Reaper as a live performance platform

[Glacierise]

Hi guys,

I've had great time with Reaper for recording, I'm looking at some live performing now too. I play guitar and keys, mix of metal and electronica. It's easy to set up a combo of tracks/inputs for each sound I want, but I haven't found a way to cycle solo/arm track groups with a MIDI input. Also, some sample playback/recording would be great too, help from anybody with experience in these things would be great.

Thanks!

[mschnell]

I do this very happily (playing virtual instruments using Master Keyboards and a Breath Controller).

I tested several dedicated live player systems, but when somebody (in a forum of a producer of live playable virtual instruments) recommended Reaper, I knew that I found what I need: perfectly versatile and flexible and astonishing low price.

IMHO a key component that makes Reaper usable for live performance, is SWS "LiveConfigs". You might want to search these forums for messages that contain the word LiveConfigs to collect more information. (BTW.: LiveConfigs is created by a Guitarrist to manage virtual effects in Reaper while live playing. Part of it's functionality indeed is muting/unmuting tracks.)

Please come back with specific question if you have them.

-Michael

[Glacierise]

Cool, thanks for the pointer, I'll check LiveConfigs out.

[Softsynth]

Alternatively there is dedicated software.
https://www.cantabilesoftware.com/

Reaper is very lightweight and reliable so if it meets your needs then great.

[Glacierise]

Yes, I did come across Cantablie and it looks quite interesting, but of course there's Ableton. Will see what I can do with Reaper first :)

[mschnell]

Mainstage, Ableton, Cantabile, Forte, ...

-> http://audiostrom.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?t=397 (and many other discussions)

But I found that Reaper is the most versatile option due to its scriptability and because of it's stability. (And after paying $60 for the live host, you get a great DAW for free and already know how to use it. )

Of course less flexible tools are easier to configure for "standard" use.

-Michael

[mschnell]

Cool, thanks for the pointer, I'll check LiveConfigs out.

You might want to check the extended documentation I wrote on LiveConfigs:
-> http://www.bschnell.de/LiveConfigs_1.pdf
-Michael

[DVDdoug]

just remember that computers are the least reliable things we own...*

Some people do it and they're happy with how it works, and some people don't do it anymore because they've had a couple of shows ruined.

Personally, I wouldn't do it unless I had an identically-configured back-up computer ready to go, or unless the show can go on without the computer.

It also helps if you have a computer dedicated to this purpose that you don't mess with it during the day, and the same for the backup computer.

It also depends on how important the performance is - If you play in a bar every night, a couple of blown shows might not be a big deal. But if you play a couple of times a year, you don't want to loose a performance.





* It's usually not the fault of the computer, but a configuration or operator error... But, if you can't fix it in a couple of minutes you're screwed. A guitar amp or microphone can go a lifetime without a show-stopping failure, but you're lucky if you can go a year without a computer problem of some kind. (It's a good idea to carry extra cables & guitar strings too. ;) )

[mschnell]

just remember that computers are the least reliable things we own...*
While this is not a wrong statement at all, nowadays there is a lot of important stuff relying on computers.

There are lots of musicians using computers on stage. Ever Windows (7 or 10) is said to be decently usable.

Of course you should use some expertise to tweak the OS not do do unnecessary stuff. You can a lot about this in the Internet. And of course don't use that machine for doing other stuff than this !

Reaper itself is said (and IMHO proven) to be extremely reliable.

-Michael

[Glacierise]

You might want to check the extended documentation I wrote on LiveConfigs:
-> http://www.bschnell.de/LiveConfigs_1.pdf
-Michael

Thanks, that did help a lot! I can pretty much do anything now. Next on the list is monitoring over smartphones :)

[mschnell]

Great !

Please come back if there are any questions...

-Michael

[Glacierise]

Will do 🙂 Thanks

[mschnell]

You also might want to look at this thread -> http://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=190797, as here DarkKman is searching or a way to control background tracks together with VST patches. (I could not help regarding background tracks, because I never uses such.)

-Michael

[Glacierise]

In my case it's easy - I'm simply hitting play and it goes - backing tracks are sent to the PA from their routing, the guitar signal is routed to the amp, click to the drummer's monitor. Works great :)

[mschnell]

I'm simply hitting play and it goes - backing tracks are sent to the PA from their routing,
And ho do you select which backing track is to be played in a Live situation ?

-Michael

[Glacierise]

We play live the same project file that we do the preproduction tracking on. The project contains all the tracks we have, so when it starts playing we're basically playing along with it. I mute the tracks that we're performing live, and the rest remains and gets sent to the PA :) Beautiful stuff!

[mschnell]

Sounds like easy to do :).

Especially as LiveConfigs can mute/unmute tracks. So ti might make sense to set up a dedicated LiveConfigs "Table" or the background tracks. Now sme can be selected by midi signals.

If entering a line in that table, an event triggered by LiveConfigs can set the play cursor to the beginning of the track(s) and start the playback.

Such a system would meet my paradigm of on stage not uing a monitor an a PC keyboard/mouse, as it easily can be controlled by a Midi controller.

-Michael

[Win Conway]

If you want to do some live triggering, get the Playtime add on for Reaper.

[mschnell]

I myself don't have interest in this, but being a supporter for LiveConfigs and just taking part in two threads initiated by users who want "backing tracks" for live playing, I am curious how this (e.g. via playtime) can be integrated with LiveConfigs to provide a complete solution for Live Playing with the features of both "forte" and "Ableton-Live" kind of projects.

So many thanks for the pointer, I'll re-post that where appropriate.

-Michael

[mschnell]

I don't find Playtime in the standard ReaPack repositories.

Is it is a free tool ? If yes, in what RaPack repository is it published ?

-Michael

[Win Conway]

No its a paid add on, it has a sticky thread in the forum.