Reaper envelopes

FunkyWhiteBoy

New member
Hi

I play around with Reaper a bit and I'm getting into envelopes and all they can do, but I'm a bit intimidated.

I can get volume and panning and stuff, just wondering what else people have done with them.:drunk:
 
Sound on Sound have the occasional "workshop" about Reaper (and all the top DAWs) Might be worth looking at some back issues?

Dave.
 
Reaper will allow you to create an envelope for just about every parameter in every plugin.

That means the envelopes are immensely powerful in creating time-based changes. You've discovered envelopes to drive volume and panning. You can use them to modulate filters on synths, or to vary EQ settings. The limit is your imagination.
 
Reaper will allow you to create an envelope for just about every parameter in every plugin.

That means the envelopes are immensely powerful in creating time-based changes. You've discovered envelopes to drive volume and panning. You can use them to modulate filters on synths, or to vary EQ settings. The limit is your imagination.


I've barely scratched the surface on plugins with reaper. I was not aware that you could use the envelope feature in such a fashion but that sure opens a lot of doors to experimentation and modification. Time to tinker with it is so damn limited for me. I can't seem to find the time (or discipline) to just lay down tracks. When I get out to my "Play Room" I sit down to the keys and all's I do is play n sing and experiment with a gazillion tunes rarely pushing the red button...gotta get more disciplined and spend some time learning to use Reaper beyond a multi track tape machine. Thanks for sharing that tid bit Zzed!
 
I use it for pan, volume, and pretty much any FX parameter (including bypass)

(Also, you were probably right the first time. This was fine in the Reaper sub-forum! :D )
 
I (and I think a lot of people) have a bit of a love/hate relationship with Reaper's envelopes.

For most basic tasks they're ok, but a lot of the editing functions are less than intuitive. The tools we have for drawing them are kind of basic. There is no easy way to draw periodic functions. And each envelope controls exactly one parameter and can't easily be routed or linked to others. We have workarounds for some of this, and some things coming soon that look somewhat promising, but the whole thing is just kinda wonky. But unless you're trying to use Reaper and a bunch of random plugs as a big modular synthesizer or like mixing a Hollywood movie, you probably won't run into those issues for quite a while.

You may already be aware, but Reaper kind of "wraps" every plugin you insert in a shell with certain controls that basically help define how Reaper interacts with the plugin. There's the preset stuff at the top left of the window, and the over to the right there are things like the Wet knob that allows you to mix some of the dry input from before the plug into whatever is coming out (parallel compression!) even when the plug itself doesn't let you. There's a button that usually says something like 2in/2out which is basically a patchbay that allows you to connect the plug's ins and outs to whichever of the 64 parallel track channels you want.

Then there's the Param button. Inside that are all kinds of things you can do with parameters including linking them to external controllers, Paramer Modulation, and setting up envelopes. All that to say that you can wiggle the knob you want an envelope for, click the Param button, choose "Show envelope", and it just pops up ready to draw.

Edit - Forgive me if this sounds like remedial reading, but I'm not sure where you're at on the learning curve.

You can also write those envelopes in realtime just by moving whatever fader or knob is connected to it. There are a few different modes for this, but you basically just arm it for writing, push play, and then make your moves as necessary along the way. Then when you put it back into one of the read modes, it plays back all the moves you made. And of course you can then edit that envelope by moving the points around and whatever. There's even an option to have Reaper automatically create an envelope for any parameter that you change during playback.
 
I (and I think a lot of people) have a bit of a love/hate relationship with Reaper's envelopes.

For most basic tasks they're ok, but a lot of the editing functions are less than intuitive. The tools we have for drawing them are kind of basic. There is no easy way to draw periodic functions. And each envelope controls exactly one parameter and can't easily be routed or linked to others. We have workarounds for some of this, and some things coming soon that look somewhat promising, but the whole thing is just kinda wonky. But unless you're trying to use Reaper and a bunch of random plugs as a big modular synthesizer or like mixing a Hollywood movie, you probably won't run into those issues for quite a while.

You may already be aware, but Reaper kind of "wraps" every plugin you insert in a shell with certain controls that basically help define how Reaper interacts with the plugin. There's the preset stuff at the top left of the window, and the over to the right there are things like the Wet knob that allows you to mix some of the dry input from before the plug into whatever is coming out (parallel compression!) even when the plug itself doesn't let you. There's a button that usually says something like 2in/2out which is basically a patchbay that allows you to connect the plug's ins and outs to whichever of the 64 parallel track channels you want.

Then there's the Param button. Inside that are all kinds of things you can do with parameters including linking them to external controllers, Paramer Modulation, and setting up envelopes. All that to say that you can wiggle the knob you want an envelope for, click the Param button, choose "Show envelope", and it just pops up ready to draw.


Hey Ashcat this is an English speaking forum! :confused:

Waaaaaaay beyond my pay grade but thanks for sharing some insight into how deep it can go....damn! :thumbs up:
 
I'm still with the basics - although one of my favourite uses is rolling a LPF down slowly at the end of a ringing note, chord, whatever at the end of a song to dull any hiss that might be present..

Apart from that vol, pan, EQ, turning shit on and off...
 
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