can I edit MIDI files with Reaper?

[Lt. Bob]

I need a good MIDI editor.

I need to be able to delete tracks/change volumes of individual tracks/cut & paste and other basic editing.
I also need to be able to have loops.

Will Reaper do that?

Or does some one know of a good MIDI program?

[Greg_L]

Reaper will.

[Lt. Bob]

Reaper will.

good .... then I'm gonna buy Reaper ...... eventually I'll use it for recording but I need to be looking ahead to a time when I'll be forced to downsize my track playback gear on gigs to just a laptop as my physical abilities wane.

I'm starting to have issues with carrying lots of gear.
I think I'm still good for a few more years ..... maybe till I'm 75 or so but no matter how hard I try reality is gonna intrude.
I'm shooting for 80 actually but recently some problems make me wonder if I can go that long ..... gonna give it my best shot.

Pretty weird to think I only have 10 years at the most to do what has defined my entire life ..... don't really know what i'll be when that happens ..... pretty much nothing I guess.

You'd better get over here and grab those amazing vintage and free amps I have for ya' ...... I have a haul that'd be worth a few days driving.

Wonder what it'd cost to ship you a V-2 head.

[Greg_L]

good .... then I'm gonna buy Reaper ...... eventually I'll use it for recording but I need to be looking ahead to a time when I'll be forced to downsize my track playback gear on gigs to just a laptop as my physical abilities wane.

I'm starting to have issues with carrying lots of gear.
I think I'm still good for a few more years ..... maybe till I'm 75 or so but no matter how hard I try reality is gonna intrude.
I'm shooting for 80 actually but recently some problems make me wonder if I can go that long ..... gonna give it my best shot.

Pretty weird to think I only have 10 years at the most to do what has defined my entire life ..... don't really know what i'll be when that happens ..... pretty much nothing I guess.

You'd better get over here and grab those amazing vintage and free amps I have for ya' ...... I have a haul that'd be worth a few days driving.

Wonder what it'd cost to ship you a V-2 head.

Haha prob about 75 bucks.

The wife and me are talking about going to the keys. I've always wanted to go down there. And my aunt lives in Orlando. So maybe during all that I can stop by.

[Lt. Bob]

The wife and me are talking about going to the keys. I've always wanted to go down there. And my aunt lives in Orlando. So maybe during all that I can stop by.

the keys are awesome ..... you'll love it

[CrowsofFritz]

good .... then I'm gonna buy Reaper ...... eventually I'll use it for recording but I need to be looking ahead to a time when I'll be forced to downsize my track playback gear on gigs to just a laptop as my physical abilities wane.

I'm starting to have issues with carrying lots of gear.
I think I'm still good for a few more years ..... maybe till I'm 75 or so but no matter how hard I try reality is gonna intrude.
I'm shooting for 80 actually but recently some problems make me wonder if I can go that long ..... gonna give it my best shot.

Pretty weird to think I only have 10 years at the most to do what has defined my entire life ..... don't really know what i'll be when that happens ..... pretty much nothing I guess.

You'd better get over here and grab those amazing vintage and free amps I have for ya' ...... I have a haul that'd be worth a few days driving.

Wonder what it'd cost to ship you a V-2 head.

Haha prob about 75 bucks.

The wife and me are talking about going to the keys. I've always wanted to go down there. And my aunt lives in Orlando. So maybe during all that I can stop by.

I feel bad for your aunt, but some people love that are. As for me, I HATE that part of FL. But where Boob lives, I think Deland, Daytona area? That part of FL is really nice!

[CrowsofFritz]

WHY CANT I DELETE MY DOUBLE POST

[Armistice]

You can edit MIDI in Reaper but I don't think it's particularly easy to do so - depends what you want to do. I've only ever used it for drums and piano and, while perhaps I'm not using it properly and don't understand the functionality, I find it a lot of faffing around.

But you should be able to do what you want...

[vomitHatSteve]

You can edit MIDI in Reaper but I don't think it's particularly easy to do so - depends what you want to do. I've only ever used it for drums and piano and, while perhaps I'm not using it properly and don't understand the functionality, I find it a lot of faffing around.

But you should be able to do what you want...

That's what I was gonna say. You can edit midi in Reaper, but since it's not primarily a midi tool, I'm sure there's a better option.

[Lt. Bob]

well .... I need to start researching this.

I want something that can do the editing but can also function as a player .... have all my backing tracks on the laptop and be able to navigate them to pick the song i want to do next and have an icon to press 'play'.
And I'd want to be able to do some stuff on the fly like change tempos and turn a loop on or off.

Also .... where does my sound come from?
Sound cards on laptops can't be that good cn they?
And would I want to use virtual instruments? ..... ideally some General MIDI sound set because that'd be easiest since all these files are set up for General MIDI.

I've got the new keyboard ( Roland FA-06 ) up and running and just last week finally retired the XP-50's and XP-60's and I'm good for a year or two with that so I have time and if that's what I'm gonna do I want to do it right.

[Armistice]

I wouldn't be going for Reaper for that purpose then - it doesn't have virtual instruments that I've noticed. You can, of course, play any VSTi you want to, but then you have to have them...

[vomitHatSteve]

And I'd want to be able to do some stuff on the fly like change tempos and turn a loop on or off.

Changing tempos can be done with the tap tempo. Off the top of my head, you can do it with the mouse, but obviously that's not great for live. But you might be able to do it with midi too.

Triggering loops on and off is very much not what reaper is for. You might want ableton live from what you're describing. (I've done something with toggling loops on and off live with Reaper and it was hacky as heck and involved a lot of weird custom code)

Also .... where does my sound come from?
Sound cards on laptops can't be that good cn they?

It would come from your onboard sound card unless you grabbed an interface. But a cheap $100 stereo (or even mono) interface would probably get you where you need to be for live sound

And would I want to use virtual instruments? ..... ideally some General MIDI sound set because that'd be easiest since all these files are set up for General MIDI.

Reaper doesn't ship with any virtual instruments except for a generic, very limited synthesizer. You'd want to use 3rd party VSTis.

tl;dr. You probably want Ableton live.

[Greg_L]

Oh yeah Reaper is a DAW. It's not really an on-the-fly-play-live-in-real-time kind of software.

[Tadpui]

I agree with @vomitHatSteve, while Reaper can definitely handle and edit MIDI, it's not really built around MIDI as a concept. It has a piano roll, you can click-edit all of the notes, velocities, CC channels and all that jazz. But it's kinda labor intensive to do that in a piano roll grid.

Ableton Live is really built around the concept of real-time capture and/or playback of audio and MIDI loops. Paired with one of their USB controllers, you can do some amazing things on the fly that I barely understand. If you're looking to pre-record or real-time record a MIDI loop, and build upon it with other MIDI instruments or audio recording, then definitely Ableton is worth a look. Personally, I've never really understood it very well because it's so far from what I tend to do in my basement.

But, if you're looking to just have a computer act as a player for existing MIDI files, then Reaper can do that pretty capably. Load up a virtual instrument for each MIDI track (drums, bass, keys, whatever), save it as a project and you can recall it any time and play it back.

I'd probably want an audio interface for playback even if I wasn't recording into it. Mainly because it could allow for better connectivity to PA systems or mixers or whatnot. The audio quality coming out of an average computer's onboard sound chip isn't bad by any means. It's usually pretty high latency, and it generally only involves lightweight 1/8" jacks, but the quality is fine. If you're looking to hook into a venue's PA system (or your own), you'll probably want something with 1/4" TRS or XLR outputs...and that really only comes on audio interfaces (or maybe a dedicated USB DAC).