Reaper is Cutting Up My Takes!

ShanPeyton

Member
Something odd is happening and I think it cause some recent clicks and pops. I have been very lucky with my DAW and clicks and pops haven't been a huge issue until now.

In this song i am recording i have edited out little bits where i have punched in on other tracks previously recorded, which i think for most people, is quite normal. Here is my issue, when I go back to track a full take of another instrument in the song before editing and punching in, Reaper is automatically slicing that take being recorded into little segments the same size as other places i have done edits in other tracks. Does that make sense? :confused:

Anyone know of a tick box anywhere's to make this stop doing that? :confused::confused::confused: I don't really want to have the hole new take chopped into little bits before i get to turn it into Frankenstein myself. :thumbs up:
 
Is the new take that you're recording in the same track as the previous ones?

If so, all the takes in a group need to be the same length. It will automatically add splits at the edges of things. Move existing media into a new track before you record.

If that's not what's happening, then you've lost me.
 
Is the new take that you're recording in the same track as the previous ones?

If so, all the takes in a group need to be the same length. It will automatically add splits at the edges of things. Move existing media into a new track before you record.

If that's not what's happening, then you've lost me.

Yes, that is totally what is happening. It is the other takes! I am sorry i guess i should have been more clear. I can work around that i guess. I was just curious now if it may affect (or effect ??) the performance with my PC??

Funny, after about two years of using Reaper this is the first thing i don't like about it. And it really isn't all that big of a deal.
 
I don't know if that would affect the performance, but I have noticed that when I get that kind of thing happening it's really hard to line up my takes correctly. "Wait... Does take 5 here correspond to to take 3 here or what?"
 
Reaper has a lot of keyboard shortcuts. They can be very handy for working quickly. But they can be annoying too. There are times when I've gone to use one shortcut quickly, but miskeyed. Sometimes I don't discover that the mis-key activated another action till later, then I have to figure out how to undo it. However, Reaper's "view history" is your friend. This option on the menu bar shows exactly what you've done and can get you back to the point before you did it.
 
I don't know if that would affect the performance, but I have noticed that when I get that kind of thing happening it's really hard to line up my takes correctly. "Wait... Does take 5 here correspond to to take 3 here or what?"

Dude, me too. I hate that!!! I have decided to use a work around. I have just started adding a second scratch track and doing the take in the scratch track and edit, copy, paste as need be. Rather then doing take after take and trying to figure out what the hell is going on later.
 
Reaper cutting up takes

Sorry to jump on this one so late, but I've just started using Reaper (or at least just started comping with it) and I think something similar/identical to what was originally reported here is happening for me too. The only thing is, I can't accept that that's just 'how it is'...

When I record takes on one track, obviously I often balls up a take, hit re-record and just go over it. And eventually I DON'T balls it up and end up with a 'perfect' (acceptable) take.

But then when listening back I notice that where previous 'ballsed up' takes were aborted, a cut occurs... even in my perfect take!! I can visibly see the cut in the track (like I've cobbled it together from a load of takes - when I haven't) - and I can hear it too.

Surely previous takes shouldn't affect my new 'perfect' one?!?

Or do I really have to delete aborted takes to prevent cuts from happening mid-way through a good take???

Please advise. Seems odd. Probably just me being a bit of a div, mind.
 
If you're doing these as takes on the same track, then they are all still there and Reaper does an automatic cross fade across the overlapping area. You can 'grab' the ends of the takes to get rid of the parts you don't want, and 'grab' the crossfades to move them as needed. This is how you comp multiple takes into one seamless track (don't forget to 'glue' them together once done).
 
Thanks very much for the reply.

So if I'm understanding correctly, if you record a perfect take (requiring no slicing, dicing, cross-fading, gluing) - and it's recorded over a load of imperfect, aborted takes on the same track:

1) View the takes in one track
2) All of the takes will be 'chopped' at the points at which you aborted imperfect takes
3) Grab the perfect take at the point at which the first imperfect take was aborted
4) Drag it to the end of the track to get rid of any cuts, auto cross-fades etc.

If so then OK, got it. But it just seems to me that if you record a perfect take you shouldn't have to do anything. I appreciate that the cuts give you the opportunity to comp against other takes though. In future I think I'll probably delete any aborted takes (unless they contain a 'flourish of magic' within them) rather than just recording over them to avoid this...
 
Thanks very much for the reply.

So if I'm understanding correctly, if you record a perfect take (requiring no slicing, dicing, cross-fading, gluing) - and it's recorded over a load of imperfect, aborted takes on the same track:[..........]

THEN all you need to do is, at the beginning (or) end of the track right click & drag to select all the sections & then select(GLUE) & they all become one item from start to finish, which is what you would do after comping anyway!:D
 
If so then OK, got it. But it just seems to me that if you record a perfect take you shouldn't have to do anything. I appreciate that the cuts give you the opportunity to comp against other takes though. In future I think I'll probably delete any aborted takes (unless they contain a 'flourish of magic' within them) rather than just recording over them to avoid this...

If you are trying to get whole-song takes perfect from start to finish, then record on a new track. Or just delete all the 'imperfect' takes. Or drag/copy the perfect take into a new track.
 
I find this behaviour a bit odd too, although I can understand the logic. But the real problem for me is that the good take I record is not even listenable because it is full of splits with fade-outs and fade-ins at each split which make the splits audible. However you can turn off this behaviour under Options > Preferences > Project > Media Item Defaults and unchecking the Create automatic fade-in... option. At least then your good take, although it maybe all chopped up, is still useable as-is without copying, gluing etc.
 
What you describe is normal. If you have a bunch of short clips on a track, and then you record over them, the new take will be divided in multiple clips as well. Don't know why. If it bothers you, you can glue the previous clips together into a single one (but this will delete any alternate takes in the section).

If you are hearing pops and crackles after you edit and piece together your clips, here's how to fix that. Zoom in and make sure each clip starts and ends at a zero point. Use the "divide at previous zero crossing" function.
 
Apart from the necro thread thing.... why record multiple takes on the same track? How hard is it to arm a new track? Or commit and go "this is crap" and delete the first take then reuse that track?

Completely solvable by not working in this way in the first place....
 
Apart from the necro thread thing.... why record multiple takes on the same track? How hard is it to arm a new track? Or commit and go "this is crap" and delete the first take then reuse that track?

Completely solvable by not working in this way in the first place....

Yep . . . this is exactly what I do. Very easy and very manageable. I use a lot of folders, so I have a top level folder for vocals, and on this track I set up EQ, compression, or whatever, then just record to my heart's content within the folder.
 
Apart from the necro thread thing.... why record multiple takes on the same track? How hard is it to arm a new track? Or commit and go "this is crap" and delete the first take then reuse that track?

Completely solvable by not working in this way in the first place....

Recording multiple takes on a track is useful. The way I work out guitar parts is to set Reaper to loop over a section and then play four or five takes back to back. I save the bits I like.

Ten volt, it's useable chopped up. You click to select the parts of the different takes you want to play. Reaper will play them back smoothly as if they were a single take. You can highlight them all and hit "glue." Reaper will fuse the selected bits together and delete all the unselected bits.
 
I use takes a lot. but I never start a new take in the middle of a phrase, so the crossfades are totally seamless. Click on the take that you want from the section that you want, they're automatically comp'd together, and voila!

Mmmm, I can really smell the decay on this recently unearthed thread...
 
I've sort of moved on to a mix of the best of both worlds. If my first start to finish first take isn't what i want it to be, i will create a second track to perform multiple takes of either the whole thing or parts that need attention. Nail it or come as best i can to nailing it twice (an old skateboarding rule me and my friends had 'two to make it true') then cherry pick the best of those two and manually put it in the other 'start-finish' track. It may seem unconventional but my brain is much better with it like this than the other way. And for some reason i just can't allow myself to do the multiple tracks as takes methods having come from a background where i used to only have 16 tracks max to work with. Old habits are hard to break.
 
Best way to avoid all that is to set up your channel for recording, input, monitor, VST as needed, and then duplicate it several times. Each time you record something that overlaps another take, just put the next channel in record, mute the previous. Now, everything you do is in plain sight, no mash up with various versions, no brain power needed to figure out how to get to take five, as it will be on the fifth track. It isn't like you will ever run out of tracks......If you are running out of CPU, and wanna hear it with your typical sauce, set up a playback track, and route your first track to it via I/O, and take it out of L/R master. Now dupe it, all the channels will route to it, so every take will have verb, etc, without a bunch of hassle or choking smoker CPU heart attack...
 
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