REAPER: Punch In/Out and auto-fades between takes

[Erkan]

Is the only way to do punches in Reaper by using the auto-punch mode which requires you to do a time selection which is then used for determining the start and end of the punch? I've looked around in the manual and on the net and I haven't come across any other way. What I would like to be able to do is to set only a punch in point, so it would just punch in when it gets to that point and just keep recording into infinity. Or the other way around, to set a punch out point but letting it keep recording from whichever position you start at before that point. Just some workflow issues I'm bothered about :>

Another thing is the auto-fade between takes, which I admit I haven't researched much about but right now it's not fading the items into each other, but rather like a "V" shape, so that one item is fully faded out to silence first, and the next item is fully faded in from total silence. Granted, the fade is rather small so it's not something I have actually noticed when fooling around with the guitar and recording some takes but shouldn't they be crossfaded instead? Selecting a bunch of takes and then hitting the "Crop Active Takes" or whatever, yields a nice track with all the takes you selected and throws away all the others, but the fades between 'em ... yeah, it's like a V shape

Otherwise, I'm quite happy with Reaper and the switch I made! Well, so far :>

 

[AdamWathan]

Fades between takes has been requested forever on the forum, fucking annoying as hell to have to crossfade all of them manually. And yeah, as far as I know you have to time selection autopunch :/ I'm not big on these 2 issues either.

 

[Erkan]

Thanks for lighting it up... and this indeed does suck a lot! If the crossfading between takes has been asked for already, I guess there's no point for me to ask for it too... and I guess I can live with the time selection punch in but it would be so much smoother if I could just tell it to only punch in or only punch out... argh.

 

[AdamWathan]

Reaper does record all audio for the whole thing when it's a time selection punch though, so if you make a time selection and keep playing after it's over, you just have to drag the end of the region to expand it and unveil the other recorded audio underneath, same with if you start playing before. The autopunch in Reaper really just automatically trims the recording down to the selected segment, doesn't actually control where recording begins or ends.

 

[Metaltastic]

Epic n00b question here, but how do I set pre/post rolls in Reaper? Not like it really affects me though; I always do punch-ins on a separate track anyway, but it'd still be nice to know!

 

[Erkan]

Reaper does record all audio for the whole thing when it's a time selection punch though, so if you make a time selection and keep playing after it's over, you just have to drag the end of the region to expand it and unveil the other recorded audio underneath, same with if you start playing before. The autopunch in Reaper really just automatically trims the recording down to the selected segment, doesn't actually control where recording begins or ends.

Oooooh! Thanks for clearing that up man haha Well, in that case, there is no problem I guess.

Marcus, what's a pre and post roll? I'm sure I know what it is if you tell me, I just don't know the name of it

 

[Metaltastic]

It's where you can set the DAW to start playback a set period before the punch-in point (but not record until it hits the point) and then keep playing a bit after the punch out point (I guess for the musical equivalent of a "follow through" in sports, though I never bother)

 

[DaWolf]

Right click on the metronome. You can enable it at the bottom. At least the pre-roll.

 

[Metaltastic]

Oh yeah, look at that - thanks dude!

 

[LeSedna]

DAWs have a sens of humour, they like to hide things in front of your eyes

Anyway that's a fucking simple feature I've lived without until now. using punch-in and pre roll is so useful I don't even know how I could have lived without them !

 

[Erkan]

But isn't it just as simple as simply clicking anywhere before the time selection ("punch selection") and hit record from there? If it's set to punch, it shouldn't record until the start of the time selection right... so why do you need to enable pre-roll and shit?

 

[Metaltastic]

But isn't it just as simple as simply clicking anywhere before the time selection ("punch selection") and hit record from there? If it's set to punch, it shouldn't record until the start of the time selection right... so why do you need to enable pre-roll and shit?

Hmm, good question - all I can think is that it would defeat the punch in point and just start recording from where you put the cursor, but again, in this digital age where anything can be trimmed back anyway, I still think it's kinda pointless! (though on the other hand, for people who obsess so much over "workflow," I guess if you were doing a bunch of punch-ins not having to trim each one back would be nice)

 

[Erkan]

Hmm, good question - all I can think is that it would defeat the punch in point and just start recording from where you put the cursor, but again, in this digital age where anything can be trimmed back anyway, I still think it's kinda pointless! (though on the other hand, for people who obsess so much over "workflow," I guess if you were doing a bunch of punch-ins not having to trim each one back would be nice)

Well I can try this in a minute anyway so we'll see how it goes.

Meanwhile, I'm just recording a little clip to post soon for you guys to judge (trying Erik's effect chain with the SoloC + 8550 combo) but I just noticed something... my project is at 103 BPM and I've programmed a quick drum beat which consists of 2 MIDI items. When I pulled the tempo down a bit, to 99 BPM, the items stayed on the same positions on the track and didn't follow the new tempo at all... very weird. They PLAY at the correct tempo, which means the drums slow down but the position of the MIDI items themselves stay at the exact same screen "pixel" position as previously... which means I have to snap all items to the grid manually since they are not aligned to the grid anymore. Any way to fix this stupid shit so I won't have to drag a hundred MIDI items later when I have a big project and I decide to adjust the tempo?

 

[AdamWathan]

Alt + Enter, Project Settings, set Timebase to Beats (position, length, rate) or Beats (position only) depending on what you need.

 

[Metaltastic]

Alt + Enter, Project Settings, set Timebase to Beats (position, length, rate) or Beats (position only) depending on what you need.

OH MY GOD THANK YOU SO MUCH - Erkan, I've experienced the same problem, and it drives me absolutely fucking bonkers, so if this indeed does fix it, then Adam with the clutch once again!

 

[AdamWathan]

I should start a business reading instruction manuals and answering people's questions on forums

 

[Erkan]

Alt + Enter, Project Settings, set Timebase to Beats (position, length, rate) or Beats (position only) depending on what you need.

THANKS! That was it

I should start a business reading instruction manuals and answering people's questions on forums

Haha yeah sorry... I will go through the manual some day soon... this summer job is ending soon so I will have plenty of time.

 

[Erkan]

Hmm, good question - all I can think is that it would defeat the punch in point and just start recording from where you put the cursor, but again, in this digital age where anything can be trimmed back anyway, I still think it's kinda pointless! (though on the other hand, for people who obsess so much over "workflow," I guess if you were doing a bunch of punch-ins not having to trim each one back would be nice)

Just tried punching in by simply clicking from wherever I wanted to listen from, and it worked pretty good! It punched in when it hit the time selection (had the mode on auto punch at time selection) and it stopped when the time selection ended but I kept on playing and then dragged the clip back out to extend beyond of the punch out position so I got all of the performance. Still wish you could just turn off one or the other like in Ableton Live... if you only wanted to punch in or only wanted to punch out for example. Oh well, this is workable.

 

[John_C]

I did find a way to do proper punch ins with the keyboard

can't remember for the life of me though and i don't have reaper working right now.

I'll post if i remember

 

[John_C]

you can punch in by pressing space to play then pressing ctrl+r to start recording

but beware the horrifying comping nightmare you'll get with bits of tracks cut off from other bits etc..........reaper is the best for mixing but it still suck majorly compared to pro-tools for tracking and editing. You can use free item positioning to stop the comping mess, but then it's really clunky (alt+m to mute item) to switch between takes