Is there a better way to do this??

  • Thread starter Thread starter jcrouse
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jcrouse

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Hi,

I'm super new to Reaper but am loving it. I'm looking for the most efficient way of accomplishing the following:

I'm recording into a Boss BR600. Once tracked, I'm uploading those to Reaper which I use to clean up and process the tracks a bit (little EQ, little Comp, you know). After this is the stage I need some help.

Currently I render the tracks to stems and then use Consolidate/Export to ship them to a folder at 16bit in order to import them back to the BR600. What I end up with then are clean, level tracks to continue tracking against.

I guess my main confusion relates to what is the difference between rendering and consolidating? Also, what exactly are stems? I know that I have to do that in order to print my FX, but why is that?

Thanks in advance,
JC
 
Well rendering would be exporting as a certain file type. As in rendering it to a mp3.

Consolidating is just that, it's making the file smaller and smashing it together to consolidate it.
 
thanks buck,

if i consolidate without rendering, do you know if it will print the effects?

JC
 
I honestly don't know. I'm about a month in on Reaper myself. I've never used the consolidate, only Render. I'm sure it would though as your only shrinking the size of it overall. Everything should still stay just the quality would degrade?
 
hmmm i would think so too, but i'm pretty sure i tried it and the consolidated track was dry. if someone doesn't have the answer i'll whack out one of the tracks later and see if i can suss out what happens in that scenario.

thanks again man,

JC
 
When you click on File->Export, all the tracks are rendered into single clean tracks. You don't see multiple unused takes, and all the tracks will start and end at the same time. (I track in Reaper and mix in Logic Pro so it's a feature I use all the time.) If you have effects in your chain, they will be incorporated in the new track. In the manual, it suggests doing this if your computer runs out of steam when running multiple plugins.
 
Thanks Andrew,

So I'm adding a step by rendering to stems first then it seems. What purpose would someone render to stems?

JC
 
When you render to stems, there is a way for the tracks to be added to all the other tracks on your screen. So you just mute the original with the plugin and instead play the newly rendered stem. This frees up RAM because it's just playing an unaffected .wav file off your hard drive along with everything else.

It's hard to explain what's happening, without physically demonstrating it.
 
This probably isn't the answer you're looking for, but...

...why are you tracking into the Boss BR600, editiing in Reaper, and then dumping back into the Boss to mix? There's a whole slew of affordable USB or Firewire interfaces that will let you record one or two tracks at a time in at least as high quality straight into your computer for one (and I think you can grab a Presonus Firepod for less than $400, which will give you 8 tracks at a time), but even if you'd really prefer to track into the Boss and then import into Reaper, there's no reason to then go and export individual tracks from Reaper back to mix in your Boss workstation - arguably, the one area where computers totally sweep the floor with any other recording and mixing medium is in mix automation, so you're actually putting yourself at a significant disadvantage by going back to the Boss unit.

...this would also save you the problem you're having with looking for an easier way to do it. ;)
 
DrewPeterson7 said:
This probably isn't the answer you're looking for, but...

...why are you tracking into the Boss BR600, editiing in Reaper, and then dumping back into the Boss to mix? There's a whole slew of affordable USB or Firewire interfaces that will let you record one or two tracks at a time in at least as high quality straight into your computer for one (and I think you can grab a Presonus Firepod for less than $400, which will give you 8 tracks at a time), but even if you'd really prefer to track into the Boss and then import into Reaper, there's no reason to then go and export individual tracks from Reaper back to mix in your Boss workstation - arguably, the one area where computers totally sweep the floor with any other recording and mixing medium is in mix automation, so you're actually putting yourself at a significant disadvantage by going back to the Boss unit.

...this would also save you the problem you're having with looking for an easier way to do it. ;)
Click to expand...
I was going to ask this same question.

Even without going out and buying a new interface, you can still use the Boss to track and mix in Reaper. You don't need to export or render anything. Bounce the Boss track down to a stereo track on the unit. That will free up tracks to allow you to record more. I use a Fostex MR-8, and mix in Reaper. That is how I do it: export the tracks to pc, bounce down a bare mix on the Fostex, add new tracks.
 
thanks guys,

i'm tracking on the boss because i've got it, and i also need a certain amount of mobility to lay down the tracks.

i actually plan on mixing in reaper. i just like to clean up tracks as i go and then dump them back to the br600 in a clean state so that i can make tracking decisions, mostly in terms of eq etc based on the solid base tracks.

thanks again so much for the help. i really appreciate it!

JC
 
jcrouse said:
i actually plan on mixing in reaper. i just like to clean up tracks as i go and then dump them back to the br600 in a clean state so that i can make tracking decisions, mostly in terms of eq etc based on the solid base tracks.
Click to expand...

That's a mixing decision, though, not a tracking one...

I mean, there are a number of philosophies on how to mix and record, and being perfectly honest the two are way more closely related than my sentence above would seem to indicate. That said, my personal philosophy based on my personal experience is that if after you set levels, if you listen to the playback and the results don't sound at least "pretty good" then your source sound/mic position/whatever probably wasn't right to begin with.

I.e - if you need to add a ton of EQ to "clean up" a sound in order to continue tracking, then something else is wrong, and EQ is just a very ineffective band-aid.
 
Hi ShredRocket,
I've been using Reaper for about 2 weeks now, & I use a Tascam US122 auidio interface to record directly to Reaper. It's pretty simple with no latency, I guess just about any interface would work. Hope this helps!
 
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