Reaper-Mixing in Real time

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RTunes

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I've been using Reaper for all of 2 weeks now. Not new to recording but new to Reaper. How do i mix down all recorded tracks to one stereo track in real time?
 
Normally you don't mix in real time, you set everything up the way you want it then export (or render or bounce, depending on the software's terminology) to a stereo file. But it's likely possible to route the monitor mix back to a track and record that.
 
In Reaper, it's called 'Render', but you can't do it in real time. Even routing the stereo master bus to a separate stereo track would not render it to WAV.
What exactly are you trying to do?
 
I want to be able to mix my tracks in real time so i can control the levels of different parts and/or instruments. The recording is actually several songs, taken from a video with separate audio tracks that i am mixing and preparing for mastering. There must be a way to record on one track, whats coming from the master send. Used to do it with CW 9 all the time back in the day.
 
That's what automation is for. Click on the track control panel, type V (for volume). A volume automation track will appear below the track you want to automate. Shift-click on the volume line to add points, move points or sections between points up or down as needed.
 
If that's what you mean - doing automated volume, then do what BSG says, then save the file with the automation as it is. Coming from mixing on a stand-alone recorder, thats what I used to do in Reaper, but found it creates a ton of auto points on the volume 'curve', so was a beast to go back in and change.
Note that after you've done a pass this way, you still need to render the mix to WAV.
 
I haven't tried it yet, but it doesn't sound like what i want. I don't want automated, I simply want to record what i'm hearing in my monitors to a stereo track in real time. Can't i route and record all the tracks (10) over to a stereo track and make level adjustments as i'm listening?Then when i'm done with that, I will render that Mix track to a WAV.
 
I suspect it's possible to do what you're describing, but since DAWs were invented to solve the problem of having to mix in real time they aren't set up for that as the usual technique.

If you set the channels to write the fader moves to automation, the DAW will record them. At the end you can export it to a stereo file. That would be just like what you want except for recording to a new track. Just refrain from fixing any mistakes before you export or you'll be doing it like the rest of us.
 
I'm sure there's a way in reaper. An engineer freind of mine did a demo session for me with protools. Unfortunately I don't have it commited to memory. But I do have the original session to study.
But it was real 'on the fly' mixing. All channels were recorded to a new pair of stereo tracks. Any changes made during the new track recording showed up just as if we were mixing down to an analog two track. When that was done, all the channels except the 'mixdown' were muted, and the 2 track mixdown was exported to a wav file

If it can be done in pt, it can be done in reaper. You just have to figure out the routing so ALL your existing channels become the source for your new stereo tracks

Sorry, all I can offer is encouragement not know how.
But hey, thats better than being told you can't.
:D

But to play the devil here, why would you really need or want that? In my case I was running a console with real faders. Working in the box, automation would give you the same results.
The only difference being, you couldn't make any on the spot mix changes.
 
To me it's a little like saying, "My last car was a 1929 Chevy, which has manual spark advance. Is there any way I can manually advance the spark in my 2018 Corolla?"
 
Everything you record/write will be saved - but the stereo master is not a WAV file until you render it.
 
bouldersoundguy said:
To me it's a little like saying, "My last car was a 1929 Chevy, which has manual spark advance. Is there any way I can manually advance the spark in my 2018 Corolla?"
Click to expand...

Probably more like a manual transmission.

As with pretty much everything in audio production, it's art as much as science. If you find it inspiring to mix in real-time, then it could be useful. (Thus, I suspect that Reaper has a way to do it hidden somewhere in there)

But I personally prefer offline rendering and automatic transmissions! :D
 
Reaper has an action "Save live output to disk" which should do it.

There is no way* to actually route back from the Master to another track, but you definitely could route all tracks to a single track and record it. Just right-click the record arm button for that track and choose the appropriate Output option.


* Actually there is a kind of sneaky way using plugins, but it's a kind of questionable hack, and there's no need to bother since there are at least a couple different options.

Edit -
Save Live Output:


Record track output:
 
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RTunes said:
I've been using Reaper for all of 2 weeks now. Not new to recording but new to Reaper. How do i mix down all recorded tracks to one stereo track in real time?
Click to expand...

Check this: YouTube

I believe that's what you're looking for. People normally call them "Print Tracks" and it's just a track that records what is going to your "Master" in real time. Hope this helps.
 
I agree. There has to be an easier way to be able to manually control the faders while rendering. I know there is automation that can handle this. But its nice to be able to adjust on the fly. The only thing I found was would Ashcat mentioned There is a save live output to disk, but i believe as soon as you check that option, the recording starts saving to a rendered file even before you hit play.
 
shickjeff said:
I agree. There has to be an easier way to be able to manually control the faders while rendering. I know there is automation that can handle this. But its nice to be able to adjust on the fly. The only thing I found was would Ashcat mentioned There is a save live output to disk, but i believe as soon as you check that option, the recording starts saving to a rendered file even before you hit play.
Click to expand...

I recall in analog days doing a mixdown in a studio. There were about three of us involved, each with instructions on which fader to move and when to move it. We rehearsed the movements by running through the song a few times, then did the mix. It was a team effort, and kind of fun, but I am so pleased that we don't have to go through that malarkey anymore. Mixing in the box is much more efficient, and much more precise, and delivers a better result.
 
Yeah, but mixing on a console is fun!

Provided you don't have too many faders to deal with. :D

I'll do hybrid mixes a lot. I enjoy it. I'll run stems so I have no more than 16 channels.
So it comes off my daw, into my interface, out to the console, into hardware outboard gear, then back into 2 channels in the daw.
I still have all the original tracks ITB with the addition of a 'final analog mix'.

I guess its all about how you like to work.
 
shickjeff said:
The only thing I found was would Ashcat mentioned There is a save live output to disk, but i believe as soon as you check that option, the recording starts saving to a rendered file even before you hit play.
Click to expand...
I mean...I (and ujn hunter) also said that you can record the mix to another track. That only records when you push the record button and us usually a better option than "Save live output...".

There honestly is no great reason to do so since you can write Automation in realtime which then give you the option to edit or redo it before it actually ends up as a final audio file, but...
 
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