"Poor man's" DJ Mixer: momentary buttons, knob animation and next patch triggering

[nemesjs]

So, I know you are all tired of my tricks on the new Combinator but I'm stubborn and I'll keep posting new ones

This is another demo of some tricks that can be done in the new Combinator but still having to resort to loopMIDI for the animation of the panel elements, in the hope that Reason Devs will finally acknowledge this fault and take action to overcome it in the fore coming upgrades to the Combinator.

Check the video here:

There are in this case 3 features shown: a demo of momentary buttons, a demo of an automatically rotating knob and a demo of loading next patches in each of the 4 Rob Papen's synths that are used (2 per Combi). An Umpf drums is also used (the button for new patches in the drum combi is not implemented as momentary). When a button is clicked the momentary button effect is achieved by sending a slightly delayed signal with an off CV value thru a MIDI OUT device to loopMIDI that sends it back to that same button previously mapped to a CV channel in loopMIDI. That makes the button turn off by itself. The rotating knob effect is achieved using a similar process but this time using a raising or lowering CV signal/value generated after the button click, which is also sent thru a MIDI OUT device to loopMIDI and then back to the mapped rotating knob. The loading of the next patch on each synth is accomplished by mapping the next patch button on each synth to a loopMIDI CV channel and when one of the buttons is clicked (let's say the blue pill = synth B) the sound fades from B to A and a signal is sent that triggers the next patch button on synth B. When the red pill button is clicked, the reverse happens. The always changing dynamics of the patches is achieved on each Combinator by using 2 synced but de-phased oscillators on a Pulsar mapped to each of the X/Y coordinates of each synths XY pads. This demo was totally recorded live on OBS and no tracks or automation was pre-recorded on the main sequencer.

I'll leave here a list of necessary REs and a link to the CMB file and Reason Song file as soon as possible.

[Edit]
List of necessary/essential REs:
Reason's MIDI OUT Device
Reason's Pulsar
Reason's Spider CV
Groovy Melon's Morfin XF
SPEO Frame CV Generator
Jiggery-Pokery Sound's Lolth CV Delay Splitter
Rainwaves's Ivy Note CV Harmonizer
Robotic Bean's Sequences
Rob Papen's Go2 synth (or another synth that behaves the same way)
Rob Papen's Qu4d synth (or another synth that behaves the same way)

Non essential/accessory:
Reason's Drum Sequencer
Reason Studios Umpf Club Drums


ATTENTION: loopMIDI is a windows app so this will work well in Windows 10. For Mac users, I don't have experience but here are the common instructions on how to make a MIDI loop:

"Setting up Midi ports (loopback) of a Mac.

The IAC bus allows you to create any number of virtual MIDI buses. This driver is built-in to OS X (since OS X 10.4) and can be activated in the Audio/MIDI Setup Utility.

To begin, launch Audio/MIDI Setup and select "Show MIDI Window" from the "Window" menu.

Now double-click the IAC Driver icon and check the option "Device is online" in order to activate it.

Add the ports you need from within this window."
[/Edit]

[Edit]
Here's the link to a zip file containing the CMB file and a Reason 12 song demo file used in the video that have the buttons mapped out to loopMidi which hopefully makes it easier to run it (I recommend opening only the Reason 12 file and begin from there)

Morpheus.zip

another version with Europa synths only in the Reason 12 song file:
Morpheus - only Europa synths version.zip

Any questions or suggestions please feel free to ask!
[/Edit]

[Despondo]

Thanks! Going to download and give this a try. Thanks for sharing!

[nemesjs]

Thanks! Going to download and give this a try. Thanks for sharing!

Hey Despondo! Thank you for being willing to try it! Please tell me if you were successful with making it work or if you found any problem.

[Despondo]

Hey Despondo! Thank you for being willing to try it! Please tell me if you were successful with making it work or if you found any problem.

I see it uses LoopMIDI. I am on Mac, so that won't work for me. I might try using a similar tool for Mac to see if I can get it to work. I also only have the VST version of Rob Papen's Go. It appears to just be one of the sound sources, so I am assuming I could swap it out for the VST version.

[nemesjs]

Hey Despondo! Thank you for being willing to try it! Please tell me if you were successful with making it work or if you found any problem.

I see it uses LoopMIDI. I am on Mac, so that won't work for me. I might try using a similar tool for Mac to see if I can get it to work. I also only have the VST version of Rob Papen's Go. It appears to just be one of the sound sources, so I am assuming I could swap it out for the VST version.

I'm looking to this alternative to loopMIDI for the Mac maybe it will work:
https://alternativeto.net/software/hair ... dge/about/

About Go2 and using VSTs, instead of REs it won't work. Better to try with another Re synth.
I will try some more common alternatives and see if we're lucky. The reason for using Go2 is because there are a lot of arp/sequenced patches ready to use on the same folder that come with the synth.
I'll get back if I find a viable alternative.

[Despondo]

I'm looking to this alternative to loopMIDI for the Mac maybe it will work:
https://alternativeto.net/software/hair ... dge/about/

About Go2 and using VSTs, instead of REs it won't work. Better to try with another Re synth.
I will try some more common alternatives and see if we're lucky. The reason for using Go2 is because there are a lot of arp/sequenced patches ready to use on the same folder that come with the synth.
I'll get back if I find a viable alternative.

Sounds like a plan. Hopefully Reason Studios will improve the Combinator functionality and add the ability for feedback on the device.

[nemesjs]

I'm looking to this alternative to loopMIDI for the Mac maybe it will work:
https://alternativeto.net/software/hair ... dge/about/

About Go2 and using VSTs, instead of REs it won't work. Better to try with another Re synth.
I will try some more common alternatives and see if we're lucky. The reason for using Go2 is because there are a lot of arp/sequenced patches ready to use on the same folder that come with the synth.
I'll get back if I find a viable alternative.

Sounds like a plan. Hopefully Reason Studios will improve the Combinator functionality and add the ability for feedback on the device.

Europa is a good alternative - please choose a patch on the Rhytmic folder

Don't forget to map the next patch button!

The first Go2 (synth A) on top Combi has its next patch button mapped to loopMIDI channel 119
Do you have Rob Papen's Qu4d? That's synth B on top Combi and its next patch button is mapped to loopMIDI channel 118

On the middle Combi there are 2 Go2 synths A and B (ch.116 and ch.117) each can be replaced by either Qu4d or Europa.

Soon I'll leave here a new version using only Europa and maybe another synth from Reason if I can find one with patches good enough for this.

[nemesjs]

Still about a loopMIDI alternative on Mac, I don't have a solid clue. I've seen this video but remain clueless:

If any Mac user that has used a loopback MIDI solution can help here it would be greatly appreciated!

(the alternative I mentioned in the other post "Hairless MIDI<->Serial Bridge" does not seem to work as a replacement for loopMIDI at least in a way I could understand)

[nemesjs]

Still about a loopMIDI alternative on Mac, I don't have a solid clue. I've seen this video but remain clueless:

If any Mac user that has used a loopback MIDI solution can help here it would be greatly appreciated!

(the alternative I mentioned in the other post "Hairless MIDI<->Serial Bridge" does not seem to work as a replacement for loopMIDI at least in a way I could understand)

I found this post on the forum that might help:

Not in standalone Reason, though. Wondering if this new MIDI-out device will allow it.

You can use virtual midi ports, like loop midi.
Send midi out from cthulhu to a virtual midi port.
Create a midi keyboard in controllers using the virtual midi port. Now you have out from cthulhu into reason.
I use a mac so i have a program called midi pipe running between my midi keyboard and reason using a virtual midi cable, i use it to alter my midi data i send to reason. For example i can transpose the notes i play on my keyboard.

Fyi, midi pipe lets you create as many virtual ports, and its free

(This has nothing to do with reason midi out device, this is about routing midi from the plugin into reason)

[nemesjs]

Here are the common instructions I found online on how to make a MIDI loop in MAC OS:

"Setting up Midi ports (loopback) of a Mac.

The IAC bus allows you to create any number of virtual MIDI buses. This driver is built-in to OS X (since OS X 10.4) and can be activated in the Audio/MIDI Setup Utility.

To begin, launch Audio/MIDI Setup and select "Show MIDI Window" from the "Window" menu.

Now double-click the IAC Driver icon and check the option "Device is online" in order to activate it.

Add the ports you need from within this window."