Link Tracks, Eliminate Silence, Shorten Length

[robindean]

Hello all!

Newb or not to the forums, I'm an experienced/seasoned studio software guy making the transition to Reaper. It's due time, really, as I've heard great things from years ago.

Anyhow, I've started a podcast for my motorcycle site and am in the process of producing the first episode. For this particular recording, there are two personalities (two tracks). Here's what I'm up against and need to do ...

( 1 ) link two audio tracks which individually have a variety of splits/edits/realignments.
( 2 ) using said linking, eliminate moments of "dead air space" in their combined output, especially if over 2 seconds, effectively condensing the recorded material down to what sounds like more constant/continuous discussion.

I'll gladly provide more information as requested so long as it doesn't involve trolling "why do you want?" nonsense.

How do I go about this?

Edit: how do I go about *automating* this in post production?

[SonicAxiom]

Hi robindean and welcome to the Reaper forum!

The information you provided is a little bit vague so please give us a more details about your current project and what you would like to do (perhaps a screenshot will help us, too).

A very good source of information is the Reaper pdf user guide btw.

"Item grouping", "track grouping" and "ripple editing" might be what you need ("link two audio tracks"/eliminate dead space"). But we'll be able to help you in a more specific way as soon as you provide further details.

Regarding automation, what exactly do you want to automate? You'll find a button in each channel strip labeled "Track envelope/automation". Clicking on it will bring up a window where you can choose what parameter to automate for the respective track (track volume, mute, pan, send levels where applicable and every fx parameter as soon as you have loaded one or more fx plugins into the track fx).