Reaper programming resources

Here are some resources for creating scripts/programs for the Reaper digital audio workstation:

AdmiralBumbleBee.com – ReaScript Tutorial – From total beginner to GUI-based script

ExtremeRaym – Raymond Radet’s website, author of ReaScript tutorial series, package of ReaScripts, and has a Github repo of scripts (also this one)

ReaPack.com – Package manager for Reaper

Cockos Forum – Building a GUI in Lua

Adam T. Croft – Introduction to ReaScript (I did the “Hello World” section, and it worked!)

ReaperBlog – ChordGun tool

SWS Extension – another Reaper tool

Reaper – ReaScript page (also ReaScript API page)

This ought to be enough to get me started! I want to create some functions to do computer-assisted composition…

Taking things one step at a time

Today was the first day I had some spare time to look at the Reaper digital audio workstation software that I am planning to use with my Alesis V49 MIDI controller keyboard. I decided to watch the first video in the series “First MIDI Song in Reaper (1/8) and try to duplicate the steps. The first part involved downloading and installing some plugins for a piano sound and a synth sound. Both of those took a little more time than I thought it would (some of the installation steps had changed, and not all of the steps were given, so I had to do some sleuthing to get the files in the correct directories). The next set of steps were for creating a track, playing a short melody on the MIDI controller, then editing that track. Well, my piano skills are not that good, so THAT took a while (mostly on editing what I entered to match what the video had). The final part was to add two more tracks to add chords and pad sounds. I have not done this last part yet, but I am getting there….one step at a time…with some missteps and backtracking….

Report on building my daily writing habit – September 2019

I started again on a quest to build a daily writing habit back in August. Since August 13, I wrote 18 posts in August (one a day) and 4 posts so far in September (again, 1 a day). I decided to use my weblog as the writing tool, with the goal of at least 100 words in a post (WordPress has a word count in the editor, so it’s easy to check). During the work week, I do my writing at lunch (before I do any web surfing…). Sometimes I have a topic in mind, but if not, I read through the new items in my RSS reader app (powered by River5) and find something to comment about. I have also talked about some software activities I am involved in, as well as a resumption of interest in computer music stuff. Today, I read a post from Colin Devroe about bad reasons not to blog, and I think I have avoided most of these. He also has a list of blogging tips which I think I will try to incorporate in my writing.

So far, I have only had problems once or twice in getting to 100 words, so this is a reachable goal for me. The other important part of the habit was making it a priority (I tried writing at lunch before, but ran out of time after web surfing, so I changed the order and – voila – I was able to write!).

MIDI controller debugging for Alesis V49

In an earlier post, I mentioned I bought an Alesis V49 MIDI keyboard controller. However, when I tried to use it with multiple programs, they appeared to recognize it in the settings/preferences area, but would not detect any key-up/key down data. After a lot more experimenting, I figured out that I was selecting the wrong thing in the settings/preferences menu. Here is a screenshot from Reaper:

The upper part of the window deals with inputs, the bottom part deals with outputs. There were two entries for each part (MIDIXX2 (V49) and V49). I did not have any instructions, so I selected the first one (MIDI…). Well, that was INCORRECT! I needed to select the “V49” entry. Once I stumbled onto that key fact, all of the DAW apps were able to detect key input.

The moral: keep trying different options until something works!

My 400th post

I just discovered a nice feature in the WordPress admin interface, it lists the number of posts I have made, and this one is number 400! I have been blogging since 2007 (says my first post) and it has been an on-again, off-again thing for the most part. I would say that I started to be more regular about posting in November-December 2018, and have had several strings of 20-30 posts in a row. In the world of people posting to other services like Facebook and Twitter, I have focused in on my weblog as the main place for my writing, and a series of websites from my domain name (need to list all of those sometime!). Here’s to the next 100 posts!

Getting started with MIDI controllers

I did buy an Alesis V49 MIDI controller, so the next step was to hook it up. However, the programs I tried (Reaper, LMMS) did not seem to work with the controller. I was able to see the controller as an option in the Preferences/Settings pages for these apps, and was able to select them. However, when I followed the EXACT instructions from web pages and videos from these companies, there was no sound when I would press a key on the keyboard, and no indication that the program was detecting the key presses. I downloaded the MIDI utility program MIDI-OX, which indicated that my Windows 7 laptop was receiving key-on and key-off data, so it seemed like everything was working – but it wasn’t!

I then went to the store (Guitar Center) and talked with the “Pro Tools” employee, who showed me what a working setup should look like (he was using a different controller than mine and a copy of Ableton Live for the Mac). He said it was likely a software problem (what! I AM a software engineer!), and that it took him several months to get the hang of using digital audio workstation (DAW) software.

Frustrated, I decided to download a copy of Ableton Live Lite (since my MIDI controller had a license code for a free copy), and … after a 20 minute download and a 20 minute installation, I was able to use my controller to play some notes in Ableton Live Lite – FINALLY!

Now, what did I want to do with this controller…..?

If you want to hurry, slow down

The title of this could have been “If you want to go faster, slow down”, but I liked this one better. The reason for this post is a set of events that happened to me recently, where multiple immediate actions fell in my lap. As I tried to take case of these actions, I made mistakes along the way, which slowed me down. As I was trying to solve one of these actions, other things changed which I did not know about until some time later. If I had known, I could have taken other steps to address the action. As it was, those people were hurrying as well.

What is the takeaway here? If someone presents you with a request for immediate action, slow down and think about it. Ask some clarifying questions. See if the deadline is really as dire as the person thinks it is. By taking these actions (slowing down), you have a better chance of finishing faster (the goal of hurrying). I will try to remember this when (not if) this happens to me again!