🎼REAPER 01 - Reaper (DAW) beginner tutorial // RECORD, EDIT, MIX, MASTER 🎼
Ok, this is the first begginer tutorial about Reaper (DAW).
Currently I'm using v5.70 but everything used here can be done on any other previous versions.
Here you can learn how to quickly setup the interface to record (track) - color - edit - mix - master and export your song.
Just try to follow the instructions and you'll be able to record, mix and export your song in no time.
(Presumably you've already set up your sound drivers)
Firstly you Open or Create a new project. It all looks blank and simple (I like it that way, since it reminds me of myself :D ) but don't let it fool you, there's a bunch of options there. Before we add tracks to record, we can view our Master track.
Go to:
View (Alt + V) and click on Master track (Ctrl + Alt + M).
Now you can see your Master Track.
It's the only track where you cannot import any media.
But, all of the audio will be played through it - so you can still manipulate it for "mastering" purposes.
RECORDING (Tracking)
Now, we can add some tracks for recording.
Double click the area below the Master Track or go to Track -> Insert new track (Ctrl + T). And voila! You have just added your first track :). You can name it any way you want, and just below the name you can select the INPUT (depends on your card and drivers, select the channel you want to record).
Now, if you press the red button, it will turn "redder" (hehhe) and you officially are READY TO RECORD (The track is Armed)! Wooohoooo! :)
Ok, now you just have to have a performer (or your talented self) to lay in a great performance and capture it with your tracks. Hense, the process is called Recording or Tracking.
To start tracking press the RED button on the bottom, or just click Ctrl + R.
Ok, just for this tutorial I've recorded my performance with one Guitar and Vocal tracks (both mono).
Tips and Tricks:
You can also record in stereo by selecting Stereo on Input
It's always good to Save (Ctrl + S)
Now that we've recorded our piece (which is around 40 minutes long :D) into two Items (the audio media that is on the tracks) we can select and crop our performance to the most satisfactory segment that we choose.
That process is called Editing.
Before we go into basic editing let's throw some glitter over the project.
If your waveform is to small in peaks (like the Vocal here) you can either press SHIFT + Up Arrow and they will become bigger, or just stretch the track to be bigger.
COLORING
The great thing about Reaper is that you can assign any color to the Track, that way, making it more visible.
Just right click on the track and select Track color -> Set tracks to custom color...
You can select any color you want and make everything posh and funky ;).
EDITING
Now that everything is colorful and peachy we can start editing.
Reaper can easilly make Regions, just by selecting a part (on the top ruler) and clicking Insert -> Region (from time selection) or Ctrl + R you can make a Region that you can name and assign a color to it.
That way you can mark different areas of your performance.
Here I've marked 3 regions.
GOOD performance is marked red.
BETTER performance is marked blue.
The BEST performance is marked green.
Tips and Tricks:
If you've selected your final take and performance - you can double click the region and right - click below the top ruler. Select Crop project to selection from the dropdown menu, and the whole project will be cropped to your best performance (you've previously selected ofcourse).
Now if you want to do some fixes to your tracks, or any basic editing, the first thing to do is to select both of the Items (shift select both waveforms) and press G or right click on them and select Group -> Group items. That way, whatever you do to any of the Items on the tracks, the other grouped tracks will follow. (You can ungroup by pressing U).
Once you've Grouped your Items you can edit them without messing up the sync between them. Click anywhere on the timeline ruler and press "S" to Split items. At that point you've done a split to your items and divided them in two sperate parts that you can move around, delete or overlap (Crossfade).
Adjust your crossfades by draggin the end of the takes so that the edit isn't heard (unless you deliberately want that).
That way you can fix any "mistakes" in your tracks and sculpt your final composition.
Anyways, after you've finished with your Editing you can select the tracks and export them, or you can continue to sculpt your masterpiece sound-wise.
That proces is called Mixing.
MIXING
Ok, now that you've edited your song, you've actually done just the composition. You've written down your parts on the timeline, now you can mix them.
Now, there are two basic ways of mixing. With levels and with EQ.
If your Vocals are too quiet, you can always bring them up / or put down your guitar.
Quick Tip: Watch your Master Track when mixing. The Meter above the green indicators shows you how loud your overall track is. If it turns RED it means your track is clipping, and it will cause unpleasant distorsions. It's always best to mix below -0.1dB.
Level mixing
If you press Ctrl + M, Reaper will show you your mixing board. There you can see all of your tracks and faders.
Since my vocals are too quiet I will move the fader up to make it a bit louder until I find a fine balance between the two.
In this case I've added +7.16dB to my Vocal track and made a fine balance between the two tracks.
You can do all of that without the View of the Mixer right on your tracks on the circle knob that's beside your Track Name. If you notice that there's a distortion and / or lack of low / bass / mid frequencies in your instruments, it means that your microphones weren't in "phase". You can quickly change that and check it by clicking small button next to the FX with a circle that's crossed over diagonally (when active it turnes blue).
Anyways, now that we've balanced our tracks (more - less) we can fine - tune our frequency balance. If you're missing the bass or low's on your instrument, you can pump them up with an ordinary EQ.
If you click on the FX button you can add any VST (effect) that you have installed on your computer. Let's say we want to add some low's to our vocals. Type in "ReaEQ" that's the simplest, stock eq that there is, and it comes built in with Reaper.
I've added around 300-400 Hz of lows and a +1.6dB in the 7kHz range to open up the vocals. I'm satisfied with the sound.
Now we can do the same process on the Guitar track.
(to quickly transfer the same FX chain from the Vocals track to your Guitar track, just drag and drop the green FX button from the Vocals to the Guitar track).
If you want to check the difference between the dry track (no fx) and the wet (fx) track, you can just click the right part of the FX button to enable (green) or disable it (red).
This is a really rudimental scenario, where we're just minimally tweeking the tracks. The mixing process usually includes different aspects like compressing, EQ-ing and Image-ing.
Quick Tip: Always use your ears more than your eyes when mixing.
I would recommend visiting the blog of my friend @grobens where he's doing a set of really good tutorials about basic mixing concepts.
Now that we've EQ-ed our tracks (compressed them, etc.) and done whatever we want to balance the mix. We can go to the final stage of Mastering.
MASTERING
Mastering is the final set of tweeks done on your stereo track in order to balance the song, make it louder and sit better on deifferent sound systems.
You can do it in a seperate project, or in the same project. That's why your master track has an FX button.
It's usually done with EQ, and different** compressors and limiters** (limiters are just hard-core compressors).
The most basic way to limit your mix (make it louder) is just by adding - let's say - L1 limiter Stereo (Waves) to your Master Track pressing the small Link button and pulling it down until you hear a distorsion. The track will be equally loud, but you'll hear it become more squished and glued (compression is distorsion and basicly you're destroying your track for the benefit of loudness), and then when you're satisfied with the sound, just pull the right fader (Out Ceiling) up to -0.1. And wooohooo, you've mastered your stereo track.
EXPORTING (Render)
What now? Well, the only thing that's left to do is for you to select and export (Render) your track.
Selecting it is easy, just double click on your Region, or select a time range on your Ruler (Timeline). Then go to File -> Render (Ctrl + Alt + R).
Your Source will (almost always) be Master mix, Bounds can be set to whatever, but if you've selected your song it's good to put Time selection.
Set your Output parameters to whatever, Directory (where you want your Output to go), File name (self explanatory), and most importantly - Set your Options right!
If you've recorded your material in 48kHz and with 24bit depth, then change the Sample rate from 44100 Hz to 48000 Hz so that it matches, otherwise there will be speed and sound problems in your export.
Usual Output format is WAV, but you can export it in MP3 if you have the Lame enxoder pack.
After you finished setting everything up, just click Render 1 file.
*Quick Tip:
If you want to compare your current mix to your last export, the thing I usually do is:
- Add all of your tracks to a Parent track
- Add one track on top of all others.
- Click the little folder icon below the track number (it will turn into a + when hovered).
- When rendering, check the "Add rendered items to new tracks in project" box
And your export (mix) will be added as the last track in your mix.
MUTE it (press the M button on the track) and when you want to listen to it, just press the S (solo) button to hear it.*
And congratulations!! You've rendered your first track!
Look at it go :). As you can see, my track is pretty squished (hence the block look of the waveform) - but it doesn't touch, peak or go over -0.1dB at any point, so it wont produce any unwanted clipping.
Just click Show in explorer and do whatever you want - send it to your publisher, friend, aunt, girlfriend, upload it online, put it on tape and enjoy being a rockstar! ;)
(img from http://assets.entrepreneur.com)
Anyways, I hope this tutorial was alright to you, and that it helped you to break out and finally record all of those songs you wanted to. Reaper isn't by default an eye-candy, but once you've spent a bit of time with it, you realise that it can be tweeked any way you want. There are a bunch of options online, and a lot of really good tutorials that you can check out and try. I love this program because of it, and the workflow just becomes better in time.
Thank you for reading and if you have any questions about any concept or part of the tutorial, DON'T HESITATE TO ASK! ;)