OMS Emulator Tips

This is a intended as a guideline for setting up Free Midi and OMS Emulator for use with Digital Performer and Reason.

note: This works the same for DP 2.72 & DP 3.11 and also Reason 1 & 2

First what is the OMS Emulator you ask?

It's an extension that allows software applications that normally require OMS to use Free Midi by tricking them into thinking they are seeing OMS.

It was written by Motu but is no longer supported by them.

It will not however work for hardware that requires OMS such as Midi interfaces from Opcode or MidiMan or other brands.

You will need a Midi interface that is capable of using Free Midi.

Let's go over the setup.

Set Free Midi preferences like below.

I use to have it set to Allow other applications but have found less problems using Free Midi apps only.

(If you use Unity DS-1 Always load at startup is not recommended.)

Inter-applications allows you to switch back and forth from Digital Performer and Reason.

Also make sure you have Patch Thru selected.

Below is my Free Midi setup. (Yours of course will be based on your equipment.)

Next you want to make sure that you have the OMS Emulator in the System Extension folder and Regular OMS is in the Disabled Extensions folder.

Now we are ready to startup Digital Performer.

Go to the Basics pull down and set it like below.

You might ask why I don't have Audio Patch Thru selected, this will be explained later.

Start Reason now and go to preferences and enable the Midi busses that you want to use with Reason.

You should see a list of all your devices that you have setup in Free Midi.

The sequencer port is shown below the grand piano is selected.

You can pick which module you want to control from here.

note: This one of three ways to select Midi control in Reason when using it alongside Digital Performer.

Here is where you can select other devices in Reason using the busses assigned above.

Notice we are using Rewire in slave mode. ( This is automatic when you start Reason after DP.)

Here is the last way to route Midi to Reason from Digital Performer.

This the way to use if you want to record your Midi performance directly into DP.

By selecting Reason as an output you will be routing to the modules in Reason based on their bus assignments in Rewire. (see above)

Also be sure to disable the Reason sequencer Midi selection so you don't double up notes going to Reason.

By selecting Multi-record in DP you'll be able to assign more than one Reason module at a time.

(Up to 64: 16 channels x 4 busses) Limited of course by what your CPU can support.

Now that we have the Midi all lined out let's take a look at the audio portion of this setup.

Below shows the way I prefer to route the audio out of Reason bypassing the mixer and going straight to Rewire. ( I feel the sound is allot crisper going this route the mixer in Reason muffles the sound to me.)

note: If I'm just trying to put together ideas I will just route the mixer only to save time. ( This is the default routing.)

Here we are selecting a Reason Rewire input for a mono voice track.

This corresponds to the Synth we have plugged into channel 7 of Rewire interface.

You will not be able to hear any sound doing it this way unless you are actually recording or decide to turn on Audio Patch Thru in the DP Basics pull down.

I like to set things up a little different than this though.

Notice Redrum, Grand & Dr. Rex are setup on stereo aux tracks instead of stereo audio tracks.

You'll be able to listen to anything on an aux track without having to enable the Audio Patch Thru.

When you want to record just route it's output to a bus in DP and select that bus as an input for a stereo audio track.

Or you could just assign the same Reason inputs on an stereo audio track and set it's output to none.

Or maybe you have a method that you prefer already usually not a problem due to the flexibility of Digital Performer.

Here is another view of the mixer window in DP.

Other stuff:

Reason's transport is slave to Digital Performer's transport.

Notice that the tempos are the same.

When you press play in Digital Performer the Reason sequencer will start playback if the Play button is selected under focus.

To stop Reason's sequencer from starting unselect the play button as shown below.

One way that the DP's transport is controlled by Reason is the loops.

If enabled in Reason, Digital Performer will follow.

Conclusions:

Reason and Digital Performer operate very seamlessly for me by setting it up this way.

It is very stable.

I'm able to switch back and forth from each application without even so much as a hiccup or glitch and yes while I'm playing back tracks from Digital Performer too.

I hope this helps to answers some basic and some not so basic questions when it comes to using these two apps together.

Equipment:

G4 dual 867

Two OS 9.22 partitions with their own DP setup

MAS 2.33 & 2.4

Free Midi 1.47 & 1.48

OMS Emulator which is availible here

Digital Performer 2.72 & 3.11

Reason 1.0 & 2.0

Motu MTP AV USB w networked MTP II

Main controller Kurzweil K2VXS