IntroductionWelcome| 00:04 |
(MUSIC).
Hello, I'm Garrick Chow, and welcome to
| | 00:05 |
up and running with Reaper 4.
In this course, I'm going to cover the
| | 00:09 |
basic knowledge and skills you'll need
under your belt in order to this
| | 00:11 |
incredibly powerful and customizable
digital audio workstation.
| | 00:16 |
We'll start with a tour around the Reaper
interface to get our bearings, and I'll
| | 00:19 |
show you how to set up your projects and
workspace, so you can follow along with
| | 00:22 |
me throughout the course.
From there, we'll see how to set up
| | 00:24 |
Reaper, so you can record live audio from
instruments or microphones, as well as
| | 00:28 |
how to import prerecorded audio files
into your projects.
| | 00:31 |
I'll also show you how to connect
(MUSIC), play, and edit midi performances
| | 00:34 |
in Reaper.
And once we have some recordings made,
| | 00:38 |
I'll show you how to use Reaper's
powerful editing tools so you can quickly
| | 00:41 |
and easily split, trim, and cross fade
items.
| | 00:44 |
As well as perform several other types of
edits and changes to your tracks.
| | 00:47 |
From there we'll progress to mixing our
project, and see how to use some of
| | 00:50 |
Reaper's unique tools for organizing your
tracks, applying effects.
| | 00:54 |
And automating changes during playback
(SOUND).
| | 00:55 |
And lastly, we'll see how to export your
final mix, as well as how to export
| | 01:00 |
individual tracks, that you might want to
use in other projects.
| | 01:03 |
So, let's get started with up and running
with Reaper 4.
| | 01:07 |
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| Using the exercise files| 00:00 |
If you are a premium subscriber to
Lynda.com, you have access to the
| | 00:03 |
exercise files for this course.
We'll be working on variations of the
| | 00:06 |
same project throughout the majority of
this course.
| | 00:08 |
And I've included versions of it at
various stages.
| | 00:10 |
I didn't include for every single movie
as we'll be working progressively most of
| | 00:14 |
the time.
But I did want to include key versions
| | 00:16 |
where I either imported or recorded a
sound that you won't be able to duplicate
| | 00:19 |
on your own.
I suggest placing copies of each project
| | 00:23 |
folder or file on your desktop for easy
access.
| | 00:25 |
And to ensure that you have the originals
as backups if you want to start any
| | 00:28 |
project over again.
You can copy files by right clicking on
| | 00:31 |
them either in Mac or Windows.
Choosing Copy and right clicking on the
| | 00:35 |
desktop and choosing Paste.
Now I'll cover this more thoroughly in
| | 00:38 |
the course but Reaper files are
recognized by their rpp extension.
| | 00:42 |
Double clicking the project file will
open the project in Reaper where you can
| | 00:44 |
start working on it right away.
Just be sure to copy the entire photo
| | 00:48 |
containing the Reaper project file.
If you drag or copy just the project file
| | 00:51 |
itself without the other files you may
end up with missing sounds and other
| | 00:54 |
issues with the project.
If you don't have access to the exercise
| | 00:58 |
files, you'll still be able to follow on
with me.
| | 01:01 |
And you can use your own recordings to
apply what I'm showing you in this course.
| | 01:04 |
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|
|
1. Getting StartedSetting the default theme and appearance| 00:00 |
Probably one of the most important things
to know about Reaper right off the bat is
| | 00:03 |
that its interface is highly
customizable.
| | 00:06 |
Reaper really caters to all kind of music
artists, producers, and engineers.
| | 00:09 |
And its interface can be set up and
optimized for whatever kind of task you
| | 00:13 |
perform most frequently.
That said, the first thing I want to do
| | 00:16 |
here is make sure what you see on your
computer matches what you see in these movies.
| | 00:19 |
Otherwise you might have a difficult time
following along.
| | 00:21 |
Because you really can revamp the look of
Reaper to the point where two people's
| | 00:24 |
copies of it might not even look like the
same program.
| | 00:26 |
So let's go to the option menu and choose
Themes, and make sure default is selected.
| | 00:31 |
Notice we have a couple of other options
here, and just to show you how different
| | 00:35 |
some of the themes can be.
I'm going to press Cmd+T or Ctrl+T on
| | 00:38 |
Windows, and that creates a new track.
So that's what a track panel looks like
| | 00:41 |
on the default interface.
Maybe I'll go to Options > Themes, and
| | 00:44 |
switch to the Classic 1.x.
So you can see the colors and the
| | 00:48 |
appearance of the windows and buttons
have drastically changed.
| | 00:51 |
Let's try the default 3.0 theme, and
again we have a very different look,
| | 00:55 |
especially for the track panel interface.
So again, to be consistent, let's go back
| | 00:59 |
to the default theme.
For version 4, which is what I'm using
| | 01:03 |
right now.
Now let's also go to Options > Layouts,
| | 01:06 |
and choose the default layout if you
haven't already selected it.
| | 01:09 |
Now you may or may not see changes
depending on how your copy of Reaper has
| | 01:12 |
been set up.
But again just to show you how different
| | 01:14 |
some things may look.
I'll come to Track panel in here, and
| | 01:17 |
I'll choose Vertical.
Now you can see that completely
| | 01:20 |
re-configures the layout of the Track
panel so the buttons and meters are
| | 01:23 |
oriented vertically.
Again let's switch back to the default.
| | 01:26 |
And this is only scratching the surface
of how much you can customize the Reaper interface.
| | 01:31 |
If I go to Reaper preferences, on Windows
you'll go to Options Preferences.
| | 01:35 |
Here under the Appearance section, we
have a Theme editor.
| | 01:37 |
And here you can select specific colors
for just about every single button,
| | 01:41 |
display, background, toolbar, and other
interface elements in Reaper.
| | 01:44 |
For example, I could choose the main
window/transport background, maybe turn
| | 01:48 |
that to a bright red.
Apply that.
| | 01:51 |
And you can see how that affects the
interface.
| | 01:53 |
And as you can see, you can scroll
through here and change all these other
| | 01:56 |
elements as well.
Now, if you mess things up or just want
| | 01:59 |
to revert back to the original
appearance, click the Load Theme button
| | 02:03 |
and choose Default.
Notice you can also save themes if you
| | 02:06 |
come up with a particular color
combination that you like or that works
| | 02:09 |
for particular kinds of projects.
You can even go to the Reaper website at stash.reaper.fm/tag/themes.
| | 02:16 |
And here you can browse and download
themes that have been created by other users.
| | 02:20 |
For example, maybe I want to check this
one out.
| | 02:22 |
I can download it.
And then back here in Reaper, I'll choose
| | 02:26 |
Load theme > Browse, and I'll look in my
downloads folder.
| | 02:32 |
Open that.
You can see now my interface looks like this.
| | 02:35 |
And there's an entire community of people
out there who are dedicated to creating
| | 02:38 |
Reaper themes.
So as you browse through, you might be
| | 02:41 |
able to find a theme that works for the
kind of projects that you like to work on.
| | 02:43 |
I'm just going to go back to Preferences
and switch it back to the default.
| | 02:49 |
Now lastly I want to make sure my menus
and toolbars are at their default state
| | 02:53 |
as well.
Lets go to Options > Customize menus > Toolbars.
| | 02:57 |
Now I am not going to get into this right
now but you can also highly customize
| | 02:59 |
every single menu in Reaper to add or
remove commands that you might or might
| | 03:03 |
not need.
You can also customize the toolbar which
| | 03:06 |
just part of the interface here.
But to make sure we are all starting from
| | 03:08 |
same place, lets click reset.
Reset all menus to defaults.
| | 03:12 |
I'll say yes we want to do this.
And again, reset, reset all toolbars to
| | 03:17 |
defaults, and say yes.
So with our theme, layout, and menu
| | 03:20 |
synchronized, we should all be looking at
the same sort of screen right now.
| | 03:24 |
And at this point it should be pretty
clear that you can highly customize the
| | 03:26 |
reaper interface.
But for now I wanted to make sure that
| | 03:29 |
we're all starting from the same place.
Okay, let's move on.
| | 03:33 |
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| Understanding and customizing the menu and toolbar| 00:00 |
Okay.
Now that we have Reaper set to its
| | 00:02 |
default appearance and layout, I'd like
to give you a quick overview of Reaper's
| | 00:05 |
interface and the elements that we'll be
working with most frequently.
| | 00:08 |
Now throughout this course we'll be
getting into much more detail with most
| | 00:10 |
of what I'm going to be covering here in
this first movie.
| | 00:12 |
But right now I just want to give you a
broad overview so we can get our bearings.
| | 00:15 |
Now for this example lets open a project
so we have some things to look at.
| | 00:18 |
I've copied the project breakdown_mode_01
to my desktop.
| | 00:22 |
Inside here I find a couple of files.
I've the RPP file which is the main
| | 00:26 |
project file.
The backup of that file that Reaper
| | 00:28 |
automatically generates has the dash BAK
addendum on it.
| | 00:32 |
And there's a media folder that houses
all the media files used in the project.
| | 00:35 |
So I'll double-click the main project
file to open it.
| | 00:37 |
Now, when you open the file if you see a
project settings window open up just
| | 00:40 |
click OK.
I'll talk about that a little bit later.
| | 00:42 |
But now I'm looking at this project here
in Reaper.
| | 00:44 |
It contains a handful of tracks that
we've previously recorded.
| | 00:47 |
Now let's start at the top of the window
and work our way down.
| | 00:49 |
Now at the top of the screen on the Mac
and at the top of the Reaper window if
| | 00:52 |
you're using Windows, is the menu bar.
And it behaves just like any other menu
| | 00:56 |
bar in any other app.
You click the menu to see the commands
| | 00:58 |
that are available.
As I previously mentioned you can
| | 01:00 |
completely customize what appears in
these menus and even how the commands are
| | 01:03 |
worded by going to Options > Customize
menus/toolbars.
| | 01:07 |
For example, here I might choose the Main
file, which is the Main file menu and it
| | 01:11 |
shows me everything in the File menu.
I can double-click any of these to remain them.
| | 01:14 |
Not going to do that right now.
I can click Add to add more actions to
| | 01:18 |
the menu or I can completely remove
commands that I never use.
| | 01:21 |
Maybe I don't want to see the Recent
projects menu I can just select that and
| | 01:24 |
click remove.
Now I'm not going to do any of this right
| | 01:26 |
now but just be aware you can extensively
customize any of the menu's in reaper.
| | 01:30 |
To select the menu that you want to
customize and then you can either add to
| | 01:32 |
it or remove from it.
Now, also in the menu bar, you'll see
| | 01:35 |
information about your project.
So in this example, I can see that this
| | 01:38 |
project has a 44.1 kilohertz sample rate
and a 24 bit, but this is also a menu too.
| | 01:43 |
Now, if you're in Windows, you'll
right-click to be in this menu.
| | 01:45 |
And from here I can jump to my audio
device and project record settings.
| | 01:49 |
I can view other info, like how much free
space is left on the disk or I can view
| | 01:53 |
the path to see where the project lives
on my computer, see it's on my desktop.
| | 01:57 |
Just going to turn that back off for now.
Alright, so that's the menu bar.
| | 02:00 |
Now, let's look at this collection
buttons over here on the upper left hand corner.
| | 02:03 |
This is the toolbar.
Now the first four items across the top
| | 02:06 |
here, also appear in the File menu.
We have new project for creating a new project.
| | 02:11 |
Open project for opening previously
created projects.
| | 02:13 |
Save project which you'll want to click
periodically as you're working so you
| | 02:16 |
don't lose your changes.
And project settings.
| | 02:18 |
This is where you set the specifics of
your project.
| | 02:21 |
We'll spend more time in here in the
movie on creating a new project.
| | 02:23 |
Next, we have the Undo and Redo buttons.
And these work just like they do in most
| | 02:27 |
other programs.
And they're multi-step, meaning you can
| | 02:29 |
hit Undo multiple times to step back in
the edits that you've been making.
| | 02:32 |
And then you can hit Redo multiple times
to come forward in time again.
| | 02:35 |
Now, the number of Undos is controlled
under Preferences.
| | 02:38 |
Again, if you're in Windows, you'll go to
Option > Preferences > General.
| | 02:41 |
You can set how many megabytes of RAM you
want to dedicate to Undo.
| | 02:45 |
If you have a lot of RAM in your
computer, you can increase this number.
| | 02:47 |
I'm just going to leave the default.
Notice you can also set the value to zero
| | 02:50 |
if you want to disable Undo's altogether.
But I can't really imagine why you'd
| | 02:54 |
want to do that.
Also notice by default create undo points
| | 02:57 |
for item track selection and time
selection both are checked.
| | 03:00 |
This means that every time you select an
item on your track, or you click and drag
| | 03:03 |
something to make a selection, that
counts as an undoable action.
| | 03:10 |
Some people find that unnecessary since
you can click off the deselect items.
| | 03:16 |
So if you don't think you'll need that
functionality, you can just uncheck one
| | 03:19 |
or both of those options.
All right, continuing on with the
| | 03:19 |
toolbar, next we have the metronome,
which is invaluable when recording
| | 03:20 |
multi-track music, and you want to make
sure all the tracks stick to the tempo of
| | 03:21 |
the song.
Clicking turns the metronome on and off.
| | 03:23 |
Right-clicking it opens the metronome
settings, and here you can set things
| | 03:27 |
like whether you want to hear the
metronome during playback or only while
| | 03:29 |
recording, and whether you want to have a
counting before your playing or
| | 03:32 |
recording, and how many measures of a
count you'd like.
| | 03:35 |
The second row of buttons mostly has to
do with how the media items in your
| | 03:37 |
tracks behave.
First is auto-crossfade, that's enabled
| | 03:41 |
by default, so when you drag two items
over each other, Reaper will create a
| | 03:44 |
crossfade between them.
We'll talk more about this in the movie
| | 03:47 |
on fades and crossfades.
Next is item grouping, which enables the
| | 03:49 |
ability to group selected track together.
For example, you might group all of your
| | 03:53 |
drums together so you can control their
volume with one fader.
| | 03:56 |
Next we have the Ripple editing button.
This actually has three different states.
| | 03:59 |
There's off.
There's also single track ripple editing.
| | 04:02 |
I'll click it again, and that takes me
into all track ripple editing.
| | 04:05 |
I'll talk about ripple editing in the
chapter on editing.
| | 04:08 |
Envelope points move with media items has
to do with automation, which we'll look
| | 04:12 |
at in the mixing chapter.
You can see the vertical lines turning on
| | 04:15 |
and off there.
And snapping determines whether the items
| | 04:18 |
you're moving around snap to the grid or
not.
| | 04:20 |
Right-clicking either of these buttons
opens the grid and snapping setting.
| | 04:23 |
And here you can determine things like
the grid spacing and how close an items
| | 04:26 |
has to be to the line before snapping to
it.
| | 04:28 |
We'll look specifically at these settings
in a later movie.
| | 04:30 |
And the last toolbar is Lock.
Which you can use to lock certain aspects
| | 04:33 |
of your project so you don't accidentally
change them.
| | 04:35 |
For example if I wanted to make sure I
didn't move any of the media items, and
| | 04:38 |
by the way, media items refers to the
individual recordings on each track.
| | 04:42 |
Each of these items here in Reaper on
teach track, are media items.
| | 04:46 |
So if I wanted to make sure they were
locked down, I could right-click on the Lock.
| | 04:49 |
And here in it's Settings, I can make
sure Enable Locking is checked.
| | 04:52 |
Then I can check things like Items Full.
You can see that completely grays out or
| | 04:56 |
locks down those items.
Now I can't even select them anymore.
| | 04:59 |
And I definitely can't drag them
anywhere.
| | 05:00 |
And we'll look at this in it's own movie
later, as well.
| | 05:02 |
For now, I'm just going to turn Locking
off again.
| | 05:05 |
Alright, so that's the Default Toolbar.
But as with everything else in Reaper,
| | 05:08 |
you can completely customize the toolbar
by adding and removing buttons.
| | 05:11 |
And you can even create additional
toolbar sets.
| | 05:13 |
Just right-click in the toolbar area and
you can choose Customize toolbar.
| | 05:17 |
And from here, you can add and remove
items.
| | 05:19 |
For example, I'll click Add, which opens
the actions window.
| | 05:22 |
And as you can see here, there are a lot
of actions that you can turn into toolbar buttons.
| | 05:28 |
Maybe I want to add a button that shows
me the history window.
| | 05:30 |
And to find that, I'll just type history
in the filter field.
| | 05:32 |
And there it is.
With it selected, I can see the currently
| | 05:34 |
assigned keyboard shortcut if there is
one.
| | 05:36 |
You can also edit or create your own
keyboard shortcuts for any toolbar button.
| | 05:39 |
I'll leave everything as is and click
Select/close.
| | 05:42 |
Notice that's now been added to my
customized toolbar.
| | 05:45 |
So I'll save that.
Close it.
| | 05:47 |
And now I have a special button to show
my undo history.
| | 05:50 |
So the customization possibilities are
really endless.
| | 05:53 |
You can even create additional toolbars.
Right-click in the toolbar area and then
| | 05:57 |
choose Open toolbar.
I'll choose Toolbar 1.
| | 06:00 |
Now it's currently empty but there is
this Edit Me button right here in the middle.
| | 06:03 |
So this is one of eight floating toolbars
that I can add to my copy of Reaper.
| | 06:07 |
I'm not going to bother setting this up
right now, but just bear in mind that you
| | 06:09 |
have this ability and you might want to
create different toolbar sets so that
| | 06:11 |
you've optimized for the types of
projects you're going to be working on.
| | 06:14 |
Now while I'm in here, I'm going to
select the main toolbar again and reset
| | 06:17 |
it back to it's default state.
Oh and by the way, if you spend a lot of
| | 06:21 |
time setting up toolbars, you might
want to click the Export button to save
| | 06:24 |
your toolbar set.
That way, you can use the resulting file
| | 06:26 |
to import your tools into another copy of
Reaper or just use it as a backup, in
| | 06:31 |
case some messed up your toolbar.
I'll just close now and just say Yes.
| | 06:34 |
Close the floating toolbar and alright.
So that's an overview or working with the
| | 06:38 |
menu bar and the toolbar here in Reaper.
| | 06:40 |
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| Understanding tracks and the Transport controls| 00:00 |
Okay let's continue our overview of the
reaper interface by looking at the track area.
| | 00:03 |
Every project has to have at least one
track and it's onto the tracks where
| | 00:07 |
you'll record your audio or place audio
files.
| | 00:10 |
Now I'm still working with the project
opened in the previous movie so again
| | 00:12 |
each recording on a track is referred to
as a media item.
| | 00:15 |
In some cases, you might only have one
item per track.
| | 00:18 |
In other cases, you might have a lot,
especially if you're recording a part in
| | 00:21 |
multiple takes.
Or a part that occurs periodically
| | 00:23 |
throughout the song you're working on.
Clicking on an item selects it.
| | 00:26 |
You can drag it around as you need it.
Notice that clicking also moves the
| | 00:29 |
play-head to the place where I click.
This is the play-head here, this vertical
| | 00:32 |
line with the triangle on top.
The play-head indicates where you are in
| | 00:35 |
the song.
So if I hit the Play button right now
| | 00:37 |
down here in the transport controls.
You'll hear the song start playing from
| | 00:44 |
this point and to play it will move to
the right to show which part of the song
| | 00:50 |
it's playing (MUSIC).
And as with most other digital audio work
| | 00:54 |
stations, the space bar on your keyboard
starts and stops playback.
| | 00:57 |
(MUSIC) And I'll be using that primarily
instead of the play and stop buttons here
| | 01:02 |
in the transport controls.
But back to the play-head.
| | 01:05 |
Now sometimes it can be a little annoying
to have the play-head jump to wherever
| | 01:07 |
you click on a media file.
To keep the play-head where it is when
| | 01:10 |
you select an item, hold Cmd on the Mac
or Ctrl on Windows, when you click the item.
| | 01:13 |
Now because I'm holding Command/g, I
click another item that selects that item
| | 01:17 |
as well.
So Cmd also does multiple selection again
| | 01:19 |
that's Ctrl on Windows.
I just click over here to deselect.
| | 01:22 |
Now on the right and bottom of the track
area we have standard scroll bars.
| | 01:26 |
They can scroll up and down and left and
right.
| | 01:29 |
So you can grab the scroll bar anywhere
in the middle to drag it to move your
| | 01:32 |
horizontal or your vertical view.
You can place your mouse over the end of
| | 01:35 |
a scroll bar to zoom in and out of the
view.
| | 01:37 |
And as you saw, if you want to get a
closer look at the waveforms in a media
| | 01:39 |
item or if you want to zoom out more to
see more of the project at once.
| | 01:42 |
But maybe the easiest way to do this is
to use the scroll wheel on your mouse if
| | 01:46 |
you have one.
Scrolling in the track area zooms in and
| | 01:48 |
out horizontally.
If you hold Cmd on the Mac or Ctrl on
| | 01:51 |
Windows you can zoom vertically.
Letting you see more tracks at once.
| | 01:54 |
If you don't have a scroll, you can use
these handles here, drag up and down or
| | 01:58 |
left and right.
Now also if you hold Option or Alt,
| | 02:00 |
turning your scroll wheel scrolls left
and right.
| | 02:02 |
But just make sure you're over the part
of the tracks where the media items are.
| | 02:06 |
If you're over the track control area,
scrolling with your mouse wheel scrolls
| | 02:10 |
all the tracks up and down.
And that can be useful if you wan to jump
| | 02:13 |
up or down to a specific track.
Now just be careful your mouse doesn't
| | 02:16 |
end up on one of the faders or dials.
Because you can also use the mouse to
| | 02:19 |
adjust those controls as well.
Notice that if I scroll I'm changing the
| | 02:22 |
panning on this track.
So I like to keep my mouse over to the
| | 02:25 |
left when scrolling in this area.
Now, if you do move a dial or fader by
| | 02:27 |
accident, double clicking it will send it
back to its default position.
| | 02:30 |
But that not might be where you had it
set, so just be careful when scrolling
| | 02:34 |
over here in the left.
Another alternative is if you hold down
| | 02:37 |
Option+Cmd on the Mac or Alt+Ctrl on
Windows and you have your mouse over here
| | 02:41 |
in the track area.
That will let you scroll up and down as well.
| | 02:44 |
That way you don't have to worry about
your mouse accidentally turning one of
| | 02:46 |
the dials or moving a fader.
Now additionally, you can also place your
| | 02:49 |
cursor under a track to adjust its
individual height.
| | 02:52 |
So you can decrease or increase its size
depending whether you need to work with
| | 02:54 |
that track at the moment or not.
Placing your cursor over here to the
| | 02:57 |
right lets you expand or contract the
width of the track which also might
| | 03:00 |
rearrange the look of the control.
So if your controls don't look quite like
| | 03:03 |
mine, try adjusting the width.
We'll look at the specific controls as we
| | 03:06 |
continue throughout the course.
But if you want to know what anything is,
| | 03:08 |
just roll your mouse over it and a
tooltip will appear.
| | 03:11 |
Now I also want to mention the Track
Manager here which you can open from the
| | 03:13 |
View menu.
View > Track Manager.
| | 03:16 |
This is a useful tool if you have a lot
of tracks in your project.
| | 03:19 |
It can be much quicker to find them here
than by scrolling through the actual track.
| | 03:22 |
For example, if you're looking for all of
your guitar tracks, you could type guitar.
| | 03:26 |
Or in this case I'll just type G T R,
that's how I spelled it.
| | 03:29 |
And any tracks that match that name will
show up.
| | 03:31 |
Then you can do things like Mute and solo
the track directly from here.
| | 03:35 |
You see the mute button lights up there.
Down to that guitar track so you can see
| | 03:38 |
there's the Mute button.
There's a solo button.
| | 03:41 |
I can double click to rename the track.
I'm not going to do that right now.
| | 03:44 |
I can even re-arrange the order of the
tracks from here.
| | 03:47 |
Maybe I want to move the snare above the
high hat, like so.
| | 03:49 |
Now, I can do that in the track area as
well by dragging.
| | 03:52 |
You have to be able to see the tracks
first.
| | 03:54 |
if I drag the high hat back up, I can
move it.
| | 03:57 |
But as you can see I can barely see two
entire tracks at the zoom level I'm
| | 04:00 |
currently at.
It's much easier to do rearranging right
| | 04:02 |
from here.
Okay, so that's an overview of the tracks.
| | 04:05 |
Now before we finish this movie I did
make reference to the transport controls
| | 04:08 |
that we see here.
Lets take a look at those quickly.
| | 04:11 |
Now the transport controls are things
like the Play and Stop buttons here and
| | 04:13 |
also the Pause button and the buttons for
jumping to the beginning or end of a project.
| | 04:18 |
Notice there are keyboard commands for
most of these as well too.
| | 04:20 |
Home to go to the beginning, End on your
keyboard to go to the end.
| | 04:24 |
This is also where you'll find the Record
button when you're ready to record.
| | 04:27 |
And the Loop button is for playing the
same selection over and over again in a loop.
| | 04:30 |
Now, some of these options we'll look at
later, but here you can also set your
| | 04:33 |
tempo, over here where it says BPM, or
Beats Per Minute.
| | 04:36 |
This is also where you can set your time
signature and your playback speed.
| | 04:39 |
Now, if for some reason you don't see the
Transport area, go to the View menu and
| | 04:43 |
make sure Transport is selected.
I'll hide it, and I'll bring it back.
| | 04:46 |
Now, in some cases, if you show and hide
the transport and other controls, and
| | 04:49 |
then show them again.
It might show up in their own floating window.
| | 04:52 |
I'm going to right click on the Transport
controls and uncheck Dock Transport and
| | 04:55 |
Main Window.
You can see it's now a floating window
| | 04:58 |
here on its own.
Right click on it again to put it back in
| | 05:00 |
the main window.
And there it is.
| | 05:02 |
But this whole idea of docking and
undocking controls is another important
| | 05:05 |
topic and behavior to understand.
So we'll take a look at that in the next movie.
| | 05:09 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Docking and working with other important windows| 00:00 |
OK lets continue our tour of the
interface by turning our attention to the
| | 00:03 |
bottom of the Reaper window.
Right now we're looking at the mixer
| | 00:06 |
which you can see has a master fader and
faders for each of the tracks in this project.
| | 00:10 |
Notice moving a fader here in the mixer
moves a fader for that track in the track
| | 00:13 |
area too.
We'll get to the mixer a little bit later.
| | 00:15 |
But the part of the window that the mixer
currently resides in is called the docker.
| | 00:19 |
Now if you don't see the docker go to
View and make sure docker is selected.
| | 00:23 |
So the docker lets you access and keep
your eye on the panels that you need to
| | 00:25 |
work with by making them part of the main
window.
| | 00:27 |
But those panels can also be free
floating as well as docked in the docker.
| | 00:31 |
If I right click on a blank area of the
main mixer here, I'll get this Contextual menu.
| | 00:36 |
And one of the options here is dock mixer
in docker, which is checked.
| | 00:39 |
I'll unchecked it and now my mixer is a
free floating window and I can drag it
| | 00:43 |
around the screen.
I can also resize the window to reveal
| | 00:45 |
more of the mixers features.
Making the window taller lets me see the
| | 00:48 |
slots for the effects and sends but you
can see that when the mixer is docked too.
| | 00:52 |
So I'll right click choose dock mixer and
docker I can actually make this a little
| | 00:55 |
bit taller.
But as you can see, that really eats into
| | 00:57 |
my track space.
So I'm going to drag that back down again.
| | 00:59 |
And again we'll talk more about the mixer
later.
| | 01:01 |
Now you'll find a ton of other useful
panels under the View menu that you can
| | 01:04 |
either dock or have free floating.
For example Big Clock.
| | 01:08 |
Right now it's free floating.
But if I right click on it, I can choose
| | 01:11 |
Dock Big Clock in Docker, which is much
easier to do than say.
| | 01:14 |
And there it is.
Now that makes it very easy to see where
| | 01:17 |
I am in my project.
I move back a bit, you can see the
| | 01:19 |
numbers change.
(MUSIC).
| | 01:20 |
Now currently it's set to display the
time unit being used in the ruler up here.
| | 01:28 |
But I can right click it and choose other
units like minutes and seconds.
| | 01:32 |
Lets dock another item.
Go to the View menu and find Undo History.
| | 01:35 |
This lets me jump back and forward in the
changes that I've made.
| | 01:39 |
I'll right click on it again choose the
dock in the docker and there it is.
| | 01:42 |
But what I really want to point out here
is that each docked item has its own tab
| | 01:45 |
here down at the bottom of the window.
So clicking a tab brings that item to the front.
| | 01:49 |
Can also drag the table to change the
order of the items in the dock.
| | 01:52 |
Clicking X closes the item.
I'm not going to do that right now.
| | 01:55 |
But I should mention that you're not
limited to just docking your panels at
| | 01:57 |
the bottom of the window.
You can drag a tab to the left, right,
| | 02:01 |
top or bottom of the screen as well.
Notice the highlights that appear as I
| | 02:04 |
move to those areas of the window.
So if I wanted to dock this to the left I
| | 02:07 |
see the highlight, I release.
And there it is.
| | 02:10 |
Move that over a bit.
Now I'm using a very small screen
| | 02:12 |
resolution for this movie.
Hopefully you have a larger monitor and
| | 02:15 |
you'll be able to dock items in a way
that makes sense to you.
| | 02:18 |
So depending on how you like to work, you
could set up several panels in various
| | 02:21 |
locations around the window so you have
easy access to them.
| | 02:23 |
Docking items along different sides lets
you see and work with them at the same time.
| | 02:27 |
And by the way if you don't see the tabs
for any of the panels while they're
| | 02:30 |
docked, which seems to happen more often
when they're docked to the sides and the top.
| | 02:33 |
Try making the window or the dock area
bigger.
| | 02:35 |
Notice if I make this smaller the tab
disappears and at that point there's
| | 02:39 |
really no way to move the docked item.
But once I have the tab, then I'm free to
| | 02:42 |
maybe drag back down to the bottom.
Now you will find that some items under
| | 02:46 |
the View menu can't be docked.
For example Nudge/Set Items.
| | 02:49 |
Right clicking on it doesn't give me an
option to dock it.
| | 02:52 |
So some items are meant to be free
floating and not docked.
| | 02:55 |
Now (INAUDIBLE) the transport controls,
when I right click on them, you again
| | 02:58 |
have it docked in the main window.
But we also have a menu that says dock
| | 03:02 |
transport position.
You can see it's docked below the range
| | 03:05 |
area, which is this area here.
We can move it above the roller.
| | 03:08 |
Bottom of the main window XO.
Or top of the main window XO.
| | 03:13 |
It's going to move it back to its
original position.
| | 03:15 |
Now for me since I'm using such a small
screen resolution, I'm going to hide the
| | 03:18 |
docker for now.
That way I have more space to work with
| | 03:20 |
the actual tracks and I can still have
the transfer controls down here at the bottom.
| | 03:24 |
So as we continue throughout this course
we'll be coming to the View menu a lot to
| | 03:27 |
work with these different panels.
Then I might have to reopen the docker to
| | 03:30 |
get to some of those panels later.
But for now just make a note that if you
| | 03:33 |
can't find a window or a panel, just look
under the view menu to see if it's checked.
| | 03:37 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Creating a new project| 00:00 |
Now let's take a look at how to start
from scratch and create a brand new project.
| | 00:03 |
You'll do this each time you want to
start a new song or idea.
| | 00:05 |
First, let's make sure we're starting
from the same point by going to Preferences.
| | 00:09 |
Again, if you're on Windows, Preferences
is found under the Options menu, if
| | 00:12 |
you're on the Mac it's under the Reaper
menu.
| | 00:13 |
Next select Project, and here I'm
going to check Prompt to Save on New
| | 00:17 |
Project which is unchecked by default.
I just like checking this option so I can
| | 00:21 |
choose where I want to save each project
when I create it.
| | 00:23 |
You don't have to do this, but I like to
know where things are going right off the bat.
| | 00:27 |
Right, so I'll click okay to close
Preferences.
| | 00:29 |
Now let's create our project by choosing
File > New Project.
| | 00:32 |
You can also use the keyboard shortcut of
Cmd+N on Mac or Ctrl+N on Windows.
| | 00:36 |
Let's just call this Project O1.
And I'm going to choose to save this to
| | 00:40 |
my Desktop.
But before I save this, I'm also going to
| | 00:42 |
make sure that I check Create
Subdirectory for Project.
| | 00:44 |
The reason is, because each time you hit
the Record button in Reaper, you're
| | 00:47 |
creating a new individual audio file.
Those audio files have to be stored somewhere.
| | 00:51 |
So, I think it makes sense to create a
single folder that holds everything
| | 00:54 |
that's related to your project.
If I were to save this without creating a
| | 00:57 |
sub directory, I'd end up with a Reaper
project file on my desktop.
| | 01:00 |
But any other items that I record or
import would end up all over my desktop,
| | 01:04 |
or in other folders.
So, by checking Create Subdirectory,
| | 01:07 |
Reaper will create a folder with the same
as my project, and place the project file
| | 01:10 |
inside of it.
And while I'm here, I'm also going to
| | 01:12 |
check Copy All Media into Project
Directory.
| | 01:15 |
That's for when I might bring in
preexisting audio files.
| | 01:17 |
These other files might be in other
folders or hard drives connected to my computer.
| | 01:20 |
With this options checked, Reaper will
copies of the files and place them into
| | 01:24 |
the subdirectory I'm creating, again
keeping everything nice and organized.
| | 01:28 |
I personally prefer the Copy option
because maybe I want to keep the original
| | 01:31 |
file where it is.
If I want to remove the original file
| | 01:33 |
from its original location when I copy it
to my project, I can check Move All Media
| | 01:37 |
into Project Directory.
But I'm going to leave Copy selected for now.
| | 01:39 |
Notice with Copy selected, you also have
the option of converting your imported
| | 01:43 |
audio file into a specific format.
So, for instance if you want all of your
| | 01:46 |
audio files to be wave files, regardless
of how they came to you, you can check
| | 01:49 |
Convert Media click the Format button.
And choose the format but I"m not
| | 01:53 |
going to bother with that now.
Okay so all I've done so far is set my
| | 01:56 |
preferences to allow to me select my save
location of my project when I created.
| | 01:59 |
When I check these two option to keep my
project organized.
| | 02:02 |
I'll click save and now if I hid Reaper
you'll see on my desktop there's a folder
| | 02:06 |
called project 01 and inside it is my
Reaper project file.
| | 02:11 |
Now if I was currently opening Reaper as
you can see its a new blank project.
| | 02:15 |
So, that's how to create a project but
you'll probably also want to take a
| | 02:18 |
moment to set the project settings.
Especially if this is your first time
| | 02:21 |
using Reaper or whenever you're working
on a project that might require different
| | 02:24 |
properties than the last project you
worked on.
| | 02:25 |
So, up here in the tool bar I'm going to
click the Project Settings button.
| | 02:29 |
You can also press Option+Return on the
Mac or Alt+Enter on the PC.
| | 02:32 |
That opens the settings for the current
project.
| | 02:35 |
So, let's look at some of the common
settings you might want to customize,
| | 02:37 |
starting with the Project Settings tab.
The first one is the project sample rate,
| | 02:41 |
Reaper defaults to a sample rate of
44,100 Hertz, or 44.1 Kilohertz, which is
| | 02:46 |
the standard for CD quality audio.
It basically just means that for every
| | 02:50 |
second of music, what you're really
hearing is 44,100 samples of the music.
| | 02:54 |
Which is acceptable to the majority of
people in terms of sound fidelity.
| | 02:57 |
If you're creating audio for a video
project, you'll generally want to go to
| | 03:00 |
48,000 hertz.
So, even though you have nearly a dozen
| | 03:03 |
sample rate choices here in most cases
you're going to stick with either 44 1 or
| | 03:07 |
48 kilohertz.
The accepted rule is that you need a
| | 03:09 |
sample rate that is at least double the
highest frequency that you're going to capture.
| | 03:13 |
44 1 is considered the minimum you should
go with, since human hearing tops out at
| | 03:17 |
20 kilohertz.
So, 441 kilohertz gives you a nice
| | 03:20 |
buffer, but if you have the hard drive
space to spare, many people recommend
| | 03:23 |
going as high as 96 kilohertz.
Beyond that point, it's probably not
| | 03:27 |
worth sacrificing additional hard drive
space.
| | 03:28 |
Your not going to really hear the
difference between 96 kilohertz and 192 kilohertz.
| | 03:33 |
Just for this example I'll change the
sample to 48,000.
| | 03:36 |
Just make sure you check the Project
sample rate box here otherwise the change
| | 03:39 |
won't take place.
Also here in project settings you can set
| | 03:42 |
your tempo or BPM as well as the time
signature.
| | 03:45 |
If your not recording music you don't
have to worry about these settings but if
| | 03:48 |
you are recording music it's a good idea
to set these up right away.
| | 03:51 |
That way your grid will line up to the
beats and you'll be able to use the
| | 03:53 |
metronome when recording.
So, maybe I'll set this project to 148
| | 03:57 |
beats per minute.
And I'll leave the time signature at four four.
| | 04:00 |
Of course if you're not sure what the
tempo is going to be at, you can just
| | 04:03 |
guess and then play along with the
metronome.
| | 04:05 |
If you find that it's too fast or slow
you can come back into project settings.
| | 04:08 |
Or even just click the BPM settings down
here at the bottom of the window to
| | 04:11 |
adjust it.
Leave everything else as it is for right now.
| | 04:13 |
But before I close the settings let's go
over to the Media tab.
| | 04:16 |
In the interest in a little more
housekeeping and keeping things organized
| | 04:19 |
I like to create a folder to store the
media files that will be created, when
| | 04:22 |
I'm recording.
As you can see here, if I leave his field
| | 04:24 |
blank, the items will be saved in the
same path as the project file, which in
| | 04:28 |
this case is the folder on my desktop.
That means my project file will be one
| | 04:31 |
file among the possibly dozens, or even
scores of audio files that might be
| | 04:34 |
generated in a project.
It's a better idea to keep all those
| | 04:37 |
files in their own folder.
So, I'm just going to type the name media.
| | 04:40 |
But you can name it anything you like.
Media just makes sense to me.
| | 04:43 |
Now, that's going to create a folder
called media in my project folder.
| | 04:47 |
And that's where everything is going to
be saved.
| | 04:48 |
You can also create a secondary recording
path, if you want to save certain
| | 04:51 |
recordings to a different folder.
I'm not going to bother with that at the moment.
| | 04:54 |
Now under the recording section is where
you choose the default audio format for
| | 04:58 |
your recording.
The default is WAV which is an
| | 05:00 |
uncompressed high quality setting that's
compatible with both Windows and Mac.
| | 05:04 |
AIFF is also uncompressed but not all
Windows machines can always read them
| | 05:07 |
without additional software.
So, WAV is usually the best choice if
| | 05:10 |
you're concerned about your project being
compatible across platform.
| | 05:13 |
The other available formats here are all
compressed formats, like MP3 or Ogg Vorbis.
| | 05:18 |
I would recommend sticking with
uncompressed formats when you're
| | 05:20 |
recording them.
Because you'll generally want the highest
| | 05:22 |
fidelity recordings possible when
creating your project.
| | 05:25 |
I'll leave the rest of the settings at
their defaults.
| | 05:26 |
All right.
Let's click OK and see what happen.
| | 05:28 |
First of all, you can see in the menu bar
that my sample rate is now 48 kilohertz.
| | 05:32 |
And if I look out on the Desktop, in my
project folder, you can see a media
| | 05:36 |
folder has now been created.
Now in some cases the media folder won't
| | 05:39 |
be created automatically.
You can see it's currently empty.
| | 05:41 |
You might actually have to make a
recording before that folder is created.
| | 05:45 |
I'll just create a quick recording here
by pressing Cmd+T or Ctrl+T in windows to
| | 05:48 |
create a new track.
Double click here lets name it test
| | 05:52 |
track, now arm the track for recording.
Now I am not really concerned with
| | 05:55 |
actually recording anything here, I just
want to get a media region on my track.
| | 05:58 |
I'll just start record for few seconds
and as I talk you can see the wave forms appearing.
| | 06:02 |
Lets stop, now by default when I stop the
recording I see this dialog box appear
| | 06:07 |
showing all the files I just created, now
as I am only recording one track.
| | 06:11 |
So, there's only one file.
The default naming scheme is to name the
| | 06:14 |
file based on the track number, the name
of the track and then adding the date and
| | 06:18 |
time stamp.
Now, you're given the opportunity to
| | 06:20 |
rename the clip here, if you want, but
I'm not going to bother with that.
| | 06:23 |
And I'll show you how to change the
naming scheme in just a moment.
| | 06:25 |
First, I'm going to un check On Stop,
because I do find it kind of distracting
| | 06:29 |
to always have to see this dialog box
every time I stop recording.
| | 06:31 |
Let's us click Save All.
And now if I go back to my project folder
| | 06:35 |
and look inside Media, here's the file I
just recorded.
| | 06:38 |
You can see it's a WAV file, and for each
item Reaper also adds an ReaPeaks file,
| | 06:42 |
which you shouldn't really do anything
with.
| | 06:44 |
It's just a file that Reaper uses to keep
track of your files.
| | 06:47 |
Let's go back to Reaper and let's record
a couple more seconds on the same track.
| | 06:51 |
I'll just hit record again.
Blah, blah, blah blah, talking, talking, stop.
| | 06:54 |
Now you can see this time it doesn't
prompt me to change the file name.
| | 06:57 |
But if I go out and look in that folder
again, there's the second file I just recorded.
| | 07:01 |
Now to change the naming scheme, go back
to Preferences > Recording and here
| | 07:05 |
you'll find the File Name Format for
Recorded Files menu.
| | 07:08 |
You can see again its naming this file
track number, track name, time stamp.
| | 07:12 |
Maybe I'll just simplify this and just
have track name followed by the number of
| | 07:15 |
the take.
I'll click OK.
| | 07:17 |
Recording, recording, stop.
Let's actually do another one.
| | 07:22 |
Record, record, record, stop.
I hide Reaper.
| | 07:26 |
Then you can see those are the new naming
schemes that it's using.
| | 07:28 |
But that's pretty much the gist of how to
set up a new project.
| | 07:31 |
Now, that does seem like an awful lot of
stuff you have to setup and you may be
| | 07:34 |
wondering whether or not you have to go
through that every single time.
| | 07:36 |
And the answer's definitely not.
If you're happy with a particular setup,
| | 07:40 |
open the project settings again and here
you can just click Save as Default
| | 07:43 |
Project Settings.
And before I do that I'm going to switch
| | 07:45 |
my sample rate back to 44 1 and that's
just the sample rate I normally work in.
| | 07:49 |
And now I'll click Save as Default
Project Settings.
| | 07:52 |
So, when I next create a new project,
I'll just save my current project, call
| | 07:56 |
it Project2.
Notice I kept Create Subdirectory for
| | 07:59 |
Project and Copy All Media selected for
me.
| | 08:01 |
I'll just Save it to my desktop again.
And if I Open my Project Settings, you'll
| | 08:04 |
notice it has the exact same settings as
before, including generating a folder
| | 08:08 |
called Media for me.
And it has a sample that rate shows as
| | 08:11 |
well the project beats per minute and
time signature.
| | 08:13 |
So, pretty much everything in here is the
same.
| | 08:15 |
So after that initial setup other
projects are pretty easy to setup as long
| | 08:19 |
you're keeping the same settings.
All I really have to do here is click OK.
| | 08:21 |
And I really didn't need to open project
settings in the first place.
| | 08:25 |
Now incidentally if you're always working
on projects with variable requirements,
| | 08:28 |
you can have the project settings window
open every time you create a new project
| | 08:31 |
by going to Preferences > Project.
And here you can check Open Properties on
| | 08:35 |
New Project.
We'll leave that unchecked for now though.
| | 08:38 |
But okay, that's how to create and set up
a new project in Reaper.
| | 08:41 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Setting up backup preferences| 00:00 |
If you've worked with at least one Reaper
project in the past, or if you've just
| | 00:03 |
been working along with me.
you might have noticed that Reaper
| | 00:05 |
automatically generates this RPP-BAK file
in the same folder as your project file.
| | 00:11 |
This is the backup file of your project,
which can really save your skin, if
| | 00:14 |
you've walked away from your computer
without saving and the power goes out.
| | 00:16 |
What if you somehow manage to make a
change that you can't figure out how to undo?
| | 00:20 |
There might be a chance that the last
version of the backup happened before you
| | 00:22 |
made the change.
So, you could open that file and start
| | 00:25 |
your work from there.
Whatever the case, I just want to take a
| | 00:27 |
minute there to show you how to change
the backup settings in case you ever
| | 00:29 |
want to make the backups happen more or
less frequently.
| | 00:31 |
So, in Reaper, go to Preferences again
it's Option Preferences, in Windows.
| | 00:36 |
And with Project selected, you look under
Project Saving.
| | 00:39 |
Now you have the option here to keep
multiple versions, which when checked,
| | 00:42 |
will have Reaper generate a new backup
file each time it backs up.
| | 00:45 |
You may even end up with dozens of backup
files, which may or may not be necessary.
| | 00:49 |
If you create multiple backups you might
also want to check time stamp back up, so
| | 00:53 |
you can easily tell the newest backups
from the oldest.
| | 00:55 |
You also have the option of keeping the
undo histories in your back up files.
| | 00:58 |
So, when you open them, you will still be
able to undo the changes you previously
| | 01:01 |
made even after closing the project or
quitting Reaper.
| | 01:04 |
I should mention that you'll only be able
to do this if you have enabled Undo
| | 01:06 |
History, here under the general settings.
Here you'll want to check Save Undo
| | 01:10 |
History with Project files and also Allow
Load of Undo History.
| | 01:14 |
Not going to bother with that right now,
though.
| | 01:15 |
Now back here under project, here's where
you can determine how often backups occur.
| | 01:19 |
Fifteen minutes might be frequent enough
unless you're working at a frantic pace
| | 01:22 |
and you want to make sure you don't lose
too much if you're computer crashes.
| | 01:24 |
And there are some other options here.
You'll notice that with most options,
| | 01:28 |
rolling over them gives you a description
of what selecting that option will do,
| | 01:30 |
down here at the bottom of the window.
But that's how backups work in Reaper, I
| | 01:34 |
think the default settings are actually
fine in a majority of situations.
| | 01:37 |
But if you're working on a project where
you'd feel more comfortable with more
| | 01:39 |
frequent backups, you now know where to
go to make those adjustments.
| | 01:42 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Saving projects as templates| 00:00 |
Earlier in this chapter, I showed you how
to create a new project in Reaper, and
| | 00:03 |
how you could go into a project's
settings and click save as default
| | 00:06 |
project settings for your settings to
automatically be applied to the next
| | 00:09 |
project you created.
And that can be a big time saver.
| | 00:11 |
But another way you might speedup your
project creation process is to create a
| | 00:14 |
project template.
Project templates can be really handy if
| | 00:17 |
you're always working on the same kinds
of projects.
| | 00:19 |
Maybe you're recording drum with the same
mic arrangement.
| | 00:22 |
Maybe you always use six mics, and you
always set up the same six tracks exactly
| | 00:25 |
the same way to record.
Instead of having to create those tracks
| | 00:28 |
from scratch each time, you can create a
template based on your set up.
| | 00:31 |
To show you this, I just press Cmd+T six
times to create six new tracks.
| | 00:34 |
Again on Windows that would be Ctrl+T,
and we'll just quickly go through and
| | 00:38 |
label these.
I'm just pressing Tab to go from track to
| | 00:41 |
track here, to overhead one and overhead
two.
| | 00:43 |
And maybe that's the set of tracks I
always use for drums.
| | 00:46 |
And let's actually throw a couple more
in, I'm going to click the last track here.
| | 00:48 |
So as I press Cmd+T, those get added
below the tracks I just created.
| | 00:52 |
And I will just add a bass rhythm guitar,
some lead guitar and well, say vocal.
| | 00:59 |
Okay, so now, I have a project with ten
empty tracks in it.
| | 01:02 |
If this is a setup I frequently use, it
would make sense to create a template
| | 01:05 |
based on it.
Now before I do that, let me show you a
| | 01:07 |
few other things you can customize and
include in your template.
| | 01:10 |
I'm going to hit Cmd+A or Ctrl+A on
Windows, that'll select all the tracks.
| | 01:13 |
I'll just right-click on any one of them.
And I'm going to go to Track Color.
| | 01:16 |
Reaper let's you add custom colors to the
track, which can be useful because
| | 01:19 |
sometimes it's easier to figure out which
track is which, when they're different colors.
| | 01:23 |
Now, I could of selected one track at a
time and pick specific colors for each
| | 01:25 |
one, but to save time, I'm going to
choose Set Tracks to Random Colors.
| | 01:29 |
Now, this is currently an empty project,
so you'll only see the colors reflected
| | 01:32 |
in the track control area here.
You click out of there to Deselect, you
| | 01:35 |
can see we have these random colors now.
But if I record enable a couple tracks
| | 01:39 |
here, and I hit Record, I'm just going to
talk a little bit to create some wave
| | 01:44 |
forms, and now I'll hit Stop.
You can see that each media items has
| | 01:47 |
some colors.
Again, this isn't necessary, but it can
| | 01:49 |
make it easier to distinguish tracks from
each other in a large project.
| | 01:52 |
I'll just select it as media items by
holding Shift + clicking, and I'll just
| | 01:56 |
Delete them for now.
Well, let's just say this is how I like
| | 01:57 |
my project set up.
I'll save it as a template so I can just
| | 02:00 |
begin subsequent projects from this
starting point.
| | 02:02 |
To do so, I'll go to File > Project
Templates > Save Project As Template.
| | 02:06 |
This opens the Save Project Template
window, and that defaults me into
| | 02:10 |
Reaper's project templates folder.
So, I'll keep that as the location.
| | 02:14 |
Now, we also see the same check boxes
that we see in the Create Project
| | 02:17 |
dialogue box.
We have Create Sub-directory for Project
| | 02:19 |
and Copy All Media Into Project
Directory, and Move All Media Into
| | 02:22 |
Project Directory.
You only need to select from these, if
| | 02:24 |
there are recordings in the current
project that you want to include in the template.
| | 02:28 |
For example, maybe you produce a podcast
that always starts with the same theme song.
| | 02:31 |
You could keep that in this template, so
you don't have to create it each time.
| | 02:33 |
In this case, I don't have any media, so
I don't need to check anything.
| | 02:37 |
I'll just name this Pop song template.
I'll click Save, and that's it.
| | 02:41 |
So now, any time I want to create a new
project based on my template, I just go
| | 02:44 |
to File > Project Templates, and here you
can see Pop Song template.
| | 02:48 |
I'll Select it, Just go ahead and save my
current project.
| | 02:51 |
So now, I'm prompted to save this new
project.
| | 02:53 |
I'll just call it My Pop Song.
Notice, the create Sub-directory and Copy
| | 02:56 |
All Media boxes are already checked.
So, I'll just click Save, and there it is.
| | 02:59 |
I just quickly created a new project
that's already occupied with empty tracks
| | 03:03 |
that I'm ready to record onto, and they
have the random colors assigned to them.
| | 03:06 |
You can save even more time by setting up
Reaper to always open this template when
| | 03:09 |
you create a new project.
Just go back to Preferences, select
| | 03:12 |
Project, and here under Project settings,
you'll see this field at the top, when
| | 03:15 |
creating new projects, use the following
project file as a template.
| | 03:18 |
And you can browse the project templates,
and select the one you want.
| | 03:21 |
I'm not going to bother with that right
now, but that's where you can find that Option.
| | 03:25 |
So that's how to create and use project
templates in Reaper.
| | 03:28 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
2. Recording and Importing AudioInput settings| 00:00 |
All right.
In this chapter, we're going to look at
| | 00:01 |
how to record audio into Reaper.
Basically, this involves creating a track
| | 00:05 |
for each separate instrument or other
sounds that you want to record.
| | 00:08 |
This can involve recording live
instruments like guitars or vocals.
| | 00:10 |
You could be recording media instruments,
or you could even import existing audio
| | 00:14 |
into your project.
We're going to focus first on working
| | 00:16 |
with live audio, which is basically sound
you capture out of the air with a
| | 00:19 |
microphone or instruments like guitars,
which you can also capture with a
| | 00:22 |
microphone if you make the guitar or an
amp.
| | 00:25 |
But you also might want to plug your
guitar directly into your audio input device.
| | 00:28 |
So, the first thing you need to do is
configure Reaper so it accepts input from
| | 00:31 |
the audio device you're planning on
using.
| | 00:33 |
Computers generally don't have sound
cards with built in quarter inch
| | 00:36 |
instrument connectors or XLR microphone
connectors, so you'll most likely be
| | 00:39 |
using an external audio input device.
This could be something like a USB
| | 00:43 |
microphone, or any number of USB audio
input devices that let you plug in both
| | 00:47 |
quarter inch instrument cables, and XLR
microphone connectors.
| | 00:51 |
I can't really recommend a specific
device, because the one you use is going
| | 00:54 |
to depend on your needs.
You might only need a small device with
| | 00:56 |
one or two inputs.
Or maybe you want to be able to record an
| | 00:59 |
entire band live, in which case you'll
need a device with several inputs.
| | 01:03 |
But check out brands like PreSonus,
M-Audio, Apogee, Focusrite, TASCAM, Edirol.
| | 01:07 |
I could rattle off a ton, but do some
research online and you'll be able to
| | 01:12 |
find the device that best suits your
needs.
| | 01:14 |
But once you've picked the device, follow
the instructions for connecting it to
| | 01:17 |
your computer.
It may or may not require you to install
| | 01:19 |
drivers or additional software, so be
sure to pay attention to what the
| | 01:22 |
manufacturers recommendations are.
Once you have that setup, you need to let
| | 01:26 |
Reaper know that, that's the device you
want to use to record audio into your project.
| | 01:29 |
To do so, go to Preferences, and find
device under the Audio category.
| | 01:33 |
Now here's where things are a little
different between Mac and Windows.
| | 01:36 |
On the Mac, you have this Audio Device
menu.
| | 01:38 |
And here you can select whatever device
you want to record through.
| | 01:42 |
Now in my case, I have a PreSonus
Audiobox 1818VSL connected to my Mac.
| | 01:46 |
I'll select that.
Now again, you'll select whatever device
| | 01:48 |
you happen to be using.
Now in Windows, you will also go to
| | 01:51 |
Options > Preferences and select Device
under the Audio category.
| | 01:55 |
But here you notice, you have to first
select the audio system.
| | 01:59 |
What you see in this menu is going to
depend on what kind of audio card or what
| | 02:02 |
are the devices you have installed in
your PC.
| | 02:03 |
What you select here is also going to
affect the other items that appear here
| | 02:06 |
below it.
So you can see, in this case I have a WDM
| | 02:09 |
Kernel Streaming, Direct Sound, WaveOut,
ASIO, Dummy Audio and WAS API.
| | 02:15 |
Now, if it's available, you'll want to
select the ASIO system.
| | 02:18 |
ASIO stands for Audio Stream
Input/Output.
| | 02:21 |
ASIO drivers provide a much better
recording experience, because they cut
| | 02:24 |
down on latency issues and CPU load.
Latency is an issue that can crop up when
| | 02:27 |
the computer's being taxes too hard, and
you start hearing a delay between what
| | 02:31 |
you're recording and it's playback.
ASIO drivers allow Reaper to have direct
| | 02:34 |
access to your sound card and audio input
devices, which in turn allows for a much
| | 02:38 |
lower latency.
Meaning you'll have less delay between
| | 02:41 |
your input and output.
So again, choose ASIO if your computer
| | 02:43 |
has that Option.
Now, if you don't have an ASIO driver for
| | 02:46 |
your device, you can download and install
a free generic version from asio4all.com.
| | 02:50 |
But in many cases, you should see the
ASIO driver if you've installed the
| | 02:53 |
drivers for your device.
Now, here in Windows, if your device has
| | 02:56 |
multiple inputs, you'll also want to
specify the first and the last of the
| | 02:59 |
inputs that you want to be available to
Reaper.
| | 03:02 |
In most cases, you probably want them all
to be available.
| | 03:04 |
So, if you have for example an eight
input device, you'll select input one for
| | 03:08 |
the first one and input eight for the
last one.
| | 03:10 |
Now, in this case I have an old M-Audio
fast track audio input device, which has
| | 03:14 |
two inputs.
So, I'll leave the default settings with
| | 03:16 |
fast one as first and fast track two as
last.
| | 03:19 |
You see that's my only two Options here.
And again that's because I only have two
| | 03:22 |
inputs on the device.
You'll also want to set your output range here.
| | 03:25 |
Generally, when you have an external
audio input device connected to your PC,
| | 03:29 |
you'll have to connect headphones or
speakers to your device in order to here
| | 03:32 |
play back.
Notice, I can't select any of my PC's
| | 03:34 |
built in sound card option for the
output.
| | 03:37 |
My only Option here is to to use the fast
track.
| | 03:39 |
Now, if I were to switch this to the
direct sound audio system, notice that I
| | 03:43 |
can then, choose different input and
output devices.
| | 03:46 |
I might choose the fast track as the
input, and then just use my primary sound
| | 03:49 |
card for the output.
Or maybe even pick the speakers here.
| | 03:52 |
But again, you should stick with the ASIO
system if you have that Option.
| | 03:56 |
Now, back on the Mac side of things, you
don't have to worry about an audio system menu.
| | 04:00 |
You just need to select your device from
this menu.
| | 04:02 |
You may however, find it necessary to
click the audio MIDI setup button.
| | 04:05 |
And that opens a built in utility on your
Mac, where you can select your device,
| | 04:08 |
and make sure its input and output
settings are all available.
| | 04:11 |
For example, here I might want to make
sure that all the Faders for my AudioBox,
| | 04:14 |
on the input side, are all the way up.
And I want to make sure none of them are muted.
| | 04:18 |
I'll just quickly scan through and they
all look good.
| | 04:20 |
And I'll do the same thing for the
output.
| | 04:22 |
I once had an issue with one of my
devices, where I couldn't get any decent
| | 04:25 |
levels out of it, and I finally realized
that it was because the input channel
| | 04:28 |
levels were all lowered about 20 dB.
And once I moved all the Faders back up
| | 04:32 |
my problem was fixed.
So, it pays to come in here and just take
| | 04:34 |
a look at the settings.
Now, also on the max side of things,
| | 04:37 |
notice there's a checkbox here to allow
the use of different input and output devices.
| | 04:41 |
So, you can have your audio coming in
through one device, like the audio box
| | 04:44 |
1818 in my case, and have the audio
coming out through, say, my Maxx speakers
| | 04:48 |
instead of back through the audio box.
But notice that this is my legacy Option
| | 04:52 |
and it's not recommended.
So, in most cases it will work, but they
| | 04:55 |
don't really recommend you choose this
Option.
| | 04:56 |
What they suggest you do instead, is to
create an aggregate audio device on your Mac.
| | 05:01 |
Now, this does only apply to the Mac, so
if you're on Windows you can skip the
| | 05:03 |
rest of this movie.
But here on the Mac, I"m going to go back
| | 05:05 |
to my audio MIDI setup, and I'll click
the Plus button down here, to create an
| | 05:09 |
aggregate device.
This lets me select any of the audio
| | 05:12 |
devices currently plugged in to or even
built in to my Mac.
| | 05:15 |
I'll select the AudioBox 1818 and also my
built in line output.
| | 05:19 |
Nice to see audio output jack on my Mac.
May be I have that connected to a set of
| | 05:23 |
speakers or an amplifier.
Now, if I toggle open the aggregate
| | 05:26 |
device, I can see the two devices I
added.
| | 05:28 |
The audio box will be the input device,
and the built in line output will be the
| | 05:32 |
output device.
Notice that input when I have that
| | 05:34 |
selected is greyed out because naturally
the output device can't accept input.
| | 05:38 |
Now, while I'm here I'm also going to
double-click the name of this device, and
| | 05:41 |
just give it something a little more
specific, that way I can easily remember
| | 05:44 |
what it's for.
Alright, so I'll quite out of audio media
| | 05:46 |
set up.
Now back here in Reaper, I'm just cancel
| | 05:49 |
here, I'm going to have to quit and
restart it in order to select that device.
| | 05:53 |
So now if I go back to Preferences, under
Audio Devices, there's my aggregate audio
| | 05:57 |
box device.
So, now with that selected, I'll be able
| | 05:59 |
to input my audio into my audio box
device, but I'll be able to hear the
| | 06:03 |
audio through my Mac's line output.
So again, you really only need to create
| | 06:06 |
an aggregate device, if you need to
monitor your playback directly through
| | 06:09 |
your computer or some device other than
your input device.
| | 06:12 |
If you just plan on plugging headphones
into your input device for monitoring,
| | 06:15 |
you just need to select it here in Reaper
Preferences, and you're pretty much ready
| | 06:18 |
to go.
Okay, so that's how you set up your audio
| | 06:21 |
input device in REAPER.
| | 06:22 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Recording| 00:00 |
Okay, now that we have our hardware set
up, let's look at how to record into Reaper.
| | 00:03 |
For this exercise, I'm going to create a
new project.
| | 00:07 |
I won't bother with saving my current
project.
| | 00:08 |
I think I'll just save this on my
desktop.
| | 00:10 |
And basically I'm just going to be
creating a rough version of the breakdown
| | 00:13 |
mode track we heard a little bit of
earlier.
| | 00:16 |
Now if I go under project settings we
know that I'm using the project settings
| | 00:19 |
that I saved as my default project
settings.
| | 00:22 |
44.1 sample rate I'm going to stick with
the 148 beats per minute, and the time
| | 00:25 |
signature 4:4.
So here's our new empty project.
| | 00:27 |
So to record on Reaper, we have to create
seperate tracks for each piece of audio
| | 00:30 |
we want to record.
I'll press Cmd+T or Ctrl+T on Windows to
| | 00:34 |
create a new track.
Now I want to remind you again that if
| | 00:36 |
your layout looks different than mine,
I'm using the default theme in layout
| | 00:39 |
which you can find under the Options menu
here.
| | 00:41 |
Themes > Default and layouts.
Default Layout.
| | 00:44 |
If you prefer a different theme or
layout, that's fine.
| | 00:46 |
But you may find that some of the buttons
and other controls I'm going to cover
| | 00:49 |
here, are arranged a little bit
differently in your layout than you see
| | 00:52 |
here in mine.
So let's name this track right off the bat.
| | 00:54 |
I'm just going to record a simple guitar
track.
| | 00:56 |
So by double-clicking in the track name
area, I can type in the name.
| | 00:59 |
And we'll just call it guitar.
Next, we need to specify where the audio
| | 01:02 |
is going to be coming from.
Now previously, I already set up my audio
| | 01:05 |
input device under Reaper's preferences.
Again I'm using an audiovox 18 18 vsl
| | 01:09 |
which is an 18 channel device.
So I need to tell Reaper which channel my
| | 01:13 |
guitar's plugged into.
I have it plugged into input one which
| | 01:16 |
you can see is selected by default.
So I go to input mono input one.
| | 01:19 |
If my keyboard plugged into input five I
would select input five.
| | 01:23 |
And the reason I'm going to mono is
because this is not a stereo device that
| | 01:26 |
I'm recording.
I will recording stereo I would select
| | 01:28 |
one of these.
And again you'll probably see a different
| | 01:31 |
number of available inputs depending on
the input device you're using.
| | 01:33 |
To see if I'm getting a signal to my
track I'll click the Record Enable button.
| | 01:37 |
Notice that the track name here turns
red.
| | 01:39 |
And now if I strum my guitar I should be
seeing some levels in the meter.
| | 01:42 |
Now you may need to adjust the input
levels on your audio input device if it
| | 01:45 |
has an input gain knob.
You want the signal coming into the track
| | 01:48 |
to be loud enough that the meters are
showing.
| | 01:50 |
In this case a little bit yellow.
In fact you know what i'm going to open
| | 01:53 |
up the mixer here.
We can actually see the track a little
| | 01:56 |
bit better with the meter there.
it's coming right about to where I want it.
| | 02:00 |
And you don't want to make it so loud
where you clip the track.
| | 02:02 |
Which will make red lights come on.
Let me turn up my gain up a couple clicks.
| | 02:05 |
That's my clipping indicator indicating
my signal is too loud so let me click to
| | 02:09 |
turn that off.
Turn my game back down again.
| | 02:11 |
There it is.
So again, if you see that clipping light
| | 02:14 |
come on, just click it to turn it off and
turn your level down on your audio input device.
| | 02:17 |
Now if you want to be able to hear what
you're recording, you'll want to set up
| | 02:19 |
your monitor.
That's this button right here.
| | 02:22 |
Be sure to click this button and not this
area to the right, which opens your
| | 02:25 |
Recording options.
You can see here it's set to input audio
| | 02:28 |
or MIDI.
And that just means that I'm recording
| | 02:30 |
from my input device, and not from a MIDI
keyboard that's plugged into the computer
| | 02:34 |
via USB or something like that.
So I'll leave that as is,.I'm going to
| | 02:38 |
make sure that the Monitoring button is
turned on.
| | 02:40 |
Now you can actually click this to two
different states, well technically three
| | 02:43 |
if you think of Off as a state.
But the first one here, you can see
| | 02:46 |
record monitoring is on, and now I should
be able to hear my guitar (MUSIC).
| | 02:52 |
So when the Monitoring button is green
that means that you'll be able to hear
| | 02:54 |
whatever you have plugged into the track
whether you're recording or not.
| | 02:56 |
That's useful if you want to be able to
play along with an existing track to warm
| | 02:59 |
up without recording.
Now if I click it again, you can see that
| | 03:02 |
goes to auto mode.
In auto mode, you'll only be able to hear
| | 03:05 |
your instrument or whatever's plugged
into the track while you're actually recording.
| | 03:09 |
That becomes more useful when you're
punching in recordings but we'll look at
| | 03:11 |
that a little bit later.
I'm just going to switch it back to the
| | 03:14 |
monitoring on state.
So now that we can hear instrument I'm
| | 03:17 |
just about ready to record.
Now since I'm recording a song, I'm
| | 03:20 |
going to turn the metronome on so I can
stick to the beat.
| | 03:22 |
And my tempo has already been set up so I
don't need to adjust it.
| | 03:25 |
And you can see it's 148 beats per
minute.
| | 03:27 |
I click in here to adjust it if I needed
to, but I'll leave it there.
| | 03:30 |
But I will right click the Metronome
button.
| | 03:31 |
I want to check count in before
recording.
| | 03:34 |
And I'm going to give myself two measures
of count in time.
| | 03:36 |
That way I can get ready to record.
And this is really useful and important
| | 03:39 |
if you're working on your own, and you
need time between hitting record and
| | 03:41 |
picking up your instrument.
I'll turn the metronome volume up a
| | 03:44 |
little bit too.
Now you can actually check the level
| | 03:48 |
since run metronome during playback is on
here, I could just come in here and click
| | 03:54 |
play (SOUND).
I can adjust how much metronome I'm hearing.
| | 03:59 |
And I like to be able to hear it at a
pretty loud volume so I can keep up with
| | 04:04 |
the beat.
Now I'm also going to come up to the
| | 04:08 |
Options menu and make sure my Record mode
is set to Normal.
| | 04:11 |
We'll look at some of these other
recording modes later, but since I'm
| | 04:14 |
recording a brand new track, rather than
say, punching in.
| | 04:16 |
I want the record mode to be Normal.
Okay, so to review, we created a new
| | 04:20 |
project, created a new track to record
onto, record enabled the track, picked
| | 04:25 |
our input, turned on monitoring.
And made sure we were in the right
| | 04:28 |
recording mode.
And I also turned on the metronome.
| | 04:30 |
So I'm ready to record.
So I'm going to click the Record button
| | 04:33 |
on the transport/g.
You can also Cmd+R on the Mac, or Ctrl+R
| | 04:36 |
on Windows to start recording.
I'll hear two measures of counting and
| | 04:38 |
then I can start recording (MUSIC).
(MUSIC) And I press the space bar to stop recording.
| | 05:11 |
Okay, so that's not my greatest
performance ever, but there's my first recording.
| | 05:15 |
Now if I wanted to keep continue
recording to this same track, I could
| | 05:18 |
move the play head to a point after the
first media item, hit record, and start
| | 05:21 |
playing again.
If I want to to redo the entire
| | 05:23 |
recording, I would select the media item
and just hit delete on my keyboard.
| | 05:26 |
But I'm not going to do that right now,
so I'm going to just undo that with Cmd
| | 05:29 |
or Ctrl+Z.
Now if you only want to record over a
| | 05:31 |
portion of your performance that's called
Punching In.
| | 05:33 |
And we'll look at how to do that in its
own movie later.
| | 05:35 |
Now I definitely made a couple of
mistakes in that recording, but I'm
| | 05:38 |
going to leave this as is so I can show
you how to punch in later.
| | 05:41 |
Now if you wanted to record another
track, you can just press Cmd or Ctrl+T
| | 05:44 |
to create a new track.
And set up for another recording on the
| | 05:46 |
same project.
So let's do this.
| | 05:48 |
I just created a new track and this time
I'm going to add some bass guitar.
| | 05:51 |
I'll double click, call it bass and I'm
going to record this so that it plays
| | 05:55 |
simultaenously with the guitar track.
This is someitmes referred to as overdubbing.
| | 06:00 |
But I don't want to record over the
guitar track so I'm going to take it out
| | 06:02 |
of Record mode and I'll put the bass in
Record mode.
| | 06:05 |
Now if you did want to do simultaneous
multi-track recording.
| | 06:08 |
All you'd have to do is create as many
tracks as you need, or as many tracks as
| | 06:10 |
your audio input device can handle at
once.
| | 06:12 |
And then record enable each track and set
up their inputs to record the proper
| | 06:15 |
channels from your device.
But in this case I'm just going to record
| | 06:18 |
a single bass track, so I have my bass
plugged into input 2 on my input device.
| | 06:22 |
So, I'm going to come down here, choose
Input 2.
| | 06:24 |
I'll turn on monitoring again so I can
hear myself.
| | 06:26 |
Let me get some levels here.
(MUSIC) I turn that up a bit on my input device.
| | 06:33 |
(MUSIC) A little more.
(MUSIC) Just a touch more.
| | 06:39 |
Alright, there we go.
Since I'm recording able, I'm going to
| | 06:41 |
take my play head back at the beginning
of the track.
| | 06:45 |
Double check my metronome settings again.
I,m going to have the count in.
| | 06:48 |
Metronome is enabled.
And you know what, I'm just going to zoom
| | 06:51 |
out a little bit so I can see the entire
guitar track.
| | 06:53 |
That'll just help me visually know where
I am in the song.
| | 06:55 |
Okay, so now that we're there, I'll hit
Record, and here we go (MUSIC).
| | 07:28 |
Okay, let's take that out of Record mode.
So there's my bass track, I'll just say
| | 07:31 |
I'm satisfied with that as it is right
now.
| | 07:33 |
And now I have two tracks and my project
is well underway.
| | 07:36 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using auto-punch| 00:00 |
When you're recording tracks into your
proejct, chances are that you're not
| | 00:03 |
going to get a perfect take every single
time on every single track.
| | 00:06 |
Maybe you hit a wrong note or came in too
late for a chord change, or maybe your
| | 00:08 |
voice cracked for a moment while you were
singing.
| | 00:11 |
In many instances, you don't need to
completely re-record a track just to fix
| | 00:14 |
a small section.
Instead you can do what's called punching in.
| | 00:17 |
This involves playing back your recording
and having Reaper automatically start
| | 00:20 |
recording at the moment you specify so
you can re-record just that part.
| | 00:24 |
And then automatically stop a recording,
so you can preserve the rest of the recording.
| | 00:28 |
Let's say, for example, I'm not satisfied
with the way I played the guitar part in
| | 00:30 |
the middle of the section up here, and I
want to give it another shot.
| | 00:34 |
Let's listen to it once.
(MUSIC) It's going to meet the bass track there.
| | 00:41 |
(MUSIC) There's a clunker of a note in
there.
| | 00:45 |
(MUSIC) That wasn't too good either.
(MUSIC) That was all right.
| | 00:55 |
So, yeah, from pretty much this second
time I played the rift, until right
| | 00:58 |
before this last note that's the section
that I want to replace.
| | 01:01 |
Let me zoom in a little bit here.
A little bigger.
| | 01:04 |
See the waveform a little bit better
there.
| | 01:08 |
Now there are a couple of ways to do an
auto punch.
| | 01:10 |
Because this is a single media item I'm
just going to drag in the timeline area.
| | 01:13 |
And depending on the selection you're
making you might need to turn snapping on
| | 01:16 |
or even off to make it easier to select
the portion you want.
| | 01:19 |
I have it turned on so you can see it
snapping to the beat markers.
| | 01:21 |
Now I'm going to go to the Options menu,
and choose Record Mode Time Selection
| | 01:25 |
Auto Punch.
This tells Reaper to only record when the
| | 01:28 |
play head reaches the time selection that
I made.
| | 01:30 |
Now, for this example, I'm also going to
select new recording that overlaps
| | 01:33 |
existing media items.
Then I'm going to come in here, and
| | 01:36 |
choose Trims Existing Items Behind New
Recording or Cake Mode.
| | 01:39 |
What this means is that, when I record
over my existing media item, the guitar
| | 01:42 |
recording, the parts that I'm recording
over will be trimmed and replaced with
| | 01:45 |
the new media item guitar track I'm
recording.
| | 01:48 |
Now I'm doing this because this is how
most other digital audio workstations behave.
| | 01:51 |
I'll show you the other Options a little
later, but if you're coming from another
| | 01:54 |
DAW, this'll look more familiar to you.
So now, I should just make sure my track
| | 01:58 |
is record enabled.
Make sure the play is at the beginning of
| | 02:00 |
the song, that way we'll have plenty of
time to get ready.
| | 02:02 |
Now, in fact, just to show you something
else after I record, I'm going to play
| | 02:05 |
the entire track through, even though I
only need to record that one section.
| | 02:08 |
And now I'll record
| | 02:14 |
(MUSIC).
| | 02:16 |
(MUSIC) So as you saw, Reaper only
recorded over the section that I had made
| | 02:33 |
the time selection in.
And now we actually have three media
| | 02:44 |
items on this track.
We have the first section, which is part
| | 02:47 |
of the original recording, the part I
punched in and then the end section of
| | 02:50 |
the original recording.
Let's give this a listen once.
| | 02:53 |
(MUSIC).
(MUSIC) Alright, not perfect, but I think
| | 03:06 |
its okay for the demonstration here.
Now I also want to stress that nothing
| | 03:17 |
I've done here is destructive.
If I wasn't happy with the take, I could
| | 03:20 |
always undo to revert back to the
original.
| | 03:22 |
Or if its been a while since I've punched
this track and I've done lots of other
| | 03:25 |
things to the point where undoing
wouldn't be practical, I can select the
| | 03:28 |
punch media item delete it, drag it back
to the right to restore it.
| | 03:33 |
But let's undo that, Cmd or Ctrl+Z, and
again.
| | 03:35 |
Now I also mentioned that I was playing
the entire time even though I only needed
| | 03:38 |
to punch this one section.
Sometimes I like doing that because maybe
| | 03:41 |
I'll get a better performance than my
original.
| | 03:43 |
Reaper was actually recording the entire
time, eventhough we currently only hear
| | 03:46 |
the punch I punched.
Notice I can delete the original Media
| | 03:49 |
item, actually I can delete both of them,
leaving me with just the punch part.
| | 03:53 |
Now I can stretch out both ends to reveal
the part that I played.
| | 03:56 |
Now, of course, if you only had played
the punch part, you'd only have that part
| | 03:58 |
to work with.
But since I played the whole thing, I
| | 04:01 |
could go back and even pick and choose
the parts that I want to keep.
| | 04:04 |
Now we'll talk about how to split and
edit regions in the next chapter.
| | 04:06 |
For now let's undo that again.
Now we're back to our original track with
| | 04:09 |
just the section I punched.
I'm just going to right-click up in here
| | 04:11 |
in the timeline and choose Remove
Selection to get rid of that time selection.
| | 04:14 |
Now just so you know, the other option we
have to auto punch was Options > Record
| | 04:18 |
Mode > Auto Punch Selected Items.
This allows you to select specific media
| | 04:22 |
items that you want to replace.
And it can be useful if you want to
| | 04:25 |
select non contiguous items by holding
down Cmd on the Mac or Ctrl on Windows,
| | 04:28 |
and clicking the items that you want to
punch over.
| | 04:31 |
If I were to record now, Reaper would
record over just the selected items.
| | 04:35 |
So it would only record here and here at
the end.
| | 04:37 |
I also want to point out that the look of
the Record button in the Transport
| | 04:40 |
controls shows you what the current
Record mode is.
| | 04:42 |
You can see it's set to the Time
Selection.
| | 04:44 |
You can also right-click the Record
button to switch modes.
| | 04:47 |
So I can choose Record Mode Auto Punch
Selected Items from here.
| | 04:50 |
(INAUDIBLE) it looks a little bit
different.
| | 04:51 |
Now I won't bother playing anything but
notice when I hit record (SOUND), it
| | 04:54 |
records again.
Let's undo that, of course.
| | 04:57 |
So that's the difference between a time
selection punch and an item punch.
| | 05:01 |
And now you know how to auto-punch
sections of your recording in Reaper.
| | 05:04 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Comping multiple takes| 00:02 |
which can be useful to correct mistakes.
But sometimes you want to do complete or
| | 00:06 |
longer takes of a recording, as you're
trying to nail down your performance.
| | 00:09 |
In those cases you can set Reaper up to
record each take, and then compile or
| | 00:12 |
comp the best sections of each take into
the final performance.
| | 00:16 |
Lets take a look at how to do this.
We'll start by going to Options and
| | 00:18 |
setting the Record Mode to Normal if its
not already there and we're doing that
| | 00:21 |
because we're not going to be punching.
Then I'm going to go to New Recording
| | 00:25 |
that Overlaps Existing Media and I'm
going to choose Splits Existing Items and
| | 00:28 |
Creates New Takes.
This is how we tell Reaper to create
| | 00:31 |
multiple takes and also I'm going to go
back to options one more itme.
| | 00:35 |
And make sure that Show All Takes and
Lanes is selected.
| | 00:38 |
And we'll see what that does momentarily.
So, for this example I'm going to take
| | 00:41 |
another couple of tries at the guitar
track.
| | 00:43 |
Now I have gone back and rerecorded the
track as a single media item instead of
| | 00:45 |
using the punch parts that I did in the
last movie.
| | 00:48 |
And that's just to simulate as if this
were take one.
| | 00:50 |
I'm going to record enable the track, and
all the rest of the settings are still
| | 00:53 |
the same as when I previously recorded.
So, I'll grab my guitar.
| | 00:56 |
(SOUND)
| | 01:12 |
(MUSIC).
| | 01:28 |
Now that's my second take.
So what's happened here is that reaper
| | 01:30 |
has kept both versions of the guitar part
and placed them on what I refer to as
| | 01:33 |
their own lanes.
The currently highlighted version is the
| | 01:37 |
media item that we will hear if I press
play.
| | 01:39 |
But before we listen I'm going to record
another take.
| | 01:41 |
I'm going to place the pullhead back at
the beginning again, and let's record again.
| | 01:44 |
(SOUND)
| | 01:48 |
(MUSIC)
| | 01:52 |
And that's my third take in its own lane.
So, to listen to any one take just select it.
| | 02:18 |
You can also search from take to take by
pressing T on your keyboard.
| | 02:21 |
And you can do that live while you are
listening to the track.
| | 02:24 |
(MUSIC) (MUSIC) So, maybe after recording
some takes, I determined that I like
| | 02:37 |
parts of each take better than any single
take.
| | 02:48 |
And what I'd like to do is combine the
parts that I like into a single take.
| | 02:52 |
The first thing we need to do then is to
chop up the takes into sections we want
| | 02:54 |
to keep.
To do this I'm going to click on the
| | 02:56 |
media item at the point where I want the
split to occur.
| | 02:59 |
And be right there.
Now it's important that you click on the
| | 03:01 |
media and don't just move the play-head
cursor to that location.
| | 03:04 |
If you don't have a specific media item
selected, when you choose to split, it
| | 03:07 |
will split all the media items across all
the tracks.
| | 03:10 |
So, I have just guitar head media item
selected right now.
| | 03:13 |
To split it I'll just use the keyboard of
S.
| | 03:15 |
I could also select the command from the
Actions menu.
| | 03:18 |
Item split items of cursor but pressing S
is faster.
| | 03:21 |
So, now I've split all three takes at
that point in time.
| | 03:23 |
Let's add another split to the second
phrase, place my cursor there and hit S.
| | 03:27 |
Now it's just a matter of clicking to
select the take that I want to use in
| | 03:29 |
each section.
So, maybe I want this one, this one and
| | 03:32 |
this one.
And if I play back, I'll hear just those
| | 03:35 |
sections play.
| | 03:36 |
(MUSIC)
| | 03:44 |
(MUSIC).
| | 03:51 |
Its a bit of a clunk in that one its
stopped and lets choose this one instead
| | 03:58 |
(MUSIC) (MUSIC) oh, its not bad let's try
this one.
| | 04:04 |
(MUSIC) I think I like that one the best.
(MUSIC) No, actually that was a bit of a
| | 04:15 |
clunker in there.
Let's go to the third one.
| | 04:19 |
So, once you're satisfied with a comp
it's a good idea to lock it into place,
| | 04:22 |
so you don't accidentally click other
part and select them instead.
| | 04:25 |
So to do so, Cmd+click, or in Windows
Ctrl+click, each section to select them.
| | 04:29 |
I've got that one.
That one, and that one.
| | 04:32 |
Then choose Item > Take and Lock Jack of
Take.
| | 04:36 |
Once that's selected notice that I can't
choose any of the other takes.
| | 04:38 |
Now if you're certain you're not going to
need the other parts of the other takes,
| | 04:40 |
maybe they were just really bad
performances, you can also select the
| | 04:42 |
sections again.
I'm just going to Cmd+clickl them all,
| | 04:46 |
and choose Item > Take > Crop to Active
Take.
| | 04:49 |
That actually deletes all those other
takes and leaves the one you selected.
| | 04:53 |
And I'll leave it like that.
Now, you might have noticed these little
| | 04:56 |
media items sections sitting here at the
end of the take.
| | 05:00 |
When I was recording my parts, Reaper
automatically lined them up to be the
| | 05:03 |
same length.
Now if I recorded over the original time,
| | 05:06 |
Reaper created new media items.
Now that might be useful if I went on to
| | 05:09 |
play the next section of the song, but
here these are just leftover pieces and I
| | 05:11 |
can select and delete them.
So, that's how to record multiple takes
| | 05:15 |
and comp them to together, now before we
finish this movie, I want to show you one
| | 05:17 |
more thing.
When I was recording each take earlier,
| | 05:20 |
the way I did it was by recording a take,
stopping, moving the play head back,
| | 05:23 |
recording another take, stopping, moving
the play head back, and so on.
| | 05:28 |
That can sometimes be a little disruptive
to your flow when you're trying to nail
| | 05:31 |
down a part.
You do have the option in Reaper of
| | 05:33 |
having it loop the same section over and
over again, recording a new take each
| | 05:36 |
time, until you feel you've got it right.
So, just as a quick example here, I'm
| | 05:40 |
going to take the guitar out of record
mode and select the bass.
| | 05:43 |
And maybe there was a section of the bass
part that I was trying to nail down.
| | 05:45 |
I can make a time selection, do a short
one here as an example.
| | 05:48 |
Then I'll change my Record Mode to time
Selection Auto Punch.
| | 05:51 |
Down here in the transfer controls I'm
going to hit the loop button, and that
| | 05:54 |
will continuously loop whatever time
selection I've made.
| | 05:58 |
Now when I record (SOUND) (MUSIC) it is
recording that section.
| | 06:08 |
Loops it again.
| | 06:09 |
(MUSIC)
| | 06:11 |
And again.
| | 06:14 |
(MUSIC)
| | 06:16 |
And again.
(MUSIC) Stop that.
| | 06:20 |
You can see for each one of those loops I
have a separate take.
| | 06:23 |
Just like before I can pick and choose
the take that I wanted to use.
| | 06:25 |
Let me just undo that, here we go.
And right click up here, choose Remove Selection.
| | 06:30 |
So, if you prefer to have Reaper just
loop a section so you can play it over
| | 06:32 |
and over again until you get a take that
you like.
| | 06:35 |
That's how you do that.
And that's how you comp multiple takes
| | 06:38 |
together in Reaper.
| | 06:39 |
| | 59:59 |
In the previous movie we looked at how to
auto punch sections of your recordings
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Importing audio files| 00:00 |
If you have the exercise files for this
course, you can open the project
| | 00:02 |
breakdownmode_demo to follow along with
this movie.
| | 00:05 |
Okay, so not all the sounds you use in
your Reaper project will be generated
| | 00:08 |
from within Reaper every single time.
Instead of recording directly into Reaper
| | 00:12 |
from a guitar or microphone or by playing
a MIDI keyboard, you may want to import
| | 00:15 |
other audio files like sound effects,
samples, or even performances you
| | 00:17 |
recorded in other apps.
Through this movie, I'll show you how to
| | 00:21 |
import an audio file into your project,
and it's really pretty simple.
| | 00:25 |
I've copied two files to my desktop.
We have drums_intro.wav and drums_verse.wav.
| | 00:29 |
These are two rhythm tracks that I
want to import into my project.
| | 00:32 |
Now, to insert them into my project, I
could create a new track, then go to
| | 00:35 |
Insert > Media File, and then browse for
the files.
| | 00:38 |
First making sure to place my playhead
cursor where I want the file to be inserted.
| | 00:42 |
But it's much easier just to drag the
file into a blank section of the project.
| | 00:46 |
I've grabbed drums intro.
You see this highlight up here, letting
| | 00:48 |
me know where this clip will be placed
when I release my mouse.
| | 00:51 |
Drag it to the very beginning, and there
it is.
| | 00:53 |
That automatically creates a new track to
house this clip.
| | 00:56 |
Now, if you want to shift it left or
right, just grab it and move it.
| | 00:58 |
Now snapping is turned on, which in this
case it is, you can see the media item
| | 01:01 |
will snap to the beats or whichever
increments you have set up for snapping.
| | 01:05 |
Now I should mention that you should make
sure you don't have the ripple editing
| | 01:08 |
button set up, and enable for group
editing like this.
| | 01:11 |
Because with that on, moving any one
media item moves them all.
| | 01:13 |
And that can be kind of frustrating if
you can't remember why they're doing that.
| | 01:17 |
Let's make sure that's off.
Right, so here's my imported audio.
| | 01:20 |
Let's listen a little bit.
(MUSIC) So, that's not really lining up
| | 01:28 |
quite properly.
The guitar and bass are really supposed
| | 01:33 |
to start after this drum intro.
So, hold Cmd, or Ctrl on Windows to
| | 01:36 |
select both media items.
I'll shift them over until I see those
| | 01:39 |
wave forms line up at the end of the
drums, just like that.
| | 01:43 |
But now the drums cut off right as the
guitar and base start.
| | 01:46 |
(MUSIC) But that's why I have this other
file to import, drums verse.
| | 01:52 |
Let's drag that onto the same track and
line it up with the intro drums there,
| | 01:55 |
and we'll listen again.
(MUSIC) Alright, so that's sounding
| | 02:02 |
better, but this drum pattern is
obviously too short.
| | 02:12 |
Just zoom in so we can see the whole
thing here, or I should say zoom out.
| | 02:15 |
Now, fortunately you can loop any media
item in Reaper simply by placing your
| | 02:18 |
cursor on the lower corner of the item,
until you see this icon and then dragging out.
| | 02:22 |
Now, I'll just loop that same audio over
and over again.
| | 02:25 |
And that's the default behavior of media
items.
| | 02:27 |
If yours isn't looping for some reason,
you can right-click it, make sure that
| | 02:30 |
under Item settings, Loop Item Source is
checked.
| | 02:33 |
So, from the beginning my project now
sounds like this.
| | 02:36 |
(MUSIC).
| | 03:02 |
And the guitar and bass sound a lot
better now with a beat behind them.
| | 03:05 |
Now, you may have noticed that here on my
desktop, in addition to the two wav files
| | 03:08 |
that I imported, I now see two REA peaks
files and that tells me Reaper hasn't
| | 03:11 |
actually imported these files into my
project.
| | 03:16 |
Now I could actually come in here, open
up the media folder, and drag those files
| | 03:19 |
in here.
But I'm going to show you another way, by
| | 03:21 |
using the Project Media Bay at the end of
this chapter.
| | 03:24 |
But for now, that's how to import and
also loop audio files in Reaper.
| | 03:28 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Recording MIDI| 00:00 |
In addition to allowing you to record
live audio as well as import audio files.
| | 00:04 |
Reaper also features the ability to
record and edit MIDI data.
| | 00:08 |
As you may or may not know MIDI
instruments like keyboards or drum pads
| | 00:11 |
for example don't actually produce sounds
on their own.
| | 00:13 |
When you play a MIDI keyboard what gets
recorded is data about which note is
| | 00:17 |
being played, when you played it, how
hard you hit the keys, how long you held
| | 00:21 |
the keys and other information.
That information is then run through a
| | 00:24 |
MIDI instrument in Reaper to produce the
actual sound.
| | 00:27 |
The beauty of MIDI performances, is that
you can choose any instrument bank you
| | 00:30 |
have installed on your computer.
You may start by playing your piece
| | 00:33 |
through a piano sound but you can
instantly change that to to say MIDI
| | 00:36 |
horns or a MIDI flute.
All while keeping the same performance.
| | 00:39 |
Only the sound will change.
Midi also let's you change the timing of
| | 00:42 |
notes or the even the notes themselves
that you played.
| | 00:44 |
So if you came in a little late or
earlier you can fix the timing.
| | 00:47 |
Or if you missed a note or played the
wrong one, you could easily move that
| | 00:50 |
existing note or even delete a wrong one.
You could even write a new not in it's place.
| | 00:54 |
Now I easily spend over an hour talking
just about MIDI but what I want to do
| | 00:57 |
here is just give an overview of how it
works in Reaper.
| | 01:00 |
If you've ever worked with MIDI in other
digital audio work stations you won't
| | 01:03 |
really have any trouble in Reaper.
Pretty much all programs work with MIDI
| | 01:06 |
in a very similar fashion.
So I've hooked up the midi keyboard to my
| | 01:09 |
computer via a USB cable.
Now in order for Reaper to recognize it,
| | 01:12 |
I need to go to my Preferences.
Again, it's Option Preferences on Windows.
| | 01:15 |
And then under audio I'm going to go to
MIDI devices.
| | 01:18 |
And here I'll find a list of any MIDI
devices Reaper has recognized.
| | 01:21 |
So here I have the audio box 1818 which
is still connected to my computer that
| | 01:24 |
has many inputs on it.
So it shows up here and I also have this
| | 01:27 |
one labeled USB02.
This is a keyboard that I connected by
| | 01:30 |
USB, so double click it and I am going to
choose to enable input from this device.
| | 01:34 |
Now the device name comes up as USB02 but
you might also want to give it an alias.
| | 01:38 |
And that alias can be anything you want.
Maybe you have two of the same keyboards
| | 01:42 |
connected to your computer and you
want to be able to tell one from another.
| | 01:45 |
Changing your alias would make that easy.
Maybe I'll just this on the key rig 25.
| | 01:49 |
This is actually an M audio keyboard that
I'm using.
| | 01:52 |
Now in some cases you can control Reaper
functions from a MIDI device.
| | 01:57 |
If you want that ability check Enable
input for control messages.
| | 01:59 |
But right now I'm only interested in
playing my keyboard as a musical
| | 02:02 |
instrument so I'm not going to check
that.
| | 02:04 |
I'll click OK.
You can see it's now enabled.
| | 02:06 |
I'll click OK.
And now I'll create a new track.
| | 02:08 |
Press Cmd or Ctrl+T.
Let's double-click it and call it keys.
| | 02:13 |
Now previously when we were recording we
selected input from my input device.
| | 02:17 |
This is my AudioBox 1818, it has 18
input.
| | 02:19 |
But since I want to record MIDI data, I'm
going to go to the Input MIDI section of
| | 02:22 |
the menu.
Here I can find the name of the keyboard
| | 02:25 |
this is the alias that I just created
keyboard 25.
| | 02:27 |
And I'm going to choose All Channels.
But that only tells Reaper where the MIDI
| | 02:30 |
data is coming from.
Notice if I record enable the track and I
| | 02:34 |
turn the monitor on and I tap the keys on
my keyboard here.
| | 02:39 |
(SOUND) We can see the data's coming in.
I can see the mirror's moving here.
| | 02:41 |
But we cant hear anything.
That's because I haven't yet selected an
| | 02:44 |
instrument to play the data through.
We will come to this mass selection of
| | 02:48 |
media instruments that you can choose
among.
| | 02:49 |
You can also purchase or find for free
other media instruments that you can load
| | 02:52 |
into Reaper.
But we're going to stick with the stock
| | 02:54 |
instruments here.
To play through the media instruments we
| | 02:57 |
click the Fx button here on the track.
That opens this Fx window for the track
| | 03:01 |
as well as the Plug In panel where we can
select our instruments.
| | 03:03 |
Move that over and select Instruments.
And you might even find it's useful to
| | 03:06 |
doc one of these panels.
I just right click down here and I choose
| | 03:09 |
Dock FX browser in Docker so I can see
both at the same time fairly easily.
| | 03:13 |
Now I already have instrument selected
here but again you can browse your plug
| | 03:17 |
in just by selecting category to the
left.
| | 03:19 |
So instrument selected, I can see
instruments that are currently available
| | 03:22 |
to me.
Again, you may see different things
| | 03:23 |
depending on what you have installed on
your computer.
| | 03:25 |
For instance if you're on a Mac and you
have Garage Band installed you may see
| | 03:28 |
some of Apple's audio units plug ins show
up as well.
| | 03:30 |
I'm going to go with the VSTI re-synth.
Double click.
| | 03:33 |
And now the controls for that show up
here in the FX window for that track.
| | 03:36 |
Now depending on the instrument you
select you'll see different options and
| | 03:40 |
controls appear here.
In this case I have a bunch of sliders I
| | 03:43 |
can play around with to adjust the sound
of the synth.
| | 03:45 |
I'm going to leave them at their default
settings for now and close this window.
| | 03:48 |
I'm also going to close the docker again
so I can see what I'm doing a little bit better.
| | 03:52 |
And now if I tap the keys on my keyboard,
(MUSIC).
| | 03:55 |
I can hear the notes being played through
the instrument I selected.
| | 04:00 |
So I'm pretty much ready to record at
this point.
| | 04:02 |
So I'm going to make sure the play hits
at the beginning of the song.
| | 04:03 |
And let's hit record and record some
keyboard.
| | 04:06 |
(MUSIC) Okay and there's my mini part.
Now you'll notice that this mini region
| | 04:36 |
looks very different from than the other
regions here.
| | 04:38 |
You basically just have these straight
lines instead of wave forms because this
| | 04:41 |
is just data.
Just going to go back and listen to that once.
| | 04:45 |
(MUSIC) So I think I hit all the notes I
intended to hit in that case.
| | 04:53 |
And my timing's a little bit off.
But as I alluded to earlier, the beauty
| | 05:04 |
of MIDI is that you can change almost
everything about the recording once
| | 05:15 |
you've made it.
For starters I could open the FX panel
| | 05:18 |
again and I could play around with the
sound.
| | 05:20 |
For example maybe I might want to add a
little bit of edge to this song.
| | 05:23 |
I could drag the square mix up a little
bit.
| | 05:25 |
And maybe I'll drag a saw tooth a bit and
I can hear the changes I'm making just by
| | 05:29 |
playing some notes on my keyboard.
(MUSIC) Now I'm not going to get into how
| | 05:37 |
to create synth sounds here but that's
just to illustrate how malleable MIDI
| | 05:40 |
instruments can be.
It's not really greatest sound for this
| | 05:42 |
part in my opinion.
(MUSIC) But it will make it easier to
| | 05:45 |
hear the keyboard part in this movie.
Now as I mentioned earlier you can also
| | 05:49 |
go in and edit the actual MIDI data.
We do this by selecting the MIDI item and
| | 05:54 |
then choosing Item > Open Items in Editor
and I'll choose Open Midi Item in Editor.
| | 05:59 |
That opens the data in this MIDI editor
window.
| | 06:01 |
And what we're seeing here are the notes
that I play.
| | 06:02 |
Across the top here we can see the
measure divisions.
| | 06:04 |
Making it easy to see at a glance when a
note is played and for how long.
| | 06:07 |
On the left side there's a keyboard,
which I can use to see which notes I
| | 06:10 |
actually played.
I can even click the keys to hear the
| | 06:12 |
notes which can be useful if you want to
move or add a note but want to find the
| | 06:17 |
right one before you make the edit.
So I'm going to click the play it back
| | 06:20 |
here again and I'm going to play the
track again.
| | 06:22 |
And this time as you hear the music, you
can see how the notes in the editor
| | 06:25 |
correspond to what you are hearing.
(MUSIC) So just by looking at this I can
| | 06:53 |
see here are some notes that I was just
slightly ahead of the beat.
| | 06:56 |
Instead of being slightly to the right of
that line I was pretty much right on that line.
| | 06:59 |
Same thing with this note here, this note
here and so on.
| | 07:01 |
And just by looking at the notes you can
tell the types of notes I've played.
| | 07:04 |
You can see at the beginning of these
long notes that I held out and then I
| | 07:07 |
switched to these Staccato notes.
And you can see where I changed chords
| | 07:11 |
and where I changed individual notes.
Now clicking on any note in the graph
| | 07:14 |
will play that note, (MUSIC) and I can
easily drag them up or down to move them.
| | 07:22 |
(MUSIC) You can also select notes and
then hit the lead on your keyboard to
| | 07:25 |
remove them, which is useful if you hit a
key by accident.
| | 07:27 |
You can also drag the notes to the left
or right, which is useful when you might
| | 07:30 |
have played a note a little bit ahead or
behind the beat like I did over here.
| | 07:33 |
More often than not though you'd probably
use (INAUDIBLE) to automatically fix the
| | 07:36 |
timing for you rather than dragging the
note manually.
| | 07:38 |
That process is called quantizing and
you'll find the button for it here in the
| | 07:42 |
editor's toolbar, the big letter Q.
That opens the Quantize Events window.
| | 07:46 |
You have the choice here to quantize
either manually or by using the grid.
| | 07:50 |
I'm going to choose Manual for now.
First you have to choose which portion of
| | 07:53 |
the performance you want to quantize.
You can choose All Notes which is every
| | 07:57 |
note you played in that media item.
Selected notes, which will move just the
| | 08:00 |
note I currently have selected.
All events or Selected events.
| | 08:03 |
Now you might have noticed some of the
notes actually moving as I made different
| | 08:06 |
selections from the menu.
In this case I want to choose All notes
| | 08:09 |
to correct my entire performance.
Next to that you can choose what it is
| | 08:13 |
you're quantizing too.
Position lines up the note to the grid or
| | 08:15 |
to the notes types you select from this
grid menu down here and I'll get to that
| | 08:18 |
in a moment.
Position in note end lines up the notes
| | 08:23 |
to the grid.
And also lines up the ends of each note
| | 08:24 |
to the ends of other nearby notes.
This might be useful if you're playing chords.
| | 08:27 |
And you want to make sure it sounds like
you lift your fingers off the keys at
| | 08:29 |
exactly the same time.
Position and note length as you can see
| | 08:32 |
make all the notes exactly the same
length.
| | 08:35 |
I definitely don't want that in this
case.
| | 08:36 |
And you can also quantize just the note
end and note lengths without changing
| | 08:40 |
their positions.
going to leave position as my selection.
| | 08:42 |
The strength slider determines how
strictly the notes are fixed.
| | 08:45 |
The problem with quantizing too much is
you can lose that human sound if the
| | 08:49 |
performance is 100% perfect.
So you may want to experiment with the
| | 08:52 |
slider to loosen the performance a bit.
Also note that you can use this bypass
| | 08:55 |
check box to temporarily disable the
quantizing so you can do a sort of before
| | 08:59 |
and after comparison.
I'm able to just drag mine down to about 75%.
| | 09:03 |
Now there's also the question of what the
notes are lining up to.
| | 09:06 |
Now right now it's just grid, which might
not give you precise enough divisions
| | 09:09 |
especially if the performance had a lot
of eighth notes or sixteenth notes or has
| | 09:13 |
a lot of syncopation in it.
So try experimenting with the units for
| | 09:15 |
the notes to line up to.
I'll choose eighth notes.
| | 09:18 |
Now what you select there also changes
the menu to the right.
| | 09:21 |
We can choose if the notes are going to
be straight and on the beat or if they're
| | 09:24 |
going to swing a little bit or play more
like triplets and so on.
| | 09:26 |
Remember you might be applying these
settings to just sections of your
| | 09:29 |
performance rather than the entire thing.
But look at our options to move to the
| | 09:32 |
left and right, which when checked let's
the notes move in both directions to the
| | 09:36 |
line up to the nearest division, either
at the beginning or end of the note.
| | 09:39 |
Whichever is closest.
For example, if I wanted to force all the
| | 09:41 |
notes to only use their beginnings to
line up, I would uncheck Move Right and
| | 09:44 |
see how that shifts things.
And see if I don't allow this note to
| | 09:47 |
move to the right, it moves back towards
the center there.
| | 09:49 |
But if I check it, it moves back to the
right.
| | 09:52 |
Now Shrink and Grow will be applied if
you choose to quantize not just the
| | 09:55 |
position of the notes but also their
length.
| | 09:57 |
So if I had chosen note length up here
that would matter.
| | 10:00 |
This lets you make sure all the selected
notes are the same relative length to the
| | 10:03 |
other nearby notes.
So you would check that if you want to
| | 10:05 |
make sure all the notes in a chord are
held the same length.
| | 10:07 |
And you also want to make sure that
shrink and grow are checked.
| | 10:09 |
The do not quantize faders are for
determining how far away from the grid a
| | 10:12 |
note has to be before it's moved to line
up.
| | 10:15 |
With a current setting all the notes will
be quantized no matter how far away from
| | 10:18 |
the grid lines they are.
You can use these sliders to play around
| | 10:20 |
those settings and fix overlaps, get rid
of overlaps that might be caused when
| | 10:24 |
notes are shifted and may end up on top
of each other.
| | 10:26 |
Okay so this is a manual settings.
Remember it's important to listen to the
| | 10:29 |
effects of these settings before clicking
the Commit button here.
| | 10:32 |
You can always undo but it is better to
get it right before you leave this window.
| | 10:34 |
Now if you switch over to the grid mode
you'll find far fewer options.
| | 10:39 |
Basically you can just pick which notes
you want to quantize and which properties
| | 10:45 |
and the strength.
But in some cases this might be all you need.
| | 10:49 |
So you don't have to worry about all
those other settings.
| | 10:53 |
We just give it a listen like this.
(MUSIC) No, I can hear right now I did
| | 10:57 |
move the node to the right position here
we go.
| | 10:59 |
Actually just looking at this I can even
see that the nodes are aligned up the way
| | 11:02 |
I want to.
I want those moved over a little bit
| | 11:04 |
more, so lets go back to manual.
Reverse settings and listen.
| | 11:07 |
(MUSIC) Alright.
That actually sounds much better to me.
| | 11:34 |
I'll click OK and now my notes have been
repositioned.
| | 11:38 |
So now my notes are more on the beat.
Now there's one section here of the MIDI
| | 11:41 |
editor we haven't looked at yet and
that's this Bottom panel.
| | 11:43 |
This panel is used to display the other
data that might have been included in the
| | 11:46 |
MIDI information.
Right now it's showing note velocities.
| | 11:49 |
Velocity refers to how hard the note was
played.
| | 11:51 |
Notice that some notes are green, some
are red, others are shade in between.
| | 11:55 |
The redder the note the harder it was
hit.
| | 11:57 |
Deselect that one, you can see I hit that
one pretty hard.
| | 11:59 |
So maybe you hit a note too lightly and
you're not really hearing it as well as
| | 12:03 |
you'd like.
You can just find the note in question
| | 12:05 |
and drag its velocity up.
And you should be hear that difference
| | 12:07 |
right away.
(MUSIC) I guess I didn't want it quite
| | 12:13 |
that loud, so lets drag that down about
to the level of the other notes.
| | 12:16 |
You can also drag within the MIDI notes
themselves if I want to increase the
| | 12:20 |
velocity that way.
That might be more useful when you have
| | 12:22 |
overlapping notes like this, they're
actually are three velocities in here.
| | 12:25 |
It's just hard to see when they're all on
top of each other like that.
| | 12:28 |
Now depending on the type of keyboard or
other MIDI control you're using, there
| | 12:31 |
may be other data included.
You can see the types of data by clicking
| | 12:34 |
this menu here.
As you can see there's a lot of data that
| | 12:36 |
you can include in MIDI data.
For example, if you were using a sustain
| | 12:39 |
pedal on your keyboard, you could switch
to that.
| | 12:42 |
And that will allow you to see the data
of when you held the pedal down, for how long.
| | 12:45 |
And if necessary, you could edit that
part of your performance.
| | 12:47 |
I don't really have any other data in
this case since I just played a basic
| | 12:50 |
keyboard that was connected and didn't do
anything other than play notes.
| | 12:53 |
I just want to switch that back to
velocity and I'll close the editor.
| | 12:56 |
Alright so now I have a cleaned up midi
performance and that's how you play and
| | 12:59 |
edit midi items in Reaper.
| | 13:01 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Managing media items with the Project Media Bay| 00:00 |
As you continue to build your projects in
Reaper by adding more recordings,
| | 00:03 |
importing audio, or recording MIDI,
you'll find that the media items really
| | 00:06 |
start to add up.
I'm looking at the media folder of my
| | 00:09 |
current project and I can see the two
files that I have so far, bass and guitar.
| | 00:12 |
Now, there may be times when you want to
find a specific recording for your
| | 00:15 |
project, maybe to use somewhere else in
the same project or maybe just to
| | 00:18 |
scrutinize a little more closely.
It can be difficult to find the exact
| | 00:21 |
piece you're looking for by looking
directly in the project media folder.
| | 00:24 |
Instead, go back to reaper.
And here, you can choose View > Project
| | 00:28 |
Media slash Effects Bay.
It opens the Project Bay window.
| | 00:31 |
And there are several tabs in here.
The ones I want to focus on here are the
| | 00:34 |
Source Media tab and Media Items.
Source Media is where you'll find a
| | 00:37 |
listing of all the actual files that are
being used.
| | 00:40 |
These are the actual recordings in their
entirety.
| | 00:42 |
You can see the length of each of the
recordings here.
| | 00:44 |
Each time you make a guitar recording for
example, it names a file and it appends a
| | 00:48 |
number at the end, so you can see which
take you're using.
| | 00:50 |
So in the Source Media tab, you'll see
the actual files that we're recorded or imported.
| | 00:53 |
The next tab is Media Items.
Now this looks nearly identical to the
| | 00:57 |
Source Media tab, but the Media Items tab
shows each instance of media items on
| | 01:01 |
each track.
So for example, if you used a clip from a
| | 01:03 |
single guitar track half a dozen times,
you would see it listed here half a dozen times.
| | 01:07 |
Or, just as an example, let's close that
for a moment.
| | 01:10 |
And if I select the Bass media item, I'll
just choose Edit > Copy, place my cursor
| | 01:15 |
here and choose Edit > Paste.
And I have a second instance of that bass
| | 01:19 |
track there.
Let me just place my play head there.
| | 01:22 |
I'm going to press S to split it.
And maybe I'll just delete this second
| | 01:25 |
half and I'll talk more about this sort
of stuff in the next chapter on editing.
| | 01:28 |
But now if I go back to the Project Media
bay I now see two bass listings here
| | 01:33 |
under Media Items.
You can see the length of each one that
| | 01:35 |
I'm using.
But if I go back to the Source Media
| | 01:38 |
pane, I still just see the one Bass
listing because I'm only using instances
| | 01:41 |
of this one original file.
If I go and delete that bass WAV file,
| | 01:45 |
(SOUND) go back in Media Items.
We see how we only have the one bass item.
| | 01:48 |
Now also here in the media items tab, I
can select items and see exactly where
| | 01:52 |
they are in the project by selecting the
Usage button and selecting the usage location.
| | 01:57 |
You can see it jumps me right to the bass
section.
| | 02:00 |
This can be really useful when you're
trying to find a specific recording
| | 02:02 |
somewhere in your project.
You can also preview the recordings here
| | 02:05 |
as well by clicking the Play button.
(MUSIC).
| | 02:09 |
Got the bass, then there's some silence
there before it comes in.
| | 02:11 |
(MUSIC).
And if that's the one you're looking for,
| | 02:14 |
you can then click Usage to find it.
This is also where you can rename
| | 02:19 |
specific instances of media items.
I could select one, click the Rename
| | 02:23 |
button, and type a new name for it.
You might label it something like Best
| | 02:26 |
Take or something like that.
Click OK.
| | 02:28 |
You can see it changes the label here in
the actual track.
| | 02:32 |
But here I still see the original bass
file because this is just an instance of
| | 02:35 |
that bass file here.
The Project Bay can also be used to
| | 02:37 |
quickly locate and mute multiple media
items.
| | 02:39 |
For example, I'll type drums in the
filter here to show just the files that
| | 02:42 |
have drums in them.
I can select them both by holding Shift
| | 02:45 |
and clicking.
And then I can click Mute.
| | 02:47 |
If I go look at the items here you can
see that they both have an M on them.
| | 02:49 |
That's not the same as muting the track,
I'm muting those specific instances of
| | 02:53 |
those drums.
If I wanted to, say, unmute the into, you
| | 02:55 |
unmute while the drums verse file is
still muted.
| | 02:59 |
So that can sometimes be much quicker
than manually clicking the Mute button on
| | 03:02 |
several tracks.
Notice the status column also tells me
| | 03:04 |
when tracks are muted.
So if I wanted to I could sort by status
| | 03:07 |
and that would allow me to see all the
tracks that were muted.
| | 03:10 |
going to unmute that.
Go back to the Source Media tab.
| | 03:12 |
Now another way you might want to use the
Project Bay is to manage the location of
| | 03:15 |
your source files.
Earlier we saw that the drum samples that
| | 03:18 |
I imported from my desktop are still
located on my desktop.
| | 03:21 |
In fact, if I look at them, I can see,
right here, they're sitting on the desktop.
| | 03:24 |
I really like to keep everything related
to my project in the main media folder.
| | 03:27 |
So let's select those two.
Right-click, I'll choose Move / copy file
| | 03:31 |
> Copy file to project media directory.
Now I could select to move the files, but
| | 03:35 |
I'm going to choose Copy, so I can keep
copies of those files on my desktop as
| | 03:38 |
well, which you may want to do if you
want to use certain audio files in
| | 03:41 |
multiple projects.
So by doing that, you can see now they're
| | 03:43 |
stored in my actual media folder.
I can see that if I hide Reaper for a moment.
| | 03:48 |
You can see now those drums are now
stored here, and those are the copies
| | 03:51 |
here on the desktop.
All right.
| | 03:52 |
So that's a quick overview of the Source
Media and Media Items tab of the Project
| | 03:56 |
Media bay in Reaper.
| | 03:57 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
3. EditingSetting up grid and snapping options| 00:00 |
All right, now that we know how to get a
variety of sounds into Reaper, in this
| | 00:03 |
chapter, we're going to look at a variety
of the tools that are available for
| | 00:05 |
editing your project.
I'd like to start by taking a closer look
| | 00:08 |
at the Grid and Snapping Settings.
Now, we've seen a bit of them in action
| | 00:11 |
already, but just as a refresher, the
grid is used to help you line up your
| | 00:14 |
media items to each other or to specific
points or beats in time.
| | 00:17 |
And the snapping settings determine how
close a media item or other object has to
| | 00:22 |
be to a grid line in order for it to snap
to that point.
| | 00:24 |
Or if it even snaps at all.
And again, you'll find the buttons for
| | 00:27 |
turning the grid and snapping on and off
here in the tool bar, both are currently on.
| | 00:31 |
Now, both have settings that you can
access by right clicking them, which
| | 00:34 |
opens up the Snap/Grid settings.
From here you can turn the grid on and off.
| | 00:38 |
But really you can just do that by
clicking the grid button on and off here
| | 00:40 |
as well.
You'll only really come in here when you
| | 00:42 |
want to change the grid properties.
For example, my grid is currently set to
| | 00:45 |
quarter note spacing.
So, every vertical line we see here
| | 00:48 |
represents a quarter of a measure of the
project.
| | 00:50 |
Now, the minimum field tells you how many
pixels apart the lines have to be in
| | 00:53 |
order for them to be displayed.
For example, I could choose the highest
| | 00:56 |
setting here of 128 notes, but I may or
may not see all those divisions.
| | 01:00 |
I really didn't see anything change over
here, because that depends on how far
| | 01:03 |
we're zoomed out or in.
If I use my mouse and zoom in, we start
| | 01:07 |
seeing those divisions appear.
As I get even closer we see more of those
| | 01:10 |
128 divisions.
I can go way in here.
| | 01:13 |
So your zoom level can determine which
divisions you see.
| | 01:15 |
I'm just going to switch back to quarter
notes.
| | 01:18 |
I don't even see any lines now, because
I'm zoomed in so far.
| | 01:20 |
So let's come back out.
Next, we have the Grid line Z order menu.
| | 01:23 |
And that refers to the stacking order of
the grid, and the objects on your tracks.
| | 01:27 |
The default is through items, which means
that we can see the lines going through
| | 01:30 |
our media items.
We can see the lines going right through there.
| | 01:32 |
If we switch to over items, the lines
become a little more visible since
| | 01:36 |
they're completely on top of the media
items.
| | 01:37 |
Notice we can now see the grid lines
through the wave form.
| | 01:39 |
And as you might guess, under items hides
the grid lines behind the media items.
| | 01:44 |
I like the default setting, so I'll
switch back.
| | 01:46 |
Notice you can also check this box here,
to determine whether you want the grid
| | 01:49 |
lines to be solid or dotted.
Below that we have marker line Z order,
| | 01:53 |
which has the exact same menu.
This refers to the placement of any
| | 01:56 |
markers you use in your project.
Markers are basically place holders or
| | 02:00 |
book marks.
They're a tool for you to note a point in
| | 02:02 |
the project that you need to remember or
to get back to or to rerecord or edit.
| | 02:06 |
You can basically use markers to signify
anything.
| | 02:08 |
To create a marker, just right click
anywhere on the timeline and choose
| | 02:11 |
Insert Markers.
You can name it whatever you like.
| | 02:13 |
Maybe this is the start of the verse of
my song, so I'll call it verse one.
| | 02:16 |
Click OK and there's my marker, right
where my play head was.
| | 02:21 |
You want to move it where the verse
really starts, move it to there.
| | 02:24 |
So, going back to our settings here I can
choose whether the marker is over the
| | 02:27 |
items, through the items, or under the
items.
| | 02:29 |
Again, I'll just click with the default,
and that's pretty much it for the grid settings.
| | 02:32 |
The rest of this panel has to do with the
snapping settings.
| | 02:34 |
Again, we have an enable Snapping button,
but like the show grid button up here,
| | 02:38 |
you don't really have to come in here
just to turn snapping on and off.
| | 02:41 |
Now, snap distance refers to how many
pixels away an object has to be before it
| | 02:45 |
snaps to the grid line.
The current setting is four pixels.
| | 02:48 |
So, just as an example, if I zoom in
again, and I'm also going to uncheck snap
| | 02:51 |
to grid at any distance here.
Now, with snapping enabled, notice as I
| | 02:55 |
drag this wave form over, I can drag it
anywhere I want until I get about four
| | 02:58 |
pixels away from the grid line, right
about there, that's where it snaps to
| | 03:02 |
that grid line.
But if I go back and increase that snap
| | 03:04 |
distance to say 25 pixels and I move this
to the next grid line, notice that it
| | 03:09 |
snaps from a much further distance.
So, snap to grid at any distance, means
| | 03:14 |
that the item will always jump to the
next grid line regardless of what we have
| | 03:16 |
for snap distance.
So, if I have that on notice it doesn't
| | 03:19 |
go anywhere until I move my mouse far
enough to indicate that I want to go to
| | 03:22 |
the next grid line.
Now, these next sets of check boxes are
| | 03:24 |
for specifying what objects will snap to
which items.
| | 03:27 |
And you can choose whether these items
snap to selections, markers, and cursors.
| | 03:30 |
And you can do the same to determine
whether they snap to the grid.
| | 03:33 |
So, if I didn't want media items to the
grid I could uncheck that.
| | 03:36 |
And now that it's even the snapping is
turned on, they're not snapping to any of
| | 03:39 |
the grid markers.
This snapping to the play area there, and
| | 03:42 |
it will snap to other objects.
But not to any grid lines.
| | 03:45 |
I do want that on in this case, so I'll
turn that back on.
| | 03:46 |
Alright, let's see another important
setting is this snap media items to
| | 03:50 |
nearby media items up to x number of
tracks away.
| | 03:53 |
This is useful if you're trying to line
up media items that might not start on a
| | 03:56 |
grid line.
With this option checked, your media
| | 03:58 |
items will snap to the ends of other
media items up to in this case 10 tracks away.
| | 04:02 |
If you're trying to time two or media
items to play together, this can be
| | 04:05 |
really useful.
You just have to make sure that they're
| | 04:07 |
within 10 tracks of each other, or if
they're not, you'll have to either move
| | 04:09 |
them closer, or increase the number in
this field, but the way this works is
| | 04:13 |
let's say my bass line.
Actually, let me go back to settings here
| | 04:16 |
and uncheck snap to grid at any distance.
I'm going to set this back to four while
| | 04:21 |
I'm at it as well.
So, if I move my bass line so it's
| | 04:24 |
somewhere around here.
It's not really on a grid line.
| | 04:25 |
It's kind of hanging out between them
there.
| | 04:27 |
If I move my guitar track, notice it
snaps to that bass line, and then we'll
| | 04:31 |
do this as long as the bass track is
within 10 tracks away, and also I
| | 04:34 |
mentioned this snapping is not only for
moving objects.
| | 04:37 |
You might also be trimming a media item
and you want its edges to snap to the
| | 04:41 |
grid or another media object.
For example again, maybe I'll trim the
| | 04:45 |
baseline into about there.
You'll notice that the guitar also snaps
| | 04:48 |
to the play head and then to the baseline
as well.
| | 04:51 |
Let's undo that.
And lastly, if you want to temporarily
| | 04:54 |
avoid snapping an object while snapping
is enabled, just hold the Shift key as
| | 04:57 |
you drag.
If I hold Shift as I'm dragging notice
| | 04:59 |
I'm free to drag that wherever.
It's not snapping to any particular grid
| | 05:03 |
lines or to any object.
If I release Shift, it snaps again.
| | 05:06 |
And we'll be seeing more practical uses
of the grid and snapping features in
| | 05:09 |
upcoming movies.
But for now, there's your overview of the
| | 05:11 |
grid and snap settings.
| | 05:12 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Copying and pasting| 00:00 |
In this movie I want to look at how Cut,
Copy and Paste work in Reaper.
| | 00:03 |
And for the most part they work pretty
much just like those commands do in other applications.
| | 00:07 |
Copy copies your selection to your
computer's clipboard.
| | 00:10 |
Cut also copies the selection but at the
same time removes or cuts it from the project.
| | 00:15 |
And Paste takes whatever you've copied or
cut from your project and places it or
| | 00:17 |
pastes it to another location of your
choosing.
| | 00:20 |
But there's a little more to it in
Reaper.
| | 00:21 |
Now, for this example, let's just
simplify things.
| | 00:24 |
I'm going to create a new project.
I'm going to save it to my desktop and
| | 00:27 |
call it copypaste.
And let's keep all the other default settings.
| | 00:30 |
Now I'll just drag a file in here so we
have something to work with.
| | 00:32 |
I have drums intro from our exercise file
so I'll just drag in.
| | 00:35 |
That of course just creates a track it
doesn't really matter where we drag it
| | 00:38 |
right now.
Now let's hold down Cmd on the Mac or
| | 00:40 |
Ctrl on Windows while scrolling with the
mouse to zoom in a little bit.
| | 00:44 |
Remember you can also use the Zoom
buttons over here.
| | 00:46 |
If you don't have a mouse with a scroll
wheel.
| | 00:48 |
I'll just play it once in case you don't
have the exercise files so you can hear
| | 00:50 |
what this clip sounds like again.
| | 00:52 |
(MUSIC)
| | 00:55 |
Alright.
Now, first of all, we saw earlier that
| | 01:01 |
you can loop any media item by placing
your cursor in the lower left or lower
| | 01:03 |
right hand corner and just dragging out.
That creates multiple loops.
| | 01:08 |
Zoom out a little bit so you can see
those loops, like so.
| | 01:10 |
And again, that's the default behavior of
media items, to loop.
| | 01:13 |
Now each time, where you see one of these
indentations, that indicates the point
| | 01:16 |
where the loop is repeating.
Again, if an item isn't looping for you,
| | 01:20 |
right click it.
Go to Item Settings and make sure the
| | 01:22 |
Loop Items Source is checked.
Let's undo that loop for now.
| | 01:25 |
Now, if you want to make a copy of a
media item to place into another location
| | 01:28 |
without looping it; hold down the Cmd key
on Mac, or Ctrl on Windows.
| | 01:31 |
The item should be selected first, then
hold down Cmd or Control and just drag a
| | 01:34 |
copy of that item out.
So, tracking horizontally, it creates a
| | 01:38 |
copy on the same track.
Dragging down creates a copy on the
| | 01:41 |
second track.
Now the reason I created two here was
| | 01:43 |
because this item was selected, but I
Cmd-clicked this item over here,
| | 01:46 |
effectively selecting them both.
And I was able to make a copy of both of
| | 01:49 |
them by dragging down.
Let me do that a couple more times.
| | 01:53 |
Take it back to one.
Now when you duplicate items this way,
| | 01:55 |
you're not increasing the size of your
file in any significant way.
| | 01:59 |
Each duplicate is still just an instance
of the single file it originiated from.
| | 02:02 |
Now there may be times when you want to
make an actual seperate copy of the file though.
| | 02:05 |
For example maybe you have a really long
media item but you only really need to
| | 02:08 |
use a small section of it.
And you don't want a large clip taking up
| | 02:11 |
too much hard drive space.
In a case like that I might place my
| | 02:14 |
cursor at the beginning of the portion
that I want.
| | 02:16 |
Maybe I only want the second half that
starts from maybe about there.
| | 02:19 |
Just to make sure that my clip is
selected.
| | 02:21 |
I'm going to press S to make a split.
I'm going to hold Option+Cmd on the Mac
| | 02:25 |
or Alt+Ctrl on Windows and drag.
Notice that gives me this little wave icon.
| | 02:29 |
When I release my mouse, Reaper actually
creates a new audio file.
| | 02:32 |
So, this really is a separate audio file
than the one I dragged it from.
| | 02:36 |
Notice if I loop this new clip, it's only
as long as the clip I created, as it
| | 02:39 |
loops several times there.
And that's unlike if I take this other
| | 02:43 |
clip, if I were to delete that, I can
drag out, restore the part I deleted,
| | 02:46 |
before it starts looping again.
So, this might save you some hardrive
| | 02:50 |
space since you can delete the original
if you don't need it anymore and then
| | 02:53 |
just keep the smaller clip.
Then I'm just going to undo all that for now.
| | 02:56 |
All right.
Now let's look at Copy and Paste options.
| | 02:58 |
Basically, you can copy entire items, or
you can base your copy or cut on a time selection.
| | 03:03 |
So, for example, if I wanted to copy this
entire media item, I just need to Select
| | 03:06 |
it and choose Edit > Copy Items
Tracks/Envelope Points Ignoring Time Selection.
| | 03:11 |
That has a universal keyboard command of
Cmd+C or Ctrl+C on Windows.
| | 03:14 |
And this will copy command from every
other program that has copy and paste.
| | 03:18 |
It just means it's going to copy the
selected item.
| | 03:20 |
So if I do that, and I play that over
here, I can choose Paste.
| | 03:24 |
And it copies the entire item.
So I'll do that.
| | 03:26 |
Now what this Copy Items, Tracks,
Envelope Points within a Time Selection
| | 03:29 |
if any refers to.
Is if I've made a selection within the
| | 03:32 |
item or across several items that I can
just drag across here my timeline.
| | 03:36 |
We just select that section there.
But I have to be careful of what I choose
| | 03:39 |
here because if I just choose Cmd or
Ctr+C on my keyboard and place my play
| | 03:42 |
head over here, and paste.
The entire item still gets selected.
| | 03:47 |
Let me undo that with Cmd+Z or Ctrl+Z on
Windows.
| | 03:49 |
This time I'll choose Edit > Copy within
Time Selection, or I can just add Shift
| | 03:52 |
to my keyboard command to copy.
So now if I come over here and paste Cmd+V.
| | 03:58 |
It copies just the selected area in the
time selection.
| | 04:00 |
And the same thing goes for Cut.
I can use Cmd or Ctrl+X, which is the Cut
| | 04:03 |
command, to either cut the entire item,
ignoring the time selection.
| | 04:07 |
Or, I'm going to undo, that actually cut
this item because I had that selected,
| | 04:10 |
but now I'm selecting the first one here.
If I choose Cut within time selection, it
| | 04:14 |
snips out the portion within that
selection.
| | 04:17 |
And then I'm free to paste that
elsewhere.
| | 04:18 |
Okay, so that's how Cut, Copy, Paste and
Duplicate work in Reaper.
| | 04:22 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Splitting and trimming items| 00:00 |
All right.
Let's continue looking at how to perform
| | 00:02 |
common editing tasks in Reaper.
Now, I've touched on these actions a few
| | 00:05 |
times already, but in this movie I want
to look specifically at how to split and
| | 00:08 |
trim your media items.
These two actions allow you to adjust the
| | 00:11 |
length of your media items, so only the
portions you want to hear are played.
| | 00:14 |
For this example, let's create another
new project.
| | 00:16 |
To save my current changes.
Call this one Split and Trim.
| | 00:20 |
And I've copied a file to my desk top
called lead vocals, lead_vox_verse_01.
| | 00:25 |
Just drag that on, and I'll just zoom out
so we can see the entire media item.
| | 00:29 |
I'm also going to make sure the ripple
button is turned off in the tool bar.
| | 00:32 |
I'll talk about that in its own movie
next.
| | 00:34 |
Okay, so this is the lead vocal track for
the song we've been working on so far.
| | 00:38 |
Let's play it once to listen.
(MUSIC).
| | 00:39 |
Alright, so that's the vocal for the
verse and it appears as a single media
| | 01:07 |
item on this track.
I'm just going to zoom in the vertical
| | 01:10 |
view a little bit.
So as I was saying, when it comes to
| | 01:12 |
editing media items down, the Split and
Trim actions are what you'll be using
| | 01:16 |
most of the time.
And they actually perform a similar function.
| | 01:18 |
It's just a matter of which one is the
most efficient for what you're trying to do.
| | 01:21 |
For example, if I only wanted to keep the
first half of this verse, one thing I
| | 01:24 |
could do would be to place my cursor
after the part I want to keep, maybe
| | 01:28 |
right there, and then press S to split
the media item.
| | 01:30 |
That turns it into two separate media
items.
| | 01:33 |
Notice I can click to select one or the
other.
| | 01:35 |
Maybe I"ll only want to add a pause
between the first and second half of this verse.
| | 01:38 |
I can grab the second half and drag it to
the right.
| | 01:41 |
Or if I wanted to delete it entirely I
can just make sure its selected, as it is
| | 01:44 |
now, hit Delete on my keyboard.
You can also do that with either Cmd or Ctrl+Z.
| | 01:47 |
Now you can also heal split items by
placing them right next to each other,
| | 01:51 |
making sure both are selected.
I'm going to hold down Shift to select
| | 01:53 |
both and I'm going to right-click and
choose Heal Splits and Items.
| | 01:57 |
You can see now it's one solid item
again.
| | 01:59 |
Let's hit Undo again, to resplit them.
Because splitting isn't really
| | 02:03 |
destructive, very little in what you can
do in Reaper is destructive, meaning
| | 02:06 |
nothing I've done so far is permanent.
So if I were to delete the second half of
| | 02:09 |
this verse, either on purpose or by
accident, I can actually get it back by
| | 02:13 |
placing my cursor in the lower right-hand
corner of the first half, and just
| | 02:16 |
dragging back out to the right.
I can bring back a portion or all of the
| | 02:19 |
entire media item this way.
And by doing so, I'm actually doing
| | 02:22 |
what's called trimming.
You can trim either end of the media
| | 02:24 |
items to remove or add back any portion
of it.
| | 02:26 |
You'll also recall that if I continue
trimming beyond the end point, the media
| | 02:29 |
item will start looping, like so.
So that's basic trimming.
| | 02:32 |
Now, you can also split and trim clips
based on a time selection.
| | 02:35 |
This can be useful if you want to split a
clip into more than two sections.
| | 02:38 |
For example, I'll just drag in the
timeline to make a selection of this part
| | 02:42 |
of the verse.
Maybe this was a part of the take that
| | 02:44 |
you want to remove or maybe you want to
move it to its own track so you can apply
| | 02:47 |
effects just to that part.
With it highlighted, I can either press
| | 02:50 |
Shift+S to indicate that I want to make a
split based on my time selection, or I
| | 02:53 |
can go to the Item menu and choose Split
items at time selection.
| | 02:57 |
So now I have three separate media items.
Then I could maybe grab this middle section.
| | 03:00 |
Just drag it down to create and place it
on its own track.
| | 03:03 |
So that's a time selection split.
(INAUDIBLE) do that again.
| | 03:06 |
We'll undo the move and the split.
(SOUND) Now, with that time selection
| | 03:09 |
still made, I can also go to the Item
menu > Trim items to selected area.
| | 03:14 |
Notice that it moves everything except
the portion that was inside the time selection.
| | 03:17 |
This is much quicker than, say, placing
my cursor to the right and left sides of
| | 03:20 |
the part that I want to keep and hitting
split and then deleting those items.
| | 03:23 |
All I had to do in this case was just
make a selection and choose the Trim command.
| | 03:26 |
And of course if I wanted to get them
back, I could just trim it out again but
| | 03:30 |
as you can see you have a lot of
flexibility when it comes to splitting
| | 03:32 |
and trimming your clips to edit them.
And again, none of this is destructive,
| | 03:35 |
so you're free to play around and
experiment as much as you like with your edits.
| | 03:38 |
And you'll always be able to restore the
media items entirely if necessary.
| | 03:41 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Ripple editing| 00:00 |
In the last movie we looked at how to
split and trim media items.
| | 00:03 |
I'm still using this project with a
single track as an example.
| | 00:05 |
If you're following along with me, just
make sure this is a single media item and
| | 00:08 |
not split apart.
Or just delete what you have and drag on
| | 00:11 |
another copy of the lead vocal track into
your project.
| | 00:14 |
So currently this vocal track is a single
media item and we saw earlier how I can
| | 00:17 |
make a time selection like I have here.
And press Shift+S to split that section
| | 00:22 |
into its own media item.
Now previously I showed you how you can
| | 00:25 |
maybe grab that item to move it onto its
own track, which you might want to do if
| | 00:28 |
you just wanted to apply effects to just
that section.
| | 00:30 |
Let's move that back.
But what if you just wanted to delete
| | 00:33 |
that part of your media item all
together?
| | 00:34 |
Now in this case, just hit the Delete
button on your keyboard and that removes
| | 00:38 |
the selected media items.
And the two remaining items on either
| | 00:41 |
side stay in their current places.
Now they behave that way because I have
| | 00:44 |
the Ripple button disabled.
You can see ripple editing disabled.
| | 00:47 |
With it turned off, the leading media
items on the track leaves all the other
| | 00:50 |
media items where they are.
This mode is useful when you maybe want
| | 00:53 |
to get rid of a cough, or an extra note
in a performance without affecting the
| | 00:56 |
timing of the rest of the track.
Let's undo that with Cmd or Ctrl+Z.
| | 01:00 |
Now there are actually three states for
the Ripple button.
| | 01:02 |
The current state is off.
I'll click it once to turn it on.
| | 01:05 |
You can also press Option+P on the Mac or
Alt+P on Windows.
| | 01:08 |
So you can see that is now set to Ripple
Editing per track.
| | 01:11 |
Now with that enabled, when I select and
delete this media item, notice the item
| | 01:15 |
to the right shifts over to close the gap
that was created.
| | 01:17 |
So instead of creating a gap or a pause
everything that's to the right of the
| | 01:20 |
deleted item will move effectively
shortening the length of the track.
| | 01:24 |
This kind of behavior might be what you
want if you were to say, edit a recorded
| | 01:27 |
speech or maybe a spoken podcast where
you wanted to get rid of a lengthy pause
| | 01:31 |
or maybe where the speaker was taking a
sip of water or clearing his throat.
| | 01:34 |
Now ripple editing doesn't just apply to
deleting items.
| | 01:36 |
It also determines what happens if you
move items.
| | 01:39 |
Let's Undo to get that section back
again.
| | 01:41 |
I'm actually going to right click up in
the time line to remove the time
| | 01:43 |
selection so we can see this whole area a
little bit better.
| | 01:46 |
Now lets cycle through and turn Ripple
Editing off again.
| | 01:48 |
Notice if I grab and drag this middle
piece to the left or to the right it over
| | 01:52 |
laps the other media items.
They stay where they are and Reaper
| | 01:55 |
automatically creates cross fades.
Now we'll look at cross fades in the next
| | 01:59 |
movie but the point is the other items
don't move when I move this media item.
| | 02:03 |
This is useful if you want two sounds
playing over each other in the same track.
| | 02:06 |
But if I turn Ripple Editing on again,
and I move that section, notice that the
| | 02:10 |
item to the right stays attached to it,
and moves along with it.
| | 02:12 |
With is useful if you want to introduce a
pause into the track.
| | 02:15 |
Like to introduce that pause, these items
will still play together.
| | 02:18 |
And it will still overlap the item to the
left.
| | 02:20 |
So, do that again.
Now this also applies to Cutting and Pasting.
| | 02:23 |
If I turn off Ripple Editing again and
then select and cut that selection using
| | 02:27 |
Cmd+X or Ctrl+X on Windows First of all,
we know that now creates a gap.
| | 02:31 |
But also with Ripple Off, I'll place my
cursor before the first item and hit
| | 02:34 |
Command or Control V, that pastes the
item over top of the other one.
| | 02:38 |
I'm basically overlapping it, so we'll
only hear the part that I pasted until it
| | 02:41 |
ends, then I'll hear the tail end of the
part that was still underneath it there,
| | 02:44 |
let's undo the paste.
But if I turn Ripple Editing On, place my
| | 02:48 |
cursor there and Paste again, that shifts
or ripples everything to the right and
| | 02:52 |
moves it over to make more room for the
item that I just Pasted.
| | 02:55 |
So that's our ripple edit.
Generally with Ripple On things move to
| | 02:58 |
either make room for items you're adding
or they move to fill in the gap left by
| | 03:01 |
items you're deleting.
Now the third state of the ripple tool is
| | 03:04 |
the ripple editing all track state.
To show you this I'm going to open
| | 03:08 |
Breakdown Mode 01 which is project we had
opened earlier.
| | 03:11 |
I'm going to save my changes and if you
recall this project contains about a half
| | 03:15 |
a dozen tracks.
Lets click on the kick drum track right
| | 03:17 |
at about measure three.
Now press s to split the track.
| | 03:20 |
Now with Ripple Off, I'm going to select
that section I just created and press
| | 03:24 |
Delete on my keyboard to get rid of it.
Notice that leaves a gap and nothing on
| | 03:27 |
my screen moves.
Let's Undo that.
| | 03:29 |
Let's turn on Per Track Ripple editing
and Delete that piece again.
| | 03:34 |
This time the rest of the kick drum track
moves over to fill in the gap just like
| | 03:37 |
we saw before.
Lets do that again and this time I'm
| | 03:39 |
going to toggle over to the third state,
which is Ripple Editing All Tracks.
| | 03:43 |
Now watch closely.
Deleting the section actually moved the
| | 03:46 |
items on every single track.
I'm going to do that and lets just zoom
| | 03:50 |
out a bit there.
Let me Delete that again and watch what happens.
| | 03:53 |
You can see that everything just sort of
shifted over to the left.
| | 03:57 |
The reason you might want to do this is
that keeps all the tracks synced together
| | 04:00 |
so you don't have to manually go in and
line everything up again.
| | 04:02 |
Maybe for example there's a guitar solo
in the middle of that song that you
| | 04:06 |
want to get rid off.
You can select the entire solo section
| | 04:08 |
Delete it with All Track Rippling Editing
On and all the tracks would shift over
| | 04:12 |
and stay synced.
So in this example I've basically removed
| | 04:14 |
two measures of the intro.
On every single track, which I might
| | 04:17 |
want to do if I wanted to get into the
main part of the song a little quicker.
| | 04:20 |
I play a little bit and you could still
hear that everything still syncs so perfectly.
| | 04:27 |
(MUSIC) And again Reaper editing isn't
just for deleting items but also for
| | 04:33 |
adding and moving.
Maybe I actually want to lengthen the intro.
| | 04:37 |
We're going to Shift click to select the
Kick Hi-hat and snare tracks right there
| | 04:42 |
measure three and I'll split them with
the S key and I'll Shift click again,
| | 04:46 |
select those three items.
I Cmd or Ctrl to Copy them, paste my
| | 04:51 |
cursor at the beginning and I'll Paste.
Cmd or Ctrl+V.
| | 04:53 |
And because Ripple Editing on all tracks
is turned on, everything shifts to the
| | 04:58 |
right to allow for what I just pasted.
And now I've added two measures of intro
| | 05:01 |
drums to the track.
(MUSIC) So that's how the ripple editing
| | 05:12 |
tool works.
If you're editing your projects, try to
| | 05:14 |
remain aware of what state that button is
in because as you can see it has a big
| | 05:17 |
effect on how your project behaves as
you're editing.
| | 05:20 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Fading and cross-fading items| 00:00 |
Now let's look at the fade and cross-fade
actions we can apply to our media items
| | 00:03 |
in Rea per.
For this exercise I created a new blank
| | 00:06 |
project called fades.
And I'm going to drag in the
| | 00:08 |
drums_verse.wav file I copied to my
desktop.
| | 00:11 |
I will again create a track, click the
vertical Zoom button to zoom in a little
| | 00:14 |
bit, there.
I'm also going to zoom out horizontally a bit.
| | 00:18 |
You can see more of the work area.
And as we've previously seen I can make
| | 00:21 |
that into a loop by dragging out its
lower right hand corner.
| | 00:24 |
Let's drag that out a couple times.
Now, fades are used when you want to
| | 00:28 |
either let a media item fade down to
silence or fade up from silence.
| | 00:32 |
And fades are controlled using the upper
corners of the media item.
| | 00:35 |
So the lower corners are for looping and
trimming.
| | 00:38 |
All the upper corners are for fading.
So, very simply if I wanted to add a fade
| | 00:41 |
to the end of this drum loop.
I just place my cursor in the upper right
| | 00:44 |
hand corner so it turns into this symbol
we'ere seeing here.
| | 00:47 |
I just click and drag to the left.
The further I drag the longer the fade
| | 00:50 |
will be.
Looking at this fade curve I can see the
| | 00:52 |
fade will begin right here and then fade
down to nothing by the end of the media item.
| | 00:57 |
Notice the appearance of the wave form
changes to reflect the fade that I just added.
| | 01:01 |
And see how the wave form just comes to
this little point at the end now.
| | 01:03 |
Let's listen to that once.
(MUSIC).
| | 01:15 |
So that's a slow and fairly gradual fade.
If I want to make it quicker I just place
| | 01:21 |
my cursor anywhere along the fade curve
and drag to the right to shorten it.
| | 01:24 |
We'll play that.
(MUSIC).
| | 01:32 |
That's a much shorter fade.
And you can do the same thing at the
| | 01:35 |
beginning of the media items as well.
Place my cursor on the upper left hand
| | 01:41 |
corner, drag in, and it sounds like this
now.
| | 01:48 |
(MUSIC).
So now we have a nice, gradual fade in.
| | 01:49 |
Now you can also adjust the type of fade
you're applying by changing the shape of
| | 01:50 |
the curve.
Right now, for instance, at the end I
| | 01:53 |
have this curve that sort of starts
gradually then swoops down to fade a
| | 01:55 |
little bit faster as the curve
progresses.
| | 01:57 |
Right clicking on that curve gives you
the other curve types.
| | 02:02 |
First one is a linear curve which gives
you a completely even and consistent fade
| | 02:05 |
start to finish.
The second on is our default.
| | 02:07 |
The third one is a quick fade that slows
down.
| | 02:10 |
And the next two are more extreme
versions of the second and third fades.
| | 02:14 |
This one here fades very gradually before
ramping down all of a sudden.
| | 02:17 |
And this one here fades very quickly
before slowing down.
| | 02:20 |
And these last two are different versions
of an S-curve, which basically goes slow-fast-slow.
| | 02:24 |
And it's really just a matter of
experimenting with the curves to see
| | 02:26 |
which one works the best for what you're
doing.
| | 02:29 |
So that's how to add basic fades to your
media items.
| | 02:31 |
Just use the upper corners of the media
items to add them.
| | 02:33 |
And then you can drag the fade curves to
adjust them.
| | 02:35 |
Notice when you do have fade curves
applied though the upper corner can be
| | 02:38 |
used to trim and loop.
Now lets talk about cross fades.
| | 02:42 |
Cross fades are used when you want to
smoothly transition from one sound into
| | 02:44 |
another in one more.
Now the drums on their on own here aren't
| | 02:47 |
really very good to illustrate this.
Now lets go in and drag that lead vocal
| | 02:51 |
file onto its own track here as well.
And let me make a time selection here
| | 02:55 |
drag from about there.
I am just going to drag this part of the
| | 02:58 |
verse and I also going to press command
or control+A to select both tracks then I
| | 03:01 |
will press Shift +S.
Lets put them both at the time selection,
| | 03:05 |
normally doing this I can create two
small samples of both tracks to cross
| | 03:07 |
fade together for this example.
I'm going to delete everything but the
| | 03:11 |
first drum section and the middle section
of the vocal here.
| | 03:13 |
Just select them and hit Delete on my
keyboard.
| | 03:16 |
Now let's move the vocal up to the drum
track.
| | 03:19 |
Now let's right click and remove the time
selection so we can see everything a bit better.
| | 03:22 |
Now let's remove the opening fade on the
drums, too.
| | 03:24 |
I'm just going to drag that out.
Let's just play a little of this to hear
| | 03:27 |
what it sounds like.
(MUSIC).
| | 03:30 |
Alright so on this track the drums end
abruptly and just as abruptly the vocals
| | 03:35 |
come in.
But if I grab the vocal track and drag it
| | 03:39 |
to the left notice the fade curves
appear.
| | 03:42 |
That's a cross fade.
If you look closely you can see one curve
| | 03:44 |
showing that drums are being faded down.
And at the same time, you can see the
| | 03:48 |
vocals are being faded up.
Let's listen to that.
| | 03:50 |
(MUSIC).
| | 03:56 |
By the way, if you don't see the cross
fades, make sure the Auto Cross Fade
| | 03:58 |
button is enabled in your tool bar up
here.
| | 04:00 |
All right, so, now the sounds are
overlapping.
| | 04:02 |
But the effect is a little less harsh
than it might be, if you just heard the
| | 04:05 |
drums coming to an abrupt stop.
You can adjust the length of a crossfade
| | 04:08 |
by placing your mouse over the curves and
dragging them left to right.
| | 04:11 |
But be aware of which curve you're
moving.
| | 04:13 |
The mouse icon will indicate which one's
being affected.
| | 04:15 |
Notice if I place the mouse of the drum
fader curve, dragging to the right
| | 04:18 |
actually shortens the transition point.
If I drag all the way to the right, I'll
| | 04:21 |
actually cut off the beginning of the
vocal and the crossfade will no longer exist.
| | 04:25 |
If I drag to the left, I increase the
transition point.
| | 04:27 |
And I'll actually trim out the vocal part
so that the portion of the vocal that I
| | 04:30 |
originally cut out starts to reappear.
So if I left it like that it would sound
| | 04:36 |
like this.
(MUSIC).
| | 04:39 |
Now the same goes for dragging the curve
of the vocal part.
| | 04:45 |
Dragging to the extremes can either add
more to the drums into the transition or
| | 04:47 |
remove the transition altogether.
You can also place your cursor at the
| | 04:50 |
point where the two fades come together
to get this cursor which allows you to
| | 04:53 |
adjust the point at which they cross.
Now holding shift while dragging that's
| | 04:57 |
to keep the cross fade area the exact
same size while moving its position.
| | 05:01 |
As with regular fades right clicking a
curve lets you change the shape.
| | 05:04 |
If you want to change both
simultaneously, right click at their
| | 05:06 |
crossing point.
And as you make adjustments you might
| | 05:08 |
find that you either need to re-position
the clip so that more or less of it
| | 05:11 |
overlaps the other one.
Or place your cursor on the edge of the
| | 05:14 |
one the overlapping sides to trim either
one of the clips.
| | 05:17 |
Or in this case I might even drag the
right side completely off to get rid of
| | 05:19 |
the cross fade to allow me to adjust its
trim point before dragging it on to
| | 05:22 |
create the crossfade again.
Actually something I haven't mentioned
| | 05:26 |
yet, is that if you have two items butted
up against each other.
| | 05:29 |
But without the cross fade like that,
meaning that they are not overlapping.
| | 05:31 |
You place your cursor between them that
creates a double trim symbol as such you
| | 05:35 |
trim both items.
Making one shorter or making the other
| | 05:38 |
one longer or vice-versa.
You might wonder need to do this instead
| | 05:41 |
of cross fading at times.
But that's basically how fades and cross
| | 05:44 |
fades work.
Now, there are a couple of preferences
| | 05:46 |
you can adjust as well.
Just go to Reaper preferences, again,
| | 05:48 |
Option Preferences, if you're on Windows.
And here, you'll find media item defaults
| | 05:52 |
under Project.
Here you can choose the default shapes
| | 05:55 |
for your fades and cross fades by
clicking their buttons.
| | 05:57 |
So, if you find yourself always using a
particular type of fade, you can just
| | 05:59 |
make it the default here.
Notice that Reaper also automatically
| | 06:02 |
creates fade ins and fade outs for new
items.
| | 06:05 |
Meaning that any time you record
something the media item that you create
| | 06:07 |
has a very very brief fade apply to it.
This can eliminate clicks and pops that
| | 06:11 |
might appear when you hit record.
You can adjust or turn off this feature
| | 06:14 |
if you prefer but all this pretty much
just involves playing around and
| | 06:17 |
experementing with fades.
And seeing what works for you in most
| | 06:20 |
cases and seeing what works for you in
most cases and making adjustments as you
| | 06:23 |
need them.
So that's how to work with fades and
| | 06:25 |
cross fades in Reaper.
| | 06:26 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
4. MixingOrganizing tracks| 00:00 |
So, now that we've seen various ways to
record, import and edit audio in Reaper.
| | 00:04 |
In this chapter we're going to focus on
how to mix all of our audio together.
| | 00:07 |
Essentially, mixing involves adjusting
the levels of each track relative to the
| | 00:10 |
levels of the other tracks to produce the
most pleasing combination or mix of the project.
| | 00:15 |
But before we get into actually mixing I
want to spend some time talking about
| | 00:17 |
ways you can organize your project to
make it more manageable.
| | 00:21 |
I've opened the projected called
breakdown mode all tracks and this is a
| | 00:23 |
newly complete version of the song we've
been playing around with throughout this course.
| | 00:27 |
One of the biggest challenges with
working with multi track recording is
| | 00:30 |
managing all those seperate tracks.
This project has 16 tracks and in many
| | 00:33 |
cases that would be considered a pretty
small number of tracks for a compelete song.
| | 00:37 |
Depending on how layered a song or
project is.
| | 00:39 |
You might have twice, triple or even
quadruple that amount of tracks.
| | 00:42 |
So knowing how to organize and work with
multiple tracks is an important skill set
| | 00:46 |
to have when it comes time to mix.
First a couple of basic concepts.
| | 00:50 |
First of all, it makes sense to organize
your tracks in relationship to each other.
| | 00:53 |
Meaning, you'd probably want to place
your drum tracks together, your guitar
| | 00:55 |
tracks together, your key.
Keyboard tracks together, your vocals together.
| | 00:59 |
Basically any tracks that you'll probably
have to work on at the same time.
| | 01:02 |
It just makes sense to have them close to
one another.
| | 01:04 |
Now this project they're already arranged
that way for the most part.
| | 01:08 |
We have two kick tracks, the hi hat, and
the snare placed together.
| | 01:11 |
Scroll down a bit here.
We have bass and synth bass placed together.
| | 01:15 |
We have keyboard Chorus backing vocals.
Guitar, the guitar is followed by guitar
| | 01:20 |
2 dry, guitar 2 spring reverb keys.
Then we have the lead vocal, vocal
| | 01:25 |
doubles, the verse background vocals and
the track called oohs, which is also vocals.
| | 01:30 |
So this is mostly organized but in this
case I would probably the synth track
| | 01:33 |
which was up here closer to the keyboard
and I'll just select that and drag that down.
| | 01:38 |
just put that right below the keys.
So we have keys and synth now.
| | 01:42 |
And I'll also move the chorus backer and
vocals closer to the other vocal tracks.
| | 01:45 |
And remember, another way to do this
quickly is to open the track manager by
| | 01:48 |
going to View Track Manager.
(UNKNOWN) find course background vocals,
| | 01:52 |
I'm going to just drag that down.
Let me put that under the verse
| | 01:55 |
background vocals.
And you can see that was a lot easier
| | 01:57 |
than just trying to scroll through all
these tracks here.
| | 02:00 |
Here I can see most of the tracks at once
and just drag them into place.
| | 02:02 |
Alright, so that's better.
Now of course, it isn't a requirement to
| | 02:05 |
organize track this way, but I can't tell
you how many times I've completely
| | 02:08 |
forgotten about say a backing track vocal
because it was muted, and it wasn't near
| | 02:11 |
the other vocal tracks while I was
mixing.
| | 02:14 |
This way you can see all the related
tracks together as you're working.
| | 02:17 |
In fact, you might want to take this a
step further and group tracks together
| | 02:19 |
into folders.
We'll take a look at how to do that in
| | 02:21 |
the next movie.
Now remember, you can also make it easier
| | 02:23 |
to see an overview of your tracks if you
adjust their heights.
| | 02:26 |
You can adjust the height of individual
tracks by placing your cursor below them,
| | 02:29 |
dragging up or down.
Or recall that you can adjust them all
| | 02:32 |
simultaneously by holding the Command key
on your Mac, or control on Windows, and
| | 02:35 |
using the scroll wheel on your mouse.
I can collapse all the tracks down to
| | 02:39 |
just this view.
Which makes it much easier to get an
| | 02:41 |
overview of all the tracks, and also to
move them if I wanted to move them from here.
| | 02:45 |
Or you can expand them out to work in a
larger view with the wave forms, and
| | 02:47 |
remember, if you don't have the scroll
wheel on your mouse, you can use this
| | 02:49 |
handle here to expand or shrink the
vertical view.
| | 02:53 |
Now, another way to work with multiple
tracks at once is to temporarily group
| | 02:55 |
them together.
Now this is different than the type of
| | 02:57 |
grouping into folders that I'm going to
show you in the next movie.
| | 03:00 |
What I mean by temporarily grouping is
just to hold the shift key to click, and
| | 03:03 |
select contiguous tracks.
Like so, or when you click off of there,
| | 03:06 |
hold down the command or control key on
Windows, select non-contiguous tracks.
| | 03:10 |
Then you're free to adjust faders and
dials on any of the selected tracks,
| | 03:13 |
notice that all the selected tracks
faders move together.
| | 03:16 |
We do that to the faders, we do that to
the panning controls, double click on
| | 03:19 |
those to re-center them.
This can be really useful if you want to
| | 03:22 |
keep the volume of multiple tracks at the
same relative level to each other, but
| | 03:25 |
also bring them up or down in the mix at
the same time.
| | 03:28 |
Click off to deselect.
Okay, so there you have a couple of basic
| | 03:32 |
organizational ideas.
We'll continue looking at some other
| | 03:34 |
useful concepts and techniques in the
upcoming movies.
| | 03:36 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using folders| 00:00 |
In addition to arranging your tracks in
an order that keeps the related tracks
| | 00:03 |
together, you can also use a feature of
Reaper that let's you organize your
| | 00:06 |
tracks intofolders.
And that gives you additional advantages
| | 00:08 |
like the ability to create submixes of
the tracks in that folder.
| | 00:11 |
Let's see how this works.
Let's say I want to group all of my drum
| | 00:14 |
tracks together into a folder.
To create a folder, you start by creating
| | 00:17 |
a new track.
Now, I'm going to first click the top
| | 00:19 |
track in my project because when you
create a new track, as we've seen, it
| | 00:23 |
appears under the currently selected
track.
| | 00:24 |
And this is an easy way to be able to see
the new track right away.
| | 00:27 |
So, I'll create a new track by pressing
Cmd or Ctrl+T and name this track Drums.
| | 00:31 |
(SOUND) Now in order to turn a track into
a folder, it has to be placed above all
| | 00:35 |
the tracks you want to include in that
folder.
| | 00:37 |
So I'm going to drag that up to the top
of all the tracks.
| | 00:40 |
Next, notice this little folder icon here
in the lower right-hand corner.
| | 00:43 |
Turns into a plus sign when I roll over
it.
| | 00:45 |
Clicking this button turns the track into
a folder and places all the tracks
| | 00:48 |
beneath it into that folder.
So you can now see how all the rest of my
| | 00:51 |
tracks are now indented underneath this
Drums folders.
| | 00:54 |
But I don't want all those tracks in the
drums folder, I just want the drums.
| | 00:57 |
Which in this case is the 808 kick,
regular kick, the high hat, and the snare.
| | 01:02 |
So the snare is the last track that I
want in here.
| | 01:04 |
I'm going to collect its Folder icon.
Now the first click turns it into a
| | 01:07 |
subfolder within that drums folder and it
places all the tracks below it into that subfolder.
| | 01:11 |
But a second click of that folder, notice
we now see an X there, and that pops them
| | 01:15 |
back out, so they're all completely to
the left again.
| | 01:17 |
Notice this little rounded edge here
which indicates the end of the folder,
| | 01:21 |
just like the rounded edge at the top
indicates the beginning of the folder.
| | 01:25 |
Okay, so that's my Drum folder.
Now, one thing about folders is that all
| | 01:30 |
of the sounds from the tracks within that
folder play through the main folder.
| | 01:38 |
I'm going to hit Play, and notice if I
mute the Drums folder, you won't hear any
| | 01:46 |
drums at all.
(MUSIC).
| | 01:48 |
Now, I could still independently mute and
solo the tracks in that folder but I
| | 01:51 |
won't hear them if the main folder is
muted.
| | 01:53 |
Also the main folders volume and pan
control affect the overall volume and pan
| | 01:56 |
of all the tracks in the folder.
So this is basically how you create a submix.
| | 02:00 |
I'm going to, for example, spend some
time mixing the levels of the kick, high
| | 02:03 |
hat, and snare.
Do that really quickly.
| | 02:17 |
(MUSIC).
And then I could manage their overall
| | 02:24 |
levels relative to the rest of the song
with the fader or the folder, without
| | 02:27 |
altering their relationship to each
other.
| | 02:48 |
(MUSIC).
I could also apply effects to just the
| | 02:50 |
drums folder and the effects would apply
to all the tracks contained within it.
| | 02:53 |
We'll look at applying effects later in
this chapter, but applying effects to a
| | 02:55 |
submix folder can usually give you a
different sound than you would get if you
| | 02:58 |
applied the effect individually to all
the tracks themselves.
| | 03:01 |
It's something you can experiment with on
your own.
| | 03:03 |
But just as a quick example, I can click
the FX button here on the drums folder.
| | 03:06 |
And maybe I'll just do a quick search
down here for a reverb effect, like that one.
| | 03:12 |
And you can hear how that applies to the
drums.
| | 03:17 |
(MUSIC).
And I'll select that and remove that for now.
| | 03:20 |
Only, if you are on Windows, you won't
find a reverb effect by searching for reverb.
| | 03:26 |
Instead, search for verb and you'll find
a couple of rebuilt in VST reverb effects
| | 03:33 |
that way.
We'll talk more about applying effects
| | 03:36 |
later in this chapter.
So, since folders are so easy and useful
| | 03:41 |
to create, I'm going to go through the
rest of my project and group together
| | 03:46 |
other tracks.
Hide the docker for a moment here.
| | 03:49 |
We'll scroll through here, and find, for
example, the guitars.
| | 03:52 |
I'll just select this track above it.
Hit Cmd+T.
| | 03:55 |
Call this track guitars.
Turned it into a folder.
| | 03:58 |
See, again, that indents all the other
items beneath it.
| | 04:02 |
I'll find the last guitar here, click its
folder icon twice.
| | 04:04 |
And now just those guitars are within
that folder.
| | 04:07 |
And if I'll do the same with the keys as
well.
| | 04:09 |
Command+T, the keyboards.
I'll drag that up above the keys and then
| | 04:14 |
into a folder.
That's only going to include the keys and
| | 04:17 |
synth tracks here.
So, I'll just click Folder icon to make
| | 04:19 |
that folder there.
So now I've created guitar and keyboard submixes.
| | 04:23 |
Again, you don't need to do this, but it
can be really useful to organize your
| | 04:25 |
tracks this way.
It's also a way to more easily discern
| | 04:28 |
groups of tracks.
You might would even go so far as to
| | 04:30 |
color the tracks that are in a folder
together.
| | 04:32 |
Maybe I'll select all the keyboard tracks
including the folder.
| | 04:36 |
I'll right-click, go to the Track color >
Set tracks to one random color.
| | 04:40 |
And that colors just those tracks.
In this case, it's picked green.
| | 04:43 |
And while I'm at it, maybe I'll do the
guitars and drums as well.
| | 04:46 |
Up here, Shift, click down to the last
guitar track, right-click.
| | 04:51 |
Track color, I'll pick one random color
so they're all color the same.
| | 04:54 |
It'll do.
Now, I'll do the same for the drums.
| | 04:56 |
(SOUND).
Alright, that will work.
| | 05:01 |
Now, along those lines, you can also use
folders to control the height of the
| | 05:04 |
tracks within them.
Notice each folder has this little toggle
| | 05:07 |
button that looks like a little triangle
right up here in the upper right-hand corner.
| | 05:10 |
Clicking it once collapses the tracks
within it, so you can see the names in
| | 05:13 |
the first row of buttons.
Clicking it again completely collapses
| | 05:16 |
them, so you can only see the folder
itself.
| | 05:18 |
And clicking it once more, returns the
tracks to their original size.
| | 05:21 |
And of course you're still free to adjust
the height of the tracks individually, or
| | 05:24 |
all together as well.
Now if you ever want to remove the
| | 05:27 |
folders, we've already seen how to do
this.
| | 05:28 |
Just click the folder icon in the main
folder, makes it back into a regular
| | 05:32 |
folder, you might also want to do that
down here at the last folder too.
| | 05:35 |
Even though it doesn't really do
anything.
| | 05:37 |
Gets rid of the little rounded curve
there.
| | 05:39 |
Do the same thing for it, the guitars
(SOUND) and the keyboards.
| | 05:43 |
(SOUND) You'll probably also want to
delete the tracks that you were using as
| | 05:48 |
folders too, since they're not really
doing anything now.
| | 05:50 |
(SOUND) But there you have how to create
and use folders in Reaper.
| | 05:56 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using sends| 00:00 |
Let's take a look at another way to group
certain tracks together.
| | 00:02 |
So you can control them both
independently and simultaneously.
| | 00:05 |
And I scroll down a bit in my project
here, so I can see all the vocal tracks.
| | 00:09 |
I'm going to solo the tracks called vocal
doubles, and chorus background vocals.
| | 00:13 |
And let's just jump to a point in the
song where we can hear both.
| | 00:15 |
(MUSIC).
So, these are essentially harmony parts.
| | 00:27 |
Let's say I want to mix them together by
adjusting their levels relative to each
| | 00:30 |
other as well as apply effects to them.
Now, I could do all that and more to them
| | 00:33 |
on their own but another way to go about
it is to send the outputs of these tracks
| | 00:37 |
to a separate track called a bus, which I
could then use to control the two tracks together.
| | 00:41 |
Now, there are a couple of ways of doing
this.
| | 00:43 |
Let me un-solo these.
First let's create a new track.
| | 00:45 |
Click the last track here.
So, when I press Command or Control t,
| | 00:48 |
new track appears below it.
I'm going to call this backing vocal bus.
| | 00:52 |
Now, a bus is just a track onto which you
can group the outputs of other tracks.
| | 00:56 |
Notice that each track in my project has
a display that says master, that means
| | 01:00 |
the audio from the track is going
directly to the master track.
| | 01:04 |
If I bring up the mixer by going to View
> Mixer.
| | 01:07 |
You can see the master fader here.
That's the last place the audio travels
| | 01:11 |
through before it hits your speakers or
the output of Reaper.
| | 01:13 |
What we can do is set up certain tracks
so that they output instead to a bus
| | 01:17 |
track where we can then add effects,
adjust levels, and so on, and then send
| | 01:20 |
the output of the bus track to the master
track instead.
| | 01:23 |
So, I'll go to the vox doubles tracks
here, and click its I/O button here.
| | 01:26 |
That opens up the routing window for this
track.
| | 01:28 |
I'm going to uncheck Master/parent send.
Notice that then turns the I/O button
| | 01:33 |
red, which is Reaper warning me that this
track now has no output, meaning it won't
| | 01:36 |
be heard at all.
Then I'm going to come down here to the
| | 01:38 |
Add new send menu, and here I can select
the Backing Vocal Bus.
| | 01:42 |
That means that I'm now sending the
output of this particular track to the
| | 01:45 |
Backing Vocal Bus track.
Notice that the send indicator has now
| | 01:48 |
lit up on the Vocal Doubles track.
That also gives me some additional
| | 01:51 |
controls over here.
For instance, I can choose whether the
| | 01:53 |
audio from this track gets sent from the
bus pre-fader or post-fader.
| | 01:57 |
Pre-fader means that the fader on the
track itself will have no effect on the
| | 02:00 |
levels being sent to the bus.
Post-fader means adjusting the level here
| | 02:03 |
will adjust the level going to the bus
track.
| | 02:05 |
I can also use this fader right down here
to adjust the panning of the track.
| | 02:09 |
But I'm going to leave everything as it
is for now and close this window.
| | 02:11 |
Notice if I solo this bus track now and
play, I can hear the backing vocal track
| | 02:19 |
(MUSIC).
Notice also the backing vocal bus has the
| | 02:25 |
master end receive indicators lit up.
Letting us know that it's receiving audio
| | 02:29 |
from another track and sending it's audio
to the master track.
| | 02:32 |
Alright lets add the Chorus Background
Vocals to the bus track as well.
| | 02:35 |
Now another was to do this is to simply
drag the I/O button from the track onto
| | 02:39 |
the bus track.
That again open some controls for me
| | 02:42 |
which I'll leave at their defaults.
Notice that their Chorus Background
| | 02:44 |
Vocals now say send although I forgot to
turn off the master so lets do that.
| | 02:48 |
Then now Chorus Background Vocals are now
sending just to the Vocal Bus track.
| | 02:52 |
And again just with the backing vocal bus
track soloed I should be able to hear
| | 02:56 |
both tracks.
(MUSIC) And if I click the bus' I/O
| | 03:00 |
button you can see the two tracks that
are being received here.
| | 03:03 |
Receive from track 13 vocal doubles.
Receive from track 15 chorus background
| | 03:13 |
vocals and from here I can play with
their levels and panning and mix them
| | 03:24 |
relative to each other.
(MUSIC) And this really is just a one
| | 03:29 |
example of what you might do with sense
and buses.
| | 03:31 |
Another thing you might want to use a bus
for is to create a head phone mix.
| | 03:34 |
For example, may be you audio input
device has a head phone output jack.
| | 03:37 |
You as the engineer are monitoring the
audio through speakers connected to your
| | 03:40 |
computer but you'd like to provide the
head phones for the musicians you are
| | 03:43 |
recording so they can hear the track.
And often times the performers want to
| | 03:46 |
hear a different mix while they're
recording than what you need to listen to
| | 03:49 |
as the engineer.
For example, if you're recording bass,
| | 03:51 |
the bass player might want to be able to
hear a lot more kick drum to lock in with it.
| | 03:55 |
By using busses you can create alternate
mixes for your musician.
| | 03:58 |
To do this you would route all the tracks
to a bus.
| | 04:00 |
Notice I'll show you this quickly, I'll
create a new track, and let's call this
| | 04:03 |
Headphone mix and I'll click the I/O
button for that track.
| | 04:07 |
I'm going to disable the send to master
mix so the audio from this bus won't be
| | 04:10 |
heard in your computer speakers.
Now here under the Receives menu you can
| | 04:13 |
select individual tracks or choose add or
receive from all tracks.
| | 04:17 |
Which I'll select, we can see now all of
my tracks are being sent to the headphone mix.
| | 04:21 |
You can see each one of the tracks here
now has send lit up.
| | 04:24 |
Now, this doesn't disable the master
sends on each track.
| | 04:27 |
Instead, it sends a signal additionally
to the bus.
| | 04:29 |
Then here, Under Hardware Outputs, you
select the headphone port on your audio
| | 04:32 |
input device.
For example, mine might be Output 2.
| | 04:36 |
It will depend on what hardware you
happen to be using.
| | 04:38 |
But that sends all the tracks to that
headphone jack.
| | 04:41 |
From that point, it's just a matter of
using the faders here to mix the output
| | 04:43 |
from the bus.
So if the bass player wants to hear more
| | 04:45 |
kick drum, I can use the kick drum fader
here.
| | 04:47 |
Increase the level but it will have no
effect on what I'm hearing through the
| | 04:50 |
main speakers.
You'll also notice that each of these are
| | 04:53 |
set to post fader so moving the faders on
the tracks themselves will effect the
| | 04:56 |
head phone mix so if you want them to be
truly independent you'll have to switch
| | 05:00 |
them all to pre fader.
I think you get the idea.
| | 05:02 |
So those are just some uses you might
find for sounds and busses in Reaper.
| | 05:06 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Applying effects| 00:00 |
Once you have your tracks recorded,
chances are you'll want to run some or
| | 00:03 |
most of them through any number of
Reaper's built in plugin effects.
| | 00:07 |
Plugins are modules for processing your
sound.
| | 00:09 |
Reaper comes with a large number of
effects for doing things like adding
| | 00:12 |
reverb, compression, and EQ, as well as
processors for fixing pitch, adding or
| | 00:17 |
enhancing stereo effects, and much more.
You can even download and install
| | 00:21 |
additional effects from third party
developers.
| | 00:24 |
Now, I can't go into every single effect
here, but I do want to run you through
| | 00:26 |
the basic process of browsing for and
adding effects.
| | 00:29 |
Notice that each track has an effects
button.
| | 00:31 |
That opens the effects window for that
track and displays the effects browser.
| | 00:36 |
Now in my case, my browser appears in the
docker.
| | 00:38 |
But yours might appear in a floating
window depending on how you have your
| | 00:41 |
copy of Reaper set up.
But the Effects Browser is where you can
| | 00:44 |
browse and search through the installed
effects.
| | 00:47 |
Here under All Plugins, the first couple
of categories are for the various
| | 00:50 |
manufacturers and publishers of effects.
Like VST, AU or audio units, JS, and so on.
| | 00:56 |
There's also an instruments category, and
we saw this one earlier when I picked an
| | 01:00 |
instrument for the MIDI track I recorded.
Now, this is an okay way to browse
| | 01:04 |
through and see what's available.
Just click on a Category or even Select
| | 01:07 |
All Plugins, and you can scroll through
all the effects.
| | 01:10 |
But as you can see there's a ton of
effects to browse through.
| | 01:13 |
If you know the type of effect you're
looking for, its easier to type it into
| | 01:16 |
the filter list field.
For example reverb.
| | 01:20 |
Now, here on my Mac, I only have one
plugin that matches the search term and
| | 01:23 |
its the audio units matrix reverb from
Apple.
| | 01:25 |
Now you won't find this on Windows, but
if you do a search for verb, VERB, you'll
| | 01:30 |
find a couple of VST reverb plugins you
can use.
| | 01:33 |
So, double clicking a plugin adds it to
the tracks effects window, and its
| | 01:36 |
automatically applied to the track.
So, if I scroll down and solo the snare
| | 01:40 |
drum track, I'll hear the effect.
(SOUND) You can also toggle the effect on
| | 01:53 |
and off with this check box here, so you
can compare the affected sound and the
| | 01:56 |
unaffected sound.
(SOUND) Now, each effect is going to have
| | 02:08 |
a different set of controls.
This one has a bunch of different faders
| | 02:11 |
used to change the sound and strength of
the reverb.
| | 02:13 |
It also comes with a bunch of presets in
this menu.
| | 02:15 |
So I can hit play again, and try out some
of the presets.
| | 02:42 |
(SOUND) Now, you can also stack effects
on top of each other.
| | 02:44 |
Maybe in addition to reverb I also want
to add some EQ.
| | 02:48 |
So, I'll type EQ into the filterless
field and once again a bunch of plugins appear.
| | 02:54 |
Let's try the audio units parametric EQ,
and lets uncheck the reverb effect for a
| | 02:59 |
moment, so we can hear the EQ on the
original audio.
| | 03:02 |
(MUSIC) Now maybe I want to get a little
more snap from my snare drum.
| | 03:10 |
In this case, I can expand the range of
it by dragging the yellow line out.
| | 03:13 |
And then I can drag this EQ point around
while listening to the snare until I find
| | 03:17 |
a position that gets men the sound I'm
looking for.
| | 03:20 |
(SOUND) All right So that has just a
little bit more snap to it now.
| | 03:48 |
Let me hear that with the reverb.
(MUSIC) And you know I'm not actually a
| | 04:02 |
fan of that reverb now.
So, let's just select that, and click
| | 04:05 |
Remove to take it out entirely.
And we'll close this window, and just
| | 04:09 |
close the docker for a moment here.
Now, any time you have effects applied to
| | 04:13 |
a track, you'll see this FX button is lit
up green.
| | 04:16 |
Clicking the power button will toggle the
effects on and off.
| | 04:18 |
(NOISE) And clicking Effects will open
the Effects window again, so you can
| | 04:28 |
adjust the current effects, as well as
remove or add additional effects.
| | 04:37 |
You can also right click the Effects
button to select current effects to jump
| | 04:40 |
right to their settings.
So, any effects you have applied to that
| | 04:43 |
track will show up in this menu.
And there's also a recently used menu, so
| | 04:48 |
you can quickly apply other effects
you've selected recently.
| | 04:50 |
Which can be useful when you want to
apply the same effect to multiple tracks.
| | 04:53 |
So, for example, if I wanted to apply
that EQ to the high hat track as well I
| | 04:57 |
could right click on there.
Go to recently used and select that from there.
| | 05:01 |
I'm not going to do that in that case.
In fact, let's click effects again I'll
| | 05:05 |
just remove that.
Now, another way you can do this is to
| | 05:10 |
open the mixer window and expand it up a
bit.
| | 05:15 |
And you'll be able to see the effects
apply to a track.
| | 05:17 |
You can simply drag the effect to another
track to duplicate it onto that track.
| | 05:22 |
Go ahead and collapse that mixer again,
and let's just remove that effect again.
| | 05:30 |
So that's how to apply effects to your
tracks.
| | 05:33 |
Again, my objective here isn't to show
you how each plug in works, but how to
| | 05:36 |
apply them.
I strongly encourage you to check out the
| | 05:38 |
foundations of audio and other courses in
our library that are dedicated to in
| | 05:42 |
depth coverage on the most commonly used
plug ins.
| | 05:44 |
And that way you'll gain the necessary
knowledge to use all kinds of effects
| | 05:47 |
regardless of the digital audio
workstation you're using.
| | 05:50 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using automation| 00:00 |
As you are probably aware of by now, a
large part of mixing your project
| | 00:02 |
involves finding the right level for each
track by adjusting the fader.
| | 00:06 |
But you are not going to want to have
certain tracks be the exact same level
| | 00:08 |
throughout the entire song or project you
are working on.
| | 00:11 |
There may be cases where sound level will
be uneven in certain places or may be too
| | 00:14 |
loud or too quiet.
Or maybe you want to bring up an
| | 00:17 |
instrument for a solo and then take it
back down to its original level.
| | 00:20 |
Fortunately, REAPER includes a powerful
automation system that lets you specify
| | 00:23 |
exactly when you want a fader to move,
how far it moves, and how long it stays there.
| | 00:28 |
And it's not just volume levels that can
be automated.
| | 00:30 |
You can automate just about every fader
and dial in each track and even automate effects.
| | 00:34 |
Let's take a look at how this works.
For this example I'm going to use the
| | 00:38 |
Guitar 2 Dry track.
Since it appears pretty much throughout
| | 00:40 |
the entire song.
Go ahead and solo that.
| | 00:43 |
Now, during the verses we have variations
on this riff here.
| | 00:45 |
(MUSIC)
| | 00:47 |
And then during the choruses, you have
these eighth note runs.
| | 01:06 |
(MUSIC) And maybe in this case I'd like
the parts in the choruses to be a little louder.
| | 01:10 |
Now I could make that change happen by
selecting that section.
| | 01:13 |
Splitting it out into its own item and
then moving it to its own track but
| | 01:16 |
that's kind of unnecessary since I can
automate the volume of a track.
| | 01:20 |
So to automate a track click this button
here that currently says trim.
| | 01:23 |
That opens the envelope dialogue box.
Envelope is the common term for the
| | 01:27 |
automation curves we're about to create
and here we can see the range of
| | 01:30 |
parameters for.
We have volume, pan and width, which are
| | 01:33 |
all post effects, meaning they will
automated with effects applied to them if
| | 01:36 |
you've applied any effects to that track.
But we also have the option of automating
| | 01:40 |
them pre-effects/g, before the effects
are applied.
| | 01:43 |
We can also automate the mute button
which might be useful in the completely
| | 01:45 |
mute sections of the track during the
song.
| | 01:48 |
You can also automate the volume, pan and
mute to send tracks if you've created any
| | 01:51 |
sends in your project.
And if I had applied any effects to this
| | 01:54 |
track then I'll see the options to
automate those as well.
| | 01:56 |
In fact, if I scroll out here and go to
the snare, where we did apply an effect,
| | 01:59 |
and hit its Envelope button, notice I see
the options to automate the effects here
| | 02:03 |
as well.
So we can automate several parameters of
| | 02:06 |
the effects.
So, in a nut shell, envelopes are used
| | 02:09 |
when you want changes to automatically
occur over time, at specific places in
| | 02:12 |
the tracks.
Let's start with the most common type of
| | 02:15 |
envelope which is volume automation.
Go back down to the guitar track, and
| | 02:18 |
here I'll check volume.
That opens up volume lane beneath that track.
| | 02:22 |
It looks like pretty much any other
track, but it is part of my guitar track.
| | 02:25 |
Now, if I move this guitar track, the
volume lane moves along with it.
| | 02:29 |
All right, let's open up the Envelope
settings again.
| | 02:32 |
So in order to create automation, we need
to choose which method we're going to use
| | 02:35 |
from the automation mode menu.
I'm going to choose Write.
| | 02:39 |
Notice that it turns the volume faders
red to let you know you're in right mode
| | 02:42 |
and then I'm going to be effecting the
volume fader.
| | 02:45 |
If I check other parameters like pan, the
pan knob also turns red.
| | 02:48 |
I see a pan automation lane open up down
here.
| | 02:50 |
Let's uncheck pan.
Now, it's still currently highlighted in
| | 02:54 |
yellow here indicating that I did create
a pan automation but since it's off I
| | 02:56 |
don't need to worry about that.
So to create automation I'm going to play
| | 03:00 |
the song and as it's playing I'm going to
adjust the fader to the levels I want.
| | 03:04 |
In other words, I'm writing the
automation.
| | 03:06 |
You can use either of these faders for
this.
| | 03:09 |
And just so we have something a little
more visual to look at, I'm going to
| | 03:14 |
alternate bringing the volume up and down
between the guitar riffs.
| | 03:21 |
Probably not something I would really do
on this track, but just so you can see
| | 03:26 |
what automation is doing I'm going to go
ahead and do that.
| | 03:32 |
All right, so we'll play.
And I'll automate.
| | 03:36 |
(MUSIC)
| | 03:39 |
You can see in the volume lane the
automation curves I just wrote, and
| | 03:58 |
before I play that back to check my work.
I need to switch the track out of write mode.
| | 04:32 |
I'm going to switch this over to
Trim/Read.
| | 04:35 |
Otherwise, when I hit play, if I had left
that in write, REAPER would assume that I
| | 04:38 |
wanted to take another pass at that
envelope and would start writing over
| | 04:40 |
what I had just written.
As a matter of fact, you can actually go
| | 04:44 |
to REAPER preferences, option preferences
on Windows, and here find automation.
| | 04:48 |
And here at the bottom we can choose how
REAPER will behave when you're done
| | 04:51 |
writing automation.
I'm going to switch this to switch to
| | 04:54 |
trim read mode, so each time I stop I
don't have to worry about manually
| | 04:57 |
switching it back.
Of course if you do like take several
| | 05:00 |
passes at automation you might want to
leave it right mode until you feel you
| | 05:02 |
got the take and then switch it back to
trim read manually.
| | 05:05 |
But now when I play the track back you
should hear the volume changes as reaper
| | 05:12 |
reads the automation information I just
created.
| | 05:18 |
(MUSIC) So you should have been able to
hear the volume going up and down there.
| | 05:26 |
So, that's one way to write automation.
If you ever need to bypass the
| | 05:37 |
automation, to hear what the track sounds
like without it, just click the Power
| | 05:39 |
button on the automation lane to
temporary disable.
| | 05:42 |
There are a couple of other options you
can find here too by clicking the menu
| | 05:45 |
next to the Power button.
We have hide envelope, which hides the
| | 05:48 |
envelope lane.
But it's still active and will still do
| | 05:50 |
its job even though you can't see it.
Unless of course you disabled it before
| | 05:53 |
you hid it.
To bring it back, I can right-click and
| | 05:56 |
go to Envelopes.
Toggle volume visible or just press V on
| | 05:59 |
my keyboard.
We can also choose to move the envelope
| | 06:01 |
to the media lane, which overlays the
envelope directly on top of the waveform.
| | 06:06 |
You can see how it's affecting that
track.
| | 06:08 |
I can move it back by right clicking the
envelope button and choosing show all
| | 06:11 |
visible track envelopes in envelope
lanes.
| | 06:14 |
And the third option here is to clear the
envelope, which would remove the
| | 06:16 |
automation altogether.
Let me Cancel that.
| | 06:20 |
Now, another way to write automation is
to manually add the points of change in yourself.
| | 06:24 |
Let's just move the automation to the
media lane again.
| | 06:26 |
You don't have to do that but I just
want to do that for this example.
| | 06:29 |
Maybe I'll just make this a little bit
bigger.
| | 06:30 |
Now, let's say I want to increase the
volume of this next chorus again.
| | 06:33 |
This time I'm going to right-click right
at the beginning of that point on the
| | 06:36 |
envelope line.
And choose Create new point.
| | 06:39 |
That's going to be the starting point.
I'm also going to add one right next to it.
| | 06:42 |
And then I can drag that point up to
where I want the volume to be.
| | 06:45 |
Now, that's just a guess.
I might need to adjust that point up or
| | 06:47 |
down when I listen.
Now, in this case, I'll add a couple more
| | 06:50 |
points to adjust the volume in the
middle.
| | 06:53 |
I'll do one there, another control point
there.
| | 06:56 |
And put one right in the middle.
I can drag up like so.
| | 06:59 |
And again I'm just doing this so we have
something a little more visual to look at.
| | 07:02 |
In reality, I probably would not be doing
something like this to the guitar part.
| | 07:06 |
I'll just bring the vine back down at the
end of the course.
| | 07:10 |
To right about there.
So, you might find it easier to draw wave
| | 07:14 |
forms in by hand like this, instead of
moving faders while the song is playing.
| | 07:18 |
But you're also free to go back and
manually move or even remove points that
| | 07:20 |
were drawn when you were moving the
faders, like we did at the beginning here.
| | 07:24 |
I can grab points here, drag them up and
down, like so.
| | 07:28 |
Now, as you can clearly see drawing
points in by hand looks a lot less messy
| | 07:31 |
than moving the faders.
We have many more control points that are
| | 07:34 |
created when we move the fader.
Now, there's nothing really wrong with
| | 07:37 |
this but if you don't want to go in and
edit this by hand maybe you want to
| | 07:39 |
simply move the points a bit.
You can do this by right clicking
| | 07:43 |
anywhere on the envelope and choosing
reduce number of points.
| | 07:46 |
Then just use the slider here to remove
some of the points.
| | 07:48 |
You can see a lot of these points really
are probably extraneous.
| | 07:51 |
And that looks a lot more manageable to
me.
| | 07:52 |
Now, you can also right-click specific
points and delete them.
| | 07:57 |
So if I wanted to go clean this up even a
little bit more, I can just get rid of
| | 07:59 |
individual points like that.
Now, let's talk about the other
| | 08:02 |
automation modes you can use.
Let's click the Envelope button again,
| | 08:05 |
and this time let's add some panning
automation.
| | 08:07 |
So, earlier we saw we have a couple
different modes to choose from here.
| | 08:10 |
Trim/Read is the default.
Once you've added automation, you can
| | 08:13 |
switch back to trim read, which will
allow you to use the fader to adjust the
| | 08:16 |
overall volume of the track.
If you have a volume envelope on it, it
| | 08:19 |
will still bring the volume up and down
the way you wrote it, but moving the
| | 08:22 |
track's fader adjusts the overall volume
for the entire track.
| | 08:25 |
Now, in read mode, you'll actually see
the faders moving as REAPER reads the
| | 08:28 |
envelope information.
Moving the fader yourself in read mode
| | 08:31 |
has no effect.
I'll show you that for a second here.
| | 08:34 |
(MUSIC) So, you can see the fader moving
there.
| | 08:43 |
(MUSIC) It snaps back and so that's the
read mode.
| | 08:45 |
The next mode is Touch.
With touch selected no automation is
| | 08:48 |
recorded until you actually move a knob
or fader.
| | 08:51 |
When you release a knob or fader it snaps
back to its default position.
| | 08:55 |
So for example if I wanted to play with
the panning on this track in touch mode I
| | 08:58 |
could start the track playing.
Move the faders to one side and when I
| | 09:03 |
release it would snap back to the middle.
(MUSIC) So when I release it just snaps back.
| | 09:13 |
(MUSIC) I release here.
(MUSIC) It snaps back.
| | 09:26 |
So, you can see by the straight lines
here, when I release the mouse, it
| | 09:28 |
instantly snapped back to the middle of
the panning.
| | 09:31 |
And if you're listening to this on stereo
headphones, you should have been able to
| | 09:33 |
hear the panning.
All right, so that's the touch mode.
| | 09:36 |
And the last mode here is latch.
Latch is like touch in that it doesn't
| | 09:39 |
record any automation until you move the
fader.
| | 09:42 |
But once you do so, it keeps the fader
where it is, even when you release the mouse.
| | 09:46 |
Let me show that to you.
(MUSIC) So you can see, now that I've
| | 09:56 |
moved the fader.
It's overwriting what I put there before.
| | 10:06 |
(MUSIC) And it doesn't snap back to the
center position.
| | 10:08 |
(MUSIC) So Latch is similar to write but
it doesn't write anything to the track
| | 10:13 |
until you start moving things.
Where this comes in handy is if you want
| | 10:18 |
to change some of the automation you
already wrote but you don't want to
| | 10:20 |
change the whole thing.
In write mode, REAPER overwrites
| | 10:23 |
everything in the envelope.
In latch mode, as long as I don't move
| | 10:26 |
the mouse, nothing will be overwritten.
So for example, I could hit play again
| | 10:30 |
but I won't move anything until the
second half of the verse.
| | 10:33 |
(MUSIC) You can see it keeps what I have
there.
| | 10:37 |
Now, I'm going to start writing again.
You can see it's overwriting what's
| | 10:46 |
already there.
(MUSIC) That looks pretty crazy.
| | 10:50 |
But you saw there that that kept
everything that was on the envelope until
| | 10:53 |
the first movement I made and then it
started overwriting the rest of what was there.
| | 10:58 |
Now, once I'm done with an envelope I
might want to move it to the Media lane
| | 11:01 |
just so it's not taking up so much space.
Now, you'll also want to be aware of the
| | 11:06 |
state of the Envelope Move button up here
in the toolbar.
| | 11:10 |
By default, it's on, which means that
when you move a media item, the envelopes
| | 11:13 |
move with it.
If I were to move this media item you can
| | 11:16 |
see all the envelopes stay with it.
Undo that.
| | 11:20 |
But if I turn this off, the envelopes
actually stay in place, as I move the
| | 11:22 |
media item.
Undo that too.
| | 11:24 |
Now, I think in most cases you'll want to
keep them synced.
| | 11:27 |
So, I'm going to leave that turned on.
But if you don't, you can just disable
| | 11:30 |
the button.
And at this point, I could continue
| | 11:32 |
adding automation envelopes to this track
or any other track in my project.
| | 11:36 |
For instance you can even add an envelope
to the master track.
| | 11:38 |
Now, we can view the Master Track by
going to View > Master Track.
| | 11:42 |
That places the master track on display
here at the very top of all the tracks
| | 11:44 |
and it looks like a large level display.
And that's pretty much what it is.
| | 11:48 |
Let me actually unsoliticate the hard
track.
| | 11:51 |
So if I play a little of the song here
(MUSIC).
| | 11:56 |
Or maybe you want to add a fade-in and a
fade-out to your entire song when you're
| | 12:03 |
done mixing.
I'll just click the Envelope button here
| | 12:07 |
on the master track.
I'll choose Volume.
| | 12:09 |
In this case, I'll just quickly manually
draw in adding some new points here, add
| | 12:14 |
a fade in, and we'll scroll to the end of
the song and add a fade out.
| | 12:21 |
(MUSIC) And now the beginning of the song
sounds like this
| | 12:30 |
(MUSIC).
| | 12:32 |
And the end of the song, sounds like this
| | 12:40 |
(MUSIC).
| | 12:42 |
And there we have a nice fade out.
All right, so that's how we work with
| | 12:49 |
automation in REAPER.
| | 12:50 |
(BLANK_AUDIO).
| | 13:12 |
All right, so, here's an audio pick up
40405 automation.
| | 13:16 |
In the raw movie, this is a the pickup
that I did for this movie originally.
| | 13:20 |
It's at about 301 or 305 or so.
Move the fader, but once you do so, it
| | 13:25 |
keeps the fader where it is even when you
release the mouse.
| | 13:28 |
Let me show you that.
Let me show that to you.
| | 13:32 |
(SOUND).
(MUSIC) So you can see now that I've
| | 13:42 |
moved the fader, it's overwriting what I
put down there before.
| | 13:49 |
And it's been brought to my attention
that overwriting is not a word, so let's
| | 13:55 |
fix that.
So you can see that now that it's, so you
| | 14:05 |
can see now that I've moved the fader,
it's overwriting what I had there before.
| | 14:12 |
So you can see now that I've moved the
fader, it's overwriting what I had there before.
| | 14:14 |
Let me just double check that one more
time.
| | 14:19 |
(MUSIC) So, you can see now that I've
moved the fader it's overwriting what I
| | 14:25 |
put down there before.
(BLANK_AUDIO)
| | 14:30 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Locking items| 00:00 |
As you work on mixing your project, you
might want to make sure you don't
| | 00:02 |
accidentally change, move, or otherwise,
alter what you spent a lot of time
| | 00:05 |
working on.
In most cases you can lock down anywhere
| | 00:08 |
from a couple to several properties of
your project.
| | 00:11 |
The Lock button's up here in the toolbar,
it's part of the Default toolbar set.
| | 00:15 |
Clicking it just toggles it on and off.
But you can open up its Settings by
| | 00:18 |
right-clicking it.
You can also go to Options > Locking.
| | 00:21 |
Locking settings to get to the same
controls.
| | 00:23 |
And here you can see all of the things
that can be locked in Reaper.
| | 00:26 |
For example, you can lock down a time
selection, so you don't accidentally make
| | 00:28 |
another one.
You can lock down your media items
| | 00:31 |
completely by checking Items Full.
Or you can just prevent them from moving
| | 00:34 |
horizontally or vertically.
I'm going to uncheck Time Selection and
| | 00:37 |
choose Items Full and I'm going to enable
locking.
| | 00:40 |
Notice that grays out all of my media
items.
| | 00:42 |
I can't click to select them.
I can't click and drag to move them from
| | 00:45 |
track to track or left to right all
that's doing is letting me make a times selection.
| | 00:49 |
And again once you set your parameters
clicking the lock button turns those
| | 00:51 |
parameters on and off.
So with the lock off I can select and
| | 00:54 |
move media items.
With the lock on I can't.
| | 00:57 |
Lets go back to the Settings.
I'm going to uncheck Items Full.
| | 01:00 |
Let's check Items prevent left/right
movement.
| | 01:02 |
Lets also select Item fade/volume handle.
So now notice, while I can select my
| | 01:06 |
media items, I can drag them up and down
onto other tracks.
| | 01:11 |
I can't actually drag them left and right
because left and right movement is now locked.
| | 01:14 |
Just clear our time selection.
So locking the horizontal position might
| | 01:17 |
be useful if you're satisfied with the
media items location on the song and you
| | 01:20 |
don't want to accidentally nudge it left
or right.
| | 01:23 |
You'll still be able to move it to other
tracks though.
| | 01:25 |
Now, with those fade and volume controls
locked, notice a fake cursor doesn't show
| | 01:28 |
up when I put my cursor in the upper
left-hand corner of any of my media items.
| | 01:32 |
All I get is the trim controls.
And normally you can adjust individual
| | 01:34 |
media items volumes by dragging down from
the top of the item, but I can't do that
| | 01:37 |
right now.
Go back to the settings and turn off Item
| | 01:40 |
fade and volume handles.
Now I get my fade controls back, and I
| | 01:44 |
can drag down from the top to control the
overall volume of that clip.
| | 01:49 |
So as you can see, you have a lot of
power when it comes to customizing what
| | 01:52 |
the lock button will and won't lock down.
| | 01:54 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Mixing down| 00:00 |
And now, let's talk a little bit about
the basics of actually mixing.
| | 00:02 |
When you're done recording and creating
your tracks.
| | 00:05 |
You'll most likely want to be able to
share your creation with the rest of the world.
| | 00:08 |
Or you'll at least be able to want to
listen to your own recording without
| | 00:10 |
having to launch Reaper each time.
Before you export your project, you'll
| | 00:13 |
want to mix it down.
Mixing involves adjusting the levels and
| | 00:17 |
effects of each individual track.
So that they all combine or mix into a
| | 00:20 |
single audio file that sounds full,
balanced and well arranged, like a
| | 00:24 |
finished song.
Now, one option you might want to
| | 00:26 |
consider is to duplicate your project
before you start mixing.
| | 00:28 |
It's not necessary, but if you plan on
making some radical changes, you might
| | 00:32 |
feel more comfortable knowing you have a
backup copy of your project.
| | 00:34 |
To do so choose File > Save Project As
and just keep this in the same folder.
| | 00:39 |
Then I'm just going to add mix down under
the name here.
| | 00:41 |
We'll save that.
And now I have a copy of the project to
| | 00:44 |
work with as well as the original copy
that I can go back to if I somehow really
| | 00:48 |
mess things up here.
Now before you get started its a good
| | 00:50 |
idea to make sure the overall levels your
hearing are set.
| | 00:53 |
I'm going to go to the Mixer panel by
choosing View > Mixer.
| | 00:56 |
I'm just going to double click the fader
here to make sure the volume is set to
| | 00:58 |
zero db.
So, I'm neither adding nor removing
| | 01:01 |
volume from the mix.
You'll probably find it easier to mix in
| | 01:04 |
the Mixer panel because it's easier to
see more of the track faders at once
| | 01:07 |
since they're all laid out vertically.
If you have the screen space, you might
| | 01:10 |
even want to undock the mixer, and adjust
its size.
| | 01:13 |
We can make this larger.
We can adjust the individual fader slides
| | 01:16 |
like this if I wanted to make them really
large.
| | 01:18 |
I can make them smaller and I'll have a
lot of space to work with here.
| | 01:21 |
So, I'm just going to dock this back in
the docker.
| | 01:23 |
You might also want to take some time to
clean up the project and get rid of any
| | 01:27 |
unnecessary tracks or media items.
For example, I don't really need this
| | 01:30 |
headphone bus I created earlier since I'm
done recording and I don't need to create
| | 01:33 |
a headphone mix for anybody.
I can just right click it and choose
| | 01:36 |
Remove Tracks, and it's gone.
So, again the whole idea of mixing is to
| | 01:40 |
get each sound at a relative level so
that it mixes nicely with the other sound.
| | 01:43 |
But you might want to start by making
sure songs sound okay on their own by
| | 01:46 |
soloing tracks in the play list.
One might start with the kick.
| | 01:49 |
(SOUND) For some tracks you might want to
start by putting down the initial
| | 01:55 |
settings of insert effects like adding
some reverb to a vocal or EQ to a snare drum.
| | 02:02 |
I previously added some EQ to the snare
drum here, so I can click it's FX button,
| | 02:05 |
and I might want to take some time to
tweek it's setting.
| | 02:13 |
(SOUND).
Course I have to be able to hear it first.
| | 02:18 |
(SOUND) I kind of liked it where it was.
(SOUND) I'm going to bring it down a
| | 02:23 |
little bit.
Now a common practice is to start by
| | 02:26 |
mixing together sounds that are closely
related to each other.
| | 02:28 |
For example, if you have three separate
tracks of background vocals, you could
| | 02:32 |
solo them and adjust how they're blending
with each other.
| | 02:34 |
In this case, I might want to solo the
four drum tracks and play with their
| | 02:46 |
faders to mix them (MUSIC).
Now as I adjust the levels I do want to
| | 02:55 |
keep my eye on the meters of those
tracks.
| | 02:57 |
As a general rule you want your levels
loud enough so they're coming close to
| | 03:00 |
the top of the meter.
But not so loud that they hit the red
| | 03:02 |
when they might clip or distort.
Now in this case, some of my sound were
| | 03:05 |
recorded very loudly, so even though
they're hitting the red, I'm not hearing
| | 03:08 |
any clipping.
For example, the sneer goes into the red
| | 03:11 |
very easily but even if I raise the
volume, you're not going to hear it clip.
| | 03:14 |
(MUSIC).
once they get all the way up there.
| | 03:30 |
So, I'm getting a little bit of red on
the snare, now I don't want to sacrifice
| | 03:33 |
the overall volume level just so I don't
see red.
| | 03:35 |
And I'm not really hearing any
distrotions.
| | 03:37 |
So, these tracks are probably okay.
I can also add some compression to the
| | 03:40 |
master track when I'm done mixing to
control the overall level a bit more.
| | 03:44 |
I'll get to that in just a moment.
So, we just continue going through,
| | 03:46 |
adding tracks back into the mix.
(MUSIC) Now I've been soloing tracks as I
| | 03:59 |
go through, but you might find it easier
to mute all the tracks first and then
| | 04:02 |
unmute them as you add them back.
That way you don't have to go through and
| | 04:05 |
unsolo all the tracks when you're done.
Although a quick way to unsolo all the
| | 04:07 |
tracks is to hold Cmd or Ctrl on Windows
click any of the solo buttons and I will
| | 04:12 |
un-solo all the tracks.
And a quick way to mute all the tracks is
| | 04:15 |
to click a Mute button and drag through
all the tracks.
| | 04:18 |
Sure I got them all there.
And then I can just keep adding tracks
| | 04:21 |
back in as I mix.
(MUSIC) (MUSIC) Now, I'm obviously doing
| | 04:56 |
this very quickly.
In a real mixing situation, you might
| | 04:59 |
spend an hour or two just getting your
drum sounds.
| | 05:01 |
And then you might spend another half
hour tweaking the bass by adjusting its
| | 05:04 |
EQ and playing with its compression.
But the idea here is just keep adding
| | 05:07 |
instruments back into your mix and
finding where they should sit in the
| | 05:10 |
overall project.
Now as I mentioned the levels in these
| | 05:12 |
track are fairly hot, meaning loud,
that's causing my master fader to go into
| | 05:16 |
the red.
Now to mitigate this one thing I can do
| | 05:18 |
is go to the master track and to add it
previously if you don't see go to View >
| | 05:22 |
Master track.
And here, I'll click Effects, do a search
| | 05:25 |
for a compressor plug in.
You'll just have to search for compress.
| | 05:29 |
And here's the Apple audio units multi
band compressor.
| | 05:31 |
We'll just double click to add that.
Now, if you're on Windows, do a search
| | 05:35 |
for comp, comp, to find the vst recomp
plug in.
| | 05:40 |
And I'm just going to go with one of the
presets here.
| | 05:42 |
I'll choose Fast and Smooth for example
if your using one of the VST compressors
| | 05:46 |
on windows you'll also find a menu of
presets.
| | 05:48 |
So, lets here how this sounds.
(MUSIC) (MUSIC) (MUSIC).
| | 05:50 |
You can see that's already mitigating
some of the levels we're getting there.
| | 06:23 |
I could even start bringing this up a
little bit, if I wanted to.
| | 06:26 |
I'm going to add a little post gain here,
just to bring the overall levels up a
| | 06:28 |
little bit.
(MUSIC).
| | 06:29 |
(MUSIC) So, that definitely helped a
little bit with the overall levels.
| | 06:52 |
But that's the basic gist.
If you really want to get into the down
| | 06:55 |
and dirty details of mixing skills,
definitely be sure to check out the
| | 06:58 |
course called Audio Mixing Bootcamp at
Linda.com.
| | 07:01 |
You'll find nearly nine hours of
instruction on everything you need to
| | 07:03 |
know to mix your songs effectively and
efficiently.
| | 07:05 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Consolidating and exporting| 00:00 |
Once you're satisfied your mix or even if
you just want to review your mix at
| | 00:03 |
another location you most likely want to
save it as a single file so you can play
| | 00:07 |
it for others or burn it to a CD.
use it as a sound track for a video or
| | 00:10 |
any number of other things you might want
to do with project once it's been
| | 00:13 |
exported as a single file.
Or alternately maybe you want to export
| | 00:17 |
the individual tracks as independant
files so they can be imported into
| | 00:20 |
another digital audio work station.
Whatever the case you'll first go to
| | 00:23 |
file, render.
The very top of this window is the render menu.
| | 00:27 |
Here you're going to choose whether
you're going to render the master mix,
| | 00:30 |
which means you're going to export the
entire project as it's currently mixed to
| | 00:32 |
a single file.
Now this is what you would choose if you
| | 00:35 |
want to share your song with others in a
format they'll be able to open on most
| | 00:38 |
computers Computers more on that in just
a moment.
| | 00:39 |
Can also choose to export stems.
A stem is the term for each track of your project.
| | 00:45 |
Choosing to export stems means you'll get
a separate audio file for each track.
| | 00:48 |
So for instance you'll get a bass stem a
kick drum stem a vocal stem and so on.
| | 00:52 |
This is what you might choose if you want
to export each stem separately so they
| | 00:55 |
can be imported onto separate tracks in
another audio editing program.
| | 00:59 |
Or you can choose to export both a master
mix and stem.
| | 01:01 |
Let's go with master mix for now.
And below that we have the render bounds.
| | 01:05 |
Here you can choose to export the entire
project, or just a custom time range you
| | 01:09 |
can enter here.
You can enter this information.
| | 01:11 |
You can also a time selection you might
have made in your project.
| | 01:14 |
Or you can export project regions.
Now regions weren't the topic we covered
| | 01:17 |
in this course but essentially regions
allow you to label sections of your
| | 01:20 |
projects like verse one, course one,
verse two and so on.
| | 01:23 |
So if you wanted to only export the
verses for example, you can click the
| | 01:27 |
region manager select them.
But in this case lets just go with the
| | 01:29 |
entire project.
Next we have the output section.
| | 01:32 |
Under directory you can choose where you
want the rendered files saved to.
| | 01:35 |
By default we will export to the Media
folder of your project.
| | 01:39 |
But you can click Browse to choose
another location.
| | 01:41 |
Here's browse for directory, just go to
my Desktop, I'll create a new folder I'll
| | 01:45 |
just call this one Exports.
Choose that.
| | 01:48 |
Next you can pick a file name.
Reaper just uses the project name in this case.
| | 01:51 |
Notice you also this Wild Cards button.
Wild Card allows you name the files based
| | 01:56 |
on the wild card you select like tracks
or project name and tempo.
| | 01:59 |
So for example, if I'm going to be
exporting several versions or mixes of
| | 02:02 |
this track to see how each one sounds, I
might want to time stamp them to keep
| | 02:05 |
track of the versions.
So I'm just going to delete this current
| | 02:08 |
file name, and maybe I'll just choose
Project.
| | 02:10 |
That'll automatically add the project
name back, but also going to choose the month.
| | 02:15 |
The day, the hour, and the minute.
Now, the render two filter shows me where
| | 02:19 |
the file is going to go, and what's it's
called.
| | 02:22 |
So then I just click in here and scroll
over, and you can see the name is
| | 02:25 |
breakdown mode all tracks, mix down,
followed by the current month, the day,
| | 02:29 |
the hour and the minute.
All right, next we have the options section.
| | 02:33 |
You'll probably want to keep your sample
rate the same as the project But you're
| | 02:37 |
free to change it here.
I'll also leave this as a stereo file.
| | 02:40 |
Now this menu to the right lets you
decide how quickly the project is rendered.
| | 02:44 |
Online Render renders the file in real
time.
| | 02:46 |
So you'll actually be able to hear the
track as it's being exported.
| | 02:49 |
This is useful if you want to review the
track to make sure there aren't any
| | 02:52 |
mistakes or things you missed.
This might be your last chance to listen
| | 02:55 |
to the mix before you send the file off.
You can also choose One Time Offline
| | 02:58 |
Which renders at the same speed but you
won't hear the track playback.
| | 03:01 |
You can also choose fullspeed offline
which is the fastest speed based on your
| | 03:05 |
computers processor and won't be able to
listen as it's exporting.
| | 03:09 |
I'll that selected.
Now under output format is where you
| | 03:11 |
choose the file format for the final
file.
| | 03:14 |
The default export is to save your
project as a wave file.
| | 03:16 |
Wave's are a uncompressed high quality
audio files that can be read by both macs
| | 03:20 |
and PCs.
AIF files are also high quality
| | 03:23 |
uncompressed files.
But some PCs can't read them without
| | 03:25 |
additional software.
So WAV is probably the better choice if
| | 03:28 |
you need a high quality file.
WAVS and AIFs also tend to have large
| | 03:31 |
file sizes.
Now, you can export your song as a
| | 03:34 |
variety of other formats like MP3, which
is a compressed format you're most likely
| | 03:38 |
familiar with.
MP3s are nice when you're not concerned
| | 03:40 |
with the highest quality audio.
And instead, want a smaller file size.
| | 03:43 |
So it still sounds good but can be
emailed, and can be played by any
| | 03:46 |
computer or MP3 device.
Generally, though, if you're going for
| | 03:49 |
the best quality, regardless of file
size, Wavs are the way to go since
| | 03:52 |
they're the most cross-platform
compatible.
| | 03:55 |
You probably won't use the other formats
that you see here very often unless
| | 03:57 |
someone specifically requests one of them
from you.
| | 03:59 |
Or maybe you'll just a fan of the FLAC
format or the Aug Vorbis format.
| | 04:03 |
But those require special plug-ins to
play on most computers.
| | 04:06 |
I'll keep wav selected.
Now based on which file type you choose
| | 04:09 |
you'll see different options below that
menu.
| | 04:10 |
For wavs and AIFs you can choose their
bit depths, and the wav format has
| | 04:14 |
additional options.
But again, in most cases you'll be fine
| | 04:17 |
with default settings.
Now there are a couple other options here.
| | 04:19 |
Silently increment file names to avoid
overwriting does just what it says.
| | 04:23 |
Reaper will add numbers to the file names
if you export multiple versions so you
| | 04:27 |
don't overwrite the previous one.
Add items to new tracks in project when
| | 04:30 |
finished also does what it says.
In addition to exporting the file it will
| | 04:33 |
also add the file to its own track in
your project.
| | 04:36 |
And you can also check save a copy of
project to out file.wave.rp.
| | 04:40 |
This creates a time and date stamp copy
of your project file with all of its
| | 04:43 |
current settings.
You can use that file as backup, and it
| | 04:46 |
also frees you to play around with the
mix some more without having to worry
| | 04:48 |
about trying to get back to its current
state later.
| | 04:50 |
I'm just going to leave all of those
unchecked.
| | 04:52 |
Lastly, we have a couple of buttons that
have to do with the render queue.
| | 04:55 |
If I'm only interested in rendering out
this one file, I could just click Render
| | 04:58 |
One File and start the process
immediately.
| | 05:00 |
But you also have the option of adding
the current file to your render queue.
| | 05:03 |
Let's do that.
Now, clicking that closes the window but
| | 05:06 |
if I go back to File > Render > Open
Render Queue, I'll see the project here,
| | 05:11 |
ready to be rendered.
So what the queue does is allow me to set
| | 05:14 |
up multiple (INAUDIBLE) projects.
So if I need to export all multiple
| | 05:17 |
versions of a song I wouldn't have to sit
here waiting for each one to be done so I
| | 05:20 |
can change the settings.
Instead, I can add them all to the queue,
| | 05:23 |
and just start the queue and I can walk
away all (INAUDIBLE) doing its work.
| | 05:27 |
So for example, may be an addition to
exporting the entire mix, I have also
| | 05:30 |
been asked to export a mix of just the
drums stance.
| | 05:33 |
And close the cue and the render window
for a moment.
| | 05:36 |
Hide my docker.
So I'll click the first drum track and
| | 05:39 |
I'll shift click last drum track to
select all four of them.
| | 05:42 |
Now I'll choose file, render again.
This time I'll choose to render selected tracks.
| | 05:47 |
Also clear the current file name here.
And I'll add a wild card of track.
| | 05:52 |
So you can see right away, that'll be
rendered just as 808 kick, for example.
| | 05:55 |
This is going to be four files.
If I click that, I can see the names of
| | 05:58 |
each of the four files.
And I'll add this to the render queue.
| | 06:00 |
Go back to render one more time.
And if I open the render queue, here are
| | 06:03 |
my two queued renders.
So I'm ready to export them now.
| | 06:06 |
So I'll click render all.
You can see how fast Reaper is working,
| | 06:12 |
going through the entire mix right now.
In about 17 times real time, and that's
| | 06:17 |
rendering out the individual stance,
going much faster.
| | 06:19 |
Looks like it's done, I'll Close this,
hide Reaper for a moment.
| | 06:23 |
Here's that export folder I created on my
desktop.
| | 06:25 |
Looking here, I can see here is the wave
file for the entire mix, as well as the
| | 06:29 |
four original stems of the drums that I
exported.
| | 06:32 |
So you can see that the render sheet can
really be convenient if you have a lot of
| | 06:35 |
exporting to do.
Just send everything to the queue start
| | 06:38 |
it up and then you can walk away while
Reaper does its thing.
| | 06:40 |
And when you come back all your files
will be waiting for you.
| | 06:43 |
So that's how to export your mix down and
stems with Reaper.
| | 06:45 |
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ConclusionGoodbye| 00:00 |
And there you have it.
I hope you've enjoyed this quick look at
| | 00:03 |
Reaper, and that you'll be able to take
what you've learned here and apply it to
| | 00:05 |
your own songs and projects.
And really we've only just scratched the
| | 00:08 |
surface of what this incredibly powerful
digital audio work station is capable of.
| | 00:12 |
I encourage you to play around and
explore on your own.
| | 00:14 |
And also, be sure to check out the other
courses in our audio channel, I mentioned
| | 00:18 |
some of them throughout this course.
We have several titles that cover
| | 00:21 |
fundamental skills and knowledge such as
audio recording techniques, audio mixing bootcamp.
| | 00:26 |
And our foundations of audio series and
they all contain tons of valuable
| | 00:29 |
information that can be applied to any
digital audio workstation.
| | 00:32 |
Visit lynda.com/audio to browse our
entire selection.
| | 00:36 |
But that does it for now, so until next
time, I'm Garrick Chow.
| | 00:39 |
See you soon.
| | 00:41 |
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