"Then I do this *click*, *click* and drag this here....." My issue with tutorials

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rose62

New member
"Then I do this *click*, *click* and drag this here....." My issue with tutorials

I've downloaded Reaper for the evaluation period and I watch tutorials but people doing the videos move their cursor so quickly from one thing to another, saying, '...then I do *whatever* and then (moving the cursor too quickly for me to see where or what they are doing) I set this and ....' so on. People get so comfortable with a program that what they consider as basic is still above my level. Oh well, rant over...watch more, read more and record some more.
 
Try reading the manual. It's extensive. You can skip the sections regarding features you will not use right away like MIDI editing and advanced routing.
 
The User manual they provide in PDF is very good and actually written where a person can use it. You should download it and when you want to do something, do a search in the manual. If you don;t get it, then go to Youtube for clarification.
 
You are allowed to use the pause buttons on videos. You can drag the marker back and look at a section again. It's not like you just get one shot to look and learn everything.
 
True Gecko. However if the function is important it would be helpful to identify it and explain what it does. Often what is 'clicked' on is not self-explanatory.
 
Most people are absolute crap at explaining stuff to other people for a variety or reasons.

I explain things to people for a living, so I'm pretty good at it, however I have zero desire to set up a YouTube channel full of How to Reaper videos.

Do you have an actual question that you're struggling with?
 
I explain things to people for a living too.

Like how they should lower their expectations. :D

They never seem to get it.
 
rose62 said:
I've downloaded Reaper for the evaluation period and I watch tutorials but people doing the videos move their cursor so quickly from one thing to another, saying, '...then I do *whatever* and then (moving the cursor too quickly for me to see where or what they are doing) I set this and ....' so on. People get so comfortable with a program that what they consider as basic is still above my level. Oh well, rant over...watch more, read more and record some more.
Click to expand...

The best reaper tutorials I've found are the kenny gioia material. They're great. They cost money, and are available from Groove 3 and kennymania. Yes, the pdf manual is encyclopedic. No, I don't have the kind of brain or the kind of time required to learn how to use the program using it. I use the pdf as a reference guide, and I learn how to use the program from Kenny.
 
Don't learn clicks in ANY program.

Learn what you're doing and WHY.

Learn concepts and you can work in any program or if menus change (and they will...)
 
Currently I'm just reading the PDF and playing with the obvious controls. Years ago an engineer with whom I was working gave me three identical devices (wire feed tracking cam) along with a drawing. "Put these together and then I will show you why they don't work." One of the three worked but he could tell by the symptoms of the malfunction why the others didn't and he showed me what was critical. That's what I'm trying to do now. Read a little, record a little. See what matters. What doesn't (yet).
 
Reaper rewards people who tinker with it - you have to optimize it to make it work for you. That's why although I use it, it doesn't suit me particularly well - I want stuff to work and be obvious right out of the box. I lack technobrain.
 
I found that Reaper was fairly intuitive in basic use: input/output/track controls. The manual provided the info to start using all the real advantages of computer recording.
 
And that's pretty much the level I work on with it. But I miss out on so much more because it's how you configure Reaper that makes it as powerful as it is. Everybody who uses it says you're not really benefiting from it until you start sculpting the way the program works. It isn't my main DAW, so I just don't spend enough time with it to learn all that stuff. Which is also why I find the Kenny tutorials so useful. "Tell me how to do it, Kenny."
 
'It freaks me out more how 'dobro' really spells 'Sir Lord Tutankhamun and His Band of Merry Minks'. Pure satan right there. fat fleet'

Totally missed that: Thanks for the heads-up!
 
dobro said:
Reaper rewards people who tinker with it - you have to optimize it to make it work for you. That's why although I use it, it doesn't suit me particularly well - I want stuff to work and be obvious right out of the box. I lack technobrain.
Click to expand...

Meh... I never did anything much to it, found it a piece of cake to understand and use, and recorded and mastered an album on it.

It's just not that hard, IMO... :eek:
 
Armistice said:
Meh... I never did anything much to it, found it a piece of cake to understand and use, and recorded and mastered an album on it.

It's just not that hard, IMO... :eek:
Click to expand...

Load up Reaper
Ctrl T for a new track
Hit Record

You are off and running.

"It's just not that hard" sums it up
 
Perhaps I shouldn't have said 'out of the box'. But past that point, I get left behind. I'm good at getting left behind.
 
tutorials

rose62 said:
I've downloaded Reaper for the evaluation period and I watch tutorials but people doing the videos move their cursor so quickly from one thing to another, saying, '...then I do *whatever* and then (moving the cursor too quickly for me to see where or what they are doing) I set this and ....' so on. People get so comfortable with a program that what they consider as basic is still above my level. Oh well, rant over...watch more, read more and record some more.
Click to expand...

I've made part of my living for the past 20 years doing tutorials for new computer and camera users. The problem with experts is that they forget what it is like to be a true beginner. As one fellow told me "I've bought 3 books on running my computer and they all begin on Chapter 6."

It's one thing to know how to do something, it's another to be able to pass that info on to others. That's why good teachers are important.
 
radi0j0hn said:
The problem with experts is that they forget what it is like to be a true beginner.
Click to expand...
Many many people who become good or competent at something gravitate, whether deliberately, unwittingly or keeping up with their harder headed peers, towards a zone that veers between a lack of empathy and arrogance.
In an ironic sort of way a newbie forum should not require any research on the part of the newbie ! Because that defeats the object of the page. And anyone who deigns to teach really needs to put aside what is simple to them and learn to once again be ignorant. Imparting knowledge requires putting yourself in the shoes of the one receiving the knowledge {among other things like patience and humility} and that's partly why so many people who know their subject brilliantly simply can't teach, be it online, through books or one to one in person.
 
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