Add separate FX to split items on same track

spantini

COO of me, inc.
I wasn't even sure Reaper could do this. I was thinking of a guitar pedal board and could I switch guitar FX on the fly.. Answer : Yes

Split your track item where you want to stomp on an effect, select the item, then Shift-E to open the FX window for that item. COOL!

I haven't messed with this too much, only to see how it works. I can see the splits are going to need some blending to eliminate the abrupt cut-offs in some situations.
 
Yes - that's what this does. The FX I'm referring to are plugins. So far, the only automated features I've seen are Volume and Pan envelopes.. nothing for FX/Plugins. The method I described allows automating the ON/OFF of any available FX, as you would using a pedal board.

I can split a guitar item, then apply distortion only to the first section and chorus only to the second.
 
Oh you can automate just about anything! The easy way is to wiggle the knob on the plugin interface and then go to the Param button and find Show Envelope. In most cases it is better to automate the wet/dry controls rather than bypass.

When using Take/Item FX as you are, you should usually be able to crossfade the items, but that might not work right with things like distortion. I’m pretty sure there is a “tails” setting somewhere specifically for Item/Take FX so that delays and reverbs will decay more naturally, though that’s a thing that only certain pedals do anyway, so if you’re really trying to emulate pedals, you might not want it.
 
Crikey! You just blew my mind with that one! :eek: I'll probably be up all night for the next week playing with this :guitar:
 
Automating effects is very useful. I do it on occasion. But sometimes I find it easier to duplicate the channel and edit the tracks. For example, I'll delete all the distortion parts from one and all the clean parts from the other. That way if I want to adjust the eq on all the sections of the guitar with distortion, I can just do it on the channel and it affects all the clips at once.

I actually did exactly that on my most recent mix.

Split bass track.png
 
Reaper seems to allow many ways of achieving things, The best way is usually determined by how much work is required to get it done. I've used envelopes to bypass or alter various parameters along the way, and have duplicated tracks as BSG demonstrated above. When you want an effect on just one item within a track, it's a really neat feature to be able to plonk a plugin straight onto that item.
 
Yes - that's what this does. The FX I'm referring to are plugins. So far, the only automated features I've seen are Volume and Pan envelopes.. nothing for FX/Plugins. The method I described allows automating the ON/OFF of any available FX, as you would using a pedal board.

I can split a guitar item, then apply distortion only to the first section and chorus only to the second.

The automations for the plug-ins will appear once you insert the plug-in into the track - every adjustable parameter on the plug-in can be automated in Reaper, pretty neat...
 
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