Share your top reasons for using Subprojects

[Thonex]

Hey guys,

I'm relatively new to Reaper (I came from Nuendo/Cubase for over 30 years)... can you guys share your main reasons and benefits for using Subprojects?

I'm looking for new work methodology inspiration.

Thanks.

[Philbo King]

Welcome to Reaper!

I really don't use them. The automatic re-render thing when changing from subproject to parent project sort of kills the workflow for me.

[cjewellstudios]

Originally Posted by Philbo King

I really don't use them. The automatic re-render thing when changing from subproject to parent project sort of kills the workflow for me.

Philbo King I do believe the ability to bypass that was added a while ago.

My main reason for subprojects is probably an Unintented use case.

Say I want to add a guitar or vocal part to an almost finished large production at the mixing stage. Before subprojects this was a PITA. But now, all that needs to be done is render a stereo stem of the whole mix (or whatever you need) and make a subproject. Now you can record at low latency to a stereo bounce of the mix. Lifesaver really. Although this was technically possible before, exploring the subproject feature is really what made me think of it.

[Thonex]

Originally Posted by cjewellstudios

Philbo King I do believe the ability to bypass that was added a while ago.

My main reason for subprojects is probably an Unintented use case.

Say I want to add a guitar or vocal part to an almost finished large production at the mixing stage. Before subprojects this was a PITA. But now, all that needs to be done is render a stereo stem of the whole mix (or whatever you need) and make a subproject. Now you can record at low latency to a stereo bounce of the mix. Lifesaver really. Although this was technically possible before, exploring the subproject feature is really what made me think of it.

Thanks cjewellstudios!

So the main project becomes the subproject and the new vocals go on a new main project? Sorry for the lameness.

[cjewellstudios]

Originally Posted by Thonex

Thanks cjewellstudios!

So the main project becomes the subproject and the new vocals go on a new main project? Sorry for the lameness.

Well not really

The main project stays the main project. The subproject opens in a new tab.

I glossed over a couple things, sorry about that. What I do now is make the tracks I need in the main project and then select them and choose make subproject from selected tracks (I think it's in the menu if you right click the tracks)

So then in a new tab I have the my tracks that I want to record to. I then have to:

-go back to the main project and render a stereo stem of the mix buss, (it's in the right click menu as well but I mapped both of these actions)

- copy and paste that "mix buss - stem" track that I rendered into the subproject.

-record the parts

-render the new tracks and copy and paste them back into the main project.

It's still a bit convoluted honestly and I'm sure the devs could possibly take my use case and make it even better. But I just love having the ability to do this late in the game so easily.

[ChristopherT]

I don't get the need for it when a bounce / render and a new session will do the same.
The automatic re render is odd - but maybe this is fixed?

[mschnell]

Originally Posted by Philbo King

I really don't use them. The automatic re-render thing when changing from subproject to parent project sort of kills the workflow for me.

Obviously you are not running into problems with CPU power .

-Michael

[zookthespook]

We used subprojects for media and film work .
Here is how our projects look like

Reel 1 (master session}
Scene 1 ( subproject)
Scene 2 ( subproject)
Scene 3 ( subproject) and so on ..

We play the master session to the director.
This projects comprises of only rendered subprojects of various scenes.
Now let's say the director wants a tweak in scene 2. All we do is double click on that file and the scene opens up in another tab with the scene 2 project , do the needful fixes , closes the project. The scene 2 wave on the master session is updated ..move on !
We used to do this in cubase back in the day and in that case we had to do all this linear.saves a great deal of time

[mschnell]

In some threads about the pros/cons for using / converting to Reaper some guys explained that the subprojects feature is unique with Reaper, and the main reason for them to convert from some other DAW.

e.g. -> https://forum.cockos.com/showthread....ht=subprojects

Maybe searching the forum might reveal more such threads.

-Michael

[ChristopherT]

Well that is a great workflow zookthespook.

[Thonex]

Thanks everyone... great info! Keep the reasons coming...

Originally Posted by zookthespook

We used subprojects for media and film work .
Here is how our projects look like

Reel 1 (master session}
Scene 1 ( subproject)
Scene 2 ( subproject)
Scene 3 ( subproject) and so on ..

We play the master session to the director.
This projects comprises of only rendered subprojects of various scenes.
Now let's say the director wants a tweak in scene 2. All we do is double click on that file and the scene opens up in another tab with the scene 2 project , do the needful fixes , closes the project. The scene 2 wave on the master session is updated ..move on !
We used to do this in cubase back in the day and in that case we had to do all this linear.saves a great deal of time

@zookthespook, that was a very clear and inspiring way to use Subprojects.

@mschnell That is a great thread! Thanks for posting that.

I think I also vaguely remember something about Regions in Subprojects being able to be used in the Main project with ease and flexibility... but I may be misremembering.

Keep 'em coming.

[zookthespook]

Thank you Andrew & Chris !

[RCJacH]

You can load subprojects in RSO5, so pretty much you can make samples or templates in rpp format (sampled drum pieces or fx). It's easier to tweak the existing sound (after copy & pasting the rpp into the current project) rather than spending hours recreating it from nothing.

[andyp24]

Originally Posted by zookthespook

We used subprojects for media and film work .
Here is how our projects look like

Reel 1 (master session}
Scene 1 ( subproject)
Scene 2 ( subproject)
Scene 3 ( subproject) and so on ..

We play the master session to the director.
This projects comprises of only rendered subprojects of various scenes.
Now let's say the director wants a tweak in scene 2. All we do is double click on that file and the scene opens up in another tab with the scene 2 project , do the needful fixes , closes the project. The scene 2 wave on the master session is updated ..move on !
We used to do this in cubase back in the day and in that case we had to do all this linear.saves a great deal of time

I've done this too. The main difficulty I encountered was with music cues that crossed the scene boundaries. Do you put those in the master project? I ended up doing so, but that means that tweaking a scene takes you back to a music-less version, so if the request is to bring a particular sound effect out more over the music, you're "working blind" in the subproject. Do you have a better solution for this?

[Casperfren]

Referencing, one subproject for it.

In general, if im importing structhures, fx chains, its nice to just copy paste

[Thonex]

Originally Posted by Casperfren

Referencing, one subproject for it.

In general, if im importing structhures, fx chains, its nice to just copy paste

So you're using the subproject as a template or bucket?

[enroe]

Originally Posted by Thonex

Hey guys,

I'm relatively new to Reaper (I came from Nuendo/Cubase for over 30 years)... can you guys share your main reasons and benefits for using Subprojects?

I'm looking for new work methodology inspiration.

Thanks.

In Nuendo/Cubase you can use "parts" for modularity
(= repeating sections of a song). In Reaper you'll
use "subprojects" for this.

[Thonex]

Originally Posted by enroe

In Nuendo/Cubase you can use "parts" for modularity
(= repeating sections of a song). In Reaper you'll
use "subprojects" for this.

Aha...

Thanks enroe!

So if you have song form AABA ABA C A, then you would need a subproject for each section or you could put all sections on 1 subproject and then move them around freely on the main project?

[enroe]

Originally Posted by Thonex

Aha...
So if you have song form AABA ABA C A, then you would need a subproject for each section or you could put all sections on 1 subproject and then move them around freely on the main project?

Yes, for instance.

I don't do it this way, because I would loose the coherence
of a song then.

I use subprojects for repeating chorus-vocals, which probably
will be changed in the evolution of a song.

Also rhythm-guitar parts, which are iterated, and which
must stay flexible for changes and adaptions, are best suited
for subprojects.

[Thonex]

Originally Posted by enroe

Yes, for instance.

I don't do it this way, because I would loose the coherence
of a song then.

I use subprojects for repeating chorus-vocals, which probably
will be changed in the evolution of a song.

Also rhythm-guitar parts, which are iterated, and which
must stay flexible for changes and adaptions, are best suited
for subprojects.

Nice one... thanks enroe!

[Jack Winter]

I sometimes use subs when I have to record something important and want to make sure that there are no problems with plugins or anything else. Say when I have a brass section to record which costs me money... Like that I just have a stereo track playing back, and no plugins or routing that might mess something up. Still if there really was to be some reason to, I can open the sub to change something.

Apart from that, it appears a superior freeze to me..

I hope that we'll get improvements one day, like easy multitrack output, so I could for instance hide all the drum edits in the sub, and still have the fx for the different drum tracks directly available in the master prj. This is possible to do, but it's a pain to setup and understand when I come back to the prj later.

[Burnsjethro]

I know this is an old topic so excuse me for taking this up at such a late stage. I only recently came across the subproject system. Not sure I quite grasp all the implications.

However to save on power, could I save an entire project (the main project) in a subproject, then work in the subproject with a rendered version of the main project and then add other tracks to the SB (guitar, vocals, ...) so as to save on power and help with latency? Will all the changes I make in the SB be copied back into the main project?

I am looking for an uncomplicated routine for working on a project using as little power as possible.

Does the subproject open up automatically when I open the main one?

I am in the habit of shifting everything into a new folder when I work on a project (Song title 1, Song Title 2,...) so I can always go back to an earlier version if something goes wrong. If I do this with the addition of a subproject, will the latter automatically be transferred to the new folder?

Thanks in advance for any ideas.