Reaper

[JD01]

Alison if you need any help setting up basic stuff with Reaper, I'll happily show you on Zoom.

Beautiful morning here this morning... but my panels are covered in frost!

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[Tadpui]

Thank you, @Tadpui, I wish it was a bit simpler but I will give it a go tomorrow. It's so much easier to find plugins in Studio One.

Today I spent most of my time trying to figure out how to cut and paste. Not a simple thing in Reaper! Also, when I got out of the visible EZD on my DAW, it took forever to figure out how to get it back! I had been focussing on a guitar line I put in so I didn't want EZD in the way. I'm thinking I may have to redo everything. . .will check out this video tomorrow, today, my brain is fried!! I'm determined to give it a good try though.

Thanks for your help!

It'll just take a little time and some repetitions and it'll start to make more sense.

One of the things in Reaper that still messes with me is the "hold right mouse button to select" thing. I don't use any other application that selects like that. So it throws me every time.

Once you've got media items selected with the right mouse button click/drag, the 'S' key splits any selected items right where the play head is positioned. From there it should be the traditional Ctrl+C to copy, Ctrl+X to cut, and Ctrl+V to paste, same as Studio One.

Keep on taking little bites and before long you'll have it all down pat

[Alison]

Thanks @JD01, I might have to take you up on that! I plan to change direction a bit today realizing that working with a new DAW and trying out a new song idea wasn't very compatible so, I'm going to work on something I already know. . .duh! Still going to use EZDrummer but will definitely check out the video first.

Our panels have been snow-covered for a while but, we're warming up a bit so things should be back to normal, at least until the next power outage !

[Alison]

I finally have a full song recorded. Am I happy with it? Not really but, it is a first effort! Got a lot of things figured out but so much more to go. . .like, eq, reverb, bus tracks, limiters (are there any?),. Editing is much more complicated in Reaper but I did find a video that guided me to fixing spots (I tend to get more than just "spots").

Can't quite figure out how to do bus tracks (very simple in Studio One) or how to render EZDrummer tracks into actual audio tracks. Ugh! I feel like a first-grader again! I may just post what I have and let you guys rip into it. First, I have to figure out how to download the mix. . . ugh!

Anyway, @Tadpui, the video you posted on EZDrummer was extremely helpful! As was all your other advice. I did find that when I went to record vocals, I had to go back through all the settings again so I didn't have quite so much echo in my headphones.

Speaking of headphones. . . I can't get what I am recording in my headphones without turning up each channel (or whichever one I am using) full throttle. Not sure what that's all about. I've tried turning every recorded track way down but I still can't hear the recording track through my headphones unless I turn up the input . . .maybe it's my ears. . . . good thing about recording acoustic stuff is, I can take one side of my headphones off to hear what I'm playing and leave the other side on to hear what's been recorded.

Saturday was full of expletives and pulling my hair out but, today was much better.. . progress!

[JD01]

Saturday was full of expletives and pulling my hair out but, today was much better.. . progress!

That's just a normal day recording isn't it?

[rayc]

Speaking of headphones. . . I can't get what I am recording in my headphones without turning up each channel (or whichever one I am using) full throttle.

That's likely an issue with your interface rather than Reaper BUT do look at the levels on the stereo bus in Reaper.

[Armistice]

how to render EZDrummer tracks into actual audio tracks.

Why would you do this?

I've never separately rendered ANY track, including drums - and particularly I'd not do it with drums because then I couldn't spend hours tinkering with the snare quite so easily...

[Alison]

@JD01 especially when trying to figure out a new DAW!!

@rayc stereo bus??? This doesn't happen in Studio One so I'm thinking it's a Reaper thing.

@Armistice how can you mess with the snare if you can't see the individual snare? Maybe I used the wrong term. . .

Oh man, so many questions!
Almost lost the whole project yesterday trying to figure out how to export the song. I have it back but, every time I close Reaper, I have to go through an elaborate process to find it again. Going to be checking out many a YouTube video today to try and figure out what happened! Meanwhile, Reaper stays up on my computer. Good thing we don't have a power outage scheduled this week!

Thanks for your input, I do appreciate it!

[JD01]

@Alison I can probably spare you half an hour at about 5PM (UK time) tomorrow, Wednesday or Friday if you want to go over the basics.

[Alison]

@Alison I can probably spare you half an hour at about 5PM (UK time) tomorrow, Wednesday or Friday if you want to go over the basics.

Oh my, that would be awesome!! So, we're maybe 6 hours apart? I'll look into that and get back to you. Thank you SOOO much!

[JD01]

@Alison I can probably spare you half an hour at about 5PM (UK time) tomorrow, Wednesday or Friday if you want to go over the basics.

Oh my, that would be awesome!! So, we're maybe 6 hours apart? I'll look into that and get back to you. Thank you SOOO much!

No worries

[Alison]

Oh my, that would be awesome!! So, we're maybe 6 hours apart? I'll look into that and get back to you. Thank you SOOO much!

No worries

Looks like we are 8 hours apart (9 am my time) which is great for me! How about Wed. or Friday? Whatever day works best for you. I just posted my first effort in the mix forum, just FYI. Thank you!!!

[Armistice]

@Armistice how can you mess with the snare if you can't see the individual snare? Maybe I used the wrong term. . .

"Rendering" is the process of converting a track or tracks to a .wav file. Sounds like you're having trouble getting EZ Drummer to split out its various drums onto separate tracks.

Here's one I prepared earlier...

Reaper1.JPG

Find your drum program in the list - you might have to look in the VST folder if it's not in Recent

Reaper2.JPG

Click Yes

Reaper3.JPG

Tracks!

Reaper4.JPG

Reaper doesn't intrinsically know which track is what, but that's easy to figure out by clicking on a few drums and watching the individual track meters, when you expand the tracks out. MIDI data sits in the top track, all armed and ready to go...

[Alison]

This is great, thank you so much @Armistice!

[JD01]

No worries

Looks like we are 8 hours apart (9 am my time) which is great for me! How about Wed. or Friday? Whatever day works best for you. I just posted my first effort in the mix forum, just FYI. Thank you!!!

Either/Or. Email me a Zoom invite.

[Alison]

Looks like we are 8 hours apart (9 am my time) which is great for me! How about Wed. or Friday? Whatever day works best for you. I just posted my first effort in the mix forum, just FYI. Thank you!!!

Either/Or. Email me a Zoom invite.

Guess I need your email address! Going to shoot for Friday as the weekend is best for recording. Thanks so much for doing this.

[Armistice]

I wonder if a pan-global Rebel Zoom hook up would work... there must be a time zone when we're all awake and functioning?

[JD01]

I wonder if a pan-global Rebel Zoom hook up would work... there must be a time zone when we're all awake and functioning?

Well, you're normally asleep you lazy bastard.

[Armistice]

I wonder if a pan-global Rebel Zoom hook up would work... there must be a time zone when we're all awake and functioning?

Well, you're normally asleep you lazy bastard.

Trust me, you sleep less as you get older, and not because you want it that way...

[JD01]

Well, you're normally asleep you lazy bastard.

Trust me, you sleep less as you get older, and not because you want it that way...

The only time that might work realistically is breakfast time in the UK.
That'll be beer O'Clock in Aus and pretty much bedtime on the west coast of the USA. I sometimes get a txt of Shan at about 7AM UK time so he's normally still awake. I think Lt. Bob is normally up quite late too.