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Old 01-24-2019, 04:12 AM   #1
cjewellstudios
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Default Can Reaper perform this function from Zenaud.io's ALK?

Goal: Preprogrammed slightly complex hands free live looping.

(it's not necessary for answering my question, but check out zenaud.io alk2. Pretty cool stuff, they have a windows version coming next month)

Is there anyway to record an item and have it be looped out in a pre-arranged way?

My first thought was to group a bunch of blank midi items and just record overdub the first one using marker actions and whatnot. I was hoping the grouped items would update but they do not.

Can anyone offer any help?

......

edit: So after some more research.

You can "pool" midi items so I'm pretty sure that would work without much hassle.

Anything I record live like a vocal or guitar would have to have a different solution. You can "propogate" audio items but 1. I dont know if it would actually move the audio and 2. I doubt it would do it fast enough for live looping

I could possibly use an instance of the super 8 looper in conjunction with the regular reaper timeline. But I don't know if the timeline and super 8 can sync. Possibly instances of gLoop as well.

Last edited by cjewellstudios; 01-24-2019 at 09:46 AM. Reason: more research done
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Old 02-01-2019, 03:10 PM   #2
mehmethan
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Yes you can excatly replicate Zenaud.ios' ALK like this :

- for midi : use midi pooling
- for audio : use super8 JS and automate rec,play,monitor...

This is not easy and cool like ALK.
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Old 02-09-2019, 03:00 PM   #3
foca
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Exactly, as Mehmethan says, you can automate the looper of your choice. I've been doing this for a while before Alk came out, and now Alk makes it much simpler, but I would LOVE to have this "record" and "playback" items natively in Reaper, being that as a DAW Reaper is much more powerful.

One nice tip, to get a better visual reference of your arrangement (sorry for the long post):

Instead of using automation, you can control the looper via midi notes. So what you do is:

----- Look at the attached images, and maybe you can skip this description -----

- Create a "playback item", "rec item", "stop item", etc. (midi items)
- Inside each midi you set a note trigger, as short as possible, that will trigger the desired action in the looper.
- Configure the looper with the corresponding midi notes mapping.
- Give each item a specific color
- Make sure these midi items have "loop source" set to off in their properties, so you can make them longer or shorter as you may need and the action will be triggered only once (this will be clear when looking at the attached images).

Now you have your midi items ready to control the looper, and you can copy paste them throughout your track.

------- But don't skip this part -------

Important note for Super 8:

When developing this workflow I came across with the issue that many loopers (most of them) don't go from recording to stop without passing though playback. So if I wanted to record a loop, then stop it and play it back later, this wasn't possible. Super 8 is an example of this, but there's a way to make it work:

In Super 8 first box for example: midi note 36 triggers rec, and midi note 37 triggers first play and then stop.

So I created 2 different "stop items": one for "stop rec" and one for "stop play". The "stop rec" item triggers note 37 twice really quick (so it actually does “play” and immediately “stop”), and the "stop play" item triggers it just once.

One last thing you may consider is having one track with the looper itself, and another track to control it, so you can leave the looper track working as an audio track.

One important issue here is that when you go through the rec item again, maybe by mistake, your last recording will be deleted. Maybe you could make a command that mutes the “rec” and “stop rec” item that has just recorded something, and trigger this with an action marker. I’m thinking out loud, but I’m sure there’s a workaround for this. Maybe have a track for recording and a track for playback, and then you just have. a button in your toolbar that mutes all items in the rec tracks, this is much simpler. And you could even have another track with playback items in the same spots as the rec items, and you activate this track for a “playback mode”….

Obviously Alk’s workflow is much simpler and gives you more space for creativity.

Hope this helps, and hope someone can create actual rec and playback items!! Pleaaaaseee!!
Attached Images
File Type: png Looper visual reference_small.png (61.2 KB, 597 views)
File Type: png Rec item.png (61.7 KB, 606 views)
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Old 02-10-2019, 05:57 AM   #4
cjewellstudios
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Yes thank you both!

I have discovered exactly as you both are saying.

Using a midi clip to send record and play messages to a super 8 looper track works amazingly well. I did a test where I had samples just laid on the reaper timeline (way down the line) and super 8 looper and the samples lined up perfectly.

Midi pooling also works.

I was just thinking also if you needed different loop lengths you could just have another instance of super 8 synced in the same way at the same time.

It's pretty complex but you can absolutely do most of what alk can do. It just takes a little ingenuity. As with most things in Reaper

Thanks for the note on playing a part and having it be able stop after one playthrough.
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Old 04-24-2019, 07:27 AM   #5
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Thanks for the ideas! Sooner or later I'll need something like this (and ALK looks incredibly handy, whereas I'm not sure if might alter the arrangement on the fly – like extending or skipping certain parts spontaneously).
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Old 11-07-2019, 06:55 PM   #6
Erikson
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Hey! Have you tried ALK?
I have downloaded their trial, and have come up with some conclusions:
Its obviously REALLY easy to program, however not much easier than programming reaper if you have the right shortcuts/custom actions.
And the BIGGEST downsize for me:
It consumes a CRAZY cpu amount. For live usage, it's rendered useless in my case. My laptop is not bad at all, however, 2 instances of Jam Origin Midi + Modo Bass and 1 instance Jam Origin Midi + Sampletank, topped 30% CPU usage. While the same tracks + Super 8 in all of them, resulted in just a little CPU usage.
I will investigate further Reaper capabilities, because I have just started looping but am already fascinated and want to achieve something alike ALK2 without that big amount of CPU usage.
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Old 11-08-2019, 01:09 AM   #7
Erikson
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So, I have spent some time with reaper + reaLearn + Super 8, and this is the result:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1aO...oE-sZtanRb4uJ-

I did not rehearse a lot, only enough to record this clip. I think that with a bit of practice, it can achieve much better results.
Here's the reference song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTmz9ikVCHw
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Old 12-29-2019, 09:15 AM   #8
jpchartrand
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Erikson View Post
So, I have spent some time with reaper + reaLearn + Super 8, and this is the result:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1aO...oE-sZtanRb4uJ-

I did not rehearse a lot, only enough to record this clip. I think that with a bit of practice, it can achieve much better results.
Here's the reference song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTmz9ikVCHw
The first link doesn't work. Could you please re-share?
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