Reaper with NI Razor vocoder

I've searched around a bunch and the closest thing I can find was this old thread (and it's related posts). Problem: Can't get Razor working as a vocoder in Reaper I'm new to most of this stuff so don't be surprised if I'm missing something incredibly obvious. How I set it up now (me attempting to follow the suggestions from the other posts) 1) Open new reaper project 2) Add track1, it picks up vocals, I record a section and can play it back etc. 3) Click the FX button on track1, select VST: Reaktor 5 (Native Instruments GmbH) 4) In Reaktor, select Player->Razor->Razor.rkplr. This brings up the razor interface. 5) At this point there is no more output when playing back the vocal track. I can see input levels in Razor, but there is no output level. And nothing gets to the main outs in Reaper. 6) Add track2. Set inputs to ALL Midi. I'm using an external Akai keyboard. I can play the keys and see midi signal coming in on track2. I record a bunch of midi notes. 7) Playing back everything there is no audio in the mains at this point. (Note if I disable the Razor VST on track1 I can hear the recorded vocal audio). 8) I click the I/O button for track2. 9) Uncheck Master/Parent send 10) Click Add New Send... 11) Select track1 As I understand it that should have been it. But when playing back tracks1 and 2 all I get is the full midi notes through razor as if I simply had razor as a vst on track2 directly. The vocals in track1 seem to have no affect on anything. I've checked tons of other setups for Razor and vocoders but they all do it in very different ways. Any ideas?

Just tested it's pretty easy but you'll have to wrap your head a little around routing possible since the vocal track is using 4 channels, 2 for the vox and 2 for razor. Here are some simple instructions in this order. 1. Create two tracks one with the vocal, one with Razor. 2. Make sure the Razor track is record armed, input monitoring on and you can hear it when playing the keyboard. 3. On the vocal track add ReaVocode. 4. Drag the IO button from the Razor track onto the Vocal track and in the routing drop down at the bottom of the IO window that pops up, choose "new channels on receiving track > 3/4" and close the window. You might double-click the volume slider while you are there so that it sets the send level to it's default then close the IO window. What this step does is send Razor's audio into the Vocal track on those two extra channels (3/4). 5. Click the IO window on the Razor track and uncheck "Master/parent Send" to keep Razor from going to the master unaffected. Play razor on your keyboard as the vocal track plays. That should be it, minus any small details I overlooked. This can be done with a single track I think but the above might be good for starters. I saw your post so I pulled it up to try now I'm just playing around with it via Razor. Edit: That method is coming out mono so let's me see where I went wrong or is that how it works?

Self bump of someone else's thread. :) Anyone have any ideas? I only get mono output using ReaVocode even though it has a stereo checkbox. The Tal Vocoder ends up Mono because to use an external modulation target you have to give up one of the stereo channels best I can tell. I can't find a sensible reason ReaVocode would emit mono since it uses 4 channels. I haven't dug very far but seems like a simple free Vocoder in stereo isn't the most available option out there. I'm surely missing the obvious somewhere? Edit: Melda's Vocoder works in stereo I just found.

I can get it working now just using Reaktor player but still can't make it work in Reaper as either a track FX or routing in either direction. Closest I can come is seeing input levels from the mic, but then no midi getting through. Something else I can't figure out yet but it seems like pure luck for my midi input to be recognized by Reaper. I have to keep unplugging devices and restarting Reaper to get it to work which makes trying to troubleshoot this problem even more challenging. Is that normal? Does reaper have issues recognizing USB midi devices like the Akai MPK49? I never have a problem at the OS level, MIDI OX always reports my midi signal as expected. Win7 Home 64bit by the way...

I'm back... 

OK, get what I mentioned above working (post #5) with an existing vocal WAV file first then.... ==Create a new track set its input to your microphone and make sure that is working. ==Drag the IO button from this new microphone track onto the Reaktor track, set the send level then close that window. ==Now click the IO button on the vocal track and uncheck master/parent send. ==Make sure both tracks are record armed and input monitoring is on, on both of them. Make sure the Reaktor track is set to your midi keyboard as input. Remove the test vocal wav file you were using and sing in the mic instead while playing the keyboard at the same time. Hopefully I didn't miss a step but works as I sit here and test it and sounds outstanding, I didn't know Reaktor had this so thanks!!.