The Reaper Thread

I know there are quite a few people here who use Reaper to record covers and such, @howard and @terb come to mind…

I’m going to try to record a cover with Reaper. I have the backing track of the song I want to cover in Reaper, and the bass is removed from it. But I need to figure out a way to insert a count-in at the beginning, like “Tap, tap, tap, tap… go” so I can come in with my bass overlay at precisely the right time. I’d like at least one bar, but two would be even better.
Is there a way to do this?
The song is 112 BPM 4/4 if that helps.

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P.S. Perhaps someone should start a Reaper thread??

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I have no idea, but this sounds very interesting!

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I think you just did @PamPurrs :wink:

Sadly, I can’t help, but I will follow along closely, if my next focus is to get recording equip.

First question,is reaper Mac / PC only, or are there App versions from my IPad. If no, Then I will be limited to GarageBand I think, but will still follow along closely.

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Right-click on the metronome in the toolbar, select one of the multiple tap-in options :slight_smile:

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Reaper is very powerful and has lots of options. One problem with this is they can get lost in the UI a little and you might have to google stuff a lot. But if you want to do it, it’s probably there.

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Yes, just Mac/Windows/Linux.

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Anything other then GB in IOS @howard.
I know you love GB, and I am not opposed to it. I am sure I will love it. I am just wondering if there are any other options for me to consider?
Other then a new MacBook. Would love one, but that is good bass money I will be using. Haha

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There’s actually a ton of music software for iOS, it’s really taken off. However I have not tried any DAWs there besides GB.

Steinberg makes a ~$50 version of Cubase for it that looks pretty good. But in the end for price/perfomance it’s hard to picture something beating GarageBand on iDevices.

Apple’s full-featured DAW, Logic Pro X, does not have an iOS version per se but allows you to use iOS devices as extra screens to control the mac app in a way that actually looks kind aawesome.

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sometimes I want a more elaborate beat than the embeded metronome, and then I use drumbit.app , a little web beat box. very easy to use and with a record function. then I just import the file into a new track in Reaper.

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That’s exactly what I do too, with my drum machine. And then instead of a metronome lead-in I just start playing a couple bars in to the drum track. You can then drag the backing track and bass track to start whenever you want.

In fact - I don’t use the metronome at all, just drums.

You can also make your own drum machine in Reaper pretty easily:

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Thanks @terb and @howard I like this app also. This is what I’ll use.

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@Howard, I tried to follow along with him to learn how to do this, but he references the “Sound Library” at 1:06 in the video. I cannot find that in my Reaper folder. Do you know where it is?
P.S. I like his videos, but he goes way too fast and doesn’t explain much about what he’s doing.

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very probably his own sound library

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Oh, well I wish he would’ve mentioned that instead of making it seem like it should be there already. Thanks @terb

Do you know where one would acquire a library of sounds like that?

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no, sorry, I’m not used to that :confused: but in my opinion it’s much easier to use a drum machine (hardware or software) than making drum lines in Reaper. but again I’m not very familiar to all this.

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I agree; I was just trying to learn something that maybe I could use in the future, and since @howard posted that video, I couldn’t resist :smiley_cat:

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I’ve been using drumbit.app as well, but I’m pretty disappointed by the fact that I cannot figure out how to make it do a 7/4 time signature.

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Hmmm sounds like someone is working on some Pink Floyd stuff :smiley_cat:

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Actually, no – that was for a song we (the band I played in) played in the late '70’s. It was called the Last Remake (in honour of Marty Feldman), and it just so turned out to be in 7/4.

I’m currently practicing on some very old Genesis stuff. A good workout for the right hand it is too.

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I’ll be interested to hear if you find an answer to your 7/4 question. I haven’t played in drumbit that much yet.

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