Recording with Takes in REAPER

[@TheREAPERBlog]

The first 1000 people who use the link in my description will receive a 1 month free trial to Skillshare Premium! skl.sh/thereaperblog08211

[@parachuteman4]

Thanks. Finally learned how to get rid of the annoying splits!

[@BigMTBrain]

Great intro video. One suggestion: Sometimes you give explanation for why you turn a setting on or off; at other times, you just indicate that you've turned them on or off without any explanation as to why. Consistently giving a "why" would be helpful, even if it's just a quick "because [three to five words]". Still, thank you much for the great work!

[@CurtisLong]

Thanks for this, Jon. Concise but packed with great information as always. I've been using Reaper takes for years and I still learned things from you that I hadn't even considered might have simple solutions, like extending item lengths to the end and maintaining equal lengths for all takes. The optimized settings are going to be very helpful, too.

[@PieCompanyGuitars]

Thanks Jon, I love the show, keep up the great work...

[@TheREAPERBlog]

Thanks for watching!

[@citadelo5ricks]

Live has this awsome feature whereby you can record the output to a track, and keep overwriting it in a loop. As that track is populated with each take, the waveform is shown. People do this on a loop to match sounds by visual as well as by ear. I cannot figure out how to do this in Reaper.

[@gguitarwilly]

thank you for this very helpful and information packed video. Subscribed to your channel, but I did not find a video containing the next steps like making cross fades.

[@maskmagog99]

Thanks, I definitely learned some stuff from this. I'm sure you've covered this in other videos, but the "Lock to active take" is a lifesaver for me, so I don't have to worry about accidentally switching takes. And I'm too much of a "take hoarder" to use "Crop to active take" :)

[@pohlpiano]

Oh, weird splits problems resolved, I just spent half an hour reading a heated discussion on the forum, while it is so easy to get rid of... (we classical musicians pretty much never record every take exactly the same length)

[@degeneriert]

14:14 Is there any chance to get this option working for loop recorded MIDI as well while using MIDI-Replace-Recording?

[@scrobaby]

I'm a full time producer, doing Pop/EDM/Rock, and have been using Reaper since 2015ish. the take system is definitely pretty harsh, and one of the commenters is right, in that it would be great to have an option to just not split the damn clip when you press stop, although that still has the problem of if you record LONGER than the original take, it will create a split at that point as will. If only there was an option that, whenever you are recording, the take simply elongate themselves to the take in the clip, just using empty space to fill up any excess. The most efficient way for me to record takes is, track all my takes without worrying about how horrible the clips looks, and then delete all the little weird clips you get at the end using *tab to transient* and then *cut* a bunch of times until they're all deleted, then extend the clip in either direction until your only clip (with all your takes now) is as long as your longest take

[@TheREAPERBlog]

"whenever you are recording, the take simply elongate themselves to the take in the clip, just using empty space to fill up any excess." It does this in time selection auto punch mode.

[@Musikproduzent]

It's exactly how I do it, too. But for me it feels so bulky and workaround-like compared to other DAWs. It's getting messy at least as soon you don't do click based music or as soon as you want to do further edits like time stretching, or time correction (cuts using very small segments) . If the client wants to listen to other takes again it's just annoying. Reapers take system is quite unflexible in my opinion. Hope they'll add playlists soon.

[@AHmusic]

jon this is such a good video aaaaaa

[@scm2490]

Thanks to you Reaper's awfull take system is now much more usable for me. Thumbs up!

[@NebulousWeb]

So this brings up a question that I've had in the back of my mind for a long time. If I wanted to do some work with take-lanes, is there a way to put Reaper into a take 'mode' with all the settings changed for that particular task, and then easily return them to a normal 'editing' mode? Like a screenset, but for sets of preferences?

[@TheREAPERBlog]

Yes I think that is all possible in a custom action. good idea!

[@NebulousWeb]

@@TheREAPERBlog You can change some of the preference setting options with actions??? I'll need to look into that.

[@onzkicg]

Thanks for sharing! I didn't know about this takes. I often create tracks, now how would I consolidate example my 4 tracks into just one track with 4 takes instead? Thanks

[@jerroneous8549]

Very informative! Also great guitar sound! Cheers

[@Twixxosse]

thx for the tips ! but can you tell me how you set up your playback pls, because when i press the red button 4:35 , i can hear my voice in my headset and that nice but with a big delay. please help me

[@TheREAPERBlog]

the delay is called latency and you can fix that by using a smaller block size in the Audio Device Settings.

[@immanuel5128]

Thanks for all the tutorials and insights. I know that in theory the entire approach is also very much usable with more tracks, by just grouping the however many tracks, but I'm curious what the best way to go about the tracking would be in your opinion for let's say a drumkit. From what i got from this video, the approach would still be to record a couple of full takes, and then go to Time-selection Auto punch or Item auto punch modes to fix specific points, but particularly with cymbals that are still ringing from before would I have the drummer play a couple additional measures from before the actual part with the mistakes to avoid changes in the cymbals? Thanks again!

[@LennonStephens]

Is there a way to split a single take without splitting the rest? When I track vocals sometimes I just improv and then I end up having to explode takes to tracks just to edit them.

[@tiggerplaysguitar]

I love Reaper and it's my DAW of choice, but until the user can disable that "split at every point a previous take stopped" function I'll continue to just create a bunch of tracks (routed through a folder/bus if I want to use sims/fx) and do my takes there. Much simpler, easier to see and edit, and more intuitive.

[@wmpx34]

That's how I do it. It's fairly workable for single-mike sources. I just drag the keeper parts up to a comp track as I go.

[@wmpx34]

I guess part of the problem is avoided by extending the take out to the end of the section you are recording, like he does here...but that assumes you know where the end will be, too.

[@tiggerplaysguitar]

@@wmpx34 and then the next take starts the problem all over again if it's a different length. I always thought it was me not quite understanding it properly and I'd figure it out one of these days, but after Jon's video I now know it's just horrible and I'll carry on pretending that Reaper is a multi-track tape deck where takes are concerned.

[@wmpx34]

@@tiggerplaysguitar I'm hopeful that one day they will finally add playlists, which would solve much of the problem.

[@B3Band]

You can plan ahead and know where you're going to stop (like, "I'm only recording the chorus" or "I'm only recording the solo"). But I like the idea of moving the good takes into a comp track. I'm coming from Cubase where I only recorded using lanes like this, and moved the best takes to the top (where take 1 would be).

[@deskypoo]

Really useful, thank you

[@worksofein6449]

Good tips, I'll be using those in future.

[@pompeysie]

Is there a way of changing the colours or contrast between active and inactive takes. Sometimes I find it difficult to see the difference between active and inactive takes because of the colours automatically selected by Reaper.

[@TheREAPERBlog]

in the theme tweaker you can add a colored stripe to selected take. The default theme doesn't use it but in mine you can see a blue line at the top of selected take.

[@Tharangril]

is it posible to always play the pre-roll measures when loop recording?

[@TheREAPERBlog]

You'd have to use item selection autopunch with pre-roll off. Repeat/loop on. Make a time selection that includes the pre-roll area, select an item. record.

Very cool, thanks for the process! Out of curiosity, why do you deactivate the automatic crossfade?

[@cmd_f5]

When recording guitar or something with lots of sustained notes and the potential for notes to hang into the next measure etc, you can audibly hear items fading into each other.

[@TheREAPERBlog]

I disable so that all takes are same length and when the theres a split at the end of a section i can use a trim on the shortest item edge with crossfading. I’ll edit separately after tracking

[@B3Band]

Also, if the musician doesn't play "through" each section (like if they stop playing right at the end of the verse, and then in the next section start up again right at the chorus), there will be noticeable breaks. You can hear the difference in attack, because (for example on guitar) the sound of the pick hitting the string happens before the actual note is played, and it sounds fake if that sound is missing. Best practice to avoid this is to have the musician play the last part of the previous section when starting a take, and continue playing into the next section (at least one note) when finishing a take.

[@ashovid8915]

I am a Cubase user for my whole life. I have been using Reaper since last year. I think Cubase's takes in multilane is more easy and fast to work with . Reaper's multi take system has so many options that one becomes easily confused to choose which one take to finally keep or not. Hope i will be accustomed with Reaper's taking system with some practices. I love reaper and want to work with it, but it is not so intuitive as Cubase in some professional aspects.

[@Mr_Nobody_I]

I am also an "ex" cubase sx user and regarding takes, Reaper is terrible to work with to say the least.

[@EJohnDanton]

Nice! Very useable stuff here.

[@insertanynameyouwant5311]

even after using Reaper for years I still can`t implement takes on daily basis. I just use different tracks and move from one to another

[@maciekgonet]

Same here. It's just too time consuming to deal with takes...

[@shaft9000]

Well, you _can_ ....but it's pretty much a waste of time; like this video is.

[@citadelo5ricks]

Takes are a nightmare, you just have to keep them the same length or you are effed. Alternatively, free item positioning, allows for multiple takes of different lengths on one track. Then you have to sort, delete, implode into takes, move to other tracks, or use in place. In the end, I found FIP recording superior.

[@B3Band]

@@citadelo5ricks If your goal is to record takes, then it's not an issue. I could see takes being a problem if you're just playing until you make a mistake. But then why are you in Take mode? The whole point of takes is that you are doing a set section of the song. Just like on a video shoot, you don't just film the entire show until someone misses a line. You do one scene at a time.

[@citadelo5ricks]

@@B3Band Understood. By using FIP I can easily layer "takes" of different lengths and cover my errors of not setting the right take length if I come back after a week, month, year and do retakes. So all I'm saying is FIP is more flexible than takes, for me.

[@WilliamKitchens]

Hey John... great content! One need I have and I'm sure others would find useful is the ability to use pre-roll in loop recording... Having to toggle the loop points on/off for time based punch ins is extremely time consuming. Unless you stop and restart after each pass the pre-roll settings are ignored and the recording begins immediately at the set loop point. When tracking vocals I record in lyrical line sections... I can set the time between the markers and then have to toggle off the loop start and ends... manually drag them out to create the loop start and stop! If there was a loop recording pre-roll option this step would not be necessary. 24 lines and up! Is there a way to do this that is less time consuming than the current method I'm using?

[@TheREAPERBlog]

You'd have to use item selection autopunch with pre-roll off. Repeat/loop on. Make a time selection that includes the pre-roll area, select an item. record.

[@WilliamKitchens]

@@TheREAPERBlog I am doing that… 22-34 times per vocal track for lyric lines… I was hoping a pre-roll in loop recording was available. Select the time between markers and record. The current process requires I set the the time area and have to manually set the pre-roll… tedious

[@yaqubaxamee9146]

hey man what reaper theme is that ? giving you colorful recorded tracks ?

[@mytchel]

Great stuff!

[@d3ath_realm]

omg ty! i was so stressed trying to figure out how to select which take to use LOL FUUUUUUUUUUUU haha

[@christopherheadcase6886]

So.. Once you jave all your takes. Then do you younuse the crossfade option to smooth the transition between takes? How would you do that?

[@TheREAPERBlog]

yep, just enable the option, zoom in and drag the edges a bit to overlap, usually slightly before the grid lines to avoid fades right on transients.

[@christopherheadcase6886]

@@TheREAPERBlog so would you recommend doing these one at a time or selecting all the takes and drag all at once? Since they are all slight overlaps.

[@gabidiaz1693]

Hi, how you color the region area and cursor in red when recording? Could not find specific tuorial about it. Maybe its inbetween some of them Could you pint me to? Thanks from Spain. Great tutorials.

[@cmd_f5]

Great info as usual. I both love and hate reaper's proclivity for so many items. It can be confusing. That said it's also powerful. Cheers :)

[@stonehouseguitars3869]

Thank you for the tutorial. Very helpful. This shit should *all* be enabled by default, this is so frustrating and ridiculous that I have to do all this ***king around just to make things intuitive and sensible.

[@baza210]

is it possible to "create" a set of takes from an existing recording? for example when someone sends you a few voiceover attempts in a single file. Edit: answering my own question, with your old video " Implode Items To Takes"

[@TheREAPERBlog]

you got it. There's also Take: Paste as takes in items

[@MattThrottle]

maybe you know way how disable select take with mouse-click? and change only with keyboard shortcut?

[@TheREAPERBlog]

I have a toolbar button for this "Item properties: Toggle lock to active take (toggle mouse click changes active take)" But also, just switching out of 'show all takes in lanes' view resolves the issue.

[@vachila643]

You know you're good when you plan your own mistakes XD 5:55

[@CarlosBritow]

Excelente! gracias.

[@mark-ze4en]

Hey Jon has Reaper policy changed regarding continuous upgrade with a trial application? New release won't load for me now.

[@TheREAPERBlog]

no change with that. is there an error message?

[@mark-ze4en]

@@TheREAPERBlog thanks Jon . I finally got it installed. Appreciate your response.great videos!

[@DiegoValenciabajista]

Hi, its there a reason why I dont have the "Create new media items in separate lanes" option?.. It just appears " crea new media item" in that spot

[@Sajid_Sarker]

same here..I don't understand why!

[@tyvoremusic]

How did you got these wave colors red/orange/yellow on your takes?

[@TheREAPERBlog]

“Spectral peaks” view menu, peaks display settings…

[@tyvoremusic]

@@TheREAPERBlog Thanks

[@shaft9000]

I guess this isn't a formal lesson. Without any idea of what you're aiming for it felt kind of a floating mess by 11:00 or so. Why doesn't Reaper implement a float-able pop-up/mouseover temp-window (or folder) for takes on each track's timeline?? it would clean up the track pane's UI a lot.

[@B3Band]

It's a youtube video. You thought you were getting a formal lesson? lol

[@kldelacruz]

Hi! I tried this method but whenever I hit the recording button, there are no playbacks during count-ins. Is there way to have the count in but keep the playbacks during recording?

[@djazz0]

Pre roll instead of count in as shown in the video

[@audiosounddoctor5834]

Can I have this theme plz?

[@theunholinesswithin70]

Oh! The idea is to check ONLY SHOW ACTIVE TAKES. Ok, now that I know that. I have OCD and seeing the mess of takes bugs me. Also making sure the best one is always selected, as I sometimes move shit around.

[@IDDQDSound]

Congrats on your 666th video!!!!! MWAHAHAHA

[@TheREAPERBlog]

how do you even know this?

[@matiasgoinheix366]

@@TheREAPERBlog lol

[@IDDQDSound]

@@TheREAPERBlog The Tubebuddy extension shows ya if you're on someone's main channel page :)

[@VoxJ]

Let's get it over with...Reaper take system sucks!

[@drd8974]

"Key TAKEaways"

[@TheREAPERBlog]

:o

[@tomijohannes]

Too bad I can't give two thumbs up.

[@jitraidunionsay9944]

nice. i knew this tech. Reaper is not protools god, it's better, it's Jesus or Mohamed or Buddha. 'don't care, it's the more democratic, light and powerful daw i meet. Simply i falled in love.

[@gibson2623]

Really? and have to puy my credit card info on there? Get a grip dude.....You are out of control