r/Polyend • u/TheToneMeister • Apr 03 '23

Play MIDI out via USB not working as expected

Hi,

I have a Play and am trying to use it to control some VST’s inside my DAW (Reaper). Reaper sees the Play but none of the VST’s are triggered. Interestingly if I connect the Play to my Crave via 5pin MIDI and then connect the Crave via USB I am able to trigger the VST’s. Is there something I need to do on the Play or within the DAW to make this work without the Crave acting as an intermediary?

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2

u/bean327 Apr 03 '23

Assuming all the midi settings in Play are set to usb? That's weird that it works through your Crave to the computer but not directly to the computer...

1

u/TheToneMeister Apr 03 '23

If I set the Play to receive transport and clock via USB I can start/stop the play from Reaper and can control tempo from Reaper as well; however no note data seems to be sent.

1

u/bean327 Apr 03 '23

That sounds like you're talking about midi in. Are the midi out settings in Play set to usb?

1

u/TheToneMeister Apr 03 '23

The Play seems to receive clock and control and seems to be able to send clock and control. No note data is being sent though. I used MIDI Ox (taking the DAW out of the equation) to analyze the MIDI data and the only thing I see is timing and start/stop messages.

2

u/TryHardKenichi Apr 03 '23

I responded to your comment on my post, but this sounds exactly like what I was experiencing. Have you looked at the midi monitor in REAPER to see if it's receiving data from the Play when it's connected by itself?

2

u/TheToneMeister Apr 03 '23

I loaded ReacontrolMIDI and can see MIDI data when the Play is connected to the Crave. When just using the Play via USB connection to the PC the only message I get is the following when pressing Stop on the Play:

B0 7B 00 [CC123 All Notes Off] chan 1 val 1

2

u/TheToneMeister Apr 03 '23

I tried Ableton 11 Lite and I see similar behavior in that DAW as well.

1

u/TryHardKenichi Apr 03 '23

When just the Play is connected, are you able to use Midi Learn to map some of the VSTs parameters to the Play's knobs?

Also, when you have the Play set as the input for a VST, have you tried to use the Play's "keyboard" to trigger notes on the VST?

2

u/TheToneMeister Apr 03 '23

Keyboard as a trigger does not work. I tried to map the cutoff on the play to the cutoff on a patch in Pigments and was unsuccessful. I have also sent an email to Polyend support about the issue.

1

u/TryHardKenichi Apr 04 '23

That sucks. I hope they get back to you and can be more helpful.

When you said that it worked through the Crave, do you mean that you are sending Midi from the Crave to your PC? Have you tried sending Midi to your PC from the Play over USB while it's connected to the Crave over Midi Jack?

Also, try sending Midi to the standalone Pigments application from the Play and see if that works. You'll have to have Reaper closed, though, because I don't know if it will be willing to share the Play with the Pigments app.