Hey guys,
My name's Sean & I'm a guitar player. By love and by trade (thankfully). I've spent the past twenty years of my life with the instrument in my hands and just never took home recording very seriously until a couple months ago. I just always figured that would be best left to engineers who'd studied audio like I've studied the guitar, amplifiers, touch, tone, etc. etc. etc.
But long story made short, I'm recording a guitar album and just wasn't getting the best performances during the allotted studio time, where the clock was running and the bill was piling up, and ---- among other things --- was greatly influenced by the life and work of Chet Atkins, who of course was was one the earliest home recordists!!! (along with Les Paul). So I thought, "if Chet could do it, so can I..."
For the past seven or eight years I've been using the long discontinued AKAI DPS24 24-track recorder. I must be the only person in the entire history of humankind who ever got one of those, was overwhelmed by the learning curve, and surrendered to using it as a very basic home scratchpad for songwriting, guitar parts, etc., but I did learn to use it that much all those years ago.
Fast forward to 2013 and the AKAI is up and running again. Spent a lot of time learning how to get better sounds, treating a small area of my apartment to record in (which was as significant as a microphone or pre upgrade --- the difference some OC703 made was staggering), and rocking and rolling again on the AKAI.
But here's the bottom line.
At some point I have to switch over to a computer-based system and I'm already living in the past. Which brings me here...
An engineer friend told me about Reaper a couple of years back, and I've been looking into what I'll need to make the transition. Still don't even have an interface, but....
I did the free trial download 20 days ago, thinking that I COULD begin learning how to use the software, and import audio and start doing some basic editing. Just learning the ropes.
Trouble is, I'm such a beginner that (and here's the really embarrassing question)...
I DON'T EVEN KNOW HOW TO SELECT AREAS OF AUDIO!!!
[one of the great old Chet jokes was: "Dad, when I grow up I wanna be a guitar player." "Well, son, you can't have it both ways..."]
So I have the waveform there on the screen and I can move my mouse and click and select, and I see the grids on the screen, but I'm (as of yet) just not able to select the exact area of audio I want to copy, or paste, or cut, or move.
At some point I'll dive into the tutorial and know there must be a lot to read up on here in the forums too.
But in kid-terms...absolute beginner terms....
How would I go about selecting audio to copy or move or cut or paste, etc., so that I can start working with basic editing like splicing takes together, dropping in an alternate lick, etc. etc. etc.
I've gotten pretty good at editing on the AKAI, where it's as simple as Copy, Paste, Insert, Cut, Erase (marked by an can't miss IN or OUT button).
But again, I can feel the shift taking place and don't want to wait to have to learn all this two more years from now.
I'm beginning the process and Reaper looks like a good place to start. Of course it's only a matter of time before I'll want to invest in a good interface and begin the process of recording with Reaper too, but I'm not there just yet. The AKAI's what I'm familiar with right now and am on a deadline for completing this record.
Any help or links to additional resources would be greatly appreciated,
Most sincerely,
Sean