tommy wrote: Wed Dec 06, 2023 1:37 pm

numberthirty wrote: Tue Dec 05, 2023 3:27 pm I take it that the Google sorted out switching inputs?

Sorta! As with everything, I do it the hard way. The you tube stuff I watched all said right click on the track, but it’s really right click on the track REC button specifically. Clicking anywhere else gives a different menu. ALSO, I noticed after the fact that just clicking on the track record button shows you the input by way of adding another line of options previously unshown, where you can also change the input.

Figured out adding an effects track you can send multiple tracks to. But it seems you cannot mute it in the mixer to test dry vs level for some reason. Is there a different way of doing this? Or is that the way to do an effects buss in Reaper?

On this...

It also took me a minute to get that the "Record..." button was where a user needed to be.

That said, it does make a sort of sense in "You Apparently Want To Record. Exactly What Would You Like To Record?..." way.

numberthirty wrote: Wed Dec 06, 2023 7:21 pm

tommy wrote: Wed Dec 06, 2023 1:37 pm

numberthirty wrote: Tue Dec 05, 2023 3:27 pm I take it that the Google sorted out switching inputs?

Sorta! As with everything, I do it the hard way. The you tube stuff I watched all said right click on the track, but it’s really right click on the track REC button specifically. Clicking anywhere else gives a different menu. ALSO, I noticed after the fact that just clicking on the track record button shows you the input by way of adding another line of options previously unshown, where you can also change the input.

Figured out adding an effects track you can send multiple tracks to. But it seems you cannot mute it in the mixer to test dry vs level for some reason. Is there a different way of doing this? Or is that the way to do an effects buss in Reaper?

On this...

It also took me a minute to get that the "Record..." button was where a user needed to be.

That said, it does make a sort of sense in "You Apparently Want To Record. Exactly What Would You Like To Record?..." way.

That hiding of the input menu pulldown as a default look annoys me a lot. I never need stuff to hide. show mw everything. Luckily you can choose to have it visible all the time as long as there is enough track height in the Options menu so my input pull down doesn't disappear when I unarm a track. The problem with Reaper is the best part about Reaper. Customization. If you aren't interested in digging in and making it work how you want, I don't suggest it. It's default is really not very user friendly, and if I open a default Reaper install, i'm instantly confused because I can't find anything. Anyway, if you go to Options>Layouts>Track Panel>200% B it should give you a track panel where you can see everything, as long as you have the track height tall enough to fit it all. Right click Rec arm does give you the menu, but is really where the fun record functions like Record/Replace and Record Output etc... are. If yo are in 200% B mode, you see a pull down for that jazz on the track too.

Nate Dort wrote: Wed Dec 06, 2023 4:52 pm

tommy wrote:Wed Dec 06, 2023 2:33 pm

Nate Dort wrote: Wed Dec 06, 2023 2:07 pm

I assume you're using the send/receive function to route sources to your fx track. Either way, the mute button on the mixer will mute everything on that track, including any receives from other tracks. I regularly use this for a reverb bus.

In fact, this is one of the things I don't like about Reaper. It makes creating headphone sends a pain in the ass, as there's no way to do a pre-mute send. The mute is essentially the first thing in the signal path, so any mutes you make in the control room will be heard in the studio headphone mixes, regardless if your send is pre- or post-fader.

I created a new track and called it VOX FX. I put the input to a random stereo pair (5/6) because I can’t see any other way to create a stereo track. I used the send on three different vocal tracks to go to track VOX FX. I didn’t use return. I then put both an EQ (to drop some of the low end) and a reverb 100% wet on that VOX FX track. Turn the fader half way up and hear lots of reverb. If I hit mute on the VOX FX track I still hear reverb. Makes zero sense to me.

Tracks are stereo by default. No need to assign a stereo pair as input.

What you're describing should work. However, I've gotten in the habit of using track folders instead of sends for situations like this, where you want all the guitars or all of the vocal tracks to go through one set of effects. It basically allows you to create a submix and have a single fader for each group. I find this way easer to mix than having to adjust all of the submix elements indivdually.

Boom! Yeah, this is the type of info I was talking about. Had to google Track Folder, because wtf is a track folder? And yeah, that sounds like a better solution. Also good to know about all tracks are stereo, which brings me to the next question. Is that true when I export stems? Because I don’t want to double the file sizes when I don’t need to. 99% of the wavs I’ll need going out will be mono.

Kniferide wrote: Thu Dec 07, 2023 11:28 am That hiding of the input menu pulldown as a default look annoys me a lot. I never need stuff to hide. show mw everything. Luckily you can choose to have it visible all the time as long as there is enough track height in the Options menu so my input pull down doesn't disappear when I unarm a track. The problem with Reaper is the best part about Reaper. Customization. If you aren't interested in digging in and making it work how you want, I don't suggest it. Its default is really not very user friendly, and if I open a default Reaper install, i'm instantly confused because I can't find anything. Anyway, if you go to Options>Layouts>Track Panel>200% B it should give you a track panel where you can see everything, as long as you have the track height tall enough to fit it all. Right click Rec arm does give you the menu, but is really where the fun record functions like Record/Replace and Record Output etc... are. If yo are in 200% B mode, you see a pull down for that jazz on the track too.

9 times out of 10 I’ll take user friendly over infinitely customizable. I’m giving it 90 days and if I’m still struggling or am not really g digging some of the more useful tools in it, I’ll pony up for an entry or mid level version of Pro Tools and go back to what I know.

tommy wrote: Thu Dec 07, 2023 11:33 am Is that true when I export stems? Because I don’t want to double the file sizes when I don’t need to. 99% of the wavs I’ll need going out will be mono.

Depends on how you do your stems. If you export (or render) each track or submix individually, it'll be whatever you set the output as in the render menu, either mono or stereo.

If you want to create a single comped file of a bunch of various takes within the same track, I like the "glue" function, which will create a new single .wav file in your project folder. In that case, if all of the source takes are mono, your new glued file will be mono.

Yeah if you are rendering stems, you can choose whatever you want, and technically, Every track is 64 (now 128 in version 7) audio channels, not stereo. You can host 64 channels of audio on every single track in reaper. Now that they added parallel FX insert processing, this can get kinda wild as each track is functionally a DAW on it's own. I record Drums to 12 channel tracks all the time if I'm going to cut it into loops because it's easier to cut a single track than 12 individual channels. A "track" in reaper is a blank slate and functions how you dictate it to function. It's a lot. It is totally possible to ignore 90% of Reapers advanced functions though and use it as simple as you want, It may take a hour or two of GUI poking to get it how you like but it will be fast and easy forever more after that. Learning to search the Actions list and making shortcuts of buttons for your most used functions can especially make it smooth. It's a 1968 Chevelle of DAWs, A lot under the hood but you gotta get your hands dirty. Some people prefer a Tesla, Shiny, Goes fast when you hit the pedal, but you can do absolutely nothing to it yourself other than pay more for upgraded features

tommy wrote: Thu Dec 07, 2023 11:33 am. Had to google Track Folder, because wtf is a track folder?

A Folder Track is simply a Group Buss Folder. You create a empty track and can drag multiple tracks into that track to give them a group master. I folder everything. Like Ill have Kick, Snare, Overheads in a Drums Master Folder. The individual tracks stop feeding the Master out bus and instead feed the Drum master bus so you can control all the drums with a single fader, compress the entire drum mix, send the entire drum mix to a reverb send... anything yo would do with a group bus on a console. It also idents the tracks feeding the folder so you can easily see every track in the bus. I have Auto Color turned on so Every track with "Master" in the name turns red so I can easily see all my bus masters in the mixer. Its really fast for organizing projects with lots of tracks very fast and unlike a send you make with the typical routing feature gives you a very strong visual cue of the overall routing.

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)?

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.

numberthirty wrote: Tue Dec 12, 2023 6:05 pm

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.