Saving alternative mixes in Reaper

Armistice

Armistice

Son of Yoda
So I'm assuming somewhere there's a way of saving your complete mix parameters somehow, so that you can then go and attempt an alternative mix, but still have the original to check against.

So far I've just been working on a single

But can't quite work out how that's done - well, that's probably not true, I can see that you could save it as a separate project file with a different name but wondering if there's another way to keep it all in the one project file and easily switch between versions without having to close Reaper and open it again...

On my old standalone you'd save everything as a scene.... and 1 button recall.

Any tips?
 
See there's always more than one way in REAPER, i love it, :guitar: (but when will it make me famous! :facepalm: that bit of it isn't working!)
 
Click File - New Project Tab. (Or CTRL+ALT+N) Select all tracks on previous tab, (CTRL+A) copy, (CTRL+C) paste into new.(CTRL+V) Two projects accessible via tabs. Repeat for more.

Done
 
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Mr Clean said:
Click File - New Project Tab. (Or CTRL+ALT+N) Select all tracks on previous tab, (CTRL+A) paste into new.(CTRL+V) Two projects accessible via tabs. Repeat for more.

Done
Click to expand...

In Cubase, when you have more than one project open only one is active. You have to activate a project before you can play it, which takes some time as it unloads the current mixer and loads the new one - this can be several seconds if it's a complex project, lots of effects, etc. Is Reaper similar, or is it more instant?
 
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I did. Thanks for pointing that out.

In Reaper it is quick to flip between the two. You can play two mixes simultaneously as well, although obviously with the more plugins etc this could cause issues. I usually bounce down to stems/freeze tracks to ease the processing on the comp.
 
Thanks people....

Again, seems strange that you can't do it "natively" in Reaper... although you can do it.

I can see the plug in thing has value if you've finalised your tracks.... but if you set it up and later go "Hmm... could do with another <insert instrument here> you'd have to go back and add it to your original mix and your secondary mix in two steps...

I'll check out both options... I don't do it much, just wanted to know.

Cheers all...
 
I usually have a minimum of 2 or 3 projects open in tabs when I'm mixing (old versions and other mixes for reference). It switches between them pretty seamlessly.

As said before, ctrl+alt+n opens a new tab. Double clicking a project to open it while another project is open will also launch the second one in a new tab.

Edit:
Oh yeah, +1 for just saving your alternate mixes with new file names. That workflow works for me.
 
You might be thinking about it too much. What I do: Render a mix, and listen to it in media explorer when I need to reference it. When I get to what seems like a good point for comparison, save as 'my_song_b', and render a new preview. Keeping multiple projects open in tabs is going to unnecessarily eat up resources, and there is always that temptation (or mistake) of tweaking both mixes, ruining the point of reference. Also, I keep a render folder, with a shortcut to it in media explorer. Works for me.
 
jiff 41 said:
I think what you need is SWS snapshots (check it out??):guitar:
Click to expand...

Or this ^

SWS has some cool stuff, and I have to admit that much of it has went wasted on me. So yea, install SWS extensions. Go to 'Extensions' in Reaper's main menu, and bring up 'Snapshots'. Click 'New'. When you have an alternate mix, click 'New' again. You can right-click entries in the list of mix snapshots to rename them, overwrite, delete, etc.
 
SWS has some pretty cool things for sure. Be careful using Snapshots. It doesn't like WAVE plugs and will crash. There hasn't been a fix for it as yet.
 
travelin travis said:
Or this ^

SWS has some cool stuff, and I have to admit that much of it has went wasted on me. So yea, install SWS extensions. Go to 'Extensions' in Reaper's main menu, and bring up 'Snapshots'. Click 'New'. When you have an alternate mix, click 'New' again. You can right-click entries in the list of mix snapshots to rename them, overwrite, delete, etc.
Click to expand...

you still around these parts travelin travis? I sent a friend request and all that fun stuff. I liked your cubase tutorial. I can't believe it's from 2004. all that time gone by.....best not to think about it too much. hope to hear Fromm ya man!
 
jonny deep said:
In Cubase, when you have more than one project open only one is active. You have to activate a project before you can play it, which takes some time as it unloads the current mixer and loads the new one - this can be several seconds if it's a complex project, lots of effects, etc. Is Reaper similar, or is it more instant?
Click to expand...

I am in the process of moving from Cubase to Reaper. I am still a Reaper Noob, and haven't tried to work on 2 projects simultaneously yet. However, I am well aware of the time it takes Cubase to load a project, and Reaper is much faster at loading projects of equal complexity to Cubase.

P.S. Coming from the cut down "artist" version of Cubase, Reaper offers far more flexible routing, and a far more complete set of tools. I now use Reaverb for all my Convolution reverb and Cab requirements, and have used it to create a few response files of my own.

P.P.S. The comprehensive "Freeze/Render" (which works on any track) in combination with the far more detailed "Performance Meter" gives you far more scope to allow your project go nuts and still work with low latency on your system.

Forgive me if this sounds like a sales pitch, but I am a recent "convert".

What really nailed it for me was their "philosophy" regarding licencing and piracy. I don't do music for money... I just like doing it... and their reasonable pricing and "honour system" licence compelled me to hand over the cash :)

P.P.P.S What sent me Reaper's way originally was how crap Cubase is at setting up track templates. It wouldn't work with Group tracks (Cubase Artist 6). Then I saw this trick where you could "import projects", so I figured I could make projects out of individual configurations I liked and then import them... only to discover (after downloading the import project plugin) that I needed at least Cubase artist 6.5. In Reaper you can save any configuration of track templates or FX chains at will.
 
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Tobe said:
I am in the process of moving from Cubase to Reaper. I am still a Reaper Noob, and haven't tried to work on 2 projects simultaneously yet. However, I am well aware of the time it takes Cubase to load a project, and Reaper is much faster at loading projects of equal complexity to Cubase.

P.S. Coming from the cut down "artist" version of Cubase, Reaper offers far more flexible routing, and a far more complete set of tools. I now use Reaverb for all my Convolution reverb and Cab requirements, and have used it to create a few response files of my own.

P.P.S. The comprehensive "Freeze/Render" (which works on any track) in combination with the far more detailed "Performance Meter" gives you far more scope to allow your project go nuts and still work with low latency on your system.

Forgive me if this sounds like a sales pitch, but I am a recent "convert".

What really nailed it for me was their "philosophy" regarding licencing and piracy. I don't do music for money... I just like doing it... and their reasonable pricing and "honour system" licence compelled me to hand over the cash :)

P.P.P.S What sent me Reaper's way originally was how crap Cubase is at setting up track templates. It wouldn't work with Group tracks (Cubase Artist 6). Then I saw this trick where you could "import projects", so I figured I could make projects out of individual configurations I liked and then import them... only to discover (after downloading the import project plugin) that I needed at least Cubase artist 6.5. In Reaper you can save any configuration of track templates or FX chains at will.
Click to expand...

The people that make Reaper are just plain Cuckos.
 
Page 62 of the manual discusses using takes. I think many would prefer this verses a new project or a save as, since this is what most are trying to do.
 
DM60 said:
Page 62 of the manual discusses using takes. I think many would prefer this verses a new project or a save as, since this is what most are trying to do.
Click to expand...

Depending on how divergent and complex your two mixes are, that probably wouldn't be a bad idea. If your two mixes have a lot of different tracks or wildly different FX chains, it could get cumbersome. But for a simple difference ("which guitar tone do I prefer in this mix", e.g.), takes could be simpler.
 
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