Broken midi navigation because of fx chain?

[ns-studios]

Windows 10, Reaper 6.25, Osara 2021.1pre-486,65ee9ed4: Putting a specific plugin on the track's fx chain results in midi navigation being broken, i.e., viewing/selecting notes in midi editor with up/down arrows/shift+up/down arrows results in only note length being spoken, e.g., 1 bar, 25% instead of g 5. 1 bar, and all note-related commands such as increase/decrease pitch cursor, move notes stop providing feedback. I noticed this with Xfer OTT effect plugin, but it's possible that more plugins do this. This behavior seems very odd, so maybe it's not plugins that have anything to do with it, but deleting OTT from the fx chain or taking it offline fixes the problem. Here's the project where I reproduced the problem I had in my original project. Hopefully we can get to the bottom of this. brokenMidiNavigationWithOTTPresent.zip

[LeonarddeR]

This sounds similar to behavior I know from several patches in Native Instruments Session Guitarist. IN that case, it has to do with key switches, i.e. the behavior of some keys changes when a particular key is pressed. Could you verify that exactly the same note plays correctly when you press it on a midi keyboard after selecting it in the midi editor?

[LeonarddeR]

Just a friendly reminder to @ns-studios to provide additional details. I'd like to know whether this is a bug in OSARA.

[ns-studios]

@leonardder I'm not sure I understand what you're suggesting. What I do:

1. make a new empty project.
2. Add a new instrument track.
3. add a vstI, e.g., FM8.
4. Record and/or insert midi.
5. Open midi editor (Item: Open in built-in MIDI editor (set default behavior in preferences)) and go through notes with OSARA: Move to previous chord, OSARA: Move to next chord, OSARA: Move to previous note in chord, and OSARA: Move to next note in chord. At this point, OSARA: Move to previous and next note in chord actions say the note and length, e.g., g 5, 13%, and OSARA: Move to previous and next chord actions say, e.g., 0%, 1 note. If I add OTT (vst effect) to the track fx chain, now OSARA: Move to previous and next chord actions work the same way, but OSARA: Move to previous and next note in chord now no longer speak the notes, but instead only the length, e.g., 13%. The behavior goes back to normal if the plugin is removed from the track fx chain, or is taken offline (Toggle selected FX offline Ctrl+Alt+B). I don't remember if I've seen the behavior with any other plugin, but it could be the case. Still happens, btw, with Reaper v6.45 and Osara 2021.1pre-670,28a9da71.

[LeonarddeR]

Thanks for clarifying, this certainly sounds OSARA related indeed.

[jcsteh]

VST effects can affect MIDI data. I wonder if the effect strips certain bits of note data from its output? I'd only expect that to impact OSARA if this was inserted as a recording FX, though. Curious.

[ns-studios]

Update: the update for the plugin mentions a fix for MIDI Keynames interfering in Bitwig, so whether this is the reason things work as expected now or not is anyone's guess, but I tried the old version as well just to compare, and the old version still causes Osara not to speak note names when being inserted as track fx, even if midi input/output is disabled in routing, so if it is some kind of midi stripping, it does seem to interfere with Osara. Another example I've found is ReaSamplOmatic where if you choose the minimum/maximum note range other than the default (0-127), and you haven't chosen a sample yet, navigating through the notes in the specified note range results in no note name being spoken for those notes. I'll leave this open just in case something can be done to fall back to the default note names (if possible) if none are present, or maybe even an opt-in Osara option to ignore custom note names, but feel free to close if necessary. A workaround for a plugin that sets custom note names right now seems to be making a custom note name list, and loading it from the file/note and cc names menu in midi editor. You can make a default.txt file inside %appdata%\reaper\MIDINoteNames folder that contains something like this: # MIDI note name map. # # Format: # MIDI_note_number new name # CC_number new name # # examples: # 60 Middle C # CC7 Loudness 0 C-1 1 C#-1 2 D-1 3 D#-1 4 E-1 5 F-1 6 F#-1 7 G-1 8 G#-1 9 A-1 10 A#-1 11 B-1 12 C0 13 C#0 14 D0 15 D#0 16 E0 17 F0 18 F#0 19 G0 20 G#0 21 A0 22 A#0 23 B0 24 C1 25 C#1 26 D1 27 D#1 28 E1 29 F1 30 F#1 31 G1 32 G#1 33 A1 34 A#1 35 B1 36 C2 37 C#2 38 D2 39 D#2 40 E2 41 F2 42 F#2 43 G2 44 G#2 45 A2 46 A#2 47 B2 48 C3 49 C#3 50 D3 51 D#3 52 E3 53 F3 54 F#3 55 G3 56 G#3 57 A3 58 A#3 59 B3 60 C4 61 C#4 62 D4 63 D#4 64 E4 65 F4 66 F#4 67 G4 68 G#4 69 A4 70 A#4 71 B4 72 C5 73 C#5 74 D5 75 D#5 76 E5 77 F5 78 F#5 79 G5 80 G#5 81 A5 82 A#5 83 B5 84 C6 85 C#6 86 D6 87 D#6 88 E6 89 F6 90 F#6 91 G6 92 G#6 93 A6 94 A#6 95 B6 96 C7 97 C#7 98 D7 99 D#7 100 E7 101 F7 102 F#7 103 G7 104 G#7 105 A7 106 A#7 107 B7 108 C8 109 C#8 110 D8 111 D#8 112 E8 113 F8 114 F#8 115 G8 116 G#8 117 A8 118 A#8 119 B8 120 C9 121 C#9 122 D9 123 D#9 124 E9 125 F9 126 F#9 127 G9