Reaper/Midi/Kontakt questions

Nitebob

Okay, so I have been recording audio only, no midi. Seeing as I don't get enough time to re-record everything I started looking into the midi option for ease of editing. I was told (a while back) that I need to get Kontakt player to work from within Reaper. On the website they say it comes with a library of samples, they also say there is no service backup for the free version. Problem is, there is no libraries, and I have re-installed the (600mb) package three times (can you imagine how popular I was hogging the whole of Paarl's bandwidth), what am I doing wrong?

Am I missing something?

V8

I had a issue with Kontakt similar described in this thread : http://audiosex.pro/index.php?/topic/8590-kontakt-5-factory-library-missing/

If it's midi you want to play around with, fool around a little with the intro (lite) version of Ableton? For me it was way easier to use to get a grasp on midi basics and get up n playing/recording. Probably because it installs with it's own instruments, racks, effects, etc... just add a keyboard or midi pattern.

Nitebob

Had Ableton lite (well still do) but limited to 8 tracks only, it becomes basically useless....unless I record the midi I want in Ableton, then export as Wav to Reaper and do all the rest of the editing there....just seems like a dumb way to go about it, and the Ableton full version is expensive!

V8

Nitebob wrote: Had Ableton lite (well still do) but limited to 8 tracks only, it becomes basically useless....unless I record the midi I want in Ableton, then export as Wav to Reaper and do all the rest of the editing there....just seems like a dumb way to go about it, and the Ableton full version is expensive!

Yeah the full version is pricey (compared to reaper) - occasionally there's a little special (10-20%) but still 300USD. Lite isn't completely useless, I've done a bunch of challenges using it, the ease of use of midi vs reaper (and working with samples) makes me keep firing it up instead of reaper. The 8 track/scene limit of lite is a headache though. Live intro (16 track limit, 100USD) is not much better as a lot of the cool tools in the full suite are excluded

You could always use something like rewire using reaper to host a instance of ableton - a bit more complicated, but many have had success. Thus you'd still be able to use midi in ableton, send the audio output of ableton to reaper, without the export/import step.

Nitebob

Thanks V8. Suppose it's my OCD that tells me I have to use one tool for everything! I'll go see my therapist! ???

guitarboy2828

Nitebob, yesterday I downloaded and installed the kontakt player. I ALSO downloaded their demo pack. See this link: http://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/samplers/kontakt-5/downloads/

That worked fine for me? I am on a mac though? If you're on mac, I highly recommend Logic Pro X. Got great midi capabilities and recording audio directly on there. I'm loving it. And it's really not that expensive.

LooneyAtTheGate

I'm in the process of downloading Kontakt, I need to use soundfonts in Reaper, on PC.
Hope it works, I'll let you know.

Nitebob

Thanks guys. Willing to pay for something that's a 'one stop shop' kinda thing. But to buy 3-4 different programs just to do a half decent home recording just doesn't compute to me. Thanx Paul. Will look into that! Yes Julian please let us know!

V8

Nitebob wrote: Thanks guys. Willing to pay for something that's a 'one stop shop' kinda thing. But to buy 3-4 different programs just to do a half decent home recording just doesn't compute to me.

I agree...I understand & appreciate the stripped down philosophy of Reaper, and while it can do 99.99% of what I want, the investment of time (learning & finding plugins) to get there makes me fire up Ableton instead :-[.

But it's the session/arrangement view setup in Ableton that keeps me coming back. I find that intuitive for the slapdash way I work, others prefer other workflows in the recording setup. ..which generally leads to people using multiple programs - perhaps fruity loops for making beats, ableton for generating midi and reaper to stick it all together - everything communicating with rewire.

The novation bassstation you got with the scarlett is pretttyy good for synth bassy stuff, sounded better than a lot of the things I messed around with in Kontakt free samples, although Kontakt did have a lot of instruments (drums, flutes, sax) that seemed promising, there was a fair bit of tweaking to get (imho) interesting sounds. I'm not much into tweaking or a busy UI, so I use a old version of Kore 2 instead.

danienel

Hi

I got Kontakt with a Midi Controller Keyboard I bought and I use it in Reaper - it works like a charm. VERY IMPORTANT: Make sure in your preferences that Reaper Scans the Program Files folder / or anywhere else your Kontakt samples MIGht BE installed. Mine, for some reason, ended up in the My documents folder!

Hope it helps.