Third Lecture
Editing audio/MIDI in Reaper and exporting a final product.
Basic editing controls
After we are done recording our audio and MIDI we now must edit them to reach the desired target.
In this lecture we will go over the basic editing controls.
-Zooming:
While working on our session we will sometimes need to zoom on a certain track to edit it with more precision. There are multiple ways to do so.
To zoom in and out horizontally we can either use the + and - signs located on the bottom scrolling bar or simply use the scrolling wheel on our mouse.
To zoom in and out vertically we can either use the + and - sign located on the right scrolling bar or press ctrl on our computer keyboard while scrolling with our mouse wheel.
-Splitting and trimming:
To trim an item whether its audio or MIDI we must put the mouse cursor on its beginning, click and drag till the desired point.
To split (cut) our item (event) we must put the mouse cursor on the desired splitting point and press S on our keyboard.
-Looping:
Sometimes while editing we need to loop a certain part of our track. To do so we must select the region we want to loop by hovering over the time bar in the top, clicking on the desired starting point and dragging till the ending point. A white area with mark in and mark out points will now appear over all our tracks in the session. To make it loop we must press the repeat button located on the right of the record button in the middle of the screen then hit play.
TIP (We can always edit the markers of our looped section by clicking on them and dragging them to the desired start and end point. To completely remove our loop selection we can simply double click in the middle of it while our cursor is on the time bar)
-Using the grid and snap option:
While editing we need the grid and snap options to help us move our events in the session with precision according to the timeline .
The grid button is located rite next to the snap button that looks like a magnet on the top left of the screen. To edit their settings we can simply right click their icons and change the parameters in the pop up tab.
-Fading and cross fading audio :
To fade in audio in Reaper we must hover over the begging of our audio event and wait till the fade icon appears, then click and drag the mouse to reach the desired fade in time.
To fade out audio we must do the same but this time by hovering over the end of our audio event.
To change the way our audio fades in we can right click on the mouse after the fade icon appears and choose from a dropdown list of fades.
To cross fade two audio events we must overlap them by dragging one into the other, two cross fade lines will appear after doing so. We can also edit these lines by clicking and dragging them to reach the desired result.
-Merging or gluing
To merge (glue) two events in Reaper, we must select them both, right click on the mouse and select “Glue items” from the dropdown menu.
Note(This action is destructive, meaning it will change your original audio file. But you can always undo it while in the session)
-Adding markers
To add markers to your Reaper session, right click the time line and choose “Insert marker” from the drop down menu. Or simply press “m” on the desired marker spot.
To edit or remove a marker, right click on it and choose from the drop down menu.
(You can name your marker, change its color and position or delete it)
-Setting track names and colors
To set track name, double click the blank space next to the arm button on each track and enter the desired text.
To change track color, right click it and choose “Track color / Set tracks to custom color”
(A popup window will open letting you choose your new color)
Note(You can also add a track icon by right clicking your track, selecting “Track icon / set track icon” and choosing from a popup window)
-Exporting or rendering
To render a session in Reaper, we must click on “File” then “Render…”.
A popup window will open showing us the different rendering options.
Step 1 (SOURCE)
-We must choose the source that Reaper will render. By default it is set to “Master mix”. We will keep it on this option because we want the software to render the whole session.
Step2 (OUTPUT)
-We must choose the output directory, meaning where our final audio export will be saved.
To do so we must first click on browse next to the word Directory and then choose the file we want to export to.
Then we must name our audio file. We do so by clicking on the blank space where it is marked “Untitled” and typing a new name.
Step 3 (OPTIONS)
By default, in this section, the sample rate set to 44100 Hz and the channels to Stereo. We will keep everything as it is.
Step 4 (OUTPUT FORMAT)
Reaper lets us choose from a variety of audio formats that we can render to, including the most popular ones, WAV and MP3.
STEP 5 (CHOOSING OUTPUT FORMAT & RENDERING AUDIO)
Rendering to WAV: We must do all of the above steps,then set the bit rate to( 16 bit PCM) and then click on the render button.
Rendering to MP3: We must select MP3 from our output format dropdown list, then for best quality we must select 320 kbps from the Bitrate dropdown menu.
Like that we would have gone through all the basic steps to get you up and running with Reaper DAW and export a final audio product.
Thank you for choosing this course