Yeah.. so the place to check for that is Preferences > Recording Devices. Reaper doesn't automatically change the interface settings when you unplug/plug it back in (annoying quirk I've just kind of accepted). My Focusrite Saffire didn't have a software app when I was using it (7-8 years ago) but you'll need to make sure that's running too when you have Reaper going. That annoys me with the Audient stuff (which also has an App called ID) but in a different way: I won't hear any playback at all even though I see the meters moving.
I use Reaper in a very linear manner recording analog tracks mostly straight thru, no click, with punches, but mostly tracking like you would a tape machine.
I’d like to do some demo writing that’s a little more loop oriented, like maybe build a bass phrase, loop it, overdub a drum track etc. I’m cool with playing to a click and aligning to a grid and all that. Does Reaper facilitate this? I realize this kind of writing process is super common, but I never worked like that, so pardon my ignorance. I’d love to not have to learn/buy another DAW, but if Reaper is clearly outclassed for this kind of stuff I’d consider other tools.
Edit: if it wasn’t clear, drums would be a miced acoustic kit, not a machine. In case that matters…
tommy wrote: Tue Dec 12, 2023 5:03 pm
Next dumb question!
I have 6-8 mics plugged into my interlace at all times. All of my tracks have specific inputs selected for them. i.e all input channels are not purposely summed together. For some reason I can hear ALL of them in my headphones all of the time regardless as the whether I have a track record enabled. I can’t seem to figure out why. I’ve tried Focusrite’s Control software thinking it might be in there and come up with nothing. So now I’m
Thinking this must be a Reaper setup.
How can I restrict what I’m hearing to only the record-enabled mics (and any track already recorded that isn’t muted during playback)?
Any chance this could be a "Direct..." monitor issue?
While I get that it could be something else, this feels like it could be that the interface is passing the "Direct..." signal versus what is coming out of Reaper.
This. Sounds like you are monitoring your IO inputs directly. I don't know Focusrites mixer that well but you should be able to change that. P.S. what I have used of the Focusrite software at work with our 18i20's... I hate it a lot. It's bad and I dislike how they work all together.
Fixed it. For those playing along it was their Control software. Despite actually reading the manual it still wasn’t clear to me. Basically, within the app you can have inputs always going to the monitor outs headphones included. I’m guessing this is set up as a default for inputs 1 and 2 because lots of people use these to play guitar through plugins. Why they feel the need to have to do this all the time without arming a track or two for recording is beyond me. I guess maybe there’s a scenario where you want to do that without a DAW? I had two really hot live mics on inputs 1 and 2 that made it sound like all mics were live.
For the record I do have the 18i20. Which doesn’t have the direct monitoring button. Turns out it’s a DIM button that I will never use.
Fixed!
Last edited by tommy on Wed Dec 13, 2023 9:31 am, edited 1 time in total.
I've been using Reaper a lot more recently than I have in the past 15 years or so. To the point where now I want customizations to suite my needs, rather than just using whatever is stock. I fell down the rabbit hole of the Reaper Blog on youtube, which I think is a great channel for answering your Reaper questions or learning new workflows or improving the experience. Discovering the Reapack and SWS have been game changers since installing them.
Folders are great, and I had to look up what the difference between a folder and a buss was. The answer: nothing, they're the same. There's a lot going on in Reaper that just simplifies things for us. It sits somewhere in the middle between a traditional DAW and modern software design. The fact that its open source with a vital community has probably contributed to that, because just like folders being busses, there's almost always more than one way to do something in Reaper and that can make it feel very daunting.
Despite all that, when I was setting up my studio two years ago, I was using different DAWs to see which one works best for me. Once I started using Reaper, it just felt natural and I never looked back. I also like that it's open source and that if you want to pay for it, it's inexpensive while covering 2 full versions, which would get you 6-8 years worth of upgrades.
If you haven't done this yet and are new to Reaper or feel that you need to dive deeper, I would really recommend watching this. Even though it's for Reaper 6 and you might be on 7, you'll get a lot of out of it.
twelvepoint wrote: Wed Dec 13, 2023 8:50 am
I use Reaper in a very linear manner recording analog tracks mostly straight thru, no click, with punches, but mostly tracking like you would a tape machine.
I’d like to do some demo writing that’s a little more loop oriented, like maybe build a bass phrase, loop it, overdub a drum track etc. I’m cool with playing to a click and aligning to a grid and all that. Does Reaper facilitate this? I realize this kind of writing process is super common, but I never worked like that, so pardon my ignorance. I’d love to not have to learn/buy another DAW, but if Reaper is clearly outclassed for this kind of stuff I’d consider other tools.
Edit: if it wasn’t clear, drums would be a miced acoustic kit, not a machine. In case that matters…
Yeah, that's all quite doable, just set up your bpm and grid settings up front (you'll see grid and snip icons on the top left, which usually default to On anyway). I find that the metronome volume is a bit low for drums, so go adjust that in Options, Metronome Settings.
It's true there are better DAWs for making loops and beats, but copying and pasting sections in Reaper isn't too bad with a bit of practice.
Thanks Penningtron. I’ll move ahead with Reaper. I vaguely know how to set up tempo and grid so I’m sure I can sort it out.
If I want to, for example, take an 8 bar section of 6 drum tracks and loop it 4 times, is that just multi-select, copy, paste? Or does Reaper have a “loop X number of times” functionality?
twelvepoint wrote: Wed Dec 13, 2023 9:48 am
Thanks Penningtron. I’ll move ahead with Reaper. I vaguely know how to set up tempo and grid so I’m sure I can sort it out.
If I want to, for example, take an 8 bar section of 6 drum tracks and loop it 4 times, is that just multi-select, copy, paste? Or does Reaper have a “loop X number of times” functionality?
The latter may exist but honestly Cmd C and Cmd V are so easy I just use those, and with the grid snap settings it's super easy to move or paste into place. Cmd S is another useful one: adding splice points. All of this stuff is fairly intuitive to just dive into, such selecting time sections to copy and making sure appropriate tracks are selected (hold Shift.. normal computer stuff)
Any chance this could be a "Direct..." monitor issue?
While I get that it could be something else, this feels like it could be that the interface is passing the "Direct..." signal versus what is coming out of Reaper.
This. Sounds like you are monitoring your IO inputs directly. I don't know Focusrites mixer that well but you should be able to change that. P.S. what I have used of the Focusrite software at work with our 18i20's... I hate it a lot. It's bad and I dislike how they work all together.
Fixed it. For those playing along it was their Control software. Despite actually reading the manual it still wasn’t clear to me. Basically, within the app you can have inputs always going to the monitor outs headphones included. I’m guessing this is set up as a default for inputs 1 and 2 because lots of people use these to play guitar through plugins. Why they feel the need to have to do this all the time without arming a track or two for recording is beyond me. I guess maybe there’s a scenario where you want to do that without a DAW? I had two really hot live mics on inputs 1 and 2 that made it sound like all mics were live.
For the record I do have the 18i20. Which doesn’t have the direct monitoring button. Turns out it’s a DIM button that I will never use.
Fixed!
They do it so you can monitor input independent of your DAW without latency. Some recording apps don't even offer monitor input (or did in the old days) so it is default so that out of the box, if you plug in headphones you can hear something hitting the IO. Your software monitoring application works completely independent of your DAW and does not take into consideration whether you have a track armed. Think of the IO control App input monitoring as being PRE-DAW line taps. When you use the monitoring built into the DAW it is Post DAW and will be Latent by how many ever milliseconds the buffer size of your ASIO/Core audio setting dictate. You cannot monitor this way without latency usually, to monitor free of delay, you have to disable DAW monitoring and monitor the input from the IO control Panel.
twelvepoint wrote: Wed Dec 13, 2023 9:48 am
Thanks Penningtron. I’ll move ahead with Reaper. I vaguely know how to set up tempo and grid so I’m sure I can sort it out.
If I want to, for example, take an 8 bar section of 6 drum tracks and loop it 4 times, is that just multi-select, copy, paste? Or does Reaper have a “loop X number of times” functionality?
The latter may exist but honestly Cmd C and Cmd V are so easy I just use those, and with the grid snap settings it's super easy to move or paste into place. Cmd S is another useful one: adding splice points. All of this stuff is fairly intuitive to just dive into, such selecting time sections to copy and making sure appropriate tracks are selected (hold Shift.. normal computer stuff)
Yes, select the bars you want to copy, make sure the time cursor snapped to the end of said bars and then hit ctrl v as many times you like and the loops will be lined up correctly (that is if you have the snap function enabled) . Set the grid to 1/4 or 1/8, that will prevent you from placing the time cursor off of the actual bar length.
Also if you don’t like the internal metronome, get a free drum plug-in, set up an instrument and program a click track that is more comfortable to play along.
And a little more detailed, there is a tap tempo button next to tempo display in the transport field.
Reaper also has a detect tempo function. Record a part without setting the tempo. Disable the snap to grid function and set the loop starting point to the 1 of the part you played. Then set the loop end point so you get a loop that sounds „round“. Then you right click into the time line and choose „detect tempo from time selection“. To do this you have to make sure that in the preferences the function snap time selection to loop points is enabled. This will set the tempo to something like xx.yyy which you might correct to an even number, but it gives you a good idea of the tempo of your recording.