Ableton's 'In' button in Reaper

[OBJGuitarist]

Hey all. I just started using Reaper after spending the last 8 years or so with Ableton Live. There's one thing I do miss from Ableton that I haven't been able to figure out in Reaper and perhaps is not actually possible?

Ableton had an 'In' button on it's tracks that made the track 'live' the same as when you arm a track for recording but without actually recording on that track. So it would listen to (and process) whatever the input source was regardless of weather or not it was recording.

Now what this enabled me to do was to set up a dedicated track which had a virtual guitar amp effects chain on it that was constantly active but, muted and not being recorded to. So it was completely discreet. I would then have multiple other tracks receiving the processed audio from that track that I would record to. So essentially a virtual version of an external mic'd up amp. So when I armed any of those other tracks I would just hear the processed audio that I was about to record.

I hope that's clear to understand, (these things can be difficult to explain sometimes) and would love to hear if there's something I'm missing. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

[andyp24]

On the Input Monitor button, there's an option for "Record Disable: Input Monitor Only". See if that does what you need.

Andy

[OBJGuitarist]

Thanks for that. It kind of does but not quite. Although I think the issue is now perhaps with the receiving track?

When the amp track is armed for recording I can turn the fader down and it seems to be doing what I want (processing audio discreetly). The problem is that the receiving track is constantly producing audio from the 'send' track (in this case amp hiss) even when it's not armed to record, regardless of which monitoring option I select. It still plays the monitored audio over the top of whatever items have been recorded previously from that channels output. What I want is for it to be silent until I arm it for recording just like if you were receiving a signal from an external input.

Also I seem to be hearing the audio at twice the volume (as if I'm hearing both tracks at once) while monitoring/recording. So when I play back what I've recorded (which is now only on the receive track) it's a lot quieter.

If I disarm the amp track then everything goes silent so, I could of course just arm both that track and the one I want to record to every time I need to record but that's a lot of extra clicks throughout a session and also doesn't deal with the volume issue.

Once again, I hope that makes sense!

[andyp24]

Sounds like you need to fiddle with the Routing between the two tracks (Pre or Post Fader sends etc) to get it behaving as you want.

Can you either upload a test project to show how you've got it set up, or describe exactly how everything is routed to everything else and what modes each track is in (for Input and Monitor modes)?

Andy

[andyp24]

Of course, you could always use the "Input FX" on the tracks you want the guitar processing on, instead of a dedicated track?

Then for multiple tracks in a project using the same Amp simulation, you could either duplicate one when you've got it set up, or save a track template with it already inserted.

Seems like a neater way of doing it, unless I'm missing something.

Andy

[OBJGuitarist]

It's just a way to save on processing power that's all. It means you don't end up with 7 or 8 instances of the overdrive/amp/speaker simulation effects chain. You just have it all on one dedicated track. Reaper seems a lot less cpu intensive than Ableton though so perhaps it's not necessary any more.

I think I've tried every routing option available but, if I can I'll make a little video of what I'm doing in the next couple of days to post here in case I'm missing something.

Thanks again for your help though!

[Mordi]

I'm not completely sure what the desired result is, but maybe you could try this...

https://imgur.com/a/W0XnR

When you want to record your guitar, arm the "Guitar in" track and press record. You should be hearing your playing while you record.

When you want to "print" the result, you can arm the "Amp-sim" track and press record. If you find that too time-consuming, there is most probably a way to automate the rendering.

Note: There is also a variation of "Record: Stereo" which has latency compensation. I'm not sure what would work best here.

[OBJGuitarist]

Hey, thanks for that. It's not quite what I was trying to do though. When I get the chance I'll get a video recorded of how it works in Ableton and what I'm trying to replicate. Easier than trying to explain with text I think.

[DarkStar]

(very similar to Mordi)
Give this a try
-- set the first track (with the Amp effects on it) to Monitor Input" and "Record: disable (input monitoring only)
-- disable that track's "Master / Parent Send"
-- Send that track to the second track
-- set the second track to "Record output ..."

Now, when you play your guitar you'll see the meters move on both tracks, but only the second track will be heard, The guitar audio goes into the first track, the Amp FX are applied, the audio is then sent to the second track and thence to the Master and to your monitors.

When you want to record it, just Recarm the second track.

If you have multiple receiving tracks, then you'll need to mute all but one and the first track would send the effected audio to all of them.

-----------------------------------------
But ... why not just use one track? Add the Amp FX an an INPUT FX, record it when you want. To record a second time, just drag the previously-recorded clip onto another track.

[TonE]

Or record into child tracks, much more elegant.
parent (with efx)
--child, arm, record here, want to record one more, duplicate without envelopes and items
--child, record one more
...

[OBJGuitarist]

Hey all. I sat and made this quickly this morning to better illustrate what I'm trying to achieve: https://youtu.be/E1I_Tlai23k (It's unlisted on my channel so you can only see it with this link)

Darkstar - Thanks for the suggestion. You can see in the video what happens (assuming I did exactly what you suggested?), but it didn't seem to work.

TonE - If I understand you right all the unprocessed guitars would all be going through the amp sim at the same time? This wouldn't work as I'd need them processed separately. Thanks for taking the time to help though.

Anyway, at this point I think Reaper just might not quite be able to do what I'm trying to achieve so perhaps it's something I could stick in the feature request forum.

[TonE]

Originally Posted by DarkStar

But ... why not just use one track? Add the Amp FX an an INPUT FX, record it when you want. To record a second time, just drag the previously-recorded clip onto another track.

Yes, the dragging could be automated to stop recording, e.g. instead of only stopping normally. You would use instead a custom action:

Custom: END RECORDING OBJGuitarist
Transport: Stop (save all recorded media)
Track: Insert new track
Script: me2beats_Move selected items to next track (create track if doesn't exist).lua

[domzy]

Basically do what Darkstar has suggested above. i checked out your vid & think you can almost use the system you were using in Live if you substitute the ch on/off switch you were using in Live for disabling Reapers "Master send" tickbox on the guitar input channel?
However, if you're only recording one guitar at a time, and printing to tape (as it were) the wet signal, using different tracks seems a bit of a faff & the suggestion of moving the recorded audio to new tracks seems the most obvious method to me