this done just by setting up an audio track? This doesn't seem to recognise the JP-08 as audio, only as MIDI.

[raymondh]

Is this done just by setting up an audio track? This doesn't seem to recognise the JP-08 as audio, only as MIDI.

You'll first need Reason to recognise the Boutique as your audio device in preferences. I imagine you've done this already if you can play music from Reason through your Boutique speaker.

Then yes you add an audio track and then select "stereo" then the boutique device as input.

[Thousand Ways]

Ah! Thank you so much. I'd thought that Preferences > Audio > Audio Device affected only the output speaker, not input.

[Thousand Ways]

Update, almost six months later: I never did get any of this to work.

I can record direct from the JP-08 to an empty audio track in Reason, using only an USB lead. But the signal is quiet, and altering the volume level on the JP-08 has no effect. My Mac has only one USB port, and the only way of hearing the song at all while recording in via USB is to get the computer to play the whole thing out through the JP-08's built-in speaker. As this speaker is very weedy, this was hopeless. I have no idea why the USB 'fixes' the volume of the incoming signal in this way. If anyone knows a way of overriding this 'fixing', please let me know.

I have not found any way to record *in* using the USB connection and simultaneously play the whole track – including what's being recorded – via headphones. Reason prevents anything coming out via the headphones while USBing in.

Is there some way of using the USB lead in a 'two-way' arrangement? I mean: sending tempo information from Reason TO the JP-08's sequencer, thereby keeping the sequencer in time with the Reason song, and simultaneously recording audio FROM the JP-08s into the audio track in Reason?

Tearing my hair out. Just not a technical person.

[raymondh]

Update, almost six months later: I never did get any of this to work.

I can record direct from the JP-08 to an empty audio track in Reason, using only an USB lead. But the signal is quiet, and altering the volume level on the JP-08 has no effect. My Mac has only one USB port, and the only way of hearing the song at all while recording in via USB is to get the computer to play the whole thing out through the JP-08's built-in speaker. As this speaker is very weedy, this was hopeless. I have no idea why the USB 'fixes' the volume of the incoming signal in this way. If anyone knows a way of overriding this 'fixing', please let me know.

I have not found any way to record *in* using the USB connection and simultaneously play the whole track – including what's being recorded – via headphones. Reason prevents anything coming out via the headphones while USBing in.

Is there some way of using the USB lead in a 'two-way' arrangement? I mean: sending tempo information from Reason TO the JP-08's sequencer, thereby keeping the sequencer in time with the Reason song, and simultaneously recording audio FROM the JP-08s into the audio track in Reason?

Tearing my hair out. Just not a technical person.

Unfortunately I'm not familiar with using a Mac for this stuff. What you're trying to do should work in theory, but I can't assist sorry.

I think what I would do if I were in your shoes, is buy an audio interface that has audio inputs. Then route the JP-08s audio through that (not MIDI).
That's pretty old Skool, and it works.

(I also control them via DIN MIDI instead of USB MIDI, so that's showing my age )

[Thousand Ways]

I think what I would do if I were in your shoes, is buy an audio interface that has audio inputs. Then route the JP-08s audio through that (not MIDI).
That's pretty old Skool, and it works.

Sorry – I didn't mean this to sound ungrateful to you and the other posters here – everyone's very helpful. I'm just an idiot when it comes to machines.

Re. "an audio interface with audio inputs": what I'm using (borrowed) is an Avid MBoxPro https://www.avid.com/static/resources/c ... -DS_EN.pdf. This has:
2 mic/DI sockets
2 mic jack sockets
4 quarter-inch jack sockets marked "inserts" (I don't know what that means)
4 quarter-inch jack sockets marked "line inputs"
But are you saying that other audio interfaces include a different kind of audio input? If so, could you recommend an audio interface that includes this?

I don't really understand why audio interfaces don't have sockets for MIDI cables. Surely this would make sense, as you could then use the MIDI cable going from your instrument (in this case, the JP-08) direct into the audio interface, which could then send the information on to Reason? But maybe this would be note information only, instead of actual audio. The JP-08 unfortunately only has a mini-jack output, and a small USB one.

[eusti]

rstand why audio interfaces don't have sockets for MIDI cables. Surely this would make sense, as you could then use the MIDI cable going from your instrument (in this case, the JP-08) direct into the audio interface, which could then send the information on to Reason? But maybe this would be note information only, instead of actual audio. The JP-08 unfortunately only has a mini-jack output, and a small USB one.

This should explain what MIDI is and what it's used for:
https://www.audiomasterclass.com/newsle ... o-and-midi

D.

[botnotbot]

Are you using the stereo jack on the JP-08 to monitor? Reason doesn't allow for separate interfaces to be used, so if you are trying to use the headphones port on your computer while using the JP-08 as your audio interface in Reason it makes sense that you can't hear anything. Try to plug those headphones into the JP-08 instead and see if that works. You should be able to hear everything that comes out of Reason.

[Thousand Ways]

This should explain what MIDI is and what it's used for:
https://www.audiomasterclass.com/newsle ... o-and-midi

Thanks – this is useful. I'd also been watching this old series, from 1991, but it's rather laborious:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... A_gSegBQmc

Are you using the stereo jack on the JP-08 to monitor?

I was actually running the headphones from the audio interface – the Avid MBoxPro. (I actually thought that the mini phones jack on the JP-08 was mono, but maybe it is stereo.)

Try to plug those headphones into the JP-08 instead and see if that works. You should be able to hear everything that comes out of Reason.

Thanks – I've just tried running the JP-08 via USB straight into the computer, and what you're saying works: you can use the headphone jack of the JP-08, and the whole track is audible through it.

[Thousand Ways]

Thanks to help from people here, the JP-08 is now recording into an audio track in Reason. I'm using a USB cable, no audio interface, and running headphones from the JP-08. The recording volume seems to be fixed and unalterable – not sure why.

One issue that's persisting is that I still can't sync the JP-08's sequencer to my Reason song. The JP-08 has no BPM controls as such. But the MIDI clock can be set to "internal" or "external". I set it to follow Reason's tempo, and set the preferences in Reason as shown in the attached screenshots. But the JP-08 still ignores the tempo of the song. Is there anything obviously wrong with the prefs? Many thanks.

Reason prefs 2.png (151.71 KiB) Viewed 3093 times

Reason prefs 4.png (146.79 KiB) Viewed 3093 times

[Thousand Ways]

Anyone ever have any ideas on my last post, above?

[raymondh]

http://docs.propellerheads.se/reason10/ ... .25.2.html