How to Use Session Mode in ReaNINJAM

[AndyMc]

Ok so we had it for a while but it's not used much, maybe because many are not sure how to or what it does so this hopefully shine some light on Session Mode.

First I will explain what it is and how to use then explain the diagrams below.

Session Mode is like a Blank Rewritable CD which lasts as long as the users want. So imaging a friend had a bunch of rewritable cdr's and when you heard a beep you started playing at 120bpm and he recorded all of you on a separate CDR's, then at the end he played all the CDR's back to you all simultaneously. But say the Drummer messaged up at say 1 minute into recording, now imagine if the friend said "hey it's rewritable I can start recording you again from 1 minute", so the drummer played and corrected his mistake. Now Imagine REAPER was that Friend and the CDR was in fact a NINJAM Channel set to Session Mode.
But instead of a friend playing and controlling the CDR's you can just click PLAY on the REAPER window at any starting point of what's been recorded and hear everyone else's CDR's at the same time, this is how Session Mode Works.

So to use Session Mode you first need too enable it on the ReaNINJAM Window shown below, remember this though, once enabled to use Normal NINJAM again you must switch it back to Normal or in a Normal NINJAM others won't hear you. See A1 in Diagram 1.

Diagram 1


Now that your set to Session Mode you need to know how to use it.
Below in the Diagram 2the first things you need to know is (J) in the diagram 2, this is the PLAY button in REAPER, when in Session Mode to start all's audio (CDR's) you must click play. Soon as you click play NINJAM Session Mode is Recording any Audio you make in REAPER.

What is the Measure Bar?
You need to understand the Measure Bar at the top of diagram 2 which looks like a Ruler. On diagram 2 it shows 1.1.00, 5.1.00, 9.1.00 and so on, these are Bars, a bar consist of 4 Beats or 1/1. 1.1.00 too 5.1.00 would be in NINJAM a bpi 16.

How to Setup a Looped Range on the Measure Bar
You see here in diagram 2 that at (A) we have 2 small triangle shapes, this depicts the Looped Area which is Enabled using (G)in diagram2.
You can set this looped area by clicking and holding the mouse button on the ruler at the start then drag and hold the mouse to the end of your desired looped area, or you can Enter the Start of the Loop in (D) left then the end of the Loop in (D) right.
(E) shows how many Bars you have Looped.
The Loop Range is important as you can see in (B) that there is a bunch of recordings instead of one like the rest, this is where it has looped 3 times and I replayed the part each loop. Then I clicked on 1 part from the 3 loops that I liked best and this part is then played.
Sometimes when playing a warm up or few repeats are needed to play it right.
So once you have set the looped area you want then Enable it using (G) in diagram 2.

The Transport Control Panel
The Transport Control Panel are basically the play, stop, forward, rewind and record buttons.
You have the (H) buttons which move (C) the starting point for play or record to the Start of the Measure Ruler or End of your records.
(J) is the PLAY button, if you don't click this in Session Mode you will not hear anything, but if you just leave it playing without looping an area then it could still be playing up to 50 minutes but everyone else stopped playing at say 5 minutes so you will only be hearing silence. So in this case just click (H) on the left to go back to the start.
(K) is the RECORD button, for others to hear you in session mode you only need to press the (J) PLAY button and make some noise then if you say "BOO" at 5.1 then everyone will hear you say boo at 5.1 when they play that measure. However if you then play past 5.1 and make no noise then the "BOO" will be erased, so anything you want to keep you need to use the (K) RECORD button.
(G) as mentioned previously is to Enable the Looped Area of (A)

Further along to the right on the Transport Panel you will see (F) which is the BPM, now in session mode you need to Mute the NINJAM Metronome then Click OPTIONS on the REAPER window and select Metronome Enable. Now you want to set the BPM to the BPM you and your friends in the Server agree too. If your not sure just ask "What's Session BPM?".

Diagram 2 (CLICK HERE FOR FULL SIZE IMAGE)



So for a quick short reference of what needs setting for Session Mode.
Session Mode (A1-Diagram 1)
REAPER BPM (F)
PLAY BUTTON (J)

Also other settings which will help, it will be much easier having the Metronome Count you in 8 beeps before you start recording, this can be set by going to Options (A2) in Diagram 3, then too Metronome and pre-roll setings... (B2) in Diagram 3. Another window will appear called Metronome and pre-roll settings, in this you will see Count-in before Recording (A3) in Diagram 4. Tick this, there is also an option above, this won't be needed but if you have a metronome play for 8 beats every time you click play then check see if this is ticked.

Diagram 3


Diagram 4


I will most likely see mistakes or read it back and correct my bad grammar or dodgy info so expect to see updates to this.
This was the resulting test session which contains myself and Muckl.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4755397/How%...d%20AndyMc.mp3