Anyone use REAPER as a DAW?

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cosmicdolphin
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Re: Anyone use REAPER as a DAW?

Post by cosmicdolphin » Wed Feb 02, 2022 3:38 am

superblonde wrote:
Tue Feb 01, 2022 6:53 pm
To answer the other question "why use staff?" the reason is because every cue written by anyone here is tonal music.
That's not a reason - that's an assumption, and not an entirely correct one at that.
superblonde wrote:
Tue Feb 01, 2022 6:53 pm
a new diagram was created to vertically compress all notes into a staff, using fewer lines and a key SIGNATURE.
Lol. You do know that you can scale compress the piano roll in most DAWs as well ?

I'm sure it made sense hundreds of years ago when they came up with it. In a time before recorded music when everything had to be written down or it was lost, it's basically a form shorthand for music. It still makes sense if your goal is to have your piece performed by other people that have learned that system.
superblonde wrote:
Tue Feb 01, 2022 6:53 pm
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 if you are using a DAW piano roll, it is using 1,000+ years-old outdated technology.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.
Besides, It's not a question of which system is superior, it's a question of which method is most suited for the job in hand.

A DAW is not encumbered by the same problems that your 600yr old notation system was designed to solve, ( i.e. how to convey the info to other musicians in a more compact and meaningful way ) and the piano roll generally caters far more to the needs of those making self contained production music on a computer screen where it can convey everything including controller data and velocity as well as being able to overlay multiple tracks of midi data making it simple to check if everything harmonizes ( or not ...if that's what you want ) .

Hell, a great many of the software instruments used in production music don't even lend themselves to being notated. If another classically trained musician is going to play on your cue, or you're writing a piano concerto then I can see the benefit but otherwise why not cut out the middle man and just play it in...... :o

In this game where speed and production values are probably more important then the actual notes you play and most of the musical styles needed in production music don't lend themselves to writing it out first then it just sounds like a huge time suck if you're only going to wind up at the same destination by the end. Or maybe you won't even get to the destination because the way that the reference artists are writing it is not your way.

Maybe take up ML's offer of a spot on Taxi TV and debate it.

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Re: Anyone use REAPER as a DAW?

Post by cosmicdolphin » Wed Feb 02, 2022 9:02 am

CTWF wrote:
Wed Feb 02, 2022 8:58 am
cosmicdolphin wrote:
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
Yes, I stand corrected and meant ticks. I think my Cakewalk is set to 960 PPQ - and must have come like this, because I never changed it.
Yeah appreantly that's the new norm...back in old Cakewalk it was 192 :o ..I can't really tell any difference

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Re: Anyone use REAPER as a DAW?

Post by cosmicdolphin » Wed Feb 02, 2022 9:10 am

CTWF wrote:
Wed Feb 02, 2022 9:03 am
It means that BPM/10 ticks = 6.25ms.
No wonder you can't tell

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Re: Anyone use REAPER as a DAW?

Post by superblonde » Wed Feb 02, 2022 11:11 am

CTWF wrote:
Wed Feb 02, 2022 9:20 am

Actually, you kind of can. It just does not feel quite as stiff. It means up to 12.5 ms difference between notes as compared to on the grid. Subtle, but can be felt.
Score software has automatic playback algorithms to add humanization based on time signature, phrase markings (very important), accents, breath marks (commas.. ie mostly for wind instruments) and most importantly the note position within the bar. It is also what advanced plugins like NotePerformer provides- the software 'reads ahead to determine humanistic phrasing & emphasis'. Having to manually fiddle with tetris blocks is not the ultimate solution, marking up the score while writing is the better way. Piano roll does not allow notation such as phrase markings, etc. Although, DAW does provide more control over swing timing in terms of 0%-100%, etc, and that is represented visually. Dorico has playback settings to modify emphasis and swing but it is global for the entire score (and of course also q=dotted swing markings), but it is not like a DAW where some arbitrary group of notes can be highlighted and modified. Then again that is also too much busywork for the composer- so forcing the composer to fiddle in the DAW like this is ridiculous- score software should read the score as notated and play appropriately (humanistically), in another few versions Dorico will get there. Also in a DAW it is usually necessary to create multiple instrument tracks for all types of notes (shorts, longs, staccato shorts, etc) to differentiate articulations whereas in score software there is only 1 instrument track needed and the score (staff) dictates which type of note is produced by the VST (Dorico calls this feature, "Expression Map", i.e. it hits the correct VST keyswitches automatically), because the note itself is marked (as accent, or as legato, or as staccato, etc).

Dorico exports this information in MusicXML and Reaper does import some of it correctly. But some things don't seem to import well. That might be limitation of MusicXML or in Reaper import or in Dorico export, not sure. Obviously since a piano roll can't support phrase markings then that important playback information is lost. Theoretically it is better to export from Dorico as WAV into Reaper and then use Reaper to mix (not as MIDI editor). Theoretically.
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Re: Anyone use REAPER as a DAW?

Post by cosmicdolphin » Wed Feb 02, 2022 12:29 pm

superblonde wrote:
Wed Feb 02, 2022 11:11 am
Score software has automatic playback algorithms to add humanization based on time signature, phrase markings (very important), accents, breath marks (commas.. ie mostly for wind instruments) and most importantly the note position within the bar.
That'll be very handy for my next EDM banger

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Re: Anyone use REAPER as a DAW?

Post by cosmicdolphin » Wed Feb 02, 2022 12:34 pm

CTWF wrote:
Wed Feb 02, 2022 11:28 am
superblonde wrote:
Wed Feb 02, 2022 11:11 am
[...] Theoretically.
At the end of the day: If it gets you where you want to be or need to be, then it works!
That assumes you know where you need to be.

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