I saw some people wanting to view their midifiles in an internal score view instead of the current piano roll view.
It will probably take quite some time before this feature is implemented, so here is an alternate solution (probably not everything you hoped for though).
Introducing Reaperlily (inspired by the Tiger Lily character from Peter Pan and the name LilyPond ofc):
I've made a quick script which converts the midi to file to a pdf score via LilyPond, and launches the pdf so you can see the score right away.
Then you need to extract the attached zip file to the Reaper directory (whereever, really): C:\Program Files\REAPER\Plugins\ReaperLily\
You the need to set up reaperlily as an external editor in Reaper. From reaper: Hit Options -> Preferences -> External Editors -> Add Fill out:
File type (extension): mid
Primary Editor: C:\Program Files\REAPER\Plugins\ReaperLily\reaperlily.cmd (or browse to where you put it)
Hit Ok and Ok again
To view your midi file in a score view, just rightclick the item in reaper, and choose "Open items with 'reaperlily.cmd'"
Acrobat reader opens the pdf which contains the score.
Troubleshooting:
If the script isn't working for you, look in this section.
Set up path:
Most likely the path for the pdf viewer is set wrong. Edit the reaperlily.cmd file in a text editor and make sure that the reaperlily_pdfviewerpath points to a program that opens pdf (default i set to Adobe Reader 7.0, so if you have any other version you will need to change this)
Tempo, key, markers and sections:
None of these will be correct (as they are undefined in the midi file). Other default values can certainly be configured if needed. Check out the lilypond documentation or speak up in this thread
More will be added to this section as problems occur (and they will)
If you understand the basics of the command prompt, I encourage you to open the reaperlily.cmd and check that the script doesn't do anything it's not supposed to.
Reaperlily in action
Check out the attached screenshot (and be sure to flame me for having an unregistered version ):
It's also working with actual Lilypond beta version.
Lilypond was already sitting on my PC and although I liked it very much it's faster for me to set up scores with Sibelius G7.
As a classical composer I will wait for even closer Reaper-Lilypond integration.
One thing I miss in all and every DAWs is a good way to send real music expressions to the notation apps or to VSTi instruments that could interpret them (for instance Synful Orchestra).
A good conversion could include three formats:
1) markers or regions used to enter the music expressions,
2) midi as performed by a DAW,
3) music data as read by notation programs.
actually i have abandoned developing this. In another thread it was posted that it probably wouldn't be worth the effort since it didn't provide editing abilities of the score..
I have written a .rpp parser and preliminary multi-track scoring abilities in the script before i stopped working on it, so if anyone feels like continuing it - be my guest.
(also interpreting markers and tempo changes)
If i get the impression that people really want this without editing abilities, i might feel compelled to pick it up again.
As Lilypond is open source, maybe it would make even more sense to write an external editor linked to the Reaper, using it more like a .dll ?
Real time changes: midi is sent through Reaper, and for the graphics we would have two graphic layers: one static (Lily big output file) and one small for tracking changes in only one staff.
Another option is making a separate process running in the background that watches if the track is being changed in the piano roll, and immediately recompiles the pdf to reflect the changes when they happen.
I really like the way the score editor of Samplitude 9 is incorporated at the top of the midi editor. It's really cool. you can also have a full view if you want too. In fact i like how everything the score/list/midi and the controller editor
is laid out in one window. Very practical. Just my 2 cents..
Thanks a lot for your effort, going to install it now.
P.S. This place is amazing, i find something new every day. Wow!!
As Lilypond is open source, maybe it would make even more sense to write an external editor linked to the Reaper, using it more like a .dll ?
Real time changes: midi is sent through Reaper, and for the graphics we would have two graphic layers: one static (Lily big output file) and one small for tracking changes in only one staff.
Another option is making a separate process running in the background that watches if the track is being changed in the piano roll, and immediately recompiles the pdf to reflect the changes when they happen.
Just an idea - I'm not a programmer myself, so...
I think there are two groups of people interested in adding notation capabilities to Reaper:
1. Users who would like to generate a printed score
2. Users who would like to view and edit MIDI note data in a notation presentation.
I fall into the latter category. I'd be perfectly happy to have a very basic, one track/channel at a time MIDI notation editor available in Reaper. Scrubbing would be nice. Having a vertical bar move across the notation as the sequence plays would be nice. And finally, having notes "sound" as they are dragged around on the staff would be cool. (one thing I fell in love with in Emagic's Notator / Logic was that if you moved the pitch of a single note within a chord, the entire chord would "re-sound" each time the pitch of the selected note was moved - that feature was the reason I bought the Atari version of Notator years ago )
I digress. Is anyone aware of any open source for displaying and modifying a MIDI data structure? Like I said - basic is the word - doesn't have to be pretty...
I also belong to the group that would like a basic score notation editor in Reaper. There are obviously alternatives available if you want a nice printout. The beauty is the integration of functionality useful at record/edit-time together with all other functionality already available in Reaper for that particular situation.
Sorry chiming in late, but I would need a score editor badly! If I record something I need to show it to my band afterwards and then a score view would be so helpful - I just have bad memory...so:
A function for exporting each midi channel to a staff in lilypond would be most helpful! so we could split the keyboard e.g. in 3 zones, midi ch 1, 2, 3 and have 3 staves, one for bass, one for chords, one for melody. Perfect!
wait, of course, then we need to define the third staff as bass clef, and then we want chord symbols and lyrics and...things are getting complicated. Justin, what are your views on a score editor, by the way?
In the meandtime: even simple score exporting is very useful indeed.
I wonder if one were to use an actual midi editor (e.g. Noteworthy Composer or Finale) it would be possible to edit the midi and for the edits to be updated into Reaper - can you do this with external audio editors (if not in reaper I'm sure I've seen some programmes where you can do this with external audio editors)?
It's called FlyakiteOSX. Its basically a bundle package which uninstalls gracefully as well.
It adds a few programs to handle the dock, and window decorations, and replaces all of the windows dll's containing icons (can be reverted with an uninstall)
You can get it here http://osx.portraitofakite.com/
i found some higher res png icons for the dock for opera, mirc, msn and firefox. let me know if you want these
Does this still work in later builds? 1880? I can't get things working. I'm sure its setup right. I just have the 'open with...' option greyed out when I right click.
Can someone help me figure out with what I'm doing wrong. I downloaded and ran the executable. It sets up a lot of files and directories, but I can't find the mentioned zip file or the cmd file. What am I doing wrong?