My First Post!

[MerlinWilliams]

I've been using Reaper for several years now, and have wandered in and out of the forum over the last year when I had questions - the info here has been very useful.

I've been making a lot more use of Reaper over the last year or so, and thought I should share my story, JIC it's helpful to anyone else.

I play woodwinds and guitars/bass. I've been working on a multi instrumental show for cruise ships and seniors residences. I did all of my backing tracks using Finale and Reaper. The ship shows require charts for up to a nine piece band with horns. I do mine for eight (two saxes with flute & clarinet doubles, trumpet, trombone, piano, bass, drums, and optional guitar.)

Here's my cruise ship demo video - https://youtu.be/ztfe6qMK0BY

The keys and bass on the video are VSTs; everything else is real. I tracked the woodwinds and guitars, and hired friends to play trumpet, trombone and drums.

It was an interesting process; I had to learn to record live drums (thank you Glyn Johns!) and sync audio and video.

As well as doing tracked projects like this, I also enjoy recording large jazz or classical ensembles. I purchase a small netbook for my remote rig. I use a Presonus 1818 with a Behringer ADA8000 for 16 channels of input. Primary pickup of the ensemble is with a Crown SASS-P Mk II stereo mic, with a variety of solo mics and spot mics as well.

I also like playing surf music, and have used Reaper with IK Multimedia guitar amp sims to record some surf demos.

Addictive Drums 2 and Addictive Keys are my go to VSTs these days for my tracks, though with jazz/swing tunes, I still prefer live drums.

Thanks for letting me hang out here.

[nicholas]

Thanks for posting! Great video!

[Glennbo]

Very cool and very well done. Drums could be louder though.

Hehe, I'm a drummer.

[mschnell]

Great !

Suggestion: for such purposes, I did see several videos with the same player performing at the same time in multiple sections of the screen. I suppose Reaper' video editor can do such things.

Thanks
-Michael

[martifingers]

Impressive all round. Maybe the day will come when you can ditch Finale?

[Jason Lyon]

Originally Posted by martifingers

Impressive all round. Maybe the day will come when you can ditch Finale?

I work with Sib and REAPER. Even when I'm mocking up I usually need detailed scored parts anyway, and I generally start from scoring. REAPER's notation editor has made great strides but I don't think it'll be ready to replace a dedicated score program anytime soon.

Frankly, I don't think it's really intended to get that far. It's good to see that more and more people are using it, but I think it's fair to say that score people are in the minority of the REAPER usership. Therefore, I suspect it's a fairly low priority for Cockos. I could be wrong. Personally, I'm quite happy to split the work up anyway. I find it helps me focus and make decisions. (The flipside of extreme flexibility is never actually getting anything finished!)

I write the parts in Sib with dynamics, articulations and phrasing but with basic reference sounds, no swing or nuance. At that point I declare it done and move on. Then I dump the MIDI into one of my REAPER templates and shine the bejasus out of it. The right tool for the job at hand, I'd say.

I've always marvelled at people who use a scorewriter and a DAW lashed together. I presume they're using two machines LANned, which isn't my bag. (I think the era of fast multicore core processors and fast large SSDs will be the end of the master-slave approach for all but the real big boys who need every library ever created available instantly.)

With the MIDI shared between the two, I don't see how editing on one end wouldn't wind up making a bit of a mess in the other. The workflow would hurt my head...

[MerlinWilliams]

Originally Posted by martifingers

Impressive all round. Maybe the day will come when you can ditch Finale?

Doubtful. Concisely notated parts are essential in what I do; Reaper just does not handle notation well. I could link the two programs using ReaWire, but I haven’t dug into that yet.

[Dr Bob]

Hi,

Using the 2 program approach is still a good way to go. I also use Sibelius if I want/need good score engraving. Sib is pretty much the boss in this department - and the cost reflects this too! I keep an old copy of Finale lying around in case a score comes my way in that format, as well as Gvox Encore for quick and dirty part creation!

A soon as possible the MIDI is exported and then as Jason says, get to work with Reaper and let the piece shine.

I too like to record live stuff - last one was a BigBand, but used an 8 track hard disk recorder to capture. I frontended with two 26 channel mixers to host the mics! I basically did a "pre-mix" across 3 stereo tracks with a separate mic for spot solos and another for vocals/room. Worked out OK in the end. Your work with what you have to hand at the time you were asked! Some results below, if that's ok!

dB
Here's a few tunes. The Moonlight is mixed a la original Glenn Miller, ie the clarinet is actually quite back in the mix!

New York, New York https://soundcloud.com/doctorbob/new-york-new-york
Moonlight Serenade https://soundcloud.com/doctorbob/moonlight-serenade
Beyond the Sea (vocal) https://soundcloud.com/doctorbob/beyond-the-sea

[Jason Lyon]

Bob.

I've done a big band with 8 mics:

XY front pair.
2xMS pairs on the woods and brass. Placement to taste.
Close spots on the piano and bass (inside the piano with lid on half-stick and right up against the bass's f-hole).

Solo mic would be necessary too of course, if there's a singer in the picture.

I've actually never found big bands need much mixing. The section players tend to instinctively balance themselves - it's part of the job.

[Jason Lyon]

Incidentally, I'm not getting my full comment displayed correctly for some reason. In case it's missing for everyone, I meant to write:

Personally, I'm quite happy to split the work up anyway. I find it helps me focus and make decisions. (The flipside of extreme flexibility is never actually getting anything finished!)

[MerlinWilliams]

Originally Posted by Jason Lyon

Bob.

I've done a big band with 8 mics:

XY front pair.
2xMS pairs on the woods and brass. Placement to taste.
Close spots on the piano and bass (inside the piano with lid on half-stick and right up against the bass's f-hole).

Solo mic would be necessary too of course, if there's a singer in the picture.

I've actually never found big bands need much mixing. The section players tend to instinctively balance themselves - it's part of the job.

I use the Crown SASS-P for main pickup, including the drums. XY pair of SDC for piano, LDD for the bass, ribbon mics for trombone & trumpet soloists, two LDC for the sax solos. I take a split from the house vocal mic for the singer.

[Jason Lyon]

Sounds like a plan, Stan.

Usually in big band situations I don't bother with a pair on the piano (and I'm a pianist). One condenser, facing about C above middle C does it for me.

Hey, with 13 horns going at it, the only room for a piano part is usually well up the leger lines. Got that teeshirt…

Also less to go wrong with mid-range woofing, if you get what I mean.

I like to preserve the sense of stage layout with jazz recordings in general, and in that context stereo-spread piano and drums aren't really a thing. Just my preference, of course. But if the pianist is the featured soloist, yeah - do it.

We appear to have drifted off-topic. Apologies, but I regard these threads as a conversation more than a sales meeting!

[MerlinWilliams]

Originally Posted by Jason Lyon

We appear to have drifted off-topic. Apologies, but I regard these threads as a conversation more than a sales meeting!

Started a new thread here: https://forum.cockos.com/showthread....50#post2049050

[Dr Bob]

edit - post crossed - moved to new thread!

dB

[peter5992]

Originally Posted by MerlinWilliams

I've been using Reaper for several years now, and have wandered in and out of the forum over the last year when I had questions - the info here has been very useful.

I've been making a lot more use of Reaper over the last year or so, and thought I should share my story, JIC it's helpful to anyone else.

I play woodwinds and guitars/bass. I've been working on a multi instrumental show for cruise ships and seniors residences. I did all of my backing tracks using Finale and Reaper. The ship shows require charts for up to a nine piece band with horns. I do mine for eight (two saxes with flute & clarinet doubles, trumpet, trombone, piano, bass, drums, and optional guitar.)

Here's my cruise ship demo video - https://youtu.be/ztfe6qMK0BY

The keys and bass on the video are VSTs; everything else is real. I tracked the woodwinds and guitars, and hired friends to play trumpet, trombone and drums.

It was an interesting process; I had to learn to record live drums (thank you Glyn Johns!) and sync audio and video.

As well as doing tracked projects like this, I also enjoy recording large jazz or classical ensembles. I purchase a small netbook for my remote rig. I use a Presonus 1818 with a Behringer ADA8000 for 16 channels of input. Primary pickup of the ensemble is with a Crown SASS-P Mk II stereo mic, with a variety of solo mics and spot mics as well.

I also like playing surf music, and have used Reaper with IK Multimedia guitar amp sims to record some surf demos.

Addictive Drums 2 and Addictive Keys are my go to VSTs these days for my tracks, though with jazz/swing tunes, I still prefer live drums.

Thanks for letting me hang out here.

Very cool --- thanks for sharing.

[martifingers]

Originally Posted by MerlinWilliams

Doubtful. Concisely notated parts are essential in what I do; Reaper just does not handle notation well. I could link the two programs using ReaWire, but I haven’t dug into that yet.

I got that but I meant that maybe one REAPER will improve to the point where it was possible. Version 8.00?

[Dr Bob]

Probably at least 8.0! It's got a long way to go to be a Sibelius which has a lot AI built in from the Archimedes days.

Not sure Reaper MIDI notation wants or needs to be a full scoring system. In the same way that its video section is not likely to rival the dedicated video processors.

dB

[pryere]

Merlin by name, Merlin by...
That showreel of yours was very impressive.
My hat is now off.

Welcome.