THE PROBLEM:

when i installed the control surface,
i selected MIDI CONTROL SURFACE and not KEYBOARD CONTROL SURFACE
it did not occur to me that the trigger finger IS a keyboard, that just uses pads instead of keys. so reason wasn't looking for note on data.

i guess this could have been avoided if reason had included the trigger finger in the list of common midi surfaces. silly prop heads.

the trigger finger rocks!

especially with multi sampled libraries like reason drum kits.

R