When recording or "render to" there are shifts in item position on grid as shown on pictures. It can be seen at the closest zoom. This happens when project tempo is not default (120 bpm). Item shift depends on bar position and sometimes it's behind the bar, sometimes it's ahead of the bar, and sometimes it's on point. I reproduced it on several computers in newest and older Reaper 5 versions. I attached a gif recipe in zip (it couldn't be compressed to 64 KB).
Tried on:
Macbook Pro Retina 2014
Macbook Air 2013
Mac Pro
No, it's snap to beat position. You can recreate it as in gif and you will see it. Sometimes it's on point, just try to do it several times with random bpm positions.
Recorded items are rounded to the nearest audio sample. This includes MIDI recordings, for playback sync reasons.
But these shifts cause timing problems by the end of the project if I don't manually correct the timing of individual recorded or rendered in place items. I haven't seen any other DAW behaving in such way. How can I turn off this rounding?
Recorded items are rounded to the nearest audio sample. This includes MIDI recordings, for playback sync reasons.
Schwa-there seems to be problems because editing can be intersample.
For eg,playhead will scrub many places between samples->X# numbers of markers can be placed between samples.
General edge editing must be locked to samples right?
So does anybody have any suggestions? Can someone please explain why items are slightly off the grid after recording but if draw items manually this doesn't happen? Even if recorded items are rounded to nearest sample for playback sync reasons, after recording it would be logical for items to snap to grid automatically, without having user manually correct each item on the highest zoom resolution.
Snap settings: Snap to project sample rate (enabled)
Project settings: Force project tempo ... to occur on whole samples (enabled)
should help.
But (as Bri1 said) - there are still some situations that can make the edit cursor to land inbetween whole samples - so watch the edit cursor snapping to samples.
Snap settings: Snap to project sample rate (enabled)
Project settings: Force project tempo ... to occur on whole samples (enabled)
should help.
But (as Bri1 said) - there are still some situations that can make the edit cursor to land inbetween whole samples - so watch the edit cursor snapping to samples.
Thank you for replying, this works even without Snap settings: Snap ... (enabled). However with this setting the project tempo value can't be in whole numbers.
I understand that Reaper is quite a unique piece of software, but why not solve this inconvenient problem? I don't know how it is solved by creators of other DAW's, but ability to choose right tempo and correct snapping to grid of recorded items is an ESSENTIAL basic feature.
I'm getting the same problem. I usually check if everything is line up at the end of my song/project and sometimes the media items is off not line up evenly. Definitely makes me paranoid just cutting 4 bar loops.
I havent noticed this on any of my projects. Exactly how much of an error are we talking about here, over, say, a three minute project?
It depends on how much you duplicate/copy incorrect timed item during your project. Cause even small time shifts are summing while duplication. Overall it's better to turn off "Snap media items to nearby media items" for timing problems from one track to not affect others.
I'm getting the same problem. I usually check if everything is line up at the end of my song/project and sometimes the media items is off not line up evenly. Definitely makes me paranoid just cutting 4 bar loops.
Same problem happens to me and these time accuracy checks take time and nerves that I try to save by using custom reaper actions. So until this problem is solved, Reaper workflow efficiency is decreasing visibly. Also a lot of people don't know they have this problem because they don't zoom in and don't bother about it, but sometimes these time shifts on midi cause ghost and sticking notes.
I really hope that Reaper developers won't be indifferent to this. What's the point of all new "cosmic" break-through features if this basic function isn't working?
but sometimes these time shifts on midi cause ghost and sticking notes.
No they don't. At least not over here. Because:
Quote:
Originally Posted by schwa
Recorded items are rounded to the nearest audio sample. This includes MIDI recordings, for playback sync reasons.
Emphasis mine. There's a reason why it works as it works, and it's a good one. Visual discrepancies should be secondary to audio sync, and it's a good thing they are. Snapping everything to sample rate grid is a perfectly normal thing to do, and even more, expected, I would say.
(BTW in case you were not aware, schwa is one of Reaper developers.)
Emphasis mine. There's a reason why it works as it works, and it's a good one. Visual discrepancies should be secondary to audio sync, and it's a good thing they are. Snapping everything to sample rate grid is a perfectly normal thing to do, and even more, expected, I would say.
(BTW in case you were not aware, schwa is one of Reaper developers.)
You are talking theoretical stuff and I am facing a real problem with my work. All this is NOT about visualizing, because items that I'm creating with pencil tool instead of recording are perfectly on grid and I have no problem with em. So if you don't have these problems please do your thing and let me express my issues. And as you see I'm not the only one to have this problem.
Don’t want to hijack this thread, but maybe this could be related…
Copying/moving regions causes tempo changes and time sigs to lose beat positions, even if timebase=beats, whether using linear or square tempo changes.
Petro you know what I notice,I'm not sure if it's true or not. If I record with overdub/replace I get those timing issues. If I keep it on audio midi and record usually I don't have to realign everything back on grid. Forgot what the exact name for the record setting.
Petro you know what I notice,I'm not sure if it's true or not. If I record with overdub/replace I get those timing issues. If I keep it on audio midi and record usually I don't have to realign everything back on grid. Forgot what the exact name for the record setting.
I don't use overdub/replace, I always use record: input (audio or midi). So I don't think it depends on record mode.
I think this comes back to Reaper's super unique ability to have multiple sample rates in various audio items within the same project and also because of reaper's "honesty" in showing where the samples actual are when some DAWs visually round.
That above may not be what is causing your issue but I and many people I know have had various problems with midi/audio timing when copying and pasting a lot and getting drifting because of the above reason (which are not just this issue but similar ones documented elsewhere too).
I don't have a solution but the sample rate tickbox that locks the BPM to the sample rate helps though.
It's really quite a tricky one to solve "properly". I'm just hoping that there's a way that can work like an option that allowed reaper to simulate DAWs like cubase or protools even though it would break some other things maybe?
__________________ subproject FRs click here note: don't search for my pseudonym on the web. The "musicbynumbers" you find is not me or the name I use for my own music.
Stuff gets thrown off the grid, might be related thats all. (and what petrofsky said)
One massively important thing to watch out for in the grid settings is that you set media items to only snap at the start/snap offset and also that snapping media items to items on other tracks is off.
Both of those can cause the ends of items to be snapped to and I've found that it's the end of the item that can often end up not on the beats and bars etc and thus can cause issues.
The other one is "snap to grid at any distance" which keeps things clean too.
Might not be why but hopefully that helps
__________________ subproject FRs click here note: don't search for my pseudonym on the web. The "musicbynumbers" you find is not me or the name I use for my own music.
One massively important thing to watch out for in the grid settings is that you set media items to only snap at the start/snap offset and also that snapping media items to items on other tracks is off.
Both of those can cause the ends of items to be snapped to and I've found that it's the end of the item that can often end up not on the beats and bars etc and thus can cause issues.
The other one is "snap to grid at any distance" which keeps things clean too.
Might not be why but hopefully that helps
Thanks for your reply Musicbynumbers!
Yes, I got these settings… and tried every combination under the sun. I'm afraid my post is about confirmed bugs.
Thought there might be a correlation possible (one thing that leads to another).
__________________
Hackintosh - OSX 10.13.5 - Apollo Twin
Location: Near Cambridge UK and Near Questembert, France
Posts: 22,754
Judging by the gif you posted, it would appear that you are looking at the items at extreme zoom out setting & in fact the difference per iteration is miniscule.
YES there is a difference, but even accumulated over a hundred bars, I would not have thought the sum would have made a significant (I.e. horribly noticeable) difference to the listener experience.
Once again, can you quantify just how much variance you are seeing on a typical project?
I am perfectly happy to accept that there IS a problem, but sometimes we spend so much time obsessing over perfection that e lose sight of real world situation?
My profuse apologies if you are indeed losing a whole beat every hundred bars or similar, of course!
Judging by the gif you posted, it would appear that you are looking at the items at extreme zoom out setting & in fact the difference per iteration is miniscule.
YES there is a difference, but even accumulated over a hundred bars, I would not have thought the sum would have made a significant (I.e. horribly noticeable) difference to the listener experience.
Once again, can you quantify just how much variance you are seeing on a typical project?
I am perfectly happy to accept that there IS a problem, but sometimes we spend so much time obsessing over perfection that e lose sight of real world situation?
My profuse apologies if you are indeed losing a whole beat every hundred bars or similar, of course!
It's crucial when you're working with phase of the signal. Each DAW, including Reaper, has time delay option that counts in milliseconds to align signals between tracks to find point that has better phase position. It's essential in mixing. But if there is no strict position of items on the timeline, this function is not useable. So I have to shift each item to grid. Also in terms of music, you can loose swing when building drum patterns. This issue, especially when rendering midi items in place (because they also have these shifts), makes production process a pain in the ass. Not in all music genres of course, but my job forces me to produce everything.
I know that nobody cares cause few people zoom so closely or they don't record items. But snapping recorded items to samples is not logical while your production is based on grid.
Also, if you're doing sample packs, loops that you rendered in place are not actually at the whole bpm position because they have e.g. 120,746 bpm.
Hey, I'd appreciate if you told me if these issues are going to be solved, since I need it really badly for my work. Just give a little hint please.
Hello there,
got the same issue in 90% of my projects and I can assure you that it makes real tempo problems.
I never had the idea to use the maximum zoom if I hadn't heard something weird in my projetcs.
Since then, my workflow is affected because I have to be carefull all the time.
Glad to see I'm not the only one to meet this problem with the grid, but I hope a solution will be found soon !
Hello there,
got the same issue in 90% of my projects and I can assure you that it makes real tempo problems.
I never had the idea to use the maximum zoom if I hadn't heard something weird in my projetcs.
Since then, my workflow is affected because I have to be carefull all the time.
Glad to see I'm not the only one to meet this problem with the grid, but I hope a solution will be found soon !
REAPER is borked in this department (as far as i'm concerned….) Some stuff probably has been this way forever. (Hope for the best prepare for....)
__________________
Hackintosh - OSX 10.13.5 - Apollo Twin
It's not "borked" as per schwa's statement above (the snap is off the grid in order to ensure playback sync of recorded audio and/or MIDI items), it's the only way it could be in order to support multiple sample rates within one project, and in order to be honest about where samples REALLY ARE on the timeline. Depending on BPM and sample rate they CANNOT always snap to grid perfectly - that's all there's to it. So, the solution to this problem is enabling snapping to sample rate. Yes, you won't be able to have some BPMs as a round number, but it helps in alleviating accumulation errors.
If the disadvantages far outweigh the benefits I call this borked… I think we would all be better of if REAPER dit it the way every other DAW on the planet does it and made sure stuff just stays on the grid. If you enable snapping to sample rate things go south in another borked department btw…
__________________
Hackintosh - OSX 10.13.5 - Apollo Twin
Working with multiple sample rates is definitely an advantage to some (sound designers, for example. And lo and behold - many of them are depending on Reaper!). Or many others, even. Knowing where each sample is on the timeline rather than having them visually rounded to the place they are NOT on the timeline is also a pretty good thing, don't you think?
By all means, keep on using those other DAWs because Reaper will never be exactly the same as any of them, as that's not the intention behind it.
this affects everything in midi not just whole items but also the notes and events inside the items , midi plugins , midi js plugins, external synch , virtual sync , bounce, loop etc. ...
if reapers playback engine can use different samplerates the devs could implememnt a virtual samplerate for midi-items which is always a full tile of the bpm/grid but always smaller than a 1/512 note length (you can´t hear the differnce even with 1/256 note) it should be easy to program too
sidenote:
multiple samplerates are overrated , we all ´have several terrabytes of hdd in our pc´s .. noone would care if the sample is resampled on import (infact thats my standard setting in the project settings and save settings) , this stems from old times i guess where people were restricted and couldn´t effort a gigabytes spanning project folders
sample correct playback is even more overrated becasue unless you´re a cyborg you can ´t hear the difference beyond 2 ms anyways which are roughly 88 samples at 44100kHz ... so it would be better if samplerates are snapped to grid instead of the other way round, theres enough "room" to make that inaudible to the user