Recording Reaper - Very, Very Basic Guide (Video)

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyuECL6WgqA&feature=emb_logo


Quite a few of us on here love and constantly recommend Reaper, but because it's a real studio application many people assume that it will be far too complicated to use ... especially for simple recordings over a backing track.

But it's not. And, hopefully, here's the proof.

This is my first ever 'how to' video so it's not perfect but it should get you started.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask. And sorry for the lower than ideal video resolution.

 

[Paul Bassett]

Thank you very helpful

 

[Steve Marshall]

Looks like a good program. How easy is it if you have a mistake and need to chop out a bar and splice in a new one?

 

[Veggie Dave]

It couldn't be easier. Place the cursor on the take where you want to make a cut and press 'S'. Delete or move the bit you want to replace and either rerecord the bar you're replacing on a new track and then drop it in the gap or, if you have a previous take, cut and paste it into the gap.

Should take seconds to do.

 

[Veggie Dave]

Here are four timelines. Between 11 and 15 seconds there's a bar that isn't played right. The rest of the take couldn't be more perfect but that one bar ruins the whole thing. You could do a whole new take and hope it's as good, or you could leave it as it is and live with that awful four seconds.

Or you could record a drop-in.

Cut that main take before and after the bar you want to remove. Delete or move it to a muted track. Create a new track and rerecord that one bar.

Put your cursor at either end of the take and drag to make your take the correct length to fit in the gap,

In this example, the drop-in which is otherwise perfect plays for slightly too long. So, put your cursor to the top right of the clip and drag. Voila, you've now added a simple fade-out to the take that sounds perfectly natural and creates an edit that no one will ever notice.

 

[Steve Marshall]

Thanks - looks easy. My partner is having a hard time trying to use Audacity. She can't seem to get a bit spliced in without a little glitch.

 

[Veggie Dave]

Trying to do this sort of thing in Audacity is hard work. In fact, trying to anything in Audacity is hard work. 😉

 

[Jeanette]

I'm just downloading Reaper. No doubt I will be back with questions 🙂

Jx

 

[Veggie Dave]

I'm just downloading Reaper. No doubt I will be back with questions 🙂

Don't be scared or put off by the hundreds of options you find in the various menus. It really is as easy as it looks in the vid.

 

[Jeanette]

I'm going to have to use this as Audacity is playing up again. But I have a question how do I delete a track? 🙂

I want to delete one of the backing tracks and import a different one to use with my recording

Apologies if it is in the video which I have watched a couple of times a while ago 🙂

Jx

 

[Veggie Dave]

Click on it/highlight it and hit Delete.

Voila. 🙂

 

[Jeanette]

Click on it/highlight it and hit Delete.

Voila. 🙂

Oh so simple when you know how

Thank you

Jxx

 

[Veggie Dave]

Reaper is remarkably simple to use - generally the most obvious way to do something is exactly how it does it.

The exact opposite of my experience with Audacity. 😉

 

[Jeanette]

Reaper is remarkably simple to use - generally the most obvious way to do something is exactly how it does it.

The exact opposite of my experience with Audacity. 😉

I've used audacity from the start and managed really well with it but sometimes it stops working and I can't be bothered with all the troubleshooting. I downloaded this on your recommendation and have tinkered every now and again but always gone back to audacity but I'll give it a fair trial this time. Probably more questions to come....

Jx

 

[Jeanette]

@Veggie Dave Help!

How do I get the backing track to start later. By the time I've hit record it's too far in to the tune and I'm knocking my teeth out trying to get my sax in my mouth. I tried moving the track but that just cut off the start?

Jx

 

[Veggie Dave]

Don't click on the edge of the file (that's how you change its length), click anywhere else on its length and drag it. It will move to where ever you put it.

 

[Jeanette]

It will move to where ever you put it.

Indeed it does, I will owe you a pint soon 🙂

Thank you

Jx

 

[Veggie Dave]

Are you using your Focusrite?

If so, make sure Reaper is using the Focusrite ASIO driver.

Options > Preferences.

In the window that opens choose Device.

On the right hand panel, the pull-down menu at the top should say 'ASIO'. If it says 'Direct Sound', 'Wave Out' etc. then change it to ASIO. This will cure any potential lag problems.

 

[Jeanette]

No I'm using my zoom.
Something very strange is happening though. In Audacity if I load a backing track and record I will have two distinct tracks the original backing and my recorded track until I save them as an mp3 file.

I have just deleted the backing track in Reaper to listen to my sax on it's own and I can hear the backing track?

Jx

 

[Veggie Dave]

Your Zoom is plugged into your laptop/PC via USB and Reaper is using it as a microphone?

If so, you can still use an ASIO driver to make your system run at optimum performance and reduce lag to almost zero. We'll get to that in a minute.

Right, first off, you don't need to delete anything from your timeline to hear your recording on its own. You can mute the backing track channel by pressing M (for Mute) on the channel, or you can press S (for Solo) on your recording track.

Hearing the backing - are you sure you deleted the backing track? Also, did you use headphones when recording? Even if you did, it's possible for the mic to pick up sound from the headphones. I'd have to hear the problem and also know/see exactly how you're recording yourself.

Back to the driver. Install this and then choose ASIO as described above: ASIO4ALL - Universal ASIO Driver For WDM Audio