As part of my change from using Ableton Live to Reaper, last night it was time to tackle the MIDI configuration. The basic setup is:
- Axiom 25 connected via USB.
- BCF2000 connected via USB.
- FCB1010 and various bits of outboard gear (Midiverbs, SPX90’s, etc) connected via the MIDI Out/Thru and MIDI In of the BCF2000.
After a bit of time crawling around on the floor under my desk, I got all the above physically hooked up.
The Axiom 25 and the FCB1010/Outboard gear were very straightforward to setup in Reaper. Go to Options | Preferences | Audio | MIDI Devices and enable the Axiom for Input and the FCB1010/Outboard for Input and Output. Done.
The BCF2000 though was proving tricky to use in MIDI mode. I spent a bunch of time reading the mega-thread here and to be honest most options were sounding like they involved too much gaffer tape and fencing wire.
Eventually I decided to switch the BCF2000 back to Mackie mode. I say “back to” because several years ago I did a similar amount of mucking about to try and get Live to talk to the BCF2000 before giving up and using it in Mackie mode. Last night it took me about an hour to decide to do the same thing.
There’s a great video here which takes you through the setup and how to use it. Perfect, exactly how I wanted it to work: automatic control of panning, levels, switching banks, etc, and straight forward as well.
Perfect on the video anyway. After I followed the steps, I got the following error message:
The following MIDI inputs could not be opened: BCF2000
The following MIDI outputs could not be opened: BCF2000
BCF2000 is my renamed BCF2000 Port 1, so if you’re seeing this it might include the Port 1 part. I also renamed BCF2000 Port 2 to “FCB1010 & Outboard (via BCF)” so I could easily distinguish between the downstream MIDI devices and the BCF itself.
But the renaming wasn’t the problem. Eventually I figured out that this was due to the leftover configuration of me trying to get it working in MIDI mode. I had it both configured for MIDI Input/Output as well as a Control Surface (under Options | Preferences | Audio | Control Surfaces).
I disabled it as a MIDI Device as in the screenshot above and left it configured as a Mackie Control Extended as per the video, and now it’s working beautifully.
