Hooking up an Electra One to Reason

[eusti]

Hey!

Not sure this belongs to this or the Reason category, please feel free to let me know, other mods! Thx!

I have a got new controller, the https://electra.one/. It's great and I have been working on a bunch of presets to control my hardware synths.

But I cannot figure out how to fully integrate it into my MIDI and Reason setup...

So far I can only make it communicate with both my master keyboard and the synth I'm currently editing when I directly connect one of its MIDI out/in pairs to the synth that I'm editing. Then I set the MIDI port of the Reason MIDI out device to the Electra One Electra Port 1 and select the track then I can have both my master keyboard and the E1 control the synth in question.

That is of course a work around, but not really feasible in the long run. Ideally I would like the setup to be that I don't need to replug anything, but can just select the device I want to edit and play in Reason. What am I missing or doing wrong?

Thank you!

[eusti]

I'm just following up here...

The issue seems to be with Reason as I managed to get the Electra One to work with Logic as expected... Thing is I don't really want to need to work in Logic...
Any hints?

[artotaku]

If I understood you correctly: You want to have the E1 USB out connected to your computer and want to control your synth with the E1 by using Reason as a kind of a hub? If so, MIDI out rack device in Reason must be controlled by the E1 which then converts the MIDI from E1 to data for the MIDI out rack device which produces MIDI output to your synth.

For controlling the MIDI out device I see two possiblities. For both the E1 MIDI port must be available in Reason

a. Remote Protocol
Remote Protocol expects a Remote Codec for the E1 or you could use the generic MIDI controller codecs that come with Reason where you can map MIDI CCs to the MIDI out rack device (with Remote Overrides probably)
E1 -> USB MIDI Port -> Reason Remote Protocol -> MIDI out rack device -> hardware synth

or

b. Advanced MIDI input device at the top of the rack. This is without any codec. You select the MIDI input port and a MIDI channel of the E1 and set it to control the MIDI out rack device. For solution you need to know what CCs are mapped to what controls on the MIDI out rack device.
E1 -> USB MIDI Port -> Reason Advanced MIDI Input Patch Bay -> MIDI out rack device -> hardware synth

Maybe there are other solutions but this is what first came into my mind.

[eusti]

If I understood you correctly: You want to have the E1 USB out connected to your computer and want to control your synth with the E1 by using Reason as a kind of a hub? If so, MIDI out rack device in Reason must be controlled by the E1 which then converts the MIDI from E1 to data for the MIDI out rack device which produces MIDI output to your synth.

For controlling the MIDI out device I see two possiblities. For both the E1 MIDI port must be available in Reason

a. Remote Protocol
Remote Protocol expects a Remote Codec for the E1 or you could use the generic MIDI controller codecs that come with Reason where you can map MIDI CCs to the MIDI out rack device (with Remote Overrides probably)
E1 -> USB MIDI Port -> Reason Remote Protocol -> MIDI out rack device -> hardware synth

or

b. Advanced MIDI input device at the top of the rack. This is without any codec. You select the MIDI input port and a MIDI channel of the E1 and set it to control the MIDI out rack device. For solution you need to know what CCs are mapped to what controls on the MIDI out rack device.
E1 -> USB MIDI Port -> Reason Advanced MIDI Input Patch Bay -> MIDI out rack device -> hardware synth

Maybe there are other solutions but this is what first came into my mind.

Thank you for this @Artotaku! (Not sure why I never got the notification for your reply. Apologies for the delayed reaction!)

It turns out that I was able to set up the E1 fine for CC controls. But no such luck with SYSEX and NRPN. Had to resort to MIDIFIRE.app. Apparently MIDIPIPE.app could have worked as well.

D.