PolyBrute Connect VST plays MIDI notes early

[jrsone]

Hello All,

I'm a new and happy owner of the PolyBrute which arrived last week, and I have just set up PolyBrute Connect and updated my firmware to 1.0.5. It seems to work fine as a standalone app, and now I'm using it as a VST in Reaper, my DAW. I pasted in some MIDI items to the PolyBrute Connect VST track, and the notes play too soon, by about 200ms. I am only using the USB connection, no additional MIDI connections to/from the PolyBrute. I have never seen this kind of problem (usually the opposite), and I can't seem to find any settings that affect it. When I 'play' the keyboard in the VST, the notes are played instantly on the PolyBrute, so at least I can confirm my unit isn't able to predict the future or anything!

Did I miss something in the manual, or does anybody know of this issue?

Thanks,
Jeremy

[jrsone]

OK, I think I may have answered my own question. I had not really configured Reaper at all for the VST / MIDI control, so it's a wonder anything happened I guess. I went into Preferences in the MIDI Settings and enabled set the PolyBrute MIDI and Polybrute VST options to 'enabled+control' for MIDI inputs. I did not enable these as MIDI outputs. (See the attached image.) It seems to work now, without delay, and I can record MIDI data from the PolyBrute as I play it live.

EDIT: This works only when recording is enabled on the track with the VST. When I disable recording, it seems to go back to playing MIDI too early.

How do you Reaper users out there have it configured?

Thanks,
Jeremy

[jrsone]

Well, I had 2-way MIDI working for a while the other night by enabling the VST track's output to PolyBrute MIDI, with local control turned off, but it does not seem stable/repeatable. For some reason, the VST no longer seems to control the PolyBrute properly at all. Changing presets in the VST or playing on the virtual keyboard no longer affects the PolyBrute.

I was able to record more MIDI tonight, but only by enabling local control and disabling MIDI out on the VST track. But then if I wanted to record the actual audio after quantizing the MIDI data, for example, I had to change settings back and turn off local control.

I can't seem to find any information on how to properly set up Reaper for the 2-way MIDI / Polyconnect functionality as shown in this video from Arturia:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWh8mUuGe0M

Any Reaper users out there doing this successfully? Any Arturia moderators?

I am gathering footage and generating music for a YouTube video that I am making on my experience with the PolyBrute, so I would be glad to share the proper configuration if I could just get it working.

[jrsone]

So I've tried taking the USB cable right to the computer (rather than to the USB hub), tried reinstalling PolyBrute Connect and USB MIDI driver, still no luck for proper 2-way communications in Reaper...

When I use PolyBrute Connect as a standalone app, without Reaper, everything works as expected. I can change settings on either the keyboard or on the software, and one affects the other.

But in Reaper, it seems that no matter what, the VST instance of PolyBrute Connect cannot control the PolyBrute (no program change, playing the 'keyboard' on the screen does nothing, etc.) The best that I can get working is for MIDI data to be recorded when I play the PolyBrute, then it can be played back.

Apparently, I'm talking to myself here on this forum; perhaps I shouldn't have bothered with these posts. Maybe I'll try Arturia customer service, since I guess that's what I'm after at this point.

Jeremy

[Lokologico]

Try Arturia Support, they were helpful when I contacted them.

Not sure if you saw this thread, but here are some insight too:

https://forum.arturia.com/index.php?topic=107141.0

[jrsone]

Hi Lokologico, thanks for the response! I may reach out to them directly.

Yes, I did see that thread, and I noticed the OP mentioned PolyBrute Connect working in Reaper.

In the meantime, I did figure something out that may help others. I made sure the PolyBrute was running (not in sleep mode) when I booted Reaper. Then it seemed to work again, 2-way communication and all. It seems the communication problem occurs if the PolyBrute is in sleep mode when the VST is initialized and tries to activate the USB MIDI connection.

In terms of my settings in Reaper, I only chose the track's input as PolyBrute MIDI, with no output MIDI. Then on the PolyBrute, local MIDI was set to off, and so arming record would allow me to hear the PolyBrute.

I have not yet tried to get clocks going to/from the PolyBrute, so I may try that next.

Jeremy