Reaper and REN the Super Team

Key commands are found in the actions header on the menu bar... You can change the key commands for actions to work like cubase... Imagine a action being "copy item" or "duplicate item"

That template i sent you has sidechains already setup.. (traditional sidechain compressor) But parameter modulation allows further sidechaining possibilities like eq ducking... or the opposite.. eq boosting.... parameters from all vst 2.4 can be modulated by audio signals,lfo or midi... Really quite insane flexibilty...(except the damn mpc vst plugin but we dont need that anyway!!!...)

Not sure how you use markers but i prefer using the regions. Regions can be duplicated(ctrl drag) or dragged quite easily for arrangement. If you get sws extensions it adds some handy extra tools that you will use later on if not now!!

fdodds wrote:want to uncheck the option to stop the audio driver

Haha YES!!! I always have this unchecked.. But forget to mention it!!!

markers are very useful for as many uses as you can think of. hit m at any time and marker will be placed on the timeline at the current position. hit [ and you go back to the previous marker, ] to go to the next marker. really good for moving around large audio tracks. you can move between markers during playback, to skip around a track live to get some nice stutter effects or whatever (hey thats actually a use for recording the reaper output inside the mpc software)

but what they're best for is organisational stuff. you can hit m whenever you're listening back to your mix, then double click the markers number up the top and write a note like insert cash register sample here, or REALLY useful when you're recording a source like vinyl - as you record into reaper you can hit m at any time and leave a meaningful note so you remember where the choicest samples are. the notes you leave are readable in the marker lane, so as you listen back to a marked recording you can see things coming up. so good, i so often will dub a vinyl or something to sample but then when faced with my massive recording later it's hard to find exactly where inspiration struck you and beat ideas are just lost.... massive time saver, way better than writing down all the minutes and seconds where the gems are at

also nubian parameter modulation is another amazing part of reaper. trust me, there is hardly any part of this DAW that doesn't completely whip the competition in terms of flexibility and power (not necessarily user friendliness )

on each track in the timeline view theres a button called trim with a little parameter envelop logo next to it. if you click that a window will appear showing every parameter for that track, all default parameters (gain, pan, etc.) but also every parameter for every effect on that track. for each one you can individually select whether the track is visible, or armed.

after you make the parameter lane visible, reapers editing is pretty nice. shift and click anywhere on the envelope to create a point, then you can move that point to make ramps, or click on the line itself to make an instant step down or step up.

there's plenty more to learn, but those are the basics, and pretty much all i use with reaper and it works for me haha

Anyone that could guide me in mac to this setup please?
TIA

Hey tt pm'd ya.. The vid isn't that special as i did it quick for Pk.. I haven't had time to get a good one happening..

https://www.dropbox.com/s/16ff2ec2509nshg/real%20mpc%20jackosx%20-%20Mac%20and%20PC.mp4

Here's a vid showing the jackosx way.. its similar.. the connection layer happens in jacks routing app so it's not as clear as the rearoute way.. The vid kinda explains it..

it's been about 5 years since i rocked a mac, but for jack or rearoute like routing on a mac, i always found soundflower to be the easiest no fuss way to go about it. maybe someone who currently uses a mac can jump in and confirm if it works nice with the mpc software?

Soundflower is very similar to jack and rearoute, but it shows up as an always on utility in the mac bar. like i said it's been quite a while since i've used it, but i believe it shows up as an input for any audio driver (i don't think it's an audio driver in it's own right, i believe jack is similar to this? but i've never had that much success with jack in any os)

i just remember that soundflower was totally the best thing, i missed it really bad when my macbook died

download it here: http://cycling74.com/products/soundflower/ and install it. you should be able to set up soundflower 16 channel as the mpc software's audio output in the preferences, then set soundflower as the input for your DAW of choice

Thank you guys!
Gonna give it a try!
Already have soundflower and jack.
I'll keep you posted.

It is working nicely!
Thank you sir for the video.

Another question I have is how do you sync the start on both MPC and Reaper?

(When using the Rearoute setup)

I quickly tested this with your template, and I want to thank you for sharing this! Opens up a whole new world! I just need to dig more deeper into the settings and setting it up without the template. But thank you!

Yeah, can't stress enough just how helpful this thread has been.

Has literally changed how I make music for the foreseeable future and takes the capabilities of the Ren into a whole other stratosphere!

Happy to Help out!!
@wkempton
A quick explanation of the template and folder settings..
When tracks are in folders (or parent tracks indicated by the indent) it automatically creates a group buss for the children tracks.... So the first track "drums" is a drum buss group...
If you check the inputs for each channel they are rearoute channels.. Except the very last track.. which is a dummy track so that you can use your hardware inputs to sample into the mpc software.. (so it's routing back if you choose to sample into the mpc software instead of drag and drop)
when you open the routing for each track they usually have a master/parent send box checked. The last track doesn't for my setup (and if you use direct monitoring it's better left unchecked)


@nubian
Good question!! The reason i use this setup is because i dont want reaper syncing or starting at all, but if you need it to sync, it may be easier to use as mpc plug in...
You could try and use the mpc as a midi device in reaper.. And then set the transport controls in reaper in the actions list.. (when the list is open you can find play typing in the text filter or by hitting the find shortcut button)..then hit spacebar.. It then selects the action play which you then can midi learn.. I havent tried it yet.. Then thing is is that it's not in sync, but rather it just triggers the play when you hit play on the mpc ren..

I track my arrangements out all at once without bothering to get a sync (i just manually set the bpm in reaper to the same as the mpc project i'm tracking out) i let the mpc software go through the pre-roll then hit record on reaper a half beat before the track starts. then when i'm done recording, i zoom in and sit the cursor right where the audio starts and just split it, delete the empty space and drag all the clips over to the left to align it to the bpm grid

fdodds wrote:I track my arrangements out all at once without bothering to get a sync (i just manually set the bpm in reaper to the same as the mpc project i'm tracking out) i let the mpc software go through the pre-roll then hit record on reaper a half beat before the track starts. then when i'm done recording, i zoom in and sit the cursor right where the audio starts and just split it, delete the empty space and drag all the clips over to the left to align it to the bpm grid

I was thinking about this last night and Ibelieve this is probably the best option, rather than reverting to using the MPC as a plug in like I did before (which has a whole host of limiting factors at the moment)

The great thing, once again, is that when I hit record in Reaper every single track is recorded in pristine audio on its own channel and, if I need to, I can get busy doing further edits with those files as well as unleashing Reapers audio tools, which are deceptively effective even though they appear so simple at first glance.

Nubian Mindz wrote:if I need to, I can get busy doing further edits with those files as well as unleashing Reapers audio tools, which are deceptively effective even though they appear so simple at first glance.

I just spent a couple hours today making a beat while showing a mate how to use reaper, and as i'm teaching him i'm like, you already know how to use all these tools, it's just that reaper does it the best and makes it painless. so many great ctrl/alt modifiers... like hold alt and grab an edge of a clip and you can timestretch it completely arbitrarily, then go into the item processing window and change the timestretch algorithm to something that takes longer to process but gives a better result, or if you're like me you can do the opposite and choose the crappiest, quickest time stretch algorithm and get some really nice trippy lo-fi synth tones.... real old school time stretch sounds i fukn love it