Old 11-19-2010, 11:51 AM   #1
morgan
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Default A few questions coming from an ex-protools user...

Hi everyone. I'm fairly new to Reaper, have been using it for a couple of months and really digging it. I am just loving the speed, stability workflow and mentality. I am coming from Protools HD and working as a recording/mixing engineer, for the record... For the moment I am just reaping in my home studio though... Not comfortable enough yet.

I find it great to be able to have custom shortcuts / actions and have labelled my keyboard with my fav personal shortcuts. Big time saver. Plus have had fun making my personal theme by mixing themes I like. All these features are amazing! Feels like it fits me like a glove now

I do however have a few things bothering me and am wondering if you could help. I am really trying hard to convert but the following issues are slowing me down!


1. If I have the mixer window opened fullscreen and have a plugin window open, is there an option to keep the plugin "always on top", as each time I go to tweek a fader the plugin window disapears. This is driving me nuts.

2. In the same way, if I have a plugin window open, how to I stop it stealing my keyboard focus? I mean at the moment if I have certain plugins open, I can't even stop playback with space bar! So I have to click on the TCP or MCP, press space and re-open it. Arggggghhh!

3. Is there a keyboard shortcut to add the same or incremental I/O routing to selected tracks as in protools? This is a big time saver when time is critical to set up a recording session. And no the routing matrix is not as fast, and I find it grafically confusing.

4. Is there a way to send the fader levels/pans to a send on all selected tracks. Another big time saver for setting up a quick cue mix.

5. How can I have pre-fader mettering to check my gain staging? Or at least a Solo PFL... Basic function found on any mixer, DAW.

6. How can I constrain to vertical movement the item movement? To move items from track to track without going out of time?

7. How do I set a default fade-in/out shape for my manual item fades?


Cheers guys

Last edited by morgan; 11-19-2010 at 12:06 PM.
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Old 11-22-2010, 11:33 AM   #2
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anybody out there?
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Old 11-22-2010, 02:34 PM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by morgan View Post
1. If I have the mixer window opened fullscreen and have a plugin window open, is there an option to keep the plugin "always on top", as each time I go to tweek a fader the plugin window disapears. This is driving me nuts.
You can't have plugin windows on top of full screen mixer window. It's a PITA for me that I'm so used to ProTools Workflow too.

Quote:
Originally Posted by morgan View Post
2. In the same way, if I have a plugin window open, how to I stop it stealing my keyboard focus? I mean at the moment if I have certain plugins open, I can't even stop playback with space bar! So I have to click on the TCP or MCP, press space and re-open it. Arggggghhh!
No focus yet, you have to click to focus each window.

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Originally Posted by morgan View Post
3. Is there a keyboard shortcut to add the same or incremental I/O routing to selected tracks as in protools? This is a big time saver when time is critical to set up a recording session. And no the routing matrix is not as fast, and I find it grafically confusing.
You have to learn how to use the Matrix better. I could'nt find how to do it like in PT.

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4. Is there a way to send the fader levels/pans to a send on all selected tracks. Another big time saver for setting up a quick cue mix.
You deal with this using folder tracks.

Quote:
Originally Posted by morgan View Post
5. How can I have pre-fader mettering to check my gain staging? Or at least a Solo PFL... Basic function found on any mixer, DAW.
I'd like to know this too... I think it's not possible yet unless you set your fader level to unity gain.

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Originally Posted by morgan View Post
6. How can I constrain to vertical movement the item movement? To move items from track to track without going out of time?
don't use your mouse. To move an item down: ctrl+down arrow; Up: ctrl+up arrow. If you want to copy add shift before ctrl: shift+ctrl+ up/down arrows.

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7. How do I set a default fade-in/out shape for my manual item fades?
Check in Reaper Preferences/project/defaults

Hope it helps.

Ed.
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Old 11-22-2010, 09:28 PM   #4
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If you have the SWS Extensions installed, you can expand on the suggestions that pcmusicpro gave. http://www.standingwaterstudios.com/

#3) Use the SWS ReaConsole. See pg 131-136 of the SWS PDF. You can have a key command (default c) to open the console or a key to open the console and insert command "i", which sets the record input. There is a description of modifier commands in the PDF, but an example would be if you want to set tracks 10-15 to physical inputs 1-6, you'd type: i10-15 1-
That being said, I do agree with pcmusicpro that the Routing Matrix just takes a little practice, then you'll be lightning fast with it. I didn't understand it till I watched Kenny Gioia's "Don't Fear the Reaper" videos on groove3.com, highly recommended.

#4) In addition to folder tracks, you can create a new track to use as a buss, then select in the mixer (MCP) all of the track you want to "send" to that buss, Shift-click and drag from one of the Send slots and drop onto the buss track. This will create a new send from every one of those tracks to the buss at once.
Also, if you want to include most or all of your channels in the new buss, click the i/o button on that buss, and on the drop down under -Receives- , click "Add received from all tracks" at the very bottom and then just delete the one's you don't want. This i/o page can also act as a buss mixer page.

If you wanna use the SWS commands instead, select the tracks you want to include, and then run the command: SWS/S&M: Create cue buss track from track selection

Of course you can set a key command for that.

#6) Ctrl up and down are not default on my machine. Num 8 is up and Num 2 is down. Also, on mine, even with Snap turned off, there are vertical beginning and end lines that appear as soon as I click on an item. It wants to snap to those bars when I move up and down unless I deviate by a significant amount. Its not a super hard snap, but it will stay if you're careful. In Preferences/Appearance/ Show guide lines when editing is checked.

I don't have any answers for the rest.

Chris

Last edited by chriscomfort; 11-22-2010 at 09:37 PM.
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Old 11-23-2010, 12:12 PM   #5
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You've hit on a number of shortcomings in Reaper, as far as I can tell.

The lack of always-on-top is sufficiently frustrating for me that I installed a separate program that allows to me lock any window (in any program) to always-on-top, by hitting cntrl-space. I think it's this one: http://www.labnol.org/software/tutor...s-on-top/5213/
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Old 11-23-2010, 12:27 PM   #6
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I had a weird one the other day which is kind of related to this.
I just installed a new plugin and started up Reaper so I could select the plugin and then type in my registration.

All was well and the registration window was on top.

However, my name was part of the registration and there is a space (obviously!) between my first and last name.

Every time I hit the space bar, Reaper would start playing and I couldn't enter the space in the registration dialog box!

I ended up opening the plugin (Lexicon) in Sonar and doing it there.
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Old 11-23-2010, 01:23 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by steveo42 View Post
- - -
Every time I hit the space bar, Reaper would start playing and I couldn't enter the space in the registration dialog box! I ended up opening the plugin (Lexicon) in Sonar and doing it there.
If anyone else encounters this kind of problem, there's a solution:

- Double-click the plugin to float it.
- Right-click the title bar of the floating plugin.
- Check the "Send all keyboard input to plug-in" option in the popup menu.

You are now able to type anything, including spaces, without inadvertently invoking any Reaper commands.
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Old 11-24-2010, 08:23 AM   #8
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Thanks for the answers! Well I have a hard time believing the keyboard focus and the "window always on top" functions haven't been implemented yet. Reaper has so many more amazing functionnalities! Do you guys know if there is a feature request on this? If not can you explain to me how to post one... sorry I'm still new to the community!

Thanks Bobby Yarrow for the workaround

Regarding the matrix you are probably right. I just need to get used to it. Still adding I/O's incrementaly with two mouse clicks to certain tracks is a major protools forte. Maybe I should request that too...

For item movement constrained vertically, could you tell me what the actions are called, I can't seem to find them in the action list.

Regarding the default fade shapes, the option in preferences>project>default points only to ONE default shape for both fade-in and fade-out curves and only if the automatically added to all items is selected. In protools you can define a different default curve of manually added fade-in and fade-outs. Much more usefull.

Sorry to be a slammer but all these functions are vital in my opinion for fast editing and mixing.

Cheers
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Old 11-24-2010, 12:07 PM   #9
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"6. How can I constrain to vertical movement the item movement? To move items from track to track without going out of time?"

One thing I have done for this is to:

- Turn on locking.
- Right click the lock (Lock settings)
- Choose - "Items (prevent left / right movement)

Then, you can map a key command to the lock and just turn it off and on as you need to. The nice thing about this is you can still resize regions fine, you just can't move them side to side. WHen you need to move them, just turn off locking.

I find Reaper feels way more stable with the audio regions this way.
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Old 11-24-2010, 01:57 PM   #10
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Quote:
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Sorry to be a slammer but all these functions are vital in my opinion for fast editing and mixing.
As always when changing DAWs or any other programs for that matter, it makes you feel this way. It is just because you are so acustomized with what you used before.

Give it a while. Clear your previous automations... Learn it from ground, in it's own way. Reaper will reward you slowly, but surely.

Now that's a positive thinking!
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Old 11-24-2010, 08:51 PM   #11
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Quote:
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6. How can I constrain to vertical movement the item movement? To move items from track to track without going out of time?

The 8 key on the Num pad moves the item up and the 2 moves it down, without moving it in time.
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Old 02-09-2011, 03:32 AM   #12
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My 2 workaround for plugins stealing focus:

Any midi controller with a transport section will offer a much more pleasant experience. MIDI commands don't depend on widow focus. I'd recommend this one: http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/AlphaTrack
If you're on Windows, there's another workaround to plugins stealing keyboard focus. I've done this simple registry mod to allow the mouse to activate the window underneath without having to click. This way you just need to have a habit of moving the mouse away from the plugin to send commands

Step #1:
Open regedit, go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
Edit UserPreferenceMask value to be 9F 3E 07 80 12 00 00 00
[You should only have to modify the first pair]

Step #2:
Also in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
Edit ActiveWndTrkTimeout, change 'Base' to Decimal and put in 150 as the 'Value Data'

[this value is time in milliseconds that it takes for the focus to change.
to avoid some issues with the taskbar I recommended using a value like 150 or so,
but if you'd like to have a different delay before the window loses focus, set it to whatever you like.]

Step #3:
Log off and log back in

from here: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...ve-enable.html

that works on xp as well i believe.
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