loop recording ideas

[brainwreck]

currently, loop recording can be done in reaper, but i'm not up for explaining the details to the uniniated, as it's not ideal any way, it's kind of messy, and even messier to try and explain it. it could definitely use some work. my ideas on it:

punch in single take - with time selection auto punch enabled and repeat toggled on, the current behavior is that a new take is started when the play cursor reaches the beginning of the time selection.

with a punch in single take option, record is toggled off at the end of the time selection, but playback continues to loop. to record a new take, press record. recording starts when the play cursor reaches the beginning of the time selection. simple, easy to use, no short takes or splitting mess while loop recording. since it's semi-automated, no midi foot controller is required.

for example, you set up for loop recording and record your first take. record was automatically toggled off at the end of the time selection, while playback continues to loop. anytime during the second pass, you press record. at the beginning of the third pass, recording begins.

a bonus to this requested recording mode could be: when in this recording mode, and 'automatic record arm when track selected' is enabled, recording could also be toggled when selecting a new track. again, no midi foot pedals required, as the buffer of the time selection could give the operator/performer plenty of time to reach from instrument to keyboard and back to instrument.

maybe even better would be a configurable number of takes, rather than a single take.

monitor all track media - current behavior is that previous takes aren't audible while recording a new take, unless 'monitor track media when recording' is selected, in which case, only the last take is monitored with the currently recording take. a new monitor mode would allow all track takes to be monitored, which could be nice for loop recording.

smooth take switching - currently, when selecting an alternate take during playback, the switch doesn't happen immediately or smoothly. improved behavior would be that take switching during playback is immediate with a configurable crossfade applied. an option for quantized playback switching might also be nice (e.g., click a take during measure 1, switching occurs at measure 2).

region looping with smooth switching - the currently selected region would loop during recording and playback. when clicking a new region, switching occurs when the current region reaches it's end (or according to a quantize setting, with a crossfade). this could be a nice feature for loop composing/performing and for djs.

region playlist - i'm imagining a list in which the regions can be dragged up/down for reordering (how the effects list currently works).

[zoid9]

+1. No where to vote yet?

[brainwreck]

Originally Posted by zoid9

+1. No where to vote yet?

i usually like to see if things float in here before going to the issue tracker. some of my ideas seem really good to me, until immediately after i post them.

[Dannii]

Funny you should bring all this up at this time. Only a couple of hours ago, I was playing around with importing loops into REAPER that were created on Everyday Looper on my iPhone when I got the idea to try setting up REAPER as a live looper on my laptop.

Almost all the things you mention above get a HUGE +1 vote from me, particularly the auto switching from track record enable to track play after one take.

Much to my pleasant surprise, I managed to get REAPER set up as an effective and useful looper, adding tracks, routing and adding fx, on the fly mixing and panning, item processing, deleting and rearranging and a bunch of other things all seamlessly with REAPER in loop record mode. It didn't miss a beat. VERY cool

I actually feel confident enough with this to us it for live performances.

But yeah, your suggestions sure would add to REAPER's abilities as a serious live looper.

[brainwreck]

Originally Posted by Dannii

Funny you should bring all this up at this time. Only a couple of hours ago, I was playing around with importing loops into REAPER that were created on Everyday Looper on my iPhone when I got the idea to try setting up REAPER as a live looper on my laptop.

Almost all the things you mention above get a HUGE +1 vote from me, particularly the auto switching from track record enable to track play after one take.

Much to my pleasant surprise, I managed to get REAPER set up as an effective and useful looper, adding tracks, routing and adding fx, on the fly mixing and panning, item processing, deleting and rearranging and a bunch of other things all seamlessly with REAPER in loop record mode. It didn't miss a beat. VERY cool

I actually feel confident enough with this to us it for live performances.

But yeah, your suggestions sure would add to REAPER's abilities as a serious live looper.

i've played around with looping in reaper, and yea, it's definitely doable. i've seen a few mentions here lately saying otherwise, but maybe those people are doing something with looping that i haven't thought about. any way, cool that you got it working for yourself. i think that i could probably put it to use as is for live performing with the help of a midi foot controller.

[Dannii]

I might get all creative with this and fire up my analog sequencers with REAPER in loop mode and do a short video. If anything worthy of sharing comes from this experiment, I might upload it to YouTube as a demo of the current looping capabilities in REAPER.
Perhaps that might also provide some ammunition for your suggestions too.

[brainwreck]

Originally Posted by Dannii

I might get all creative with this and fire up my analog sequencers with REAPER in loop mode and do a short video. If anything worthy of sharing comes from this experiment, I might upload it to YouTube as a demo of the current looping capabilities in REAPER.
Perhaps that might also provide some ammunition for your suggestions too.

yea, fire it up. regardless of the feature requests, it would be interesting to see how someone else uses loop recording in reaper.

[fly]

a BIG +1

this is what reaper needs the most

[Sound asleep]

some of those ideas seemed really good to me, mostly the monitoring previous takes for my usage, but the single record and then preview mode looks good also, just i'm not sure what would be a good way to implement, maybe aan extra right click on record button option?

[Dannii]

An extra function for "loop mode: rec once then play" by right clicking on the rec button (in the transport) seems like a great idea.

This would be most useful if it switched to rec AFTER the loop cycle that recording was selected on. In other words, hit record in transport, then click rec enable on a track and that track switches to record on the NEXT repeat AFTER it was pressed, records for ONE loop, then switches THAT TRACK back to play mode while the transport remains in record mode.

[brainwreck]

Originally Posted by Dannii

An extra function for "loop mode: rec once then play" by right clicking on the rec button (in the transport) seems like a great idea.

This would be most useful if it switched to rec AFTER the loop cycle that recording was selected on. In other words, hit record in transport, then click rec enable on a track and that track switches to record on the NEXT repeat AFTER it was pressed, records for ONE loop, then switches THAT TRACK back to play mode while the transport remains in record mode.

i think we're describing the same behavior with a slight variation in how it would be implemented.

[Dannii]

Originally Posted by brainwreck

i think we're describing the same behavior with a slight variation in how it would be implemented.

Pite Quossibly

Another cool loop feature would be to have a selectable function where REAPER started loop recording on detection of an audio signal.

[Amazed]

Originally Posted by Dannii

Pite Quossibly

Another cool loop feature would be to have a selectable function where REAPER started loop recording on detection of an audio signal.

I like this.

[PitchSlap]

...for example, you set up for loop recording and record your first take. record was automatically toggled off at the end of the time selection, while playback continues to loop. anytime during the second pass, you press record. at the beginning of the third pass, recording begins.

This would be super easy to make a custom action for if we had Ableton-like global quantize or what I've been praying a while for; actions to wait until the next beat, bar, measure or loop point for the next action.

So many awesome things can be done with loop recording (check out some Battles or Keller Williams on YouTube to get an idea).

Reaper is so powerful and efficient, but in my experience is still very 'clunky' when it comes to loop recording and rapid song creation compared to Ableton and Mobius.

The inability to quantize the timing of actions to a musical timebase also pretty much neuters Reaper for most live performance use which is a shame for a program that otherwise would be perfect for the stage and a worthy challenger for Ableton Live which seems to have this growing niche all to itself.

I know it will come eventually, but it's good to see others interested in improved loop recording which hopefully makes these features come sooner rather than later.

[brainwreck]

Originally Posted by Dannii

Pite Quossibly

Another cool loop feature would be to have a selectable function where REAPER started loop recording on detection of an audio signal.

using audio as a trigger for actions might be interesting. audio control is already in reaper (audio to midi triggering, parameter modulation), but there's no current way that i know of for using it to trigger actions.

Originally Posted by PitchSlap

This would be super easy to make a custom action for if we had Ableton-like global quantize or what I've been praying a while for; actions to wait until the next beat, bar, measure or loop point for the next action.

yea, that would cover it without being limited to a single function.

[Mr. Data]

Good ideas, Brainwreck.

The only thing, I don't really see a use in, is to determine a number of loops until record mode is switched off.

I imagine a (to me familiar) situation where I set, say, five loops of recording and after the fifth Reaper changes to playback. I'm playing my five loops and all I play is shit. I'm playing the sixth loop (having forgotten how often the loop ran already) and it was awesome - but not recorded.

Just saying: one doesn't know beforehand, how many turns it needs to get a good recording - probably one more than one records.





-Data

[brainwreck]

Originally Posted by Mr. Data

Good ideas, Brainwreck.

The only thing, I don't really see a use in, is to determine a number of loops until record mode is switched off.

I imagine a (to me familiar) situation where I set, say, five loops of recording and after the fifth Reaper changes to playback. I'm playing my five loops and all I play is shit. I'm playing the sixth loop (having forgotten how often the loop ran already) and it was awesome - but not recorded.

Just saying: one doesn't know beforehand, how many turns it needs to get a good recording - probably one more than one records.





-Data

i got you covered.

i realized the limitation of a single take immediately after posting the idea and added that in to cover my ass.

Originally Posted by brainwreck

maybe even better would be a configurable number of takes, rather than a single take.

[Mr. Data]

So I see, for me it would probably the best to keep loop recording on in the first place.

Well, it does really.





-Data

[brainwreck]

Originally Posted by Mr. Data

So I see, for me it would probably the best to keep loop recording on in the first place.

Well, it does really.





-Data

ah crap, i completely misread what you said. i'll crawl back into my hole now. btw, i chose my screen name for a reason.

[PitchSlap]

Please vote for this feature.

Global Synchronization / Actions Snap to a Musical Timebase (Live, Mobius Echoplex)

http://forum.cockos.com/project.php?issueid=2623

[Scoox]

I am an ex-Cubase user and I currently use REAPER as my main DAW. I can confidently say that currently Cubase's MIDI loop record modes are much more powerful and usable than REAPER's, and I don't think anyone can argue with this statement.

Cubase listens for MIDI input. With takes enabled, what happens is that when you hit the record button Cubase loops away but only ONE take is created. After the first pass, a second take is only created if Cubase receives any MIDI input after the first pass, otherwise it keeps looping over the first pass AND the first pass plays back, therefore you can hear what you just recorded. If you don't like it you simply play it again on the keyboard. Now you hear the second take. Only two takes have been created, although the loop may have run 15 times already, because Cubase only received input during the first take and some other later take. Now you can hear the second take play back.

This loop recording mode is what REAPER is in desperate need of.

Here is a brief description of REAPER's current MIDI recording modes:

Overdub in existing items: MERGES all takes into one take so basically you hear a mishmash of everything at the same time and you don't know what's going on. From the manual: Record MIDI overdub in selected items: this will add new notes within existing items while preserving what is already there. This mode is often useful, and is therefore required, but as far as MIDI loop recording is concerned, it is useless.

Record: MIDI replace in existing items: The last iteration of the loop is replaced by an empty event even if you stop pressing keys on your MIDI keyboard, so not only you don't get to hear what you have just played, but it also gets deleted as soon as the next loop iteration begins. Again, most users including myself will find plenty of uses for this mode but certainly not in the realm of MIDI loop recording.

Record: MIDI touch-replace in existing notes: I never quite understood what this mode does. Someone please enlighten me. It's the most unpredictable thing in REAPER. Some notes disappear, some stay, and things get messed up. The manual does not contain detailed explanations either.

In addition, in REAPER recording modes are selected on a per-track basis which is massively inconvenient. Like in most DAWs, the current recording mode should be a global setting. Having per-track settings may be useful some times (not to me anyway) and so the per-track settings could be there to override the global settings. I still thing having these apply globally is a must. I can't ever remember what mode each track is in, and I have to right-click the track each time I record to check. A global setting, with a global indicator would be significantly more convenient. This has been already suggested elsewhere in the Cockos forums.

So basically Cubase's MIDI loop recording is more usable than REAPER's at present. But I am sure REAPER will catch up sooner or later. We are in a phase of a transition.

[brainwreck]

Originally Posted by Scoox

In addition, in REAPER recording modes are selected on a per-track basis which is massively inconvenient. Like in most DAWs, the current recording mode should be a global setting. Having per-track settings may be useful some times (not to me anyway) and so the per-track settings could be there to override the global settings. I still thing having these apply globally is a must. I can't ever remember what mode each track is in, and I have to right-click the track each time I record to check. A global setting, with a global indicator would be significantly more convenient. This has been already suggested elsewhere in the Cockos forums.

maybe each track's record button should visually indicate which recording mode is being used. on the global thing, a global override might work.

[IXix]

Originally Posted by brainwreck

monitor all track media
...
smooth take switching
...

Amen. +1 and all that.

[Dstruct]

Originally Posted by brainwreck

smooth take switching - currently, when selecting an alternate take during playback, the switch doesn't happen immediately or smoothly.

Just select the track and enable "Disable media buffering for tracks that are selected" preference. Or lower the media buffer size globally.