Sharing Reap Tracks to ProTool

[Jimmy James]

;TLDR, skip to the very bottom

I have started working with a buddy. We have wanted to do some stuff together for the last decade but bother to busy. Now we started writing a little together and then sending tracks thru email.

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HE Has: Focusrite gear recording at 44k 64 bit and Pro Tools the full edition of some sort.

Me: Focusrite gear recording 48k 24 pcm (should I go back to 32?)

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I have seen in the past where you can have 1 file. Then import that 1 file and it turns into a multi track. How in the heck do I do that? What is that called?

Can I do that with Reaper? Then send it to him and he open 1 file into a multi track. He record a couple tracks. Render it as 1 file. Send it back to me and then I can open it into a multi track?

I am also giving him the BPM for each song. I render the tracks from Zero, with 2 measures before the tracks start. Is this the best way to start these?

If you guys can help with the multi track single file or help me improve on the process and setting in general, that would be appreciated. Thank You!

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;TLDR
1. How do I make multi Track files into 1 file that can be opened in another DAW, as a multi track.

2. At the end of the day, will bit depth difference 24 pcm vs 64 bit or 44k vs 48k (shouldn't I think), any of that stuff make a difference swapping tracks. Anything to watch for?

3. I render all the tracks/song from Zero, with 2 measures before audio starts. Is this best?

[vdubreeze]

You mean 16 and 24 bit, not 24 and 64, right?

[Jimmy James]

Originally Posted by vdubreeze

You mean 16 and 24 bit, not 24 and 64, right?

Yes, sorta. I am using 24 pcm. My finals are 16 after mastering. But he told me he records in 64 bit wave. Do you think he misspoke? I use to use 32, but went back to 24.

If I went back to 32 that might make more sense if he is doing 64? Is everyone recording in 64 now and I missed the memo?

[domzy]

maybe he meant he is recording to wav64 files - these are just a version of .wav files that can be longer / bigger than standard wavs, i believe, nothing to do with bit depth, i don't think.

You can have multi-channel wavs, or maybe FLACs or moggs might be better if you want to conserve space.

[Jack Ruston]

Sounds to me like there's some confusion here between 64 bit floating point mixing, and the actual bit depth of the files themselves, which will be 24 bit, or possibly 32 bit. It's worth understanding that if the sources are recorded from analogue they will not achieve even 24 bit resolution, because there are no analogue front-end's with 144dB of dynamic range...The advantages of 32 bit may come later in processing. When you freeze or glue files in Reaper, they're going to render to 32bit, and for simplicity it might make sense to use that setting across both systems, so that you're not constantly risking (albeit small) truncation errors if things are not correctly dithered at some stage. You can use the render dialog to render stems at any bit depth, with dithering, of course, but it might be quicker for you to be able to freeze a file and just dropbox it out. The downside is that the files are going be bigger. Start from zero, with an agreed amount of 'pre roll time'...like 2 bars, or 4 bars, as you suggested, you're good. He should use 'interleaved' stereo files and it would make sense to ensure that you're both using the same pan law, so that you both hear panning affecting level the same way. I'd also both use +12 dB as your maximum fader setting.

[Jimmy James]

Originally Posted by domzy

maybe he meant he is recording to wav64 files - these are just a version of .wav files that can be longer / bigger than standard wavs, i believe, nothing to do with bit depth, i don't think.

You can have multi-channel wavs, or maybe FLACs or moggs might be better if you want to conserve space.

I bet your right. I will clear it up with him to be for sure. I have never used wav64. He might have not been thinking and ment he had a 64bit OS as well...

Yes! Mogg files, thats what someone else was telling me. One file can be turned into a multi track and saved back as a single file. And Reaper will do this?

[Jimmy James]

Originally Posted by Jack Ruston

Sounds to me like there's some confusion here between 64 bit floating point mixing, and the actual bit depth of the files themselves, which will be 24 bit, or possibly 32 bit. It's worth understanding that if the sources are recorded from analogue they will not achieve even 24 bit resolution, because there are no analogue front-end's with 144dB of dynamic range...The advantages of 32 bit may come later in processing. When you freeze or glue files in Reaper, they're going to render to 32bit, and for simplicity it might make sense to use that setting across both systems, so that you're not constantly risking (albeit small) truncation errors if things are not correctly dithered at some stage. You can use the render dialog to render stems at any bit depth, with dithering, of course, but it might be quicker for you to be able to freeze a file and just dropbox it out. The downside is that the files are going be bigger. Start from zero, with an agreed amount of 'pre roll time'...like 2 bars, or 4 bars, as you suggested, you're good. He should use 'interleaved' stereo files and it would make sense to ensure that you're both using the same pan law, so that you both hear panning affecting level the same way. I'd also both use +12 dB as your maximum fader setting.

Good info here bro, thanks. yes, I bet he wasn't thinking when I asked him about bit depth. He could have been thinking about his OS I think.
Pan Laws? That's a good idea that I wouldn't have thought of. Do you know if Reaper can match Pro Tools Pan Law?



He sent me a scratch vocal and bass track. His tracks were like 5 ms behind the beat. Anbd he loaded everything from zero and rendered it from zero? Any ideas why???????

[domzy]

reaper will certainly save multi-channel files, though i've only ever personally done it with wav files. Just make sure your mix / routing is set up properly for multichannel, and that you have the "multichannel tracks to multichannel files" box is ticked in the render settings.

[Aeolian]

Tracks can appear off-grid after a transfer, due to the way PDC works.

They will still line up and be accurate, but they will be shifted forward by the pdc amount.


I do a lot of transfers from Reaper to pt12 and this problem pops up quite frequently.