MIDI start/stop to external hardware sequencers

Hi, Just bought Reaper to get back into using a computer for music. Have previously just been using hw sequencers and drumachines. My question is how the hell do I send a MIDI Start/Stop message to my Machinedrum or x0xb0x? MIDI is currently enabled through my TC Impact Twin audio interface with Reaper.

Hi, Ferox. You have to have a midi out from your computer, to midi in in your hardware. Set your hardware to external clock (or external midi), and then set Reaper to transmit SPP (Song position pointer). I'm not at my music computer right now, so I can't tell you precisley where this setting can be found, but the manual will have it. I have used this method for driving old external machines, and it works very well. Welcome to the forums, Milt.

Never really tried it myself other than for a quick test, but the setting is in Preferences -> Audio -> MIDI Devices. Double click the name of the MIDI output port you want to use (there will be only one in your case) will open up a dialog Configure MIDI Output. Check "Send clock/SPP to this device".

I had done all the actions you mentioned previously, turned out to be a duff MIDI cable in the end :/ typical. Thanks anyway

Ok, so further on with this subject. I'm now having all my external machines start and stop. One issue I am noticing though is that when these are recorded the bars do not match the timing afterwards. For instance, simply pressing record in Reaper and starting the machinedrum to do a 4/4 kick pattern and recording it. The recorded audio does not match the bar timing and drifts off. Is this a limitation of MIDI or Reaper?

It's not a limitation of either. Something is still not set correctly. Do you have external clock selected in your hardware? Your hardware needs to be told the tempo, and not just start and stop. My old MC50 had something like "Internal midi" for its own clock, and "External midi" for an outside clock source.

Yes the machinedrum is set to receive Reapers tempo and is doing so, I can check this by pressing the tempo button on the machinedrum which it then shows me. It seems there is some sort of lag from when you press Record to when the audio starts to get back into Reaper from the machinedrum. The waveform of the first beat is delayed and not at 0.0 seconds. Reapers MIDI is setup as ASIO with send clock/SPP on the MIDI Out. I've not touched anything else. My computer is an i7 920 Intel with 6GB of ram and plenty of oomph. Is there any other info i can supply you with ?

You need to check your latency settings.

The DPC Spike Checker tool I got with the TC Impact Twin interface shows a latency ~95us. Is there another tool I can check with?

I have the same problem with my MD. Its a bug, you can read about it here. . Hopefully they will fix it, its very annoying.