Importing Midi

Hi, another newbie here. When I import a midi file into Reaper, I can't hear anything. (No problem with audio files.) I'm running Vista with a built-in Realtek HD audio card and have no other synth than Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth. The midi files seem to get imported, at least visually (they appear as tracks with their various events showing up). But when I press play, there's no sound, and the level meters don't move. I've tried to follow the the User's Guide as follows: Under Options / Preferences / Audio / MIDI Devices, I have Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth enabled as a MIDI output (no options are available for input). For each track I've clicked on io and selected Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth as MIDI Hardware Output. The only way I can get a sound is if I select Reasynth as an Fx for each track. Needless to say, the result is not what the midi file is supposed to sound like (i.e. it doesn't sound like the same file played through things like Windows Media Player). What am I forgetting to do or set? How can I get MIDI files in Reaper to sound as they should? Thanks

Valles, MIDI files do not "sound" at all, they are digital data that make other components like synthesizers generate sound. The MIDI data (basically) just defines which notes to play, how long and how loud. Feeding your MIDI data to a synth will give you different sounds from that synth, depending on the settings of the synth. Feeding it to another synth will again give new sounds. This is the glory of a standard "language" for (electronic) instruments, which MIDI is. So, to get audio from a MIDI track, you need to send that data to some synth. One way to do this is to connect a SW synth as an FX to teh track. Here is a good one , there are lots of other ion the web. Here are some links on MIDI

Click on the "I/O" icon for the track ... and you'll probably notice on the right <no output> change it to Microsoft GS Midi, SW Synth, or whatever is available on the list That should do it

Thanks for your replies. The problem seems to be related my system sound settings. Under "Playback" in Vista Audio I have two options: Speakers and Realtek Digital Output. When I was using Reaper with standard audio, Realtek was the default output device, and it worked fine. When I tried a MIDI file in Reaper, there was no sound as long as Realtek was the default audio device, but when I switched the default to Speakers, the MIDI suddenly worked fine in Reaper. But standard audio files now wouldn't work. So I tried an experiment with two tracks: one standard audio, the other MIDI. I can only get one or the other to work: depending on my system output default, the other track remains silent. So now the question is: how am I supposed to hear both MIDI and standard audio tracks in the same file???

I don't usually use Realtek, but I just did a quick test. The following settings worked with audio and midi (Microsoft wavetable) for me: 1) In Vista audio, select the default playback device to be Speakers (Realtek High Definition Audio). See picture below. 2) In Reaper, under Options\Preferences\Device, select DirectSound for the Audio system. Also, the Output Device is set to Speakers (Realtek High Definition Audio). See picture below. Pete

Ah, now we're getting closer. With your settings I managed to get both audio and Midi tracks to sound at the same time. But now there's another problem: I had been using ASIO as the Audio system to take care of latency problems when playing guitar along with files. With Direct Sound the latency problem has returned. Even when I select 2x1024 under Buffers the latency is too great. So to play along I seem to need ASIO, but ASIO won't seem to let me hear audio and MIDI at the same time. Any ideas if there are ASIO settings I can tweak? Thanks for your help so far.

So if it is an ASIO4ALL issue I guess I'll have to find a workaround. In the meantime I'll take a look at the other options you've suggested. Thanks for your help. I'll likely be back for more!