Reaper - doing my nut in!

[Jakester]

I've been working with Reaper recently - getting really good recordings and the plugins are great. 

However, it's been doing my nut in when it comes to manipulating the recordings, punching in, that sort of thing. 

I know it uses a non-destructive form of recording - 'takes' - but I find navigating between them really irritating. Just punching in to correct an error is completely counter intuitive. 

Can anyone explain how best to do a 'tape-style' punch in - i.e. I just play over the bit I want to re-record over? Otherwise it's just left me constantly having to record the whole line over and over again. 

Also, the actual user interface - it constantly zooms in and out, and flicking up and down, instead of scrolling up and down the tracks like EVERY OTHER DAW OUT THERE zooms the tracks in and out! WHY? WHY? Is there any way to make it 'normal'?

Yours, going slightly crazy...

[lurksalot]

I find scrolling around it fairly easy TBH so I can’t help there.

with overdubbing , just record another take on the same track , when you have finished recording you can grab the ends of the second take pull it back or pull to the length of section you want and as long as the parts of each take are highlited they are the parts that will play.

what i  do then is save it as a take, might be glue as current take.  It is then punched in and saved as one take. It keeps it tidy that way 

 

of course just play it right first time like I do ..............AS IF 🤣🙄😕 

manipulating takes is what I do best in Reaper  

[tvickey]

With figuring out Reaper, I found that YouTube is the friend who will quickly teach you the ropes. 

I'm still learning myself... but found it useful to record in takes on one track, and then once I'm done I can do comps on those takes, and/or use a command to expand all of those takes into separate tracks.

[TheMaartian]

Kenny Gioia is a great Reaper video teacher. The first link is to his website. The second is to his YouTube channel (which also has the full v6 update videos). Check out video #16 (Takes & Comping) under Reaper 5 Explained. That may help with your question.

http://www.kennymania.com/reaper-videos/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq297H7Ca98HlB5mVFHGSsQ

Here's the Takes & Comping video

 

[JapanAxe]

To punch in:

Create a selection with your cursor for the section you want to punch in.

Select Options up the top and choose the recording type Overdub Selection (or something similar) rather than Normal.

Arm the track, put the cursor line a few bars back, hit record, start playing.

Of course I rarely use this feature...

EDIT: Yeah that zooming thing drives me nuts too, the thing to remember is that the result of a scrolling gesture depends on where the cursor is at the time. If you want to move up and down the tracks, put the cursor over the track number.

Edited June 5, 2020 by JapanAxe

[thegummy]

Since you have the answer now I'm just going to make a general point about Reaper:

With most software I'd advise to start with a blank page and learn what it does rather than trying to get it to fit what you did in another system.

But the great thing about Reaper is that it's so customisable that you can make it do the actions you're used to the way you're used to.

It's the single word I'd use to describe what makes Reaper my favourite DAW - customisable.

[paul_c2]

I hear you (relating to the original problem) and I deal with the issue like this:

If/when a track is more than just a simple thing which I'll play in one or two takes okay, I'll dedicate a track to "original recordings", which has many takes on it; then create another track with one track, which is the final thing.

Using Reaper's track colour options and also putting the 'scratch recording' track at the bottom of the list, helps with quickly knowing which is which. And as for getting the take I want, out of that recording track, I'll use the "explode all takes to new tracks" option (then do a lot of deleting of the excess tracks it creates, if its eg take 12 I'm on). Sometimes if it gets out of hand, I'll have "scratch recordings #1", "scratch recordings #2" etc tracks. I know its not vastly efficient but this way I'm assured I won't actually lose anything original, and I can go back if needs be and retrieve a brilliant take of musical accomplishment, if somehow I managed to record it.

I dare say, there's more elegant features - probably including locking the recording track to prevent its deletion - but it works for me. Its a bit slow to wade thru them but at least I won't lose anything....unless I forget to press record.

And often when patching together the "final" track, I'll temporarily use 1 or 2 other tracks (created just below it, to help visually) and shuffle things round, copy & paste there, etc etc

[ahpook]

1 hour ago, paul_c2 said:

I hear you (relating to the original problem) and I deal with the issue like this:

If/when a track is more than just a simple thing which I'll play in one or two takes okay, I'll dedicate a track to "original recordings", which has many takes on it; then create another track with one track, which is the final thing.

Using Reaper's track colour options and also putting the 'scratch recording' track at the bottom of the list, helps with quickly knowing which is which. And as for getting the take I want, out of that recording track, I'll use the "explode all takes to new tracks" option (then do a lot of deleting of the excess tracks it creates, if its eg take 12 I'm on). Sometimes if it gets out of hand, I'll have "scratch recordings #1", "scratch recordings #2" etc tracks. I know its not vastly efficient but this way I'm assured I won't actually lose anything original, and I can go back if needs be and retrieve a brilliant take of musical accomplishment, if somehow I managed to record it.

I dare say, there's more elegant features - probably including locking the recording track to prevent its deletion - but it works for me. Its a bit slow to wade thru them but at least I won't lose anything....unless I forget to press record.

And often when patching together the "final" track, I'll temporarily use 1 or 2 other tracks (created just below it, to help visually) and shuffle things round, copy & paste there, etc etc

This is almost exactly the approach I use, it works for me as well. There may be a more 'pro' approach, but I find if there's too many tracks on the boil at once I lose the plot a bit...so I never rack up too many takes before tidying things up.

 

[Jakester]

Thanks all - I have actually found the way to do it 'tape-style', which has sped things up massively now I can just drop in and record over the top of all the mistakes without fannying around with takes.

 

The scroll thing still bugs me though...

[ahpook]

29 minutes ago, Jakester said:

Thanks all - I have actually found the way to do it 'tape-style', which has sped things up massively now I can just drop in and record over the top of all the mistakes without fannying around with takes.

 

The scroll thing still bugs me though...

Mind sharing your epiphany ?

[Jakester]

21 minutes ago, ahpook said:

Mind sharing your epiphany ?

I think it's Options/New recording that overlaps existing items/trims existing items behind new recording (Tape mode)

I guess the name should have given it away to me earlier....😆

[ahpook]

2 hours ago, Jakester said:

I think it's Options/New recording that overlaps existing items/trims existing items behind new recording (Tape mode)

I guess the name should have given it away to me earlier....😆

Thanks, I'll check it out.