I work with a large collection of home-made patches, and I want to identify and select them from the MIDI files that I use – just as I would with a hardware synthesizer, or with other plugin synths that provide their own preset collections. I can insert midi program changes, no problem. But HOW do I connect the midi program-change messages to specific items in my collection of Rack2 patches?
I don’t think that this is possible,
as rack patches are not the same as synth presets
and don’t work like these,
but maybe someone knows better how to do it?
else you could contact and ask: support@vcvrack.com
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Thanks for your speedy response – I’ll see if I can clear things up a little:
A *.reabank filel is just a two-column table that pairs up each patch name (a string of characters) to a BANK / PATCH identifier, which is then inserted into the midi stream.
When the instrument is a hardware item, nothing from this point on is any concern of my reaper: it’s up to the hardware to activate whatever patch they associate with that BANK / PATCH code.
But when the instrument in question is a plugin such as Rack2Pro, I would expect (and I still do until somebody tells me it doesn’t) that VCV would provide some way of associating any of my own chosen and catalogued patches with a BANK / PATCH code.
There’s actually a file defining the format of a “*.REABANK” file, so I should be able to construct such a catalog file for any plugin .VST or other plugin. I did that a couple of years ago for my SurgeXT.
So what I’m missing for Rack2 is some way of connecting those MIDI-specified BANK / PATCH codes with the patches that I’ve named and stored at (on linux) ~/.local/share/Rack2/patches.
I think you have to see Rack2 as a container that you can fill with all kinds of stuff. A normal plug in has a predestinated number of controls that you change in a preset. A VCV Rack preset is something all together different, I think you must see it as when you change a reaper patch halfway a song.
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I still don’t understand this,
because VCV can only send midi via loaded modules into Reaper,
so this would then mean that the midi sending module would delete itself when loading a new patch?
I think you must send the midi data from reaper to the bank/patch
maybe use another track in reaper for this?
Or maybe I don’t understand you correctly?
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The operating scenario for my usage is this: a) everything I do is from an existing midi file – some piece of J.S.Bach. I do no live, realtime activity. b) Playing the midi file, I want to be able to call up patches I’ve already created. c) in most cases if not all, my “patch” will do nothing more than adjust parameters (= Rack presets). I do not require loading modules or deleting them.
I recognize there are very many circumstances in which it’s simply not possible to “select patches” dynamically in a midi sequence.
Currently, my working protocol is to create a separate “midi item” in reaper for each separate patch or preset that I need, and assign a separate midi channel to each of those items. That actually works, except that the number of items (= midi sequences per track) can get quite large quite rapidly.
It answers your objection though. No patch-switching takes place while the midi sequence is playing; everything is selected before the midi sequence even begins to play.
In fact reaper, by default, saves the entire patch and all of its variable parameters with the project itself.
Thanks for you reponse. I’m having to think pretty carefully about what I’m looking to do here.
What’s going to happen if, while some arbitrary midi file is playing through whatever I have set up on Rack2Pro, I start to manually fiddle with loading different patches, resets, and even selections?
I’m only speculating here. No such scenario is anywhere in my plans…
Oops, no I’m not sending midi to reaper. I’m sending midi from reaper to Rack.
I thought that that was/is what you wanted to do. Not manually, but with midi.
No, I was daydreaming – exploring what would happen if we tried something like that. I might just try it sometime within the next 24 hrs, to see what happens. I expect something would break.
I’ve been forgetting that ALL of the parameters of a patch – which could easily extend beyond a hundred for a dozen or more modules – are directly available within reaper, if I want them. And I think that might be the solution that I’m looking for. But clearly that’s beyond any relevance to Rack2Pro. We’ll see.
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