Reaper Love

Thanks for all the YouTube links. Where does one obtain one of these bass emulation plugins though?

Just search on YouTube and they usually include a link like this one.

Here’s one based on a Fender P Bass.

Here is a Kenny Gioia Reaper video on this plugin.

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Nevermind, I found a free one

Gawd, what a rabbit hole I’ve stumbled into LOL

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That’s the exact same plugin I downloaded (haven’t installed it yet). Very helpful video, thanks.
When my keyboard arrives I’ll install the plugin and hopefully can get it to work for transcribing. I didn’t want to have to launch Reaper just for transcribing, but it looks like I haven’t any choice.
Hopefully this well be apparent when I install that plugin, but how to I get it into Reaper? Does it do it automatically?

cough

:slight_smile:

I recommend PluginBoutique because of their points and all the free stuff they give away. And remember, never pay full price for plugins. The sale prices are the actual prices, and they go on sale regularly.

Watch some kenny vids on this or something first.

Plugin installers will need to know the path of your VST folders when you do the install. These are configurable in Reaper’s options, you just need to install the plugins where Reaper will look for them. They will be available in any DAW that knows the plugin directory location.

Install both the VST and VST3 versions of all plugins. You can optionally not install the audio units and pro tools formats if you like.

Then to use them in reaper, you need to add them to the track FX of a new track and set it up for MIDI. Reaper has a shortcut for this (Insert new track with virtual instrument).

I’d watch some “using virtual instruments in reaper” vids first.

And yes, there’s virtual instruments for all sorts of instruments; most common are drums and synthesizers but there’s also piano, guitar/bass, sitar, harp, harpsichord, whatever. Most synthesizers will have multiple patches emulating instruments as well.

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Many synthesizer instrument patches are great, too. For example, the chorused bass here at the 25s timecode:

is actually me playing it in Phase Plant using a guitar/bass patch, then chorused.

The rest of the bass in the song is bass guitar, but I was doing the pads and I thought I would try the synth for that part, and it worked great. Sounds just like a heavily chorused bass.

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This is the path for the Bass in Kenny’s tutorial on my WIndows 10 64bit machine.

C:\Program Files\Steinberg\VstPlugins

@PamPurrs Just make sure this path is listed in your Reaper preferences.

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That’s a common one. VST is a Steinberg spec so it’s fine to use that path even if not using Cubase; lots of DAWs will check that automatically.

Other things to look out for, VST and VST3 typically go in different directories, and you still occasionally see 32bit VSTs that need to be installed separately from the 64bit VSTs.

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I went ahead and installed the Ample Bass plugin, and it went without a hitch. It works fine in Reaper. I look forward to using it with the keyboard when it gets here.

EDIT: I also installed the Piano One plugin with no problems, and it works fine as well.

Anyone know how Kenny got that keyboard to appear at the bottom of his Reaper workspace?

In Reaper select View and then press Virtual Keyboard.
You can resize it and pin it from there.

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Thanks, it’s funny even after all this time I’ve been using Reaper how much I don’t know about it.

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“Want a free DAW? AVID have you covered with Pro Tools First, but - much like the bass player in your band - it comes with a lot of handicaps.”

Glenn Frickin’ Fricker hamming it up on Reaper vs. Pro Tools.
Worth a watch IMO.

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Interesting! I’m happy with Reaper. The price of Pro Tools is ridiculously expensive for someone at my level.
Glenn is such a hoot!

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… and not better in any way at all!

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That’s the funny part - it really isn’t :slight_smile:

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Literally LOLed at the “iLok is super useful!” section.

I mean, you can’t get away from iLok once you get serious about buying plugins, but man. Literally everyone hates it.

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iLok looks & feels super outdated. Glenn should be a sales person :rofl:

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I got Pro Tools First with my Focusrite Scarlett, and because I remembered back when NIN released their multitracks, they explicity had a Pro Tools project in there, I decided that will be what I will be using.

Because of the godawful DRM they are using, the program started exactly one time and never again. So I can’t say anything about its UI.

Since then, I tried Reaper, which does from a sound perspective exactly what it is supposed to do. But it has a godawful userinterface. I suppose Pro Tools probably got them on that, but well, if I can’t even start the program …

I will go on using Reaper, as I will maybe one day know my way around the UI, but for now, it really is some kind of struggle even to remember where I have to click to set the input for a track (might take some time as I only use it once in a few weeks).

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