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Old 08-14-2017, 06:15 AM   #1
MRMJP
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Default REAPER 6 date and other speculations...

First of all, this is not a complaint about not having REAPER 6 already. I've only been using REAPER seriously for a little over a year now so I'm not familiar with the update cycle. I would say that especially when you include pre-release versions, REAPER moves WAY faster than any other software I've worked with and that is appreciated.

I saw something about REAPER 5 being 2 years old now.

Does anybody have an educated guess on when we'll see REAPER 6 and what might change?

Two things I'd like to see changed:

1) FX Chains should not have their own menu system. I think they could easily just add an FX menu to the main REAPER menu system and greatly simplify things. Though some things were recently added to improve this such as ignoring FX chain shortcuts and sending them to the main REAPER menu, there are (or were) a few FX Chain shortcuts I would like to use though I choose to have that option on so I don't have to constantly re-focus the main window to something simple like the shortcut to simple Save the project.

2) Mastering project mode. This is going be hard to explain for people that master more casually and don't care about some of the finer details about providing cohesive masters in various formats, but as somebody that does mastering-only full-time, I can say that REAPER would greatly benefit from a dedicated mastering mode, similar to how Studio One V3 does it, but adding some more advanced features of the WaveLab montage yet somehow keeping the simplicity of HOFA CD Burn & DDP.

I know that technically you can master in REAPER but for speed and accuracy, I still move over to WaveLab to finalize projects because the features and tools are hyper-focused on mastering only. Doing these things in REAPER is clunky at best.

Beyond the sonic aspects of mastering, we need to do things like Quantize Markers to CD Frames (without a hack/script), enter in the project info just once and have it pushed to all applicable metadata fields and CD-Text whether you render WAV, mp3, DDP, etc. without a hack/script that could go away or stop working any day.

ID3 metadata tagging and artwork embedding is something WaveLab excels at and a big part of why I still use it for the final stretch of the mastering project. I enter the info in just one time, it gets pushed everywhere. I don't need to use additional tagging apps after WaveLab, except if I want to double check or quality control.

Doing the final steps of the process in a dedicated session makes it easy to do things like tweak the limiter settings for various formats using Save As... do derive from an exiting approved master session, or remove the digital limiter all together for vinyl pre-masters (a common thing) and other odds & ends.

On the subject of vinyl pre-masters, we need a way to take an album layout from an existing album session layout, and Save As.. for the vinyl pre-master and render a single 24-bit WAV of each album side, and then produce a PDF report with the track ID times that are relevant to the file. As it is now, the reported times for side B would not be true to the rendered WAV file because the WAV for side B would start at 0:00 but the report would say otherwise, unless you made a new session just for side B.

WaveLab can do this, another reason I use it.

I could go on but my point is, there are some really hyper-focused mastering things that REAPER could do very well.

If you read the mastering forums, nobody has quite perfected the mastering DAW for modern needs on both Mac/PC. Sequoia comes very close but it's PC only and very expensive. I would consider it but there are some great WaveLab features I couldn't work without and the combo of REAPER/RX6/WaveLab 9 allows me to stay Mac where I prefer to be.

After using REAPER over a year now, I love it for the initial audio processing via plugins and analog gear, as well as cleaning up certain spots with RX6 as the external audio editor.

I think that if REAPER would expand on these hyper mastering focused things, it would attract more professional mastering engineers and likely be the "go to" all-in-one mastering DAW. Too many mastering folks are using more than one app to get the job done 100% and I think REAPER could solve that.

With some improvements as well as perhaps some starting point templates I'd be willing to create, I think it would be a good thing for REAPER and attract new users.
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Old 08-14-2017, 06:32 AM   #2
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I do suppose that Reaper can be configured to be a mastering Tool that better meets your taste by an appropriate theme / layout definition and some installed scripts.

In a perfect world those were available in ReaPack and with just a few clicks you would be able to install them.

This done, with very few additional clicks you would be able to create a mastering project from scratch or "upgrade" a mixing project to a mastering project.

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Old 08-14-2017, 06:49 AM   #3
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I do suppose that Reaper can be configured to be a mastering Tool that better meets your taste by an appropriate theme / layout definition and some installed scripts.
Maybe, but there are still some critical things missing or way too clumsy to use on a daily basis.

I think if REAPER made more user friendly starting point similar to Studio One V3 mastering project mode, or WaveLab montage, they would see more mastering engineers using it exclusively.

I see so many posts about people that tried to use REAPER for mastering but gave up. It took me 3 or 4 serious efforts attempting to use REAPER to get to the point I'm at but I still don't think it's quite there to be a definitive mastering app, maybe OK for the mix engineer that makes a few masters a year and is OK with the current state.

Though it sounds like more work, I truly feel that using more than one app (REAPER and WaveLab) gets the job done faster and more accurately, as well as allowing for more flexibility for alternate formats is the better option at this point. Others use HOFA CD Burn & DDP where I use WaveLab but the theory is the same.
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Old 08-14-2017, 06:54 AM   #4
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Well, we're getting a 'near miss' asteroid on October 26th so why worry?

https://phys.org/news/2017-08-astero...orbit-esa.html

Eight time closer than the Moon. I'm busy digging a cellar and stocking up with tinned foods.
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Old 08-14-2017, 07:03 AM   #5
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I have no idea why everyone calls it "near miss". It's a NEAR HIT!

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Old 08-14-2017, 07:07 AM   #6
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Well, we're getting a 'near miss' asteroid on October 26th so why worry?

https://phys.org/news/2017-08-astero...orbit-esa.html

Eight time closer than the Moon. I'm busy digging a cellar and stocking up with tinned foods.
A good point. Between that and nuclear threats, may as well wait and see how things play out before investing too much time and effort.
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Old 08-14-2017, 07:30 AM   #7
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Default "Two birds with one stone"

That's a thought - if Kim Jong-un could nuke the asteroid, that would impress us all.
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Old 08-14-2017, 09:45 AM   #8
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That's a thought - if Kim Jong-un could nuke the asteroid, that would impress us all.
Depends where it is when he nukes it.
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Old 08-14-2017, 09:50 AM   #9
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That's a thought - if Kim Jong-un could nuke the asteroid, that would impress us all.
Whoops, my bad. I misread 'asteroid'. I thought you said 'arsetrumpoid'
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Old 08-14-2017, 12:59 PM   #10
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I agree to most things you say, I am also mastering in reaper everyday. A one stop shop for exporting duties would be awesome.
A little nitpick though: you can set reaper to CD frames, just set 75 in the project settings.

Reaper seems to attract more and more pro mastering people, but would surely attract even more if exporting capabilities was stepped up.
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Old 08-14-2017, 03:45 PM   #11
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I master in REAPER, too. But I do only the musical part there. For DDP / CD Text / ISRCs / CD Track Markers and so on I export the files at native bit depth and SR to Wavelab, do the SR conversion and Dithering there as a last step together with all the technical stuff listed above.

Yes it would be much more fun to do that all in REAPER and even if its possible using some tricks and scripts: At this final step I don't wanna trust in third party programming. In the end you're responsible for eventually damaged DDP files and have to pay the bill if anything goes wrong. So this step has to be dead safe and that's why I still use Wavelab at the moment.
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Old 08-15-2017, 05:49 AM   #12
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I agree to most things you say, I am also mastering in reaper everyday. A one stop shop for exporting duties would be awesome.
A little nitpick though: you can set reaper to CD frames, just set 75 in the project settings.

Reaper seems to attract more and more pro mastering people, but would surely attract even more if exporting capabilities was stepped up.
Yes, I am aware of the CD frame option. That on it's own is not hard but overall there are way too many tweaky things to do just to get it somewhat resembling what a pro mastering engineer would want to see all day everyday.

As mentioned by Gass, having to do too many tricks and relying on 3rd party scripts is a little unsettling if you're trying to run a professional service that needs to operate 24/7. Depending on your definition of mastering, you can maybe produce what you call a master a few times a year in REAPER and not have an issue but it's not something you'd want to do on a daily basis for paying customers.

REAPER is so good at handling the musical part as Gass also says, but there is a reason that apps like WaveLab, Soundblade, Sadie, Sequoia, Triumph. and HOFA and Sonoris DDP exist and continue to be developed. While the market is smaller for these apps, there is a big demand for a "definitive app". It seems very few are 100% happy with what's out there now. Some how workflow limitations, some have 3rd party plugin issues etc. REAPER could be the one that nails it.

Mastering situations have very specific needs at a level of detail that a recording and mixing DAW don't really do very well.

On top of that, metadata and CD-Text entry is a big part of the job and we need ability to do it with speed, accuracy, confidence, and native solutions rather than ugly looking hacks and scripts.

We need to be able to enter this project info one time, and have it pushed to both CD-Text and ID3v2 metadata, as well as the AXML chunk for ISRC embedding according to EBU standards.

I'd love to work with Cockos to get the mastering side of things up to a level where pro mastering folks could use it for 100% of the job rather than only using REAPER for the musical stuff, and then moving to WaveLab or HOFA/Sonoris to finish the job.

I love the vibe and philosophy of Cockos. I do beta testing for one of the mastering mastering DAWs and it's painful how slow software companies that are part of the corporate structure move.
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Old 08-15-2017, 10:19 AM   #13
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On top of that, metadata and CD-Text entry is a big part of the job and we need ability to do it with speed, accuracy, confidence, and native solutions rather than ugly looking hacks and scripts.

We need to be able to enter this project info one time, and have it pushed to both CD-Text and ID3v2 metadata, as well as the AXML chunk for ISRC embedding according to EBU standards.
On a similar note, it would be great if the project settings window included metadata fields that could be used as wildcards for file names. This is not just a Mastering thing. I work in Post-production for film/tv and would find this really useful. I'm sure the people doing game sound would also like this.
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Old 08-15-2017, 12:37 PM   #14
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I am worried I wont see version 6. i think I might have to buy it?

When I purchased Reaper, it was right at the end of version 4. I was 4.75 or something. I had it a few weeks or so and it became V5.

Does my license end at say 4.75? Or will it carry over?
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Old 08-15-2017, 01:48 PM   #15
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I am worried I wont see version 6. i think I might have to buy it?

When I purchased Reaper, it was right at the end of version 4. I was 4.75 or something. I had it a few weeks or so and it became V5.

Does my license end at say 4.75? Or will it carry over?
A current 5 license only lasts to 6.99 so I would assume a 4.xx only lasts to 5.99 but I may be wrong.
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Old 08-15-2017, 01:58 PM   #16
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At this final step I don't wanna trust in third party programming.
But... EVERYTHING you use is third party programming!
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Old 08-15-2017, 09:11 PM   #17
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I have no idea why everyone calls it "near miss". It's a NEAR HIT!
Actually "near miss" is a parsing thingie, meaning that there was a potential collision within the 'nearby' field, but that said 'collision' didn't occur ... or "missed" as it were ....

I agree that the phrase doesn't make much rational sense to nearly everyone (hahaaaa), and it completely misses the point .... (oh boy, am I gonna get it now!!! (Stick around folks, I'll be here all week) )

But it's also in the same realm as the ongoing "High Pass vs Low Cut" discussion currently raging here in ReaperLand .... 6 of one and half dozen of the other ...


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Old 08-15-2017, 10:21 PM   #18
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.... being German I hardly don't understand (the details of negation in English)
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Old 08-15-2017, 11:28 PM   #19
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Default A Hit is a Hit

And a Hit is a Hit !!! There is no such thing as a 'near hit' unless you 'miss' ... then it becomes a 'near miss' ... unless of course you miss by a mile but then hit something downrange ..... just ask Berry Gordy, who had plenty of 'full hits' and plenty of 'near misses' in Motown .......

I'm sooooo confused about all this ......




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Old 08-16-2017, 06:43 AM   #20
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Like MRMJP, I am certainly not making a complaint. That I can use Reaper for DDP creation as well as all the other stuff I see very much as a "glass half full" scenario.

Being able to go from start to finish of a project in Reaper has some incredible advantages. Recently I've started to include the various tracks in a master as sub projects, and have been able to export DDP and download versions from the same "master" project. Nice.

For me the advantages of keeping everything in Reaper were what swayed me to using it for mastering, but due to the nature of its capabilities, I am extra careful with checks before sending the client's DDP off for CD replication. As others have pointed out, it's not that I doubt the reliability of the software, more that it's so easy to make a mistake or typo at the human level that can potentially cost thousands. The user interface in the more dedicated software helps minimize this.

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Old 08-16-2017, 07:21 AM   #21
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i think reaper should come with another standard configuration , its easy to use now that ive changed so many things but for a reaper noob its actually hard to get into , so to boost reapers appeal the most obvious things should be preconfigured.

and my always requests , overhaul of midi-system and intelligent zooming in arrange and midi editor
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Old 08-16-2017, 09:40 AM   #22
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Like MRMJP, I am certainly not making a complaint. That I can use Reaper for DDP creation as well as all the other stuff I see very much as a "glass half full" scenario.

Being able to go from start to finish of a project in Reaper has some incredible advantages. Recently I've started to include the various tracks in a master as sub projects, and have been able to export DDP and download versions from the same "master" project. Nice.

For me the advantages of keeping everything in Reaper were what swayed me to using it for mastering, but due to the nature of its capabilities, I am extra careful with checks before sending the client's DDP off for CD replication. As others have pointed out, it's not that I doubt the reliability of the software, more that it's so easy to make a mistake or typo at the human level that can potentially cost thousands. The user interface in the more dedicated software helps minimize this.

Cheers,
Jennifer
Thanks for pointing these things Jennifer.

I really think that if REAPER had another mode so you could make a subproject for mastering that resembles the WaveLab montage or Studio One V3 project mode, Cockos could attract A LOT of mid-level and some pro mastering engineers that right now use a handful of apps to get the job done, especially the Mac users. On PC, Sequoia/Sadie/Pyramix are an option but still not great enough to get me to move to PC from Mac.

I know that with some scripts, lots of tweaks etc. you can get close to this but even then, it's pretty crude and ugly. Many people aren't going to take the time to get it to this point only to still have concerns.

I love REAPER for the audio processing part, but I'm not ready to put the reputation of my business on the line by trying to use to finalize master. It's too clumsy and too much room for error, and still not all that complete compared to dedicated mastering apps. Dedicated mastering apps bring a really unique and focus set of tools and features, and detail that is hard to explain to others that don't need it.

I bring this up in part for selfish reasons so I could use just one app for all the work, but also to help bring more users to Cockos. It's honestly not a huge deal right now to keep using my REAPER/WaveLab combo. I'm just thinking in the long term should WaveLab ever be discontinued or something, it would be nice to have an app with younger developers with a good option because overall, I really like the REAPER/Cockos philosophy.

I also bring it up because if it ever happened, it'd by far be the best cross-platform (Mac/PC) option for mastering start to finish.
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Old 08-16-2017, 09:00 PM   #23
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I want to see FX routing in the FX menu. Putting FX in serial or parallel in a single window without wasting track estate and having it all in one place would be absolutely amazing.
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Old 08-16-2017, 10:25 PM   #24
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Putting FX in serial or parallel in a single window without wasting track estate and having it all in one place would be absolutely amazing.
Can easily be done in a single track by using pin routing. Some don't like the "native" GUI for setting up the pin routing within a track's FX-"chain". AFAIK, there are scripts that provide a more "intuitive" GUI for this.

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Old 08-16-2017, 10:39 PM   #25
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Does anybody have an educated guess on when we'll see REAPER 6 and what might change?
No guessing, but here are the previous version cycles from first to last release:
v4.0-v4.78 - August 2011 - May 2015
v3.0-v3.78 - May 2009 - August 2011
v2.0-v2.58 - October 2007 - March 2009
v1.0-v1.888 - August 2006 - August 2007
v0.2-v0.999 - December 2005 - July 2006
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Old 08-16-2017, 11:50 PM   #26
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Can easily be done in a single track by using pin routing. Some don't like the "native" GUI for setting up the pin routing within a track's FX-"chain". AFAIK, there are scripts that provide a more "intuitive" GUI for this.

-Michael
My favorite:

https://forum.cockos.com/showpost.ph...9&postcount=58

(other versions are on the same thread.)
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Old 08-17-2017, 06:49 AM   #27
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I really think that if REAPER had another mode so you could make a subproject for mastering that resembles the WaveLab montage or Studio One V3 project mode, Cockos could attract A LOT of mid-level and some pro mastering engineers that right now use a handful of apps to get the job done, especially the Mac users... I know that with some scripts, lots of tweaks etc. you can get close to this but even then, it's pretty crude and ugly. Many people aren't going to take the time to get it to this point only to still have concerns.
Based on my experience on various mastering forums, I agree 100%. The main reason I used Reaper for mastering was that I was already using it for everything else. Had I not been, there's no way I'd go to the trouble of setting up the scripts, projects, etc. I think mid level mastering engineers would be a healthy and potentially influential user base to attract for Reaper.

Quote:
I love REAPER for the audio processing part, but I'm not ready to put the reputation of my business on the line by trying to use to finalize master. It's too clumsy and too much room for error, and still not all that complete compared to dedicated mastering apps. Dedicated mastering apps bring a really unique and focus set of tools and features, and detail that is hard to explain to others that don't need it.
I hear you, and even though mastering is just a part of my work, have been privy to the razor's edge of fear, uncertainty and doubt in exactly this situation :-)

Might be worthwhile starting another thread with a wish list of mastering improvements in Reaper?

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Old 08-17-2017, 08:00 AM   #28
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[QUOTE=endorka;1877168
Might be worthwhile starting another thread with a wish list of mastering improvements in Reaper?
[/QUOTE]

Another mastering person who now works out of Masterdisk in NYC and I have a Trello list of ideas and things that would make REAPER more interesting and useable to people that only do mastering and need the serious level of details and options that the self-mastering/mix engineer may not care about or know about.

We'll post it at some point when it's ready. I just got the conversation started prematurely I think.

I mostly wanted to know roughly when V6 would be released hoping that maybe it's not too late for some of these things to be added if Cockos is interested.

I also wonder if anybody else wishes the FX chain didn't have it's own menu system. I would prefer that shortcuts just work regardless like most every other DAW I've used.
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Old 08-17-2017, 09:42 AM   #29
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But... EVERYTHING you use is third party programming!
That's it. I'm only mixing via Assembler from now on.
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Old 08-17-2017, 09:59 AM   #30
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No guessing, but here are the previous version cycles from first to last release:
v4.0-v4.78 - August 2011 - May 2015
also V5.0 beta started Dec 2014
5.0 released Aug 13 2015.


+1 to the OP MRMJP.

I own the HOFA app and quite like using if for ~5min for each mastering project. Would be better to keep it all in one app.

Metadata is something that needs improvement in all areas of REAPER.
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Old 08-17-2017, 10:25 AM   #31
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We'll post it at some point when it's ready. I just got the conversion started prematurely I think.
Sounds good, I'm anxious to see what you have in mind.
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Old 08-17-2017, 10:38 AM   #32
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I also wonder if anybody else wishes the FX chain didn't have it's own menu system. I would prefer that shortcuts just work regardless like most every other DAW I've used.
Absolutely. I'm often bounced out of what I'm doing by this. Have always wondered if there are workarounds, but never had the time to look after I got bounced out by it, and always forget to look after :-)

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Old 08-17-2017, 10:42 AM   #33
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Absolutely. I'm often bounced out of what I'm doing by this. Have always wondered if there are workarounds, but never had the time to look after I got bounced out by it, and always forget to look after :-)

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Justin added a nice little workaround in the FX Chain Window settings that lets (most) shortcuts and commands skip the FX Chain Window and go to the main REAPER window, but there were a few useful FX Chain Window shortcuts that I do miss.

I've grown to love REAPER in the last year, but that one still gets me.
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Old 08-17-2017, 10:48 AM   #34
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a

I own the HOFA app and quite like using if for ~5min for each mastering project. Would be better to keep it all in one app.

Metadata is something that needs improvement in all areas of REAPER.
Agreed. After I have the majority of the audio processing done in REAPER for an album lets say, I spend another 5 minutes or so in WaveLab to do the final limiting and other odds & ends including metadata/CD-Text.

I don't think it's anything REAPER can't do at some point, it just needs to be communicated to Cockos in a detailed way so that users aren't tempted to finish up in HOFA or WaveLab etc. I'm not really speaking for people that record/mix/master their own stuff, but more from a strictly mastering context. I'm also not saying a user can't master in REAPER, it just doesn't offer mastering focused features such as WaveLab does.

As much I like email/forums and dislike phone calls, I almost think a Skype session or personal meeting would be in order to really get it right, but maybe our Trello list will be a good jumping point.

I personally like having the two parts of the processes separated. In my main REAPER session I can be a little messy and get the work done, then in the sequencing session I can make sure the song spacing is buttoned up.

Some clients like to play with the song spacing so much that doing that in my main playback/capture session might be a hassle and get messy. I don't even care about song spacing in this session. In fact, I keep 10 seconds between songs incase a client sends a new mix version that has an extended intro or ending/sustain.

The beauty would be to have a separate sequence session that looks like HOFA, Studio One V3 Project Mode, or WaveLab montage where you can finalize stuff (with plugins as needed on items/tracks/master).

I have the ideas and so does Mike, we just need to convince Cockos there is a need for it. As great as it can be for recording, mixing, MIDI etc., it's really close to being an awesome full functioning mastering DAW like HOFA/WaveLab but just not quite there. You can do it, but it's not ideal or pretty.

Finally as I've said, the fact that REAPER is Mac and PC, it opens up potential for a huge amount of mid-level and some bigger mastering engineers to migrate to REAPER. The mastering forums are full of gripes about not having a definitive mastering app, especially cross-platform.

Some of the better options are PC only, and most of them are very old with many 3rd party plugin issues, and slow to be updated. REAPER could take them over no problem with some effort.
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Old 08-17-2017, 01:25 PM   #35
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Excellent topic, Justin.
I agree with general ideas for sure. This open discussion is very beneficial for the developers. I hope you present those feature ideas here soon.

While I understand the possible 'overhaul' that could warrant version 6, perhaps a prioritized list of updates for version 5 would be nice in order to draw interest and test the waters. As much as we can customize Reaper, I'm imagining some features could be closer than waiting for version 6. (Disclaimer... I'm not a developer, so if it's much more complicated, that's ok.)

Metadata, for example seems like an easy fix.

Good stuff... keep this forward thinking going!
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Old 08-17-2017, 01:40 PM   #36
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Good stuff... keep this forward thinking going!
Going forward also means leaving behind old ways ¦¦¦ blu-ray audio and interactive music authoring is the next big thing -right?
There's a lot people can do with this tech.
For eg-googledrive has documents with interactive slideshows/hyperlinking and other cooler feature now-a whole heap of info can be stored on blu-ray making albums/collections better than cd.!!
It 'could' make musicians sense for artists to author single disks but in a <collaborative<>collective> way.
There's little need for 3rd party hosts and revenue collectors when users can do it all for "themselves". <-AMEN.


We live in a kind of holographic universe- when is reaper going holographic??
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Old 08-17-2017, 11:00 PM   #37
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Might be worthwhile starting another thread with a wish list of mastering improvements in Reaper?
From several discussions I feel that "Mastering" is a moving target. I doubt that there is a common agreement about what exactly the term is supposed to mean.

OTOH, why to you think that the main DAW program needs to support (whatever kind of) mastering ?

I suppose a certain kind of "view", certain controls, keyboard-shortcuts etc, certain dedicated routing etc, and of course certain plugins would be on that wish list. IMHO, all of this could be part of a project template or something like this, maybe with the help of some scripts..

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Old 08-18-2017, 03:45 AM   #38
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Justin added a nice little workaround in the FX Chain Window settings that lets (most) shortcuts and commands skip the FX Chain Window and go to the main REAPER window, but there were a few useful FX Chain Window shortcuts that I do miss.
Got it thanks. Looks like there is another option to still redirect the keyboard to specific plugins if required.

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Old 08-18-2017, 04:20 AM   #39
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OTOH, why to you think that the main DAW program needs to support (whatever kind of) mastering ?
Because then people would be able to do all of the audio production chain in Reaper, from tracking to delivery of final product to CD replication plants, download sites etc. A big time, money and effort saver.

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I suppose a certain kind of "view", certain controls, keyboard-shortcuts etc, certain dedicated routing etc, and of course certain plugins would be on that wish list. IMHO, all of this could be part of a project template or something like this, maybe with the help of some scripts..
That's not really what's missing, all of that I can (and have) setup myself. Some thoughts on just one aspect of this from my own perspective;

Preparing DDP files for sending to a CD replication plant is an exacting process. One mistake can mean thousands of CDs going to waste. The financial cost can be huge, as well as the cost to your reputation.

As well as the audio, various codes such as ISRC and EAN must be embedded such as catalogue number, artist etc. Some of these are per song. One of their uses is to identify the music for royalty payments, so you can imagine it has to be done correctly.

The way these are entered into a Reaper based DDP project at the moment is clumsy and error prone, and verification of them not simple.

Another useful thing for DDPs is preparation of a human readable PQ sheet. This gets sent to the CD pressing plant along with the other files, and allows them to easily verify track order, length, gaps between songs etc. If something has gone wrong somewhere they can query this before pressing.

There are other things I have encountered, that I am sure more experienced mastering engineers MRMJP will cover them when they submit their suggestions.

At the moment I have to refer to a lengthy checklist of various actions and tools (including shell programs) to make this happen, and setting it up was complex - I had to gather information from various sources to make it happen. Here's a section of my notes;

Quote:
Install DDP tools in C:\ drive
Project should be at 44.1, tempo 240, framerate 75
Marker at 0 is "!", then 2s silence after.
Then track marker 1 "#blahblah" at least 160ms before downbeat of song to allow for slow cuing CD players. This is 12 frames. In a pinch e.g. at crossfades could relax to 5, maybe even less, but downbeat may be chopped. DO MARKERS HAVE TO BE RENUMBERED IN SEQUENCE?

Make up tags in separate file for each track, copy and paste into markers.
@EAN etc code goes just after last track. Make sure to include language so CD TEXT works.
Select from 0 to end, including @ marker.

Render to master mix, time selection,
output dir is DDP
file is called image
Samplerate 44.1, output DDP
NOTE DDP render does not convert to 16bit or dither, so need to put a plugin on master bus to do this. dither psycho is recommended.

Verify checksum, write cue sheet with DDP to cue writer, in Program Files x86 directory.

USE THIS TO WRITE CD

ddpinfo --verify DDP
Given the high risk nature of this process, you can see why people are reluctant to use such an approach. Dedicated mastering programs have features that make this much simpler and less error prone.

Cheers!
Jennifer
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Old 08-18-2017, 05:15 AM   #40
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Given the high risk nature of this process, you can see why people are reluctant to use such an approach. Dedicated mastering programs have features that make this much simpler and less error prone.
Yes. I think this is a solution for hobbyists, hackers, and people with extra time on they hands to trial and error this stuff. It also feels like something that could break or have a bug induced at any time.
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