Reaper for broadcast multitrack

[huub]

Hi all,
I've installed reaper on the audio pc of our new ob truck (cinevideogroup OBV15, OBV15 Production on Flickr - Photo Sharing! )
The pc has an rme madi card.
Reaper can use any audio input as timecode (LTC) source, records timestamped Bwav and thus seems to be a perfect cheap back up multitrack recorder..
Latency of the rme is 5 ms, so i could even monitor through reaper!
First tests are promising, will let you all know my experiences!

huub

[videoteque]

Wow!!!

Some really nice pictures on that link!!!

[David Spearritt]

I am using Reaper regularly as my multichannel data aquisition software of choice. Its amazingly small, very light on resources and has been bullet proof for the up to 12 channel classical recordings I do. I only use it for multitrack recording and do post in Wavelab.

[Jim vanBergen]

Interesting.

What kind of converters do you use on the front end?
Do you split the MADI stream to multiple decks, one being Reaper?

As a ProTools guy since 1990, it's great to see such great options for newbies , and for me, possible solutions for backup.

[noamraz]

Already posted here in the past.

For the last year i am running my backup rig (M-Audio PFLB, 24 Channels) using Reaper to multitrack 24 channels on a PC Cellron Laptop.

Only good things can be sayed about the Reaper as an Multitrack Backup & Low-cost monitoring system.

Best regards, Noam Raz.

[David Spearritt]

The other main reason I use Reaper for multichannel recording on site, is that it doesn't require any sort of dongle. Enough said, nothing to get lost or stolen.

[huub]

Originally Posted by Jim vanBergen

Interesting.

What kind of converters do you use on the front end?
Do you split the MADI stream to multiple decks, one being Reaper?

As a ProTools guy since 1990, it's great to see such great options for newbies , and for me, possible solutions for backup.

Front end is Lawo mc2/66 preamps and converters, a seperate madi port is being used for the pc/rme madi card.. I'm sure there's a possibility for madi to be split, but from the start we chose to have a redundant madi port...
We insert our main (pyramix) multitrack straight after the pre amps, but use direct outs for reaper even before the insert, so if something goes wrong with the pyramix insert/madi port, the back up should still be fine.. (knock on wood, thusfar, the pyramix has been fine, even on 8 1/2 hours 48 track projects.)

[jmarkham]

Originally Posted by David Spearritt

The other main reason I use Reaper for multichannel recording on site, is that it doesn't require any sort of dongle. Enough said, nothing to get lost or stolen.

what are you doing for timecode?

jeff

[David Spearritt]

Originally Posted by jmarkham

what are you doing for timecode?

jeff

Not involved with timecode really, doing mainly multitrack classical concert recording. When video is involved we synch on DAW in post without timecode or we send analog audio to video people during record.

[huub]

Hmm, I have indeed used the reaper backup recordings once now.. The pyramix did not fail, but someone accidentally touched the keyboard with his bag and stopped the recording ..
The reaper recordings were labeled (the wav file takes the name of the track) and correctly timestamped bwav files. All was good and nobody ever noticed anything went wrong .. It's all digital, running from the same clock, so sound is identical to the pyramix files..
the rme madi/reaper combination is such a cheap but still professional solution, needing 1 input for timecode, you still have 63 inputs and you do not need a powerful computer or superfast disk.. And also, the latency of the rme is so insanely low, you can monitor directly in real time..

[Ozpeter]

someone accidentally touched the keyboard with his bag and stopped the recording ..

One of the many great features of Reaper is that you can have keyboard shortcuts for recording that differ from those used when not recording. So you can set it to accept shortcuts to clear peak indicators, drop markers, and resume scrolling or whatever you do need when recording, but "stop recording" or anything else risky can be assigned to a hard-to-accidentally-hit combo like ctrl/alt/s - or disabled altogether, so the only way to stop is via the mouse on the on-screen transport button.

[huub]

Cool! I did not know..

[deardaddy]

Here we use Boom Recorder on Mac pro's as our backup recorder with Aurus consoles from Stage Tec and RME Madi cards.
Boom recorder is amazingly stable, easy to use and recording report is a real blessing.

It is a mac app ....

Best regards from Belgium

Pascal

[Ozpeter]

Reaper 3.0 has just been released - see REAPER | Audio Production Without Limits - pricing may be of interest to those making some money but not much -

Fair Pricing
There is only one version of REAPER. We offer two licenses, depending on how you use it.

$225: full commercial license.
$60: discounted license.

You may use the discounted license if any of the following is true:

* You are an individual, using REAPER only for personal use.
* You are an individual or business, using REAPER for commercial use, and the yearly gross revenue does not exceed USD $20,000.
* You are an educational or non-profit organization.

All sorts of new goodies in there, but the new tabbed projects caught my eye - you can open multiple session files in tabs, allowing (for instance) easy copy and paste editing from a session or concert into a new edited version, hopping between the tabs. Your position in each project is independently maintained thus saving some scrolling around. (If you really want you can play back more than one project at a time simultaneously... not that I can think of a use for that!).

[boojum]

I am using SAM 10.21 Master now and wonder how this compares to Reaper other than price. I looked at Reaper a couple of years ago and was put off by its learning curve.

Any thoughts on usability and how it compares??

[Ozpeter]

Inevitably, learning curve with any such software depends on where you are coming from. For instance, my experience with the Cubase interface was to keep saying "WTF" (What's This For?) whereas Reaper just fell into place for me. But I was also a very early Reaper adopter (over 1000 days ago, the program tells me!) and have been able to puzzle out the new features one by one as they have arrived (sometimes daily!) over the last few years.

Setup for live recording has always seemed very straightforward to me, and for postproduction of concert recordings the ripple editing down all tracks with auto crossfade makes for a quick and hassle free result.

A great deal of the new functionality of version 3.0 relates to the midi side - but for me a great feature of the midi side is that you wouldn't know it was there when you look at the main interface! So for audio people you are presented only with what audio people need.

I can't compare it with SAM as I'm not familiar with it. But for anyone curious about Reaper, the 4+Mb download and non-invasive almost instant install of the fully functional demo makes it simple to try - so long as you've got the time to play with it, which can be a whole other matter of course!

[ghellquist]

Some light. I use Samplitude 10 pro, my friend uses Reaper among other programs. Mostly acoustic music, on location.

Both programs does the job. Sam is more of a one stop solution: tracking, cutting, mixing, mastering, CD-burning, mp3 creation, all inside the same program. I seldom bounce on a typical session, working mostly non-destructive. Main pain is not forgetting the dongle. The different mouse modes, once learnt, are extremely useful and really allows you to work fast.

Reason takes a different program for CD burning requiring you to bounce once or twice at least (not really a big deal except sometimes). No way to have different effects on every object (regions in some programs, Media Items in Reaper), something I often use.

Reaper is developing rapidly while Samplitude is a more mature produt that changes more slowly. My impression is that Reaper already is a worthy contender but I will stay with Sam a while more, maybe simply from laziness.

// Gunnar

[Audiop]

Originally Posted by ghellquist

Both programs does the job. Sam is more of a one stop solution: tracking, cutting, mixing, mastering, CD-burning, mp3 creation, all inside the same program.

Gunnar, I think all these things can be done in Reaper as well.. no?


/Peter

[Thomas Grubb]

Main pain is not forgetting the dongle

Samplitude 10 LE is being given away free on the current Computer Music magazine - I have that installed as a backup if I do forget the dongle! I must say I like the recording interface better than Reaper - also the way takes are named.

Tom

[Mats H]

Originally Posted by Audiop

Gunnar, I think all these things can be done in Reaper as well.. no?


/Peter

Indeed it can. I must say Samplitude feels a bit more polished than Reaper i m o, especially in editing. But Reaper is in it's own when it comes to recording. I really love the buffering to RAM in case the hard drive fails or hasn't got the throughput. I haven't had the recording stop even once in Reaper. Even with 90+ tracks of 192KHz recording (testing) to raided SCSI drives. Or the fact that you can add tracks and add them to recording without interupting audio while recording.

Solid as a brick and very cpu efficient. Cheap too for a recording program.

Mats Helgesson
LIVING SOUND

[Ozpeter]

Reason [I think you meant Reaper] takes a different program for CD burning requiring you to bounce once or twice at least (not really a big deal except sometimes). No way to have different effects on every object (regions in some programs, Media Items in Reaper), something I often use.

You can render to CD within Reaper - personally I use ReaBurn which calls Burrrn (all free) - that way I render my finished projects into Wavpack format (might as well save some space) and Burrrn handles the unpacking and burning using the cues and the CD text in Reaper's project file.

Each item (clip, object, whatever) in Reaper can have its own effects. Three and four point editing can be achieved as well using 'custom actions'.

[dub3000]

Originally Posted by ghellquist

No way to have different effects on every object (regions in some programs, Media Items in Reaper), something I often use.

shortcut: select the item, SHIFT-E. it's buried in a menu somewhere as well.

[Teddy Ray]

Reaper is a very nice program, certainly for the money.

Jan Eric-Persson uses it for Opus 3's recordings.


For *my* uses, though...it is not a major player. I find it less polished, a bit clunky, and still feels very *mickey mouse* . I do not see it as a replacement option, maybe an addendum/backup solution. Sequoia/Samplitude reign king for my projects.

[David Spearritt]

Jan Eric-Persson uses it for Opus 3's recordings.

Now there's some serious endorsement from one of my heroes in recording engineering.

I use Reaper as a data acquisition tool only. I don't install any of the plugins, just the bare basic program. As far as a simple, tiny, fast, program goes to acquire multichannel data on site with the minimum of distracting fuss bells and whistles, I think Reaper is the one. Love its very intelligent automatic file naming, starting new files on the fly with the push of a key, and its track adding and naming simplicity. I haven't seen better. Really enjoying it for low stress multitrack location recording.

When a program as accomplished as this is only 4MB in size and written in native C++ without huge frameworks and supporting scaffolding in code, the reliability goes up enormously. Justin Frankel is a masterful software engineer. This only adds to its appeal.

I should add, I am a serious Wavelab user and a newbie Samplitude 10 Pro user.