Old 04-17-2014, 12:42 AM   #1
mollybloom
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
Posts: 37
Default Shortcircuit questions

Hello all,


I´ve just (re)started my Reaper adventures, trying to build beats with shortcircuit and the sequencer baby steopsequencer. I am not very experienced with this sort of music making and even though the basics seem to work, I have a couple of questions:

1) Following the guide by Tedwood, i have tried grouping different samples within shortcircuit (snare, kicks etc.) to different tracks to be able to control them separatly and add separate effects. I feel like I´m doing everything he writes (sending from the original track to new tracks, disabling master/parent send etc.), but i just can´t get the different samples to go to different channels.

2) The plugin structure I´m using on the track is first sequencer baby to create the beat and then shortcircuit afterwards to add the samples. Is this the right way to do it? Or is there a better way?

3) When i play a sample in mediaplayer or in shortcircuit with my midikeyboard it "rings out" whereas, when i have made it a part of my general beat in sequencer, it sort gets chopped off. How to make it ring out here as well? The sounds come out quite amputated as for now :-)

4) A more general question: what is a decent latency for Reaper? I´m getting 3,3/9,9 right now with a MOTU microbook and amn i7 quadcore, 8 Ram Lenovo ideabook. Is this okay or should i tweak something for better results? And should I do anything to make Reaper take advantage of the quadcore-thingy (as you can here, I´m definintely no computer expert)or does i automatically use everything as efficient as possible?

Guess that´s it for now; any help would be greatly appreciated :-)!
mollybloom is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-17-2014, 10:25 AM   #2
lowest form
Human being with feelings
 
lowest form's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2007
Location: London edge
Posts: 287
Default

I use Shortcircuit quite a bit, so hopefully I can help at least a little until someone more knowledgable comes along!

1) Following the guide by Tedwood, i have tried grouping different samples within shortcircuit (snare, kicks etc.) to different tracks to be able to control them separatly and add separate effects. I feel like I´m doing everything he writes (sending from the original track to new tracks, disabling master/parent send etc.), but i just can´t get the different samples to go to different channels.

I haven't checked out that guide, but there's two steps to doing what you want (1) I think you right click on the effect name in the left hand part of the effects window and select the option to “Build multichannel routing for output of selected fx" - you can also do it from the Options menu of the FX Chain window according to this (2) in the 'output' section of each sample or group in Shortcircuit choose to either assign the main output to a new channel (eg: 3-4, 5-6, 7-8, etc) or send an aux-output to a new channel and the signal will go to 1-2 and the one you've selected, you can also choose how much of the signal is sent to the aux channel.

2) The plugin structure I´m using on the track is first sequencer baby to create the beat and then shortcircuit afterwards to add the samples. Is this the right way to do it? Or is there a better way?

I think what you've said should work, but the way I usually set it up is to have all of your audio sub-channels as child tracks of a parent track/folder and these are used purely for audio. The parent track has Shortcircuit loaded onto it in the FX section. I then have a separate track just for midi and send this to the parent track, in your case you'd have Seq Baby loaded onto the midi track.

You could also set up a dedicated track with a Seq Baby playing all of the midi data for each audio channel and route them all into the master track that has SC on it. I'm sure you could also achieve this by having both midi and audio for a single audio channel on a single channel but I'm not 100% sure how you'd do this without Reaper here.

3) When i play a sample in mediaplayer or in shortcircuit with my midikeyboard it "rings out" whereas, when i have made it a part of my general beat in sequencer, it sort gets chopped off. How to make it ring out here as well? The sounds come out quite amputated as for now :-)

I'm guessing this is because Step Seq has no duration information, it's just a trigger and relies on the envelope settings in SC to determine how long a note plays for. If this is the case, you'll need to determine how long the sample plays for using the 'release' value in the "amplitute EG" section.


4) A more general question: what is a decent latency for Reaper? I´m getting 3,3/9,9 right now with a MOTU microbook and amn i7 quadcore, 8 Ram Lenovo ideabook. Is this okay or should i tweak something for better results? And should I do anything to make Reaper take advantage of the quadcore-thingy (as you can here, I´m definintely no computer expert)or does i automatically use everything as efficient as possible?

I use an i3, 4 ram samsung laptop with no performance tweaks & a Native Instruments Komplete 6 USB soundcard and get 11ms without any real issues. Your numbers sound pretty good if that's 3.3ms/9.9m but I am sure some of the more expert users here could advise on ways to potentially improve performance through changes to your PC. There's some good pages on the web, referenced in this forum if you have a search around.

Last edited by lowest form; 04-17-2014 at 10:31 AM. Reason: maw advice
lowest form is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-17-2014, 02:08 PM   #3
tweezer
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: S.E.England
Posts: 329
Default

With regard to '3 Sample being truncated', you can also set the mode that you want the samples played. With acoustic drum samples you could set the mode to 'Forward Shot' which means the sample will play all the way through even if you trigger the same sample again.
This gives realistic results. If you hit (say) a tomtom once and then hit it again almost immediately the sound of the first strike wouldn't just stop because you'd hit the tomtom again. That's what Forward Shot gives you.

If you click on a single sample the sample edit window opens. Just below that there are four 'buttons. From left to right they are 'Replace Sample - External Editor - Forward - Pitch Correct'. If you click on Forward you get a drop down box with several options. Choose Forward Shot.
Now the sample will play all the way through regardless of the length of the note used to trigger it.
To apply Forward Shot to all samples in a group, click on the top sample then hold shift and click on the bottom sample. If you now select Forward Shot it will be apllied to all the selected samples at once.

I hope that's not too confusing. Doing it is easy. Explaining it is hard.

Last edited by tweezer; 04-17-2014 at 02:48 PM.
tweezer is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-17-2014, 09:44 PM   #4
mollybloom
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
Posts: 37
Default

@ Lowestform: Thanks a lot for taking your time to write up that very comprehensive answer - i will try out all your advice today and see if it gets me anywhere :-)

and tweezer: i totally get your point and I´m sure that will do the trick. And I agree that explaining stuff that like that is surprisingly complicated; guess the explanatory power of written language in the computerage is reaching its limits, hahaha
mollybloom is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-19-2014, 02:10 PM   #5
fladd
Human being with feelings
 
fladd's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 1,030
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by mollybloom View Post
Hello all,


I´ve just (re)started my Reaper adventures, trying to build beats with shortcircuit and the sequencer baby steopsequencer. I am not very experienced with this sort of music making and even though the basics seem to work, I have a couple of questions:

1) Following the guide by Tedwood, i have tried grouping different samples within shortcircuit (snare, kicks etc.) to different tracks to be able to control them separatly and add separate effects. I feel like I´m doing everything he writes (sending from the original track to new tracks, disabling master/parent send etc.), but i just can´t get the different samples to go to different channels.

2) The plugin structure I´m using on the track is first sequencer baby to create the beat and then shortcircuit afterwards to add the samples. Is this the right way to do it? Or is there a better way?

3) When i play a sample in mediaplayer or in shortcircuit with my midikeyboard it "rings out" whereas, when i have made it a part of my general beat in sequencer, it sort gets chopped off. How to make it ring out here as well? The sounds come out quite amputated as for now :-)

4) A more general question: what is a decent latency for Reaper? I´m getting 3,3/9,9 right now with a MOTU microbook and amn i7 quadcore, 8 Ram Lenovo ideabook. Is this okay or should i tweak something for better results? And should I do anything to make Reaper take advantage of the quadcore-thingy (as you can here, I´m definintely no computer expert)or does i automatically use everything as efficient as possible?

Guess that´s it for now; any help would be greatly appreciated :-)!
I have always been a Shortcircuit fan myself. Until I read this: http://forum.renoise.com/index.php?/...ost__p__266254.

You might want to look into this as a free alternative: www.tx16wx.com‎
__________________
www.fladd.de/sound
fladd is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-19-2014, 05:57 PM   #6
jacobestes
Human being with feelings
 
jacobestes's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2010
Posts: 415
Default

When you have a sample selected in Shortcircuit, on the right side under Output it has the default output channels as 1-2, which you can click to then change to 3-4, 5-6, etc.
__________________
Genie, Child of God, my instrumental post-rock band, I play keyboards. We just recorded an album with Reaper!
Feelings Eraser, my electro project.
jacobestes is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-21-2014, 07:16 AM   #7
mollybloom
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
Posts: 37
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by fladd View Post
I have always been a Shortcircuit fan myself. Until I read this: http://forum.renoise.com/index.php?/...ost__p__266254.

You might want to look into this as a free alternative: www.tx16wx.com‎

Thanks for the tip! I have been looking superficially at it, and it does seem nice :-) Is there, however, any online resources as to how it works? I´m just starting to get the hang of SC, but some samples(mostly kickdrums)that sound nice in the explorer take on a weird popping sound in SC. So if its as easy to learn as SC, then maybe I should make the transition now instead of spending time getting to know SC even more.
mollybloom is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -7. The time now is 06:39 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.