import and sync music into reaper

[sixtiesman]

Newby question: If you import a piece of music into reaper, can it "pick up" on the drums and then use this as a time base? Such that you could then add midi instruments?

My apologies if this is in the wrong place.

[smandrap]

If the audio file has embedded tempo information, then yes.

Otherwise you have to tempo map it yourself.

[mschnell]

There are several videos and threads in theses forums about tempo mapping.

It does not work automatic, but needs manual handling.

Melodyne is supposed to do automatic tempo mapping and the result should be available in Reaper.

Maybe there are AI tools in the internet creating (midi) tempo maps.

[sixtiesman]

Hi all

Thank you to smandrap and mschnell.

I feel I owe an explanation. I have a Tascam dp24sd a very portable recorder. I would like to go to someone's house and record them then come home and import into a DAW. If I could sync into reaper I could then embelish the artwork with VST, good drums and maybe violins!

I don't know much about reaper ( I have used cubase ) and I an running before I can walk, but I don't want to put the time in unless it will do this.

smandrap: I don't know if a small drum pedal counts as "embedded tempo information"
I could "stripe" a track on the Tascam with bass and snare and get people to play to that.

mschnell: I have looked at "tempo mapping" and it would seem that I could manually sync the recording in reaper.

Thanks again

sixtiesman

[dangguidan]

Manual synchronization of tempo should be the best method, as Reaper has a very powerful and fast way to synchronize audio.
If the music is a stable tempo, it only takes a few seconds to synchronize.
If the music is unstable, manual synchronization is also fast.

[mschnell]

I found this to work nicely: -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SB73rGeIXQ

Its important to understand that "syncing" can be done by squeezing the audio or by squeezing the grid.

I understand you want to keep the audio as it is. For this you need to set the Timebase to "Time" in the project settings (other than the default).

[Wizball]

Originally Posted by sixtiesman

I don't know much about reaper ( I have used cubase ) and I an running before I can walk, but I don't want to put the time in unless it will do this.

I am in the process of "rescuing" my bands old recordings and a lot of them were done 15 years ago without a click, straight into Cakewalk with tempo set to the default 100 and I can tell you that it can be done.

I recommend installing the sws extensions and then there are several tutorials on youtube and a thread here on the forum on the process. Keywords are "tempo mapping". Basically you 1. Set Reaper to time based audio 2. Find the rough bpm of your song 3. align the first beat of your audio tracks to a measure 4. start mapping your recorded drums to a tempo map.

Of course, 4 is the tricky step but there is help - sws has several functions that can help. The last song I used project markers placed on the first beat of every measure (you can tap it out playing along with the song) and the one before that I used grid warping to match the grid to the drums in that song. Both processes work but I think project markers were faster for me.

[sixtiesman]

Dangguidan thank you.

Mschnell Yes, I found this guy "kenny" I watched the vid and underatood a little. Now you recommend I shall watch the video a few times!

Wizball Just the confirmation I wanted before embarking on a learning curve ( again! )

What are the sms extensions?

Best regards

sixtiesman

[smandrap]

Originally Posted by sixtiesman

What are the sms extensions?

https://www.sws-extension.org/

[sixtiesman]

Wow!