I've searched the forum far and wide for info to help with my issues I'm listing here, but can't find anything that both addresses and solves my particular issues, hence this, my first forum post.
First, my OS and version: Win 8.1, Reaper 5.22
Second, I've used Reaper for just shy of three years, so not a total noob.
WHAT I'M TRYING TO ACHIEVE:
-I'm trying to create reusable, interchangeable 4 to 8-bar MIDI drum loops by programming patterns on my (admittedly ancient but eminently useful) Alesis HR-16 and then syncing the HR-16 with Reaper and thereby essentially dumping the MIDI loops/patterns into the Reaper environment.
-The MIDI loops/patterns would then be trimmed as necessary, glued, and exported to a folder for use in any current or future Reaper project. The MIDI loops are to be plugged into the Battery soft synth for drum sounds.
THE PROBLEMS I'M HAVING:
Let me preface this by saying that I can achieve the above, but only after several workarounds that I think are or should be unnecessary, according to accounts I've read in other forum posts. What I'm hoping is that someone can tell me what I'm doing wrong along the way so I don't have to use these workarounds anymore.
1. SYNC: My MIDI cable is coming from the MIDI OUT jack of the HR-16 to the MIDI IN jack of my UM-1 converter and I have the External Timecode Synchronization dialog set to "SPP: All Inputs". This setup works fine except for one thing--I press Record in Reaper and the "Waiting for Timecode" box flashes red--I then press Play on the HR-16.
What happens next, without fail, is that Reaper DOES start recording the pattern, but only after 2.5 beats have played on the drum machine. After those 2.5 beats have passed, Reaper records the input just fine. If I weren't having this initial sync issue, I think the rest of my problems might never occur or be minimized. What is the cause of this delay? I can't figure it out for the life of me.
2: EDIT: So I get a recording of my MIDI loop as described above. I have to let it play a couple of times because the beginning of the loop is not recorded. I locate a complete section of the loop and lop off the unneeded parts both before and after the loop with the Reaper's Split tool, leaving just the 4 to 8-bar loop that I want.
However, every time I do this, the bass drum hit on the downbeat doesn't play, even though it is clearly within the bounds of the loop when viewed in the MIDI editor. The hi-hat that is on the same downbeat DOES play even though it is in the same exact position as the bass drum. Also, the bass drum and hi-hat hits on the downbeat AFTER my desired loop are present and ALWAYS play/sound despite that fact that I have split the loop at that point where they should not be included. I have to go mute those in the MIDI events list. I then have to either replace the bass drum hit I WANT to be there (using "insert note") OR I find that I can go into "note properties" of that bass drum hit, move it one decimal place up and then back to the original value, and then it will play/sound.
After doing all that, I then make sure that the loop is good by doing a Time Select around the entire loop and loop it a few times using the Play and Repeat buttons on the main Reaper interface. The loops are always perfect. I then use the Reaper Glue function to make sure it all stays where it needs to be.
3. EXPORT: I then want to export this perfect MIDI loop into my folder to use for later (or now, whichever). I know that for some scenarios, it matters greatly which options are selected in the MIDI export dialog box. I have tried all the combinations, and found the ones that won't save my loop at all, so I don't use those. But here's my problem--of all the combinations that WILL save the loop, exactly ONE BEAT is cut off by the export process.
That is, I export the MIDI loop (usually with Time Selection Only/All/Merge to Single MIDI track), name it, and open it up in the Reaper Media Explorer. Instead of the expected and tested 8 beats, the exported loop is only 7 beats long. This happens EVERY TIME, no matter what--no matter what MIDI export settings I use. IT.IS.MADDENING.
The workaround is to prepare a loop that is twice as long as I need, glue and export. When it is opened up in Reaper's Media Explorer, it is 15 beats long instead of 16. So I can put it on the timeline, split it after 8 beats, glue it, and then drag it out for as long as I need.
If someone could PLEASE tell me what I'm doing wrong, I would greatly appreciate it. I love Reaper and am working on a record and need this solved so my workflow can be 10x faster! Thanks in advance and sorry for the length of the post.