Overbridge /vst/ Reason

Elektron Software Overbridge
#1

Hi All, newbie here so please forgive potentially co
vering old ground. Having regrettably sold loads of nice hardware years ago, I’m not entirely happy with my software setup. I had narrowed my shortlist down to Peak, Prophet Rev2 and Analog 4mk2. I’m going with A4mk2. If for nothing else, I like the sound of it above the others. Couple of questions…

  1. Will I be able to open overbridge as a plug in within Reason 10?
  2. Will A4 also act as either/both usb audio and midi interface for Reason 10 outputs.
    Any thoughts appreciated.
#2

Good questions!
AFAIK the A4mkII doesnt work with overbridge yet. IN theory when OB is out it will open in Reason. my A4(original) does. I’ve also hooked it up as the audio interface, but keep in mind that your in/out hardware has to be the same piece in reason.

Which I guess means the audio would come out of your A4, too? I prefer Live or Logic for interfacing with overbridge, because I can select my main audio interface/monitors for output, and the A4 for input.

#3

Thanks for the response. To expand a little, this is almost exclusively for live use. I’ve previously used logic as host for kontakt and reason (rewire) but now reason supports plugins and my past experience is that reason is super stable, I see no need to continue with logic. Also, not really needing the audio in with reason, it seems like a neat solution to mix the reason output with the A4 and do away with any other audio /midi interface… Assuming A4does both audio out from reason and midi in to reason simultaneously…

#4

Yes. I’ve done this with the OB beta. It works.

This, too, works as you’d expect.

3 Likes
#5

Many thanks for the positive replies!

#6

I believe the new OB does not yet work as a midi interface, but it’s intended to?

Has this changed?

#7

Actually, I missed the MIDI bit, you’re right. I’ve only tested audio. My mistake. Sorry for the mis-information. I’ve no doubt MIDI is coming, though. I’ve only tested MIDI sync - and sync is working in Reason.

1 Like
#8

crap i missed that bit, too. Sorry!

#9

It sounds like you guys anticipate midi/audio I/O eventually but for now it’s audio only and even then only when overbridge is released for the A4mk2.
Given that its almost certain that editing with overbridge within reason is inevitable, I’m going to take a chance anyway. Given my shortlist (prophet rev2 / peak) neither come close to offering this sort of integration and I’ve not heard any demos convincing me either sound any better than the A4.
Worst case scenario, I’ll need to use a small audio/midi interface if I want to integrate with the laptop… Nothing new there.

#10

The A4 cannot act as USB midi interface from the computer to other devices, because there is sorrily no internal connection between USB midi and DIN midi.

#11

Thanks for this. So for my own clarification, a midi signal arriving at the A4 5pin din will not be able to control reason via usb (A4>computer)?

#12

Excactly. No midi signal can bridge between DIN midi and USB midi within the A4. This holds true for both directions (incoming / outgoing).

It’s a hardware limitation, so there is also no hope that a future OS update may fix this.

#13

Thank you!

#14

Just been checking out some youtube clips of both the Mk1 and Mk2. The last bit of this review talks about overbridge (for Mk2) and clearly states MIDI over USB…
Also mentions full features will cost $100… !!! Is this correct ?

#15

Hey all, Reason OB2.0 beta tester here.

To answer your question: yes it will work in theory. The second part of that answer is. Reason currently has really bad VST performance which is being worked on for the 10.3 release of that software. It was supposed to come out last year but is proving to be difficult. So you have a one two punch of OB2.0 in beta which may or may not have some remaining issues to be sorted And Reson needing some software updates to get higher performance out of the vst engine. There’s other issues I’ve noticed while testing these two that falls more on propellerhead than Elektron.

If you want ob I’d recommend ableton intro or standard. The sync and performance will be much better for the foreseeable future. I certainly hope propeller head addresses all their issues but there are more factors than just performance that need addressed (rytm mkii for example maxes out the automation lane picker count so some parameters aren’t available) same with audio streams (last four audio streams aren’t available.

1 Like
#16

Also overbridge will be free for all owners. The tiered pricing model was abandoned when the delays started.

#17

MIDI over USB works (doesn’t require Overbridge) to control the A4 itself. BUT as already stated multiple times, you cannot route it out via the DIN midi connectors (the other way around in via DIN midi and out via USB also doesn’t work).

And forget about the price. That was before they delayed it and changed their mind.

1 Like
#18

I’ll stop banging on about MIDI over USB now!
Ta for the info on price… I’ll get my coat.

#19

Since some of you tested OB Beta with Reason, how is the sync between the two?
Is sync handled via the OB Plugin or do i need to sync it in the Reason preferences via Clock?
Does it use alot of CPU?
Do i need to have an audio driver like asio4all which can integrate the signals of two audio interfaces (Digitakt and my main interface) or does the plugin work with my regular interface?

BTW it is actually good that OB doesnt include Midi because Reason doesnt support VST Midi atm, so whatever Midi would have come into the OB Plugin wouldnt be able to leave the plugin. And some plugins which incorporate Midi then disable external midi.

#20

The Overbridge VST doesn’t use the configured audio interface of the DAW at all. For the DAW it looks like that audio is magically coming out of the VST.

Internally Overbridge VST uses it’s own driver (not a regular audio driver) which can be configured (buffer size and stuff) within the VST itself.

It’s designed this way so you can use a regular audio interface and the Overbridge VST at the same time (which wouldn’t be possible on Windows otherwise).