How to Correctly Setup AI & E Drums to Reaper

WaveLab
1

Hi There,

I’m new to steinberg so this is my first post, in fact, this is my first post on any forum for anything EVER. So, it’s safe to say that I’m really looking for some expertise and help! I’m going to start from the top with my setup, high priority problems, and what i’m looking to solve:

I recently purchased a Focusrite Scarlett 2i4, which has midi in/out capabilities. I also own a Yamaha DTXtreme iis and have Reaper as my DAW of choice. I used to use Garageband, but was told that upgrading to a more professional DAW would increase my potential, so I’m still getting the hang of Reaper.

First things first, I’ve connected my Scarlett via USB to my Mac OSX (running Yosemeti), I have TRS cables running from my m-audio speakers to my Scarlett for sound output. One issue I’m already having is that when I plug in my guitar into the first channel, I don’t even need a DAW opened to hear sound. I can be sitting on Google Chrome, strum my guitar, and still hear the guitar… this means I can’t even control the sound input/output from my DAW because it’s already being triggered without it opened. I’ve tried restarting my computer & everything, have the proper drivers installed, etc. and I can’t seem to figure it out… This didn’t happen with my old AI so any help would be great.

Second - I am trying to connect my Yamaha to my AI via midi cables. I currently am connecting a midi out from my E-Drum brain to the midi in on my AI. I’ve purchased AddictiveDrums and uploaded it to Reaper as a VSTI Plugin. I have it opened and set the midi map as preselected “GM” (since it doesn’t have the DTXtreme iis as an option) as recommended. I have my settings correctly to the best of my knowledge - My sound input and output is configured for my Scarlett 2i4 and the midi is all enabled. Opened a new track, selected the correct Midi options (all channels), uploaded the VSTI as a FX, but I can’t get my Yamaha to trigger AddictiveDrums - any ideas/thoughts/solutions?

I’m really hoping someone can provide me with help - I really appreciate anyone who read this long post and takes the time to help a fellow musician get to jamming/recording.

Thanks Everyone!

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I’ve never used Reaper but I’d think all DAW’s would be similar…Sounds like you’ve got some routing problems going on.

What do you mean, your guitar is “triggering”??? Triggering what? As far as hearing the guitar plugged into your audio card, even without the DAW software up, sounds normal to me, and I believe this also happens in my system. When you have the DAW software going, and have selected your sound card as the interface, it should just get routed to whatever channels you select it to.

Do you have Addictive Drums set as the OUTPUT on the particular midi channel you’re using? If you don’t you won’t hear the AD drums. The INPUT on that particular midi track itself should have either ‘all midi channels in’ or a particular one.
Once you get midi going into your DAW, and into Addictive Drums, you may find that AD doesn’t use standard GM midi, and kit pieces won’t be right…at least the earlier version I used before didn’t years ago…I’d hope they changed that, because that was a really dumb move :unamused: I just moved on to EZDrummer at that point, especially because I also use Yamaha edrums and got fed up AD’s non standard GM midi at that time.

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ask in the Reaper forum, there are a lot more Reaper users there :slight_smile:

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Thanks for all of the responses. I didn’t realize that the focusrite scarlett 2i4 almost acts like an amp. You don’t need a DAW to hear your guitar through your monitors which is different than most audio interfaces I’ve dealt with, so that threw my off a bit.

Regarding the drums and addictive drums - I actually ended up figuring it out after some thorough midi mapping attempts. I totally understand the logic now. If anyone needs any help with that let me know.

Also, thanks for the heads up on the reaper forums; I’ll be sure to go that direction next time.