Need help to learn simple things with Reaper.

K

Kleudde

New member
Hello all, I'm new with reaper and I'm almost at the point of giving up on it. I can't find how to do the simplest things on this program. I even downloaded the manual and read about a hundred page of it and did a search in it I still can't find some most basic things!

How do you amplify your recording once you have a track and saw it was not recorded loud enough and don't want to re-record the whole thing ? Please don't say normalize, it's not what I'm looking for. I want to be able to say I want this part amplify 150% for exemple. I can't find any amplify command anywhere... Unless it has a very technical name :(

How do you put effect on just a part of your track not the whole track? Let say I record a song on guitar and I want just one riff to have reverb ?

How do you do simple editing like adding silence at the beginning of a song or in between two riff if there is a pause and you don't have a noise gate and want to silence the feedback your distortion did? Or delete the few seconds of noise after your song between the time you stop playing and press stop recording ?

Thank you
 
There's no "fix my badly recorded track" button. Turn it up with the volume fader. Duplicate it and put the two on top of each other if you need a bit more. Or get it right next time.

You can apply any effect to any section of any track using envelopes. Use a volume envelope to quieten any noise in the same way. Or if you just want to get rid of it, cursor at the point of no return, S to split, highlight and delete. All very easy stuff.
 
I don't know of any way to fix the recording that is too soft, other than turn up the fader. Meter the input next time. If you've got inconsistent volume within a track (parts too soft or loud), there are different ways to deal with that (automation, volume edit on the individual item--grab the top edge and drag up or down).

You can automate FX within a track. Or you can spit the audio clip into smaller items and apply FX individually do them (double click: Apply Take FX).

Too add empty space, highlight the measures and use Insert: Empty space at time selection.

You can spit a track into as many pieces as you want the way Armistice explained. Delete or mute clips you don't need (right click, Item Settings: Mute).

There's a learning curve. Keep at it. The manual index is pretty good once you've learned what Reaper calls things.
 
Kleudde said:
How do you amplify your recording once you have a track and saw it was not recorded loud enough and don't want to re-record the whole thing ? Please don't say normalize, it's not what I'm looking for. I want to be able to say I want this part amplify 150% for exemple. I can't find any amplify command anywhere... Unless it has a very technical name :(
Click to expand...

Right click on the track. Select "Item Properties". Use the volume slider to increase the level. Or click on 'normalise'.


Kleudde said:
How do you put effect on just a part of your track not the whole track? Let say I record a song on guitar and I want just one riff to have reverb ?
Click to expand...

There are many ways of doing this. Here is one. If you have an effect already on the track, click on the 'trim' button on the track. This will bring up a number of things for which you can create an envelop. Select 'bypass' of the effect you are using. This will create an envelope over the whole track. Using the envelope, unbypass the bits where you want the effect, bypass where you don't want the effect.

Kleudde said:
How do you do simple editing like adding silence at the beginning of a song
Click to expand...

I'm not sure what you actually want here. If you just want to add a few bars of silence at the start of the song, just click and drag across the arrange screen to the amount of space you want. Right click on this, and select 'insert empty space in selection'. If you just want to get rid of some noise at the start of a track, put your cursor at the leftmost edge of the track and drag to the right till you get to the recorded bit. Or, put your cursor at the start of the track, hit 's' to split at this point, then delete the unwanted bit.

Kleudde said:
or in between two riff if there is a pause and you don't have a noise gate and want to silence the feedback your distortion did? Or delete the few seconds of noise after your song between the time you stop playing and press stop recording ?
Click to expand...

Same as above: Use 's' to split the track where music stops and rubbish begins, and delete rubbish. If there is noise between two riffs, split after first riff, split before second rigg, then delete the bit between. Or split anywhere between the two and drag the edges of the split back to the end of first riff and start of second riff.
 
Kleudde said:
How do you amplify your recording once you have a track and saw it was not recorded loud enough and don't want to re-record the whole thing ? Please don't say normalize, it's not what I'm looking for. I want to be able to say I want this part amplify 150% for exemple. I can't find any amplify command anywhere... Unless it has a very technical name :(
Click to expand...

If you want to increase the volume of the whole track then the slider will work, as already outlined by others. If you want to increase just part of it, or vary the volume increase in places, then use 'automation' (read the manual section).
 
To make various areas in the track louder you want "envelope: volume" then manipulate the points to make the sound louder and softer. (also called automation - but automation is a general concept - not a menu choice)

I've found Reaper to be really challenging to understand the terminology to get what you want.
Kenny Goia has posted some excellent how-to videos on YouTube.
I've found other videos not so helpful because they often include and assume that you have the same VSTs and plugins they do.
 
Thank you i will search for those video. I was looking to get a course to help me, maybe those video will be really useful :)
 
It looks like most of what you need to do is automation, which is how you adjust parameters (such as volume and FX bypasses) throughout a track.

First, select the track you want to add automation to
r05 switch parameter.png
Hit "v" to bring up the automation track
r04 drag points around.png
Shift click to add automation points
r03 shift click to create points.png
Move them around
r02 v for volume.png
Click the envelope name on the left to pick a different parameter (FX Parameters -> JS:whatever -> Bypass allows you to turn the effect off entirely.
r01 select track.png
 
Holy shit, guys. Some of you really take the long way to do something really simple.

You don't have to automate or normalize to turn up an item.

It's very simple. You have to have your volume adjustments for media set to "Item Volume Knob".....NOT "Top edge of Media item".

You do that by going into "Options", then "Preferences" and select "Media". At the bottom of the box, you'll see the 2 choices: "Item Volume Knob" or "Top edge of Media item".

You have to have it set to "Item Volume Knob" because it's the only choice that will allow you to turn an item up. The other choice, "Top edge of Media item", will only allow you to turn items down.

Once you have that set, you can turn an item up (or down) as much as you want.
 
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Cool Thank you Rami for this easy trick and thank you for the others who took the time to point me to the right direction with available vidéos, screenshot and steps to do what I was trying to do.
This forum is amazing because of all of you who spare some time helping new people getting started. I really appreciate all your efforts! :)
 
RAMI said:
Once you have that set, you can turn an item up (or down) as much as you want.
Click to expand...

You forgot to say Split cos he wants Parts of the tracks changed, that's why the automation idea was suggested?,, just different ways to do the same thing! :)
 
I have about 30 videos I purchased about a year ago, I will be glad to upload them if it is allowed, maybe one of the MODs can let me know. Thanks
 
RAMI said:
Holy shit, guys. Some of you really take the long way to do something really simple.

You don't have to automate or normalize to turn up an item.

It's very simple. You have to have your volume adjustments for media set to "Item Volume Knob".....NOT "Top edge of Media item".

You do that by going into "Options", then "Preferences" and select "Media". At the bottom of the box, you'll see the 2 choices: "Item Volume Knob" or "Top edge of Media item".

You have to have it set to "Item Volume Knob" because it's the only choice that will allow you to turn an item up. The other choice, "Top edge of Media item", will only allow you to turn items down.

Once you have that set, you can turn an item up (or down) as much as you want.
Click to expand...

So you're splitting the item into smaller ones and then adjusting the volume on each of those?
Do you overlap and crossfade to get a clean transition then?

I feel like automation might be a more useful route regardless because it also applies to FX parameters.
 
VomitHatSteve said:
So you're splitting the item into smaller ones and then adjusting the volume on each of those?
Do you overlap and crossfade to get a clean transition then?
Click to expand...
Depends. If I split where there's silence, I probably won't bother cross-fading. If there's still some signal, I'll cross-fade. I guess you can cross-fade to be safe either way.

I feel like automation might be a more useful route regardless because it also applies to FX parameters.
Click to expand...
You might be right, depending on the situation. I was specifically addressing his volume question. I find it as quick and easy as can be to just chop up an item up and turn up or down the separate items from there.

As far as automating for panning, effects, etc....Of course I can see the merit in actual automation. I personally never ever automate in the sense that you guys are talking about. That's just me. There's nothing wrong with it, I just never find a need for it. If I want an effect, let's say a delay at the end of a vocal line, rather than automate, I'll just duplicate the track and call the duplicated track "Vocal Delay". I'll then put a delay on that track, get rid of everything except the word(s) I want the delay on, and Bob's your uncle. Just one of many ways to skin that cat.
 
Reaper is such a powerful and versatile DAW because of the amount of redundancy built into it; there are so many ways of doing things. This means that it caters for the many different ways that people think about workflows, and the many and varied scenarios that need to be dealt with.
 
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