Action for Timeselection between markers while playing

[reaperion]

Hello

i'm fiddling around this for weeks now and nothing works.

For a live setup i want to assign just one button to
auto-select the area between the 2 previous markers as
a time-selection so that the playing is not interrupted and the
new time-selection becomes the new loop.

I don't want to use regions, because they cut things which i don't want.
I want to be able to just remove the markers and still have the original project.

the only thing that partly works and only when playing is stopped is this:


stop playing
create 5 markers
place the cursor on the 5th marker
create this macro:

SWS/AW: Link time selection and edit cursor
Markers: Go to previous Marker/project start
Time selection: set start point
Markers: Go to next Marker/project end
Time selection: set end point

and hit the assigned button

this action macro works only if playing is stopped and if your
cursor is exactly on a marker

but i want the whole thing working while playing back.
i think it has to do with edit cursor / play cursor issues
i found a few posts here about this but no suggestion worked

I know that it will be much easier with regions but this is not what i want

Thanks

Reaperion

[Eliseat]

You just need to double click between the markers to achieve the same. It selects the space between them but - unfortunately - moves the play cursor at the start of the selection.

And I don't understand what you mean by writing that regions would cut "things". No it doesn't. Just create some regions and double click on them to make them a time selection. Same happens by double clicking in between the markers at the ruler. It also creates a selection.

But as mentioned, both will jump at the beginning of the selection (loop) while playing.

EDIT: I just tested it. If you use the region method the playback does't jump or anything. Just double click at the region and it will time select the range while playing doesn't get affected.

[reaperion]

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction
you gave me the hint to try it again with regions.
i can swear that in former reaper versions
as soon as you created a region from a time selection,
all track items were cut at the start and endpoints
and fade in/outs were created. that's why i didn't
try this again. but now this behavior seems to have changed.

So my solution for the moment:

Create Regions
Delete all markers

Assign button to:
SWS: Goto/Select previous marker/region

what it doesn't do, is playing the current time selection
loop til the end, if the cursor is in the first half
of the region. What the perfect action would be,
which doesn't exist, is a combination of these two:

Regions: Goto previous region after current region finishes playing (smooth seek)
SWS: Goto/Select previous marker/region

one alone of these or both together in a custom action don't do what i expect - the playcursor to reach the end of the current region,
if it's in the first half of the current region and i press the button.

Thanks

Reaperion

[Eliseat]

In my action list I've found two actions which could be interesting for you.

Regions: Go to next region after current region finishes playing (smooth seek)
Regions: Go to previous region after current region finishes playing (smooth seek)

If I understood it right you want to play those regions without droppings? Maybe this could help. I tried it out and while you play one loop you can use this actions to swap the region you want to play. The play cursor just jumps at the beginning of the next or previous region and waits until the current region reaches the end.

Maybe you don't have those actions in your list, if so, just ask and i will look, if its from a package.

[reaperion]

Hi,

as i wrote i also have these actions but they don't act like expected

with

Regions: Go to previous region after current region finishes playing (smooth seek)

the only thing that's happening is that the playcursor jumps to the beginning of the previous region.
then it does wait til the end of the current region is reached
then it starts playing from the beginning of the new region

but there is no selection created so the previous region is
only played once, because there is no time selection which would
be a loop

regards

Reaperion

[Eliseat]

Ok, now I got it. But luckily that's possible.

Create a custom action with two actions:

Regions: Go to next region after current region finishes playing (smooth seek)
or
Regions: Go to previous region after current region finishes playing (smooth seek)

and Script: me2beats_Select region at cursor.lua

Works exactly like you said. The first action jumps to the next or previous region and the following script from me2beats selects it immediately. So where ever you jump, the selection will loop the region. If you don't know how to get the me2beats script: whether install reapack or download them separately.

https://reapack.com/
https://github.com/me2beats/rea-me2/...0and%20regions

REAPER IS THE BEST!

[reaperion]

Thanks it doesn't work if you have no region selected and place
the cursor anywhere and start playing but this is something to get over with.
A goodie would still be the same thing but just with markers without regions.

thanks

Reaperion

[reaperion]

Hi

i tested the solution more in depth
but i now see that it's unusable for a live setup
because you can't move back two regions from the
playing one, only one.

But that's often the case
that i want to move back 2 or more regions.
It only moves back one region then the button is
not working anymore.
the same is the case with the other direction
if you try to move back and forth you can
only move to the regions next to the playing one.
why is that?

regards

Reaperion

[Eliseat]

Reaper is not supposed to be a live tool this way. Live or FL-Studio are maybe better. I'm sure it is possible to do so in Reaper via scripting but then i would talk to me2beats directly if he feels kind enough to adjust the "Go to next region after current region finishes playing (smooth seek)" script to your liking.

Maybe there are some scripts already. I could think of a custom action which lets you jump to a certain marker number per shortcut key followed by selecting time til the next marker to make it a loop. Everything is possible, but someone has to do it.

[Eliseat]

I've found some actions. At first you can go to a numbered time marker by hitting the 1, 2, 3, 4 etc. key. But that is a hard jump not a smooth one like in the region action. You then could use the "Script: me2beats_Set time selection to nearest markers from cursor.lua" to create a time selection to the next marker as soon as the cursor hits the desired marker.

So it would be possible if the jump happens in smooth sync. Maybe that's possible but actually I have no idea.

EDIT: Ok I found it. "SWS: Wait for next bar (if playing)"

All you have to do is put it together. (Like Mickey Mouse once said )

Create a custom action, first: "SWS: Wait for next bar (if playing)"
next step: "Markers: Go to marker 01" (or 02, 03, 04 etc.)
next step: "Script: me2beats_Set time selection to nearest markers from cursor.lua"
Save it with a name like "Smooth jump to marker 1 and loop" and give it a nice shortcut like "shift 1" and try it out. Hope it works.

And of course you have to create one custom action for every marker number. But this will pay of because you then could play your song live and jump on the fly at certain spots by hitting the right key.

[Eliseat]

Ok it looks like there is still a problem with this. It waits and jumps but then it pauses a short moment. Have no idea why. Maybe someone knows a better way.

EDIT: So finally I got it. You have to enable smooth seek in the preferences (audio/seek/do not change playback ...).

Then you put the same actions inside your custom action except the "sws: wait for next bar"
It works!

And by the way I lost 30 minutes of my live looking for it.

[reaperion]

Hi tested it live, works quite good
the only drawback is that it only plays one bar further
then it immediately jumps to the new selected time selection.
so it does not play the current time selection til the end.

will test it further

thanks

Reaperion

[Eliseat]

It depends on when you hit the shortcut key. Just press it right before the loop end and it should work. Good luck!

[reaperion]

I tested it further in a live situation
Yes that's what i did - pressing while in the last bar before the change.

But: On every jump to another time-selection i get red lights
and MIDI drops. so it seems nothing is pre-cached and after the
jump there is no data cached and therefore dropouts can be heard
and the midi clock, which is important for the drummer, gets
out of sync.

I thought that's because of a older laptop. But also on a new 8 core
i7 laptop i get red lights.

Reaper seems to be not programmed to read and cache ahead although
it could even load everything into memory, because i have 8 Gig
and it uses only 2.

your Reaperion