Tracks that are externally edited don't "change"?

[RoadRanger]

I'm just moving from Audacity to Reaper. I imported my tracks and got it all working fine. Now I'm wanting to clean up the original tracks so I can possibly give them to another to mix down - among other things I cut off the noise/unwanted-stuff at the ends with Audacity. But when I go back into Reaper the stuff is still there but there are some tiny notches on the tracks that were edited right at where I cut them in Audacity. So obviously Reaper knows I cut the tracks down - but how do I re-sync Reaper with the changed tracks?

[Kvebbs]

Hello, and welcome!

The notches most likely mark the beginning and end of the media item. That sort of behaviour can be very practical when working with loops. You can drag the end of the item to resize it, and it will snap to those notches if you get close to them. You can also expand the item beyond its own length, and it will loop. Finally, you can also slice the item by clicking on it where you want to slice and pressing S.

Unless my comment is way off, I suggest you watch some videos to get into the basics of REAPER here https://reaperblog.net/ and here https://www.reaper.fm/videos.php (press the "expand"-option down to the right, or go to Kennys homepage or YouTube-channel for a different overview). This one in particular might make your life easier: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnXZLUwZJRI maybe using these settings as a point of departure https://forums.cockos.com/showpost.p...5&postcount=35

[RoadRanger]

Originally Posted by Kvebbs

The notches most likely mark the beginning and end of the media item. [...] You can drag the end of the item to resize it, and it will snap to those notches if you get close to them.

Thanks, that is a fix for my issue if a bit kludgy.

I was confused as to what was at the end of the tracks in question - as you inferred, it was the beginning of the track "looped" and not what I deleted.

I do wish there was a way to tell Reaper not to loop a track to fit the original space when it finds the source track has "shrunk" but as the Marines say: “Improvise, Adapt, and Overcome”

Thanks! The video on dynamic splits is certainly something I'd not go looking for but good to know about

[Kvebbs]

I hear you! Maybe someone else will chime in with a solution that fits your particular workflow. If I were you, however, I'd avoid the problem altogether and just adjust the length of the files inside REAPER. Why do you need to go outside to Audacity for that?


Also ... there is a way to turn off looping by default. You can find it in the preferences, but it will not rid you of your particular problem.

[RoadRanger]

Originally Posted by Kvebbs

I hear you! Maybe someone else will chime in with a solution that fits your particular workflow. If I were you, however, I'd avoid the problem altogether and just adjust the length of the files inside REAPER. Why do you need to go outside to Audacity for that?

The album I'm working on was supposed to be just me tracking the musicians on my Zoom L20 (I'm on bass) - and then professionally mixed and mastered elsewhere - so I want the option of cleaned up raw WAV files to send off (they might not be using Reaper and/or have my plugins). I'm normalizing and aligning all the tracks to just the click-in (and moving the click-in to its own track) - and cutting off any crap at the end. Also some have a fair amount of guitar etc over the vocal that we don't want, plus crap on the vocal track. It's just easier to cut it here rather than have to explain what we don't want to the (possible) next guy. At this point I many end up doing the mixing (my main reason to move from Audacity to Reaper for scratch mixes) but we'll see. I have archived the source tracks in case we have to go back to one.

[Kvebbs]

Originally Posted by RoadRanger

I want the option of cleaned up raw WAV files to send off (they might not be using Reaper and/or have my plugins).

If I were to do that, I would import the audio and clean it up inside of REAPER. Once finished -- i.e. removing what should not be there, tuning, timing etc. -- I would make a time selection and select all tracks. Then I'd right click, and glue the items within time selection. I would then click File > Save As, and save that project to a new folder making sure to check the option to "Copy all media into project directory". That directory would hold my files without plugins. I could go into that folder and send those .wav-files to whomever I choose regardless of their DAW. I could do another version rendering it all with my plugins, if I so choose. My point is ... there is no reason, as far as I can see, to complicate matters using an external editor. Your problems seems to stem from this move, and you could skip it altogether.