[RWP] Getting sounds from a midi synthesizer to play in Reaper?

Thu May 8 23:29:05 EDT 2014

How much I/O do you need? The Onyx 820I has more analog inputs than the 
MOTU Audio Express, and one more mic preamp. Probably better preamps 
too, although I can't say for sure, as I don't own both. Not that the 
MOTU preamps are particularly bad or anything, but the Onyx ones are great.
The MOTU has two mic/instrument and two balanced line, although you can 
run the first two inputs at line level as well. Just don't tell MOTU, or 
they'll charge you more.
You can make a mix within the hardware and send it all down to a mix 
return, while also simultaneously multi-tracking from all inputs, which 
you can sort of, but not quite do with the 820I, as the interface 
doesn't quite provide enough I/O to track from each channel and return 
all at once. In this case, templates are awesome.

Sounds like you care about ins more than outs.

On 5/8/2014 8:22 AM, Scott Chesworth wrote:
> I like the Mackie stuff yeah. The main place I rent space from for
> tracking things that're too loud to do at home has an Onyx 1640I.
> Thing is, even with the smaller boards, there's a big difference in
> the form factor. I mean, that MOTU box could be slung in the front of
> a gig bag or popped in a pedal board case. I'm already ridiculously
> weighed down traveling to rehearsals, so was hoping to find something
> super small just for grabbing takes of new tunes with more detail than
> a stereo recorder in the room can. There's no denying that a board
> makes stuff easier to change on the fly, but I'm envisioning this
> being the type of setup that I can run from a session template every
> time.
>
> If anyone has suggestions, lay 'em on me.
>
> Scott
>
> On 5/8/14, Chris Belle <cb1963 at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>> You can always go for a mackie onyx 820i, has a variety of 8 inputs, and
>> since it's a real board is very accessible.
>>
>> They've changed the firewire chip on those things and that software
>> isn't accessible anymore like it used to be, atleast on the 1640i
>> versions, not sure about the lesser mackie boards.
>>
>> But I'd still recommend it for a one of the more blindie friendly options.
>>
>> YOu just can't beat a real board for bring all kinds of stuff together
>> easily and painlessly.
>>
>> I think alen heath
>> makes something similar, one of my students was telling me about it,
>> there are also the midas boards, but they are only 8 inputs.
>>
>> If you want first class as a decent price for a whole band go for that
>> mackie 1640i.
>>
>> Havin those 16 firewire feeds in and back from your daw just rocks.
>>
>> and no fussing about with lightpipe and clocking and having to stack
>> stuff up or any of that silly stuff.
>>
>> There's nothing like just reaching out and turning up an aux send to
>> give a client more monitors
>> Some things should just be easy.
>> like that.
>>
>>
>>
>> On 5/8/2014 6:40 AM, Scott Chesworth wrote:
>>> It does! Annoyingly it's a couple of inputs short of being perfect for
>>> pre-production of my band. Don't suppose anyone knows of anything with
>>> a similarly small form factor with a few more ins?
>>>
>>> Scott
>>>
>>> On 5/8/14, Chris Belle <cb1963 at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>>>> That motu seems like it'd be a nice little device.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On 5/7/2014 12:22 PM, Jes wrote:
>>>>> Chris,
>>>>> As far as my audio interfaces, right now, I have the Roland VS 20 sold
>>>>> by
>>>>> cakewalk. I also have a Mackie pro FX 12 analog mixer, and a preSonus
>>>>> monitor station.. Thanks so much for the reassurance about analog
>>>>> devices
>>>>> being still used to make great professional recordings. That really put
>>>>> my
>>>>> mind at ease. I still might invest in the motu audio express. Don't
>>>>> know
>>>>> yet though.
>>>>>
>>>>> Jes
>>>>>
>>>>> Sent from my iPhone
>>>>>
>>>>>> On May 7, 2014, at 10:14 AM, Chris Belle <cb1963 at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> And in the big studio down town and in my own studio that's the way we
>>>>>> did it for years before we had soft synths and such, recorded our
>>>>>> tracks
>>>>>> triggered by midi on to a real board to adats, or \
>>>>>> what ever recording device.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> And these software companies are selling us channel strips to get back
>>>>>> some of that analog sound, for these guys who don't have a board, not
>>>>>> that you can compare a 1500 dollar mackie to a neeve or ssl that cost
>>>>>> 4
>>>>>> times what my house does,
>>>>>> but you get the idea.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On 5/7/2014 4:50 AM, Jes wrote:
>>>>>>> Hi all,
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Let me see if I can try and explain what I'm trying to do, as the
>>>>>>> subject line might seem a bit misleading.
>>>>>>> I have a Yamaha Motif XS8 connected via USB to Reaper so that I can
>>>>>>> use
>>>>>>> it as a midi controler, and everything works fine. I can load kontakt
>>>>>>> and sfz files into Reaper, play chords on the motif and the notes are
>>>>>>> sent properly from the synth to the computer. However, the XS8 has
>>>>>>> some
>>>>>>> incredible sounds that I want to access so that I can record them in
>>>>>>> my
>>>>>>> projects, without needing to go from the line-out of the synth to the
>>>>>>> line-in of a mixing board where there might be hiss, noise, static,
>>>>>>> etc.
>>>>>>> Is there any way to send the sounds from the XS8 directly to the
>>>>>>> computer itself using midi, instead of having to solely go the analog
>>>>>>> route? The XS8 has spdif, but I have nothing else in my setup that
>>>>>>> allows me to use spdif and I'm not too familiar with the complexity
>>>>>>> of
>>>>>>> that format anyway. Any help would be appreciated.
>>>>>>> Thanks.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Jes
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
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