WAVs and Reaper

[Another Guitar Dude]

Reaper zealots out there, I need a bit of help. I'm a very happy Reaper user since half a year ago, however, I have this "small issue" all the time when importing WAV files into Reaper. They always peak at 0dB or more. So every time, I have to put a trim plugin on every track to keep the gain down at -18dB. Am I doing something wrong when importing the files ? Do you have a better way to approach this ? What's your workflow when loading tracks into Reaper before mixing ?

Thanks !

 

[MartijnPaauwe]

Could be a simple question, but aren't the tracks you are importing always too hot? I haven't used Reaper for a couple of years now, but never had this kind of issue and it seems unlikely that the problem lies within Reaper to be fair

 

[Vihaleipä]

Could be a simple question, but aren't the tracks you are importing always too hot? I haven't used Reaper for a couple of years now, but never had this kind of issue and it seems unlikely that the problem lies within Reaper to be fair

This, I've never had any similar problems either and I'm using Reaper too.

 

[FarBeyondMetal]

Do you mean that the master clips after importing multiple tracks at +0dB, or that each individual track clips? Or perhaps the above posters are correct and the tracks are clipping before getting to reaper. Post some screenshots.

 

[Another Guitar Dude]

Thanks for the answer guys ! Yeah it was as simple as it can get, the tracks were always too hot. I've tried today with different WAVs downloaded from the forum and they're ok. My problem was that in my last 4-5 projects, the WAVs I got were always clipping, and I thought, "ok, one or two times, it can be the case that I get from someone files that are too hot, but five times ? Noo, it can't be, what are the odds for that ?" Well, it seems that they were high hahaha In addition, some of those files came from studio guys so I thought that experienced guys could not be sending me such hot files. Anyway, mystery solved !

 

[AudioGeekZine]

Depends on how those guys were preparing the files for mixing. Simply consolidating the files shouldn't change the gain. If they are exporting through plugins or normalizing in a batch export process then that would explain the issue.

So every time, I have to put a trim plugin on every track to keep the gain down at -18dB

Just trim the item volume! There's a volume control on every item.

 

[LeSedna]

I just drag-trim And glue files at will, then rename them for readability. There might even be an option to rename
Simplier a glued item.

 

[Another Guitar Dude]

Just trim the item volume! There's a volume control on every item.

Yeah I learned about the pre-fader item volume in Reaper last week. Now I use it instead of putting a trim plugin on every track.

 

[bryan_kilco]

You guys talking about how you can click the top of the audio item and drag the red line down, I'm assuming? Comes in very handy.

 

[Another Guitar Dude]

You guys talking about how you can click the top of the audio item and drag the red line down, I'm assuming? Comes in very handy.

Yes sir, that indeed comes in very handy

 

[thebradthomas]

Whoa. Mind blown - I can rid of so many instances of Volume.js

Thanks for the tip!

 

[AudioGeekZine]

You guys talking about how you can click the top of the audio item and drag the red line down, I'm assuming? Comes in very handy.

in preferences you can also set that to be a little volume knob.

There's also take volume envelopes and pre-fx volume envelopes if you really need to tweak the levels before the fx chain.

I use take volume envelopes a ton.

 

[Another Guitar Dude]

in preferences you can also set that to be a little volume knob.

There's also take volume envelopes and pre-fx volume envelopes if you really need to tweak the levels before the fx chain.

I use take volume envelopes a ton.

Interesting, I was not aware of take envelopes. So what's the advantage of using take volume envelopes instead of track volume envelopes ? I guess that one advantage is to avoid riding the fader for the whole track and just for some specific parts of it, isn't it ?

 

[AudioGeekZine]

Here's how I do it. Video from a few months ago. I need make another where I use it a vocal.

I use it to control macro and micro dynamics, sibilance, pops, clicks, and gate. It's incredibly fast.

 

[Another Guitar Dude]

Here's how I do it. Video from a few months ago. I need make another where I use it a vocal.

I use it to control macro and micro dynamics, sibilance, pops, clicks, and gate. It's incredibly fast.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIhsIsg200w

Looks incredibly useful. Thanks for the tip man, you got a new subscriber to your channel.