It’s far too easy to get into a confusing and messy situation with the reaper takes system, especially when working with multiple tracks at once.
Here is my workflow for managing takes during the recording process. I’ll make a video of this later.
Options and preferences
Preferences > Project> Media Item Defaults – loop source recorded items OFF
Options> Record Mode Normal
Options> Autocrossfade media items when editing OFF *
Options> New recording that overlaps existing media items – Split existing items and creates new takes (default)
Options> Show all takes in lanes OFF **
Options> Take Lane Behaviour – Display empty takes ON
Options> Take Lane Behaviour – Allow selecting empty
Options> Show overlapping Media items in lanes OFF
All of these options and preferences could be set with a custom toolbar button, and another to revert to normal recording mode.
Tracking
Arm all tracks.
After first recording group items.
Extend right-edge of items beyond end of song. *
If a take ends short, extend the item to the full length of the song *
After punching in extend left and right edges to complete length of song. *
Don’t do any editing until you are finished recording.
Comping
Turn auto crossfade on again.
Delete anything obviously bad or unusable. Comping from 4 or 5 solid takes should be more than enough.
Usually the last take is best. Start your edits here.
Go through the song and split when you reach an error. Go to previous take with keyboard shortcut ** and continue editing.
Custom Toolbar
You may find it helpful to use a custom toolbar with common take edit actions such as:
Previous take
Next take
Crop to active take
Implode items across tracks into takes
Explode takes of items across tracks
Delete active take from items
Paste as new take in item
* normally you would keep this on but it will prevent take organization during tracking because dragging the edge will result in a long crossfade.
** when multi-track recording you need this off because grouping doesn’t work when selecting takes with the mouse. It is very important to use key commands or toolbar buttons for previous and next take.** v5.24 added grouped take switching via mouse. You might still find it easier/faster to switch with the keyboard.
Leave a Reply