Reaper DAW - CSI Install and basic programming

and welcome to mfm reaper today i'm going to look at the csi folder wow that's bright uh go to the reaper page reaper resources search for csi click on the file that's the latest one at the top jeff wellington's put a lot of work into this i'll post a page at the end of the video showing you how you can donate and other ways of getting information about the csi so this video is going to explain how i installed csi and how i modify it in the expanded csi folder we're going to drag the sea surf integrator and the csi folder into the reaper resources folder i've covered this previously if you're not sure how to locate that folder drag this csurf integrator into the user plugins and the csi folder goes straight into the resources folder and that's installed don't forget to have sws extensions and the rear pack installed i'm going to be using the mcu it doesn't really make any difference the way that you write into the zone file is the same for every controller so first thing you need to do is disable the midi for the device that you're going to use so i'm using the focus right that's disabled and just check below so i do have other midi devices that are working but i use this specifically for the mcu and you need to disable midi for this to work now i go down to control osc web you might have another controller there i'm just going to remove if you wanted to keep it just add now look for control surface integrator it's at the top there and we're going to highlight home page click on edit and this is what i have selected in the home page on the right hand side surfaces add midi give this a name number of channels sends and effects menu items relates to how many channels you've got on your controller so i've got eight on the mcu the midi will be the midi year disabled in reaper's midi that was my focus right for in and out then just choose the surface that you want to use i'm using the mcu make sure you get the right surface and the zone folder will be chosen automatically okay that okay that and it's gonna be running let's create some tracks they've popped up on the surface faders all the basic functions work straight away the faders channel select record mute solo and the pan if you tap it it will then adjust the width and top it again it goes back to pan let's go back and have a look at what we should and probably shouldn't be doing with the csi folder i'll just use the one on the desktop to demonstrate there are three folders and a csi file i've never touched that csi file surfaces and zones you can edit the zones and that's where you'll put all your commands into this is stuff that moves through the air [Music] the files in the midi folder mst files you can edit them with a text editor unless you're really familiar with it i wouldn't go into these files the files you want to go into to edit and communicate with your action lists are semi-programmed already so it's called a zon file i'll go into the mcu that's what i'm using the one behind is the one i've already nearly finished programming and this is the newly installed one there are quite a few actions already set up in there the jog wheel worked as well and i also noticed two forward slashes before a description let's remember that when we're adding the commands so on the left hand side you've got the buttons on your controller by name in the middle that's the action that you're going to put there and to the right of that you can put a description control a shows me all the tracks which you'll have audio on the recording tracks as such command a will show me all the buses that they're bussed to and control command a will show all the tracks and all the buses i have a system we're working across so one is base two is all the drums three is all the acoustic guitars four's the electric guitars five are the keyboards six are any samplers seven's backing vocals eight lead vocals and i have an effects rack on nine and zero is the master outputs and i wanna emulate that on the mcu i've programmed each number as a custom action to make sure things like the first track is selected and starts at the left of the controller every time whichever instrument i'm going to look at to demonstrate i'm going to assign something to f1 so go into the action list i'll just find the action that i want to do that with you might have something in mind already select it copy selected action command id close that go into reaper preferences click control surface integrator and then click edit and just leave reaper there go to the zone file there's f1 go to the left of the n i'd do it like this for a reason it offset all the text when i didn't do this so type reaper with a capital r a couple of spaces paste the action then delete the word no action at the end there and if you want to give it a description a couple of forward slashes [Music] this list can get pretty big you can add modifiers to all of the keys there so your description might be the only thing will be the only thing that'll tell you what the action is back into reaper because of the way we left it you can just press return twice and that's programmed so two on the keyboard is all my drum tracks one was the base i've programmed that to f1 and that's working the other buttons not working so i'll program one more i'm gonna program two on the keyboard to f2 so i'm gonna copy the selected action command id just pick whichever one you want before you come out of this go to preferences you can double click that i'll leave this window open and then just hide reaper there just the fastest way i've found of coming in and out of that click next to the n with a capital r reaper a couple of spaces paste the action and delete the word no action there just need some kind of accurate description and don't forget to save the file back into reaper return return that's program that there's my drums on f2 with the controller i can toggle between the tracks and all of the sends on one track with one button which is really handy so that track template had seven effects and the track at the bottom was sending to all of those at zero so i'm gonna copy that paste it to my new track and it's copied the sends all at zero that way there's no signal until you bring the faders up this is my other screen another controller with latch and read we're going to go into latch mode this custom latch and read still need copy into this new zone file so i'm going to use the other controller but send on the mcu set all the faders to zero because all the sends are at zero you don't need to press record to record information just play so let's stop there press send to bring us back to the tracks on the mcu again read is a toggle it closes the envelopes and then reopens them zoomed to fill the screen along with the track so if i used less envelopes they would still zoom to fill the screen i'll just show you that so go into latch mode send so now i'm adjusting the sends just one two of them come out of sends that's back into track read twice closing and reopening the envelopes filling the screen the hotkeys that i use work exactly the same for sends and for effects envelopes which is really handy i'm quite systematic about hotkeys and how i program controllers so one way i access all of my plugins is with the f keys along the top my eq saturation compression reverb and delay stranger type effects and mastering effects at the end there so i just hold the mouse over the track that i want that to be on contextual toolbars is how we're doing this so i thought because there's an eq button on the mackie least i could do is assign that so you just hover the mouse over the track and it will automatically select the track and then you just pick an effect and put it on there i'll just drag that into the window to my right and straight away that's on the controller you can program csi to control your plugins i found it long-winded especially scenes i've already done this program directly to reaper and this control is great it's got the right amount of knobs and dials for a plug-in and as you've seen other buttons are really handy the record button toggles the floating effects out of the effects chain window you could have that pop on a different screen i've also got zoom on the mcu as like a momentary so the plugins there as soon as i let go it's gone and i can adjust that while it's up i use the name button with modifiers so name on its own we'll rename all of those selected tracks one by one just press return after each that saves a lot of time command and name brings up the track item name manipulation window which is really handy so we'll click on tracks select all of those tracks and i'm going to add a suffix of kits this is how i got all of the drums to show up under f2 or 2 on the keyboard it's just using a custom action and the console kit is in the custom action so it selects anything with the word kits in when i press f2 or if i press two on the keyboard and if i press track i use that to turn the masters or parent sends on and off and below that the pan button i used to switch auto record on and off which i use a lot awkward buttons to get to with a mouse easy when they're on a controller if you found anything here useful please join my other six subscribers on the channel thanks for watching

Channel: MFM REAPER MckenzieFearonMastering

Views: 3,223

Keywords: REAPER, midi controller, Hotkeys, navigation and control, Mixbustv, Reaper mania, best way to use, midi best, 2021, how to midi, Reaper lesson, learn reaper, reaper daw, how to, buy midi controller, which midi, which midi controller, logic midi, pro tools midi, studio one midi, plugin midi, fx midi, mackie MCU, Mackie, Mackie controller, Mackie UNiversal

Id: U7idVWp7WV0

Length: 12min 22sec (742 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 16 2021