Announcing Orchestral Template For Reaper - Page 7

peter5992 · 03-02-2017, 05:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by storyteller

Peter thanks for sending your project file. I took a look at the file you emailed and everything is colored correctly on all of my test machines. Your template is looking good btw

Also, all of the color buttons function as they are supposed to. If it is displaying differently on your system, I can't begin to guess at what may be going awry.

Both fundamentally and programmatically, OTR cannot interfere with Reaper in the way you are describing. I'm not saying you are not experiencing an issue, but OTR is, in effect, a hot-rodded user folder. It is a bunch of saved preferences and scripts, so, it would be impossible for anything to touch the Reaper app itself in the ways that you are describing - and certainly would not cause the midi devices to go haywire. I suspect that somewhere along the way with running multiple versions of Reaper and flip-flopping between them, that maybe some files got moved to the wrong places or something like that. I'm stumped on it brother.

If you really want to baseline everything going on (which you may have to), you could do the following steps to start as fresh as possible:

1) Download Reaper from the reaper.fm website.
2) Perform a portable install to a completely new folder on your desktop (not a standard install)
3) Download a copy of OTR from the storyteller store and verify exactly where it is downloaded to.
4) Extract this newest copy of OTR
5) Copy everything from the OTR folder EXCEPT the REAPER.EXE and the REAMOTE.EXE files into the newly installed Reaper Portable Install you performed in step 2.
6) Launch Reaper.exe from within this folder.
7) Do not use shortcuts. Do not use symlinks.

The steps above present the cleanest possible install of OTR's user folder that you can possibly do (albeit with more steps involved than a standard OTR install). As I mentioned in the earlier part of this post, there isn't anything included in the OTR bundle that could cause the issues you are seeing and even the steps above should not do anything fundamentally different. But what we are doing is removing any potential mistakes that could have been made along the way with flipping between the various versions of Reaper you seem to be running. Let's give this a go and see if that solves the problem. I'm rooting for ya brother.

This doesn't work either - I still have the same track coloring problems.

peter5992 · 03-02-2017, 08:54 PM

For now, I think I'll continue to work on my own orchestral template which I'd started last year. Not as fancy as OTR, but it works. Based on Albert's Pro Tools 2.0.5 theme.

ironbut · 03-04-2017, 04:01 PM

A while back I was asking about different ir sample packs that could be used to create reverbs groups similar to what was shown in the video "OTR Walkthrough setting up An Orchestra Hall...".
In that video, our hero used IR's of Disney Hall that were created from the podium and several audience perspectives.
Since then I stumbled across a pretty good YouTube video on using early reflection to locate the listener position (or at least enough to get me started down the right path).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoFI...ItNTs8hQ#t=565

storyteller · 03-05-2017, 08:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ironbut

A while back I was asking about different ir sample packs that could be used to create reverbs groups similar to what was shown in the video "OTR Walkthrough setting up An Orchestra Hall...".
In that video, our hero used IR's of Disney Hall that were created from the podium and several audience perspectives.
Since then I stumbled across a pretty good YouTube video on using early reflection to locate the listener position (or at least enough to get me started down the right path).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoFI...ItNTs8hQ#t=565

That's a great video. Thanks for sharing it with everyone.

I also ran across this video yesterday that discusses a great technique for reverbs. This is all made possible in OTR by using the pre-configured FX tracks. Just add EQ and lowpass/highpass filters to taste before the reverb in the FX chain on each FX-User track.

https://youtu.be/X6L9oODAg6g

peter5992 · 03-05-2017, 11:38 PM

Albert's theme is actually wonderful ... very clean and beautiful.

Once you understand the Reaper system, it's not too difficult to set up your own thing.

You can route every VST instrument, group, to wherever you want to ... and mix it in surround, however you want.

peter5992 · 05-19-2017, 06:40 PM

I've just did a complete overhaul of my DAW -- new SSDs, clean install of Windows, and am now re-installing all of my software which is probably going to take several days.

Jonathan / Storyteller - are you still around? I'm going to re-install OTR and see if it works better for me this time around (without the annoying track coloring bug).

storyteller · 05-20-2017, 01:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by peter5992

I've just did a complete overhaul of my DAW -- new SSDs, clean install of Windows, and am now re-installing all of my software which is probably going to take several days.

Jonathan / Storyteller - are you still around? I'm going to re-install OTR and see if it works better for me this time around (without the annoying track coloring bug).

Yep! I'm here

peter5992 · 05-20-2017, 07:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by storyteller

Yep! I'm here

Thanks!

Hang on ... reinstalling everything is going to take me at least several days, if not weeks.

hopi · 05-20-2017, 09:11 PM

I feel for ya Peter... kinda in the same boat on re doing from zero on the new computer after having win10 screw me... so going fresh to 7... [OMG it IS so much better]

but royal PITA since I had put so many hours into the win 10 set up and was really only a few hours left to do when the OS ate itself....

ReaperMadness · 05-21-2017, 08:54 AM

Peter - If I may ask... Why do you prefer Albert's Pro Tools 2.0.5 over latest 3.2.1?

peter5992 · 05-21-2017, 03:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ReaperMadness

Peter - If I may ask... Why do you prefer Albert's Pro Tools 2.0.5 over latest 3.2.1?

Well, this is purely subjective, but I find Albert's 2.0.5 theme just really beautiful and clean ... easy on the eyes. I also like the light blue color for the active wav form.

But I have to say that the 3.2.1 light theme is pretty as well.

I am in the middle of re-installing all of my VSTs and I'm on a deadline for a big project, but I'm kind of eager to reinstall OTR as well ... aside from all the graphics etc. that is pretty much ideal for me in terms of work flow, and would be a great basis for finally setting up a comprehensive orchestral template (right now I use only a fraction of my instruments).

ps in terms of GUI porn, White Tie's Imperial theme is a Baroque Masterpiece ... the mixer especially. The problem is that it takes up too much space (even though I have large screen monitors), and you can't create child tracks (visually, with indenting, or can you?) and that really makes things difficult on the eyes if you have a larger orchestral template -- gotta be able to quickly fold up / down sections or I go crazy.

ReaperMadness · 05-21-2017, 05:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by peter5992

... Imperial theme is a Baroque Masterpiece ... the mixer especially.
.... you can't create child tracks (visually, with indenting, or can you?)...

Sure.

ReaperMadness · 05-21-2017, 06:02 PM

But I am still curious as to what you find preferable in Albert's Pro Tools 2.0.5 over latest version 3.2.1? Am I missing something (besides a few cells of grey matter here & there)?

One other thing... You got me looking at Albert's beautiful theme again. How do you collapse a parent folder in the MCP in Albert's themes? I can't seem to find a way.

Here's Imperial:

[IMG]

[/IMG]

Actually I am using Imperial LCS (a great mod by Lucas). So maybe this is something enabled in this iteration only - not sure.

Here: Imperial LCS

Peter - See especically post #29.

peter5992 · 05-21-2017, 07:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ReaperMadness

But I am still curious as to what you find preferable in Albert's Pro Tools 2.0.5 over latest version 3.2.1? Am I missing something (besides a few cells of grey matter here & there)?

One other thing... You got me looking at Albert's beautiful theme again. How do you collapse a parent folder in the MCP in Albert's themes? I can't seem to find a way.

Here's Imperial:

[IMG]

[/IMG]

Actually I am using Imperial LCS (a great mod by Lucas). So maybe this is something enabled in this iteration only - not sure.

Here: Imperial LCS

Peter - See especically post #29.

Oh WOW!!

How the hell do you do all this shit??

And the indentation thing per your previous post?

ReaperMadness · 05-21-2017, 08:35 PM

Peter - If I can do it... (you get the idea).

Get Imperial LCS by following that link I provided. And then read Post #29 for a little clarity on what you've got to make sure you've got selected.

Now, come on! I'm answering you. You need to tell me what the difference is between those two versions of Albert's theme that you prefer the earlier version. Does the earlier version do something that the later does not?

peter5992 · 05-21-2017, 09:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ReaperMadness

Peter - If I can do it... (you get the idea).

Get Imperial LCS by following that link I provided. And then read Post #29 for a little clarity on what you've got to make sure you've got selected.

Now, come on! I'm answering you. You need to tell me what the difference is between those two versions of Albert's theme that you prefer the earlier version. Does the earlier version do something that the later does not?

Man, I don't know what to say. I just like the 2.0.5 version.

I wish I had the time to chat all night, but I need to finish an arrangement of a Melissa Etheridge song, for live performance with full orchestra and choir, early June, and I'm on a deadline ... promised I'd get them the revised version by end of tonight. Busting my balls, getting everything into Sibelius. It's gonna be beautiful, I feel good about this.

peter5992 · 05-31-2017, 06:13 PM

Ok, so I'm going to reinstall OTR now ... let's see if it works better for me this time around.

hopi · 05-31-2017, 07:46 PM

never mind... I got it fingered out

peter5992 · 05-31-2017, 08:27 PM

Ok - this is my folder structure right now.

Storyteller / Jonathan - any chance you can walk me trough this?

This is just too complicated for me.

(cant upload picture - too large)

hopi · 05-31-2017, 08:41 PM

Peter... what is the question...

oh and btw... Johnathan... you really should check the release version of OTR

there are a lot of settings, for example the vst stuff, and recent projects in the reaper.ini that IMO should not be there...

peter5992 · 06-01-2017, 08:13 PM

I reinstalled OTR, and tried it out again, today ... got the same coloring issues for tracks.

I tried to capture the issue using licecap, but that didn't work either.

hopi · 06-01-2017, 08:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by peter5992

I reinstalled OTR, and tried it out again, today ... got the same coloring issues for tracks.

I tried to capture the issue using licecap, but that didn't work either.

At this point, I'm done with OTR. Good luck Jonathan. I'll develop my own template from the ground up.

might be a 'baby with the bathwater' thing Peter... what is the coloring issue?

peter5992 · 06-02-2017, 11:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hopi

might be a 'baby with the bathwater' thing Peter... what is the coloring issue?

Yeah, I overreacted ... sorry. Sometimes I can have a bit of a short fuse.

The problem is that the track coloring is all over the place -- I'll give an example: I insert a new instrument track (blue color by default). When I want to color that track to make it look consistent with the other instrument tracks (one of the orange colors from the palette above), it turns purple.

And the same is true for other colors from other palettes -- green is blue, orange is yellow, etc.; it's all messed up. I'll post some screenshots later today.

I seem to be the only one who has this issue, which is weird. One workaround might be to manually color the tracks using the right mouse click. It's a bit tedious but I'll see if I can figure a way to create a bunch of custom colors that are similar to the colors used for tracks in OTR.

ReaperMadness · 06-02-2017, 01:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by peter5992

Yeah, I overreacted ... sorry. Sometimes I can have a bit of a short fuse.

The problem is that the track coloring is all over the place -- I'll give an example: I insert a new instrument track (blue color by default). When I want to color that track to make it look consistent with the other instrument tracks (one of the orange colors from the palette above), it turns purple.

And the same is true for other colors from other palettes -- green is blue, orange is yellow, etc.; it's all messed up. I'll post some screenshots later today.

I seem to be the only one who has this issue, which is weird. One workaround might be to manually color the tracks using the right mouse click. It's a bit tedious but I'll see if I can figure a way to create a bunch of custom colors that are similar to the colors used for tracks in OTR.

Might be 'Manchester Syndrome.'

peter5992 · 06-02-2017, 08:01 PM

Ok, let's do it this way.

Step 1. OTR template.

Step 2. Insert new track.

Step 3. Color track. Click on "StoryTeller Color Palette for Ca.." I don't know what that means, but the colors match the colors of "ORCHESTRAL STRINGS" which is good. I click on any of the orangy color buttons above.

Step 4. And then this happens. Instead of orange, I get a purple track.

Step 5. Same color error with other tabs. Let's go to Storyteller Color Palette F... which is all blue. I click on any of those tabs, and then the track color turns to bright yellow.

My frustration, or maybe misunderstanding, is that when I click on a blue button, I expect to get the track to color blue, not yellow. When I click on an orange button, I expect the selected track to turn orange, not purple.

This is not happening with OTR. I just don't get it.

hopi · 06-02-2017, 08:26 PM

Ok Peter... you are right, but the problem is with the icon files he has used in the toolbar....

when I look at customizing that colors toolbar and look to see what possible icons there are for it... there are no icons that actually match the colors we see for the tracks on screen....

I think I could fix that... but really Johnathan should fix it...

Now I'm going from loading his color set into the SWS color action... you know how to do that and did you do that???

Let me say a bit more:

When you look in the colors toolbar, and let the mouse hover over a given color, you get a tooltip... that tells what the intended action is for that color icon on the toolbar...

So as I understand it.. he has done the color 'coding' as he wanted... BUT did not put the matching toolbar icon colors as png files into the package...

Let me have a couple hours and maybe I can fix it...

peter5992 · 06-02-2017, 09:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hopi

Ok Peter... you are right, but the problem is with the icon files he has used in the toolbar....

when I look at customizing that colors toolbar and look to see what possible icons there are for it... there are no icons that actually match the colors we see for the tracks on screen....

I think I could fix that... but really Johnathan should fix it...

Now I'm going from loading his color set into the SWS color action... you know how to do that and did you do that???

Let me say a bit more:

When you look in the colors toolbar, and let the mouse hover over a given color, you get a tooltip... that tells what the intended action is for that color icon on the toolbar...

So as I understand it.. he has done the color 'coding' as he wanted... BUT did not put the matching toolbar icon colors as png files into the package...

Let me have a couple hours and maybe I can fix it...

You are very kind Hopi.

No, I don't know anything about "color action". I am an idiot, man. I have said that so many times already. I am a simple guy. I don't understand computer programming, I'm just a music guy.

hopi · 06-02-2017, 10:10 PM

yeah yeah you're an idiot... my ass

no worries Peter... you are a brilliant guy, I know that much

I'm working on it and will have it ready before too long so plz hang in there

hopi · 06-03-2017, 12:37 AM

OK Peter .... PM to me an email for you and I'll send over what I have done

peter5992 · 06-03-2017, 02:49 PM

Here's a licecap video to show the issue:

https://media.giphy.com/media/xUA7bj...MMWA/giphy.gif

https://giphy.com/gifs/xUA7bjxpSmIFbrMMWA/html5

The videos are tiny - I don't how to embed them in high def - but you can see the issue.

peter5992 · 06-04-2017, 08:52 AM

I found a workaround -- just manually color the track by right clicking them, see screengrab below. Finding the exact right color to match the gradient colors shown in the palette is finicky but you can just choose your own colors --- and with hundreds of tracks (ultimately) I may want more contrast between the different instrument groups, to easily tell them apart.

Onwards and upwards ...

hopi · 06-04-2017, 10:01 AM

ummm.... you are working WAY too hard... you really need to check in with me and get set up better... tried to call you but get voice mail every time...

this all could be MUCH easier

peter5992 · 06-04-2017, 05:21 PM

Up and running ... many thanks to Hopi for holding my hand through the process.

storyteller · 07-13-2017, 04:42 PM

Hey guys. I apologize for just bouncing back into this thread. I've been traveling and for some reason, I did not receive any email notifications about this thread having been updated with new posts. So, now that I have had a chance to dive further into it, I have finally been able to replicate the problem on Windows machines. Peter had also emailed me directly, so I was aware of the problem still persisting with his setup. The colors all work appropriately on OS X, so I need to dive further into what may be causing the problem on Windows. I do have an idea on it though. Once I have a solution, I'll certainly have it in an upcoming update.

Jonathan

storyteller · 07-13-2017, 06:54 PM

So here is what I have been able to determine...

OTR uses a global color file that uses HEX values for the colors. This is like choosing a color for a website. For example, the color for VI-MIDI: 1 is "0x00c1f2." The good news is this is standard on both Mac and Windows (just like a webpage would use a color the same way among different OS users). However, the way Reaper is translating it into a color using the Reascript API setTrackColor() function translates the color to "49650." I suppose this is Reaper's internal color coding reference. But for some reason on Windows, the colors are not displaying the proper color. The API is called properly. The same script and color are being applied universally between OS X and Windows, but the output is incorrect in Windows.

Before I file a bug with the Reaper devs, does anyone happen to know if I am overlooking something? I mean, a hex color should be a hex color regardless of OS, right? I'm open to suggestions on this one...

Jonathan

peter5992 · 07-13-2017, 07:30 PM

Thanks Jonathan ... can't help you with anything complicated like programming, just good to hear you are still around.

There's one other issue: does OTR not recognize VTS3 instruments? They don't show up when I try to insert instruments.

Thanks!

storyteller · 07-14-2017, 08:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by peter5992

Thanks Jonathan ... can't help you with anything complicated like programming, just good to hear you are still around.

There's one other issue: does OTR not recognize VTS3 instruments? They don't show up when I try to insert instruments.

Thanks!

Hey Peter,

Make sure your VST3 folder is added in you VST folder list in Reaper's settings. That is probably the culprit. They are installed and sit on your DAW, but Reaper is not scanning your VST3 folder.

Jonathan

peter5992 · 07-14-2017, 09:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by storyteller

Hey Peter,

Make sure your VST3 folder is added in you VST folder list in Reaper's settings. That is probably the culprit. They are installed and sit on your DAW, but Reaper is not scanning your VST3 folder.

Jonathan

Well, I double checked the folders where Reaper is looking for VSTs on my computer, they are the same for OTR and my regular Reaper:

regular:

C:\Program Files (x86)\VSTPlugins;C:\Program Files\VSTPlugins;C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3

OTR:

C:\Program Files (x86)\VSTPlugins; C:\Program Files\VSTPlugins; C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3

Screenshot of OTR plugins:

Screenshot of regular Reaper plugins:

storyteller · 07-14-2017, 10:09 AM

Cool, I see you have a number of VST3i plugins showing up in the list. Are you saying that when you select them, they do not show up as an inserted instrument in Reaper?

DarkStar · 07-14-2017, 10:35 AM

Disclaimer: This may be irrelevant

Quote:

the color for VI-MIDI: 1 is "0x00c1f2."

Is that used for an orange colour on OSX? If so, then the 6 hexadecimal digits are interpreted as BBGGRR. On Windows they will be interpreted as RRGGBB (cyan):

The hex for that orange on Windows would be "0xf2c100".

I have never worked out what happens when you transfer an image from Windows to OSX or vice versa.