Old 11-11-2017, 08:29 AM   #1
Publicradio
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Default Takes, tails and loops

This is problably a pretty obvious recording question but I'll ask it anyway...

When I'm recording audio or MIDI, I will often select a groovy, riffy part of my track and just riff for as long as I can. I have a segment on a loop and I can just go for 10 minutes, either improvising, or, more often, just playing something rhythmic. I get way better takes if I just keep playing, rather than stopping and starting.

The problem is this: I might have a couple takes I think are the best, and merge parts of each. No problem. However, my ends are bad. The segment stops abruptly, and the beginning contains the tail from the previous iteration in the loop.

I have gotten in the habit of creating two input tracks so I can create, for instance, verse takes on one track and chorus on the other, so they overlap properly. This doesn't solve the loop problem, though.

I have also tried putting beats in the beginning and end of the loop, and just pausing for a few beats each time in the loop. This might be the 'right' way to do it, but I'm not sure.

Also, when I stop recording, Reaper always adds extra takes with nothing in them, because the loop started over just before I stopped the transport. When my note has stopped abruptly, and there's nothing in the take, I just delete it. But if there's a long note sustain or tail there, I would need that to be on the end of the previous take, and I'm not sure how to easily accomplish this.
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Old 11-11-2017, 09:01 AM   #2
Philbo King
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Publicradio View Post
This is problably a pretty obvious recording question but I'll ask it anyway...

When I'm recording audio or MIDI, I will often select a groovy, riffy part of my track and just riff for as long as I can. I have a segment on a loop and I can just go for 10 minutes, either improvising, or, more often, just playing something rhythmic. I get way better takes if I just keep playing, rather than stopping and starting.

The problem is this: I might have a couple takes I think are the best, and merge parts of each. No problem. However, my ends are bad. The segment stops abruptly, and the beginning contains the tail from the previous iteration in the loop.

I have gotten in the habit of creating two input tracks so I can create, for instance, verse takes on one track and chorus on the other, so they overlap properly. This doesn't solve the loop problem, though.

I have also tried putting beats in the beginning and end of the loop, and just pausing for a few beats each time in the loop. This might be the 'right' way to do it, but I'm not sure.

Also, when I stop recording, Reaper always adds extra takes with nothing in them, because the loop started over just before I stopped the transport. When my note has stopped abruptly, and there's nothing in the take, I just delete it. But if there's a long note sustain or tail there, I would need that to be on the end of the previous take, and I'm not sure how to easily accomplish this.
There is a preference somewhere that will automatically delete partial last takes when exiting record. For the the other stuff I just use longer loops (1 or 2 bars extra both before and after the loop).9
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