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Old 08-23-2009, 03:43 PM   #6
Bezmotivnik
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Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: California
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Quote:
Originally Posted by LCipher View Post
Do you mean "write a song" or "record a song"? Big difference...
Well, I was referring to using Reaper, so the second. Writing the song's never a problem; recording the song is sheer hell.

So far, the different responses are interesting. To answer one question, I am a vocalist who can do or at least fake the instruments (with enough takes to get at least one professional-quality result -- which is all that matters). I'm the least able on keys, unfortunately, as keys are so vital and currently versatile, but an OK guitarist and bassist and a pretty good percussionist.

My assumption would be that you'd want to start with a scratch MIDI drumtrack built from loops to function as a glorified clicktrack that reflected the layout of the song, then a scratch rhythm guitar track to fill that out with the chord structure, then build from that, gradually replacing the scratch tracks with the real tracks, perhaps two or three times each by the time you're done, and adding your vocal tracks, instrumental breaks, wild noise, etc.

Does that make sense as a logical plan? If not, where am I wrong?

[My eternal problem has been that scratch drum track, which means I'm really stuck in the gate. I have EZDrummer, a set of electronic drums that successfully gate it and even a SR-16 (never mind a bunch of actual drums), but I haven't yet figured out how to translate that into a properly assembled scratch track in Reaper. I'm sure it's very easy if you know how, but I don't. I've asked a few times about this here but have received no help.]
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