Anyone use REAPER as a DAW?

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bmoBauhaus
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Anyone use REAPER as a DAW?

Post by bmoBauhaus » Fri Nov 05, 2021 6:41 am

I primarily use REAPER and I have gotten pretty good at the flow of everything but I'm looking for some help. I'm primarily a composer and deal with all my music on a more visual/theoretical level. Its easier to make decisions by looking at sheet music so I normally write everything in Dorico and then transfer the MIDI data to Reaper and start plugging in to VSTs from there. I keep getting weird mixes though -- even when I barely do anything to the tracks. I'm wondering if there is anyone out there that is good at this sort of thing. I would happily pay you for a few lessons to get better at this. Thanks.

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Re: Anyone use REAPER as a DAW?

Post by RMikkelsen » Fri Nov 05, 2021 9:28 am

What is weird about the mixes? I would definately lend a hand when time permits. If you want you can join me in the 'friends of taxi' discord chat - https://discord.gg/FKYPZmK - where we can talk, stream and share files etc.

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Re: Anyone use REAPER as a DAW?

Post by bmoBauhaus » Mon Nov 08, 2021 12:03 pm

Awesome. I will do that later today.

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Re: Anyone use REAPER as a DAW?

Post by timothycook » Sun Nov 14, 2021 12:00 pm

I know it won't have all the bells and whistles of Dorico. Or even MuseScore for that matter.

But there is a notation editor view in Reaper's MIDI editor window.

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Re: Anyone use REAPER as a DAW?

Post by superblonde » Mon Jan 03, 2022 4:20 pm

bmoBauhaus wrote:
Fri Nov 05, 2021 6:41 am
Its easier to make decisions by looking at sheet music so I normally write everything in Dorico and then transfer the MIDI data
I also have a similar composition process, to write in sheet notation then transfer to DAW. I haven't found too many (or any) resources on this method. It seems 'everyone' composes directly on the DAW piano roll. I've even asked Dorico support if they could provide any pointers and they didn't have much to say other than it is a rare process to use and that 'theoretically it is possible'.

Surprisingly the only process example of "staff notation to final mix" which I have found is in Steve Barden's recent book, where he supposedly wrote all the music notationally in StaffPad, then I believe bounced to individual audio tracks (not bounced to MIDI), imported those audio tracks to Cubase (I think) and then mixed the tracks from there. NotePerformer might have been involved for expression.

I also use Reaper. There is one quirk which I have noticed in Reaper MIDI compared to other DAW like Logic. The MIDI notes sometimes generate an octave down for some (not all) choices of VST, and this must have something to do with how Reaper is setting the "MIDI C4" compared to where the VST assumes the "MIDI C4" is, the result being an octave displacement. This has not happened to me in other DAW. Since Reaper doesn't come with a huge collection of plugins like Logic (i.e. like ChromaVerb), the mixing process seems to be more difficult or at least might require buying a set of 3rd party VST's.

The most problematic aspect of writing on staff is that many of the sounds used for listings (i.e. "Trailer-Style" and such) are not really notatable, for example reverse cymbal hits, textural effects, long pitch bends which might normally be notated as expressionistic gliss, etc. Strictly speaking they could be notated, especially with Dorico's expression map capability, and Dorico HALion could be assigned to play VST samples as MIDI like anything else, but it is not (Yet) the same as visually stacking automation lanes and it would be time consuming to map these samples. I'm sure that Dorico 4, which will be out in a few months, will add a huge set of new DAW-style functionality. It already has CC lanes which can be drawn, so the fundamentals are already there for automation lanes along with the staff.

I would also much rather write music on staff in Dorico so I am still looking for references.
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Re: Anyone use REAPER as a DAW?

Post by cosmicdolphin » Sat Jan 08, 2022 1:13 pm

superblonde wrote:
Mon Jan 03, 2022 4:20 pm
I would also much rather write music on staff in Dorico
Why . What's the point ?

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Re: Anyone use REAPER as a DAW?

Post by bmoBauhaus » Sat Jan 22, 2022 4:04 am

cosmicdolphin wrote:
Sat Jan 08, 2022 1:13 pm
superblonde wrote:
Mon Jan 03, 2022 4:20 pm
I would also much rather write music on staff in Dorico
Why . What's the point ?
It helps to see the music visually. I can check counterpoint and harmony easier and see where muddy things might be happening registrally on a music staff. Similar things can be viewed through a pianoroll/MIDI view but I just see it a lot faster in sheet music rather than on a DAW. Saves me time.

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Re: Anyone use REAPER as a DAW?

Post by cosmicdolphin » Sat Jan 22, 2022 2:53 pm

bmoBauhaus wrote:
Sat Jan 22, 2022 4:04 am
It helps to see the music visually. I can check counterpoint and harmony easier and see where muddy things might be happening registrally on a music staff. Similar things can be viewed through a pianoroll/MIDI view but I just see it a lot faster in sheet music rather than on a DAW. Saves me time.
Thanks. The pianoroll seems much more intuitive to me for modern ITB productions - I probably wouldn't have ever written any music if you had to do it the old fashioned way. Each to their own I guess.

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Re: Anyone use REAPER as a DAW?

Post by superblonde » Tue Feb 01, 2022 6:53 pm

CTWF wrote:
Sat Jan 08, 2022 1:25 pm

IMO, the biggest drawback of staff notation is humanization. You cannot "tell" the score that you want +/- 5 samples on each note to make them sound more natural.
you can, in Dorico. There is a window which shows the notes as midi blocks and it can be toggled to modify each block's timing just like a DAW can extend each end of any note. But not even a DAW is typically used with a grid set to "+/- 5 samples".. I realize you are exaggerating with that "5 samples" and the real use is to just drag a fudge length on either side without such precision involved. Toggling the view is better because in reading the music you do not want to see this level of detail ("+/- fudge timing"), it is better to see the notes as occurring on their proper beat, unless specifically zooming into that view.

you can also, in Dorico, draw full automation curves for any CC just like an automation lane in a piano roll. (Yes a DAW is still easier currently with toggling stacked automation lanes etc but Dorico will catch up & surpass the DAW eventually)

To answer the other question "why use staff?" the reason is because every cue written by anyone here is tonal music. In ancient times 700-1,000 years ago, music notes were written out like a piano-roll with 12 spaces for tetris blocks similar to a DAW. Then advanced musicians in 1200 A.D. or thereabouts realized that all music was centered around a KEY (tonal music) so a new diagram was created to vertically compress all notes into a staff, using fewer lines and a key SIGNATURE. The oddball, rarely-used OUT-OF-KEY notes (which back then, were mostly forbidden) were given accidentals. This new system was adopted and was totally functional from 1400 A.D. through 1900 A.D. until atonal music made KEY irrelevant, however, all Mainstream music is still Tonal. So... if you are using a DAW piano roll, it is using 1,000+ years-old outdated technology. The even more surprising thing is.. nearly all the self-trained DAW musicians do not know this (that the staff is a compressed and more technologically advanced form of notation for tonal music) and actually believe the DAW piano roll is superior.

* I may have these dates like 1200 A.D. slightly off but I dont care to verify history books now, it is approximately correct and they are all long dead anyways.
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Re: Anyone use REAPER as a DAW?

Post by cosmicdolphin » Wed Feb 02, 2022 1:45 am

CTWF wrote:
Wed Feb 02, 2022 1:17 am
I do things like +/-7 samples, just to add a touch of non-precision,
You don't move midi data by samples, that's audio. It's ticks or pulses per quarter note for midi data. I think the default is 192 PPQN in Cakewalk

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