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Old 09-03-2021, 09:35 AM   #1
mikehende
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Default Can all audio softwares route through Reaper at the same time?

Hey guys. I have my preferred mp3 software OTSAV working with VST fx in Reaper but I would also like to run all other sources of audio I use like youtube, Spotify, Mediamonkey, Potplayer e.t.c run through Reaper, is this possible please and if yes, how can we do this? Thx.
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Old 09-03-2021, 09:52 AM   #2
Alistair S
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Yes, it's possible to have those outputs as inputs to Reaper.

How best to do it depends on the soundcard you are using.

So, what soundcard/interface do you have? And what operating system are you using?
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Old 09-03-2021, 11:01 AM   #3
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Thanks for responding, I have a friend Eric who is much more technical than I am who is helping me with this. He is awaiting approval to post a response here so whenever he's approved he can answer your questions, thx.
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Old 09-03-2021, 11:17 AM   #4
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Use a virtual audio device app like Soundflower, Loopback, Blackhole, Jack, etc. Then you select the virtual device for your OS audio output instead of your audio interface. Make an aggregate device of the virtual device + your audio interface and select that in Reaper instead of the audio interface by itself. The inputs to the virtual device are now available in Reaper. Your audio interface connections are still there as well. (Audio interface can be external or built in.)

Or...

Some audio interface's have a return bus. That can be used instead.
Reaper has a legacy option to use different devices together (which says "not recommended" next to it).
Network audio might be an option.
The first thing I said can be free and easy.
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Old 09-05-2021, 03:36 PM   #5
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Update. Eric got all audio sources working through Reaper, all with VST fx using VB-Audio cables. Sorry I did not mention this is for windows and not Mac so we could not use Soundflower.

Eric still hasn't gotten the forum approval so could not post here now to give the technical details.

What I need now to finish up is a good Multiband Compressor/Limiter to work with Reaper so all audio sources will go through it. I need one which will not add any coloring or change up the audio sound, any recommendations please? Should I get one as a VST plugin?
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Old 09-05-2021, 03:48 PM   #6
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Compressing the sound is changing it though, isn't it? If you want to avoid adding obvious coloration, what you need is a transparent compressor/limiter.

ReaXComp is Reaper's stock multiband compressor. It is in JSFX format (a script compiled on the fly, basically). Most (all?) of Reaper's stock plugins are effective tools, although they lack the hype and looks of some of their VST counterparts. Some of the stock JSFX plugins hold their own against much more popular rivals. For example: ReaComp, the wideband compressor. But I digress.

I suggest you try ReaXComp first.
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Old 09-05-2021, 04:51 PM   #7
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Cool thanks! I will ask Eric to try the one you have mentioned.

Guys on other forums have told me that reaper's fx VSTs can rival the best of them out there which I will try out this week.
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Old 09-06-2021, 07:19 AM   #8
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While you're at it, ask Eric to post the details about routing audio from other Windows programs into Reaper when he's able to participate in these forums. Giving back feels good!
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Old 09-06-2021, 07:36 AM   #9
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Eric has tried contacting the Administrator asking why this is taking so long but no response so nothing more he can do except wait to see if Admin should help.
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Old 09-06-2021, 08:12 AM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mikehende View Post
What I need now to finish up is a good Multiband Compressor/Limiter to work with Reaper so all audio sources will go through it. I need one which will not add any coloring or change up the audio sound, any recommendations please? Should I get one as a VST plugin?
What's up with the source inputs that leads you to wanting to pull out the big guns like a multiband comp? Going from zero to 100 rather quickly here!
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Old 09-06-2021, 08:21 AM   #11
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As mentioned I listen to music from different sources so I don't want to have to keep adjusting mainly fluctuating volume levels between form all of the different audio sources. Especially when playing youtube videos or videos in my collection, each video will play at different volumes.
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Old 09-06-2021, 09:00 AM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mikehende View Post
As mentioned I listen to music from different sources so I don't want to have to keep adjusting mainly fluctuating volume levels between form all of the different audio sources. Especially when playing youtube videos or videos in my collection, each video will play at different volumes.
I'd suggest that altering the entire volume between different sources would be the goal to aim for. (There may be "replay gain" features available that offer some help.) At any rate, compressing down peaks for one or more different frequency bands as their levels randomly hit some threshold could be a pretty altering move. On the other hand, if the sources in question are already portable quality copies from youtube et all, then maybe six of one and half a dozen of the other. You might just want to try a leveling setting (long attack and long release) on a standard compressor.

Thinking out loud as I'm typing this...
There's such a wild range between mix and mastering quality between sources with some of them being shrill tinny volume war CDs and others being more full fidelity. I suppose a multiband comp dialed up right could normalize between the shrill thin volume war CD vs the bass 30db forward hiphop masters vs professional sounding masters.

Well, that's my 2c.
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Old 09-06-2021, 09:25 AM   #13
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I had a processing software called "Breakaway Audio Enhancer" installed which took care of all audio passing through it and we had tried in another thread to get my softwares to work with Reaper and that software but could not.

This is why I am going to try a reaper plugin for this purpose.
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Old 09-07-2021, 05:02 AM   #14
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So Eric got everything done guys. Now I can use Reaper to play all Audio sources through it with fx and compressors, thanks.
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Old 09-07-2021, 06:25 AM   #15
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A walkthrough about how you managed to route all Windows audio through Reaper would still be appreciated. I tried to do this on the fly once, but I wasn't able to, so I gave up and temporarily forgot about that.
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Old 09-07-2021, 06:26 AM   #16
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Eric said he got the approval FINALLY so he will should post here as soon as he gets the chance.
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Old 09-07-2021, 07:59 AM   #17
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Eric, whenever you should see this. I just tested everything again on my DJ Rig in the Garage and everything and all sources are working flawlessly triggering the Reverb and Delay and also using the Reacomp. I adjusted the Output volume of ReaComp a little and got it right where I want it now and NO COLORING of the original sound is present! Thanks a million to you and the guys here too!

p.s. I am using Chrome Remote Desktop to trigger the fx's from my phone while being seated at a distance from the rig!
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Old 09-07-2021, 08:12 AM   #18
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Quote:
Originally Posted by juan_r View Post
A walkthrough about how you managed to route all Windows audio through Reaper would still be appreciated...
Hi @all, i am Erik, the guy who helped Mike to configure his PC...
Thanks a lot for your answers so far.

@juan_r : I hope, i can remember every step we did.
So first of all, we used the free "ASIO-Bridge HiFi Cable" package from VB-Audio as a virtual cable which enabled us to connect all the diffrent sound sources. This virtual device had then to be used as the standard system sound driver. I noticed that it was important to adjust the sample rates of the in- and output of the virtual cable to match each other (we used 44100Hz). You can see the values on the "configuration screen" of ASIO-Bridge, but you'd actually have to change it in the systems audio config!

In Reaper we had to use "Direct Sound" as Audio System, ASIO-Bridge (VB-Cable) as input device and the internal soundchip as output device, since Mike doesn't have a dedicated sound interface. Don't forget to adjust the sample rate to the matching values of the ASIO Bridge!

We then created a track with the ASIO-Bridge as input and set the master channel output to the main outs... i think, that'd be all.

Probably you'd have to set the audio-output for each application separately to feed into the virtual cable... you can do this in the system audio settings under "Advanced Sound settings" (you will have to start the application first to make it appear in the apps list!)

So good luck with it!
Cheers,
Erik
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Old 09-07-2021, 12:55 PM   #19
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Hello Erik (@schamass), and welcome to the friendly Reaper forums! Thanks for your kind and quick reply.

Quote:
Originally Posted by schamass View Post
Hi @all, i am Erik, the guy who helped In Reaper we had to use "Direct Sound" as Audio System,
Ouch! I see...

I'm going to try anyway, but this doesn't look like I could easily have low latency input along with sounds from other apps.
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Old 09-08-2021, 05:05 AM   #20
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Quote:
Originally Posted by juan_r View Post
... have low latency input along with sounds from other apps.
Well, that wasn't very important for us since all is "only" about listening to ready made music. Reaper serves only as a "collector" and of course as a (very flexible) VST-Host.

EDIT: But if you are using a dedicated ASIO device, i can recommend the free virtual device driver (abandonware) ASIO Link Pro
https://give.academy/downloads/2018/...usASIOLinkPro/

As far is know, the author died and his relatives gave the tool for free to the community - it's the only software i know which comes "officially" with a patch (crack).
So you have to also download the patchfiles for both, the 32bit and 64bit version, and then patch both *.exe files in their corresponding installation folders!

I am using it on my system with a Focusrite interface to live-play keyboard and guitar through various plugins and it's doing great (no latency that i would have noticed so far).
Though i mainly use Gig Performer as live host, i also do some occasional recording with Cubase, which also works like a charm - so i don't see any issues for it to play properly with Reaper too.

Last edited by schamass; 09-08-2021 at 05:20 AM.
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Old 09-08-2021, 05:57 AM   #21
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Regarding mp3 playback from all of my audio sources, I am not noticing any latency at all when trigger the fx's so works great for me.
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Old 09-08-2021, 09:28 AM   #22
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Quote:
Originally Posted by juan_r View Post
Hello Erik (@schamass), and welcome to the friendly Reaper forums! Thanks for your kind and quick reply.



Ouch! I see...

I'm going to try anyway, but this doesn't look like I could easily have low latency input along with sounds from other apps.
If you have an RME interface, look into using loopback on Totalmix. With other interfaces, you could set up loopback with cables and get the same.
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Old 09-09-2021, 10:46 AM   #23
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Hey guys. is there an easy way to record the final output from Reaper so I can record a mix with the VST fx applied over it?
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Old 09-09-2021, 02:25 PM   #24
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mikehende View Post
Hey guys. is there an easy way to record the final output from Reaper so I can record a mix with the VST fx applied over it?
Two ways.

Right click on the track arm button to see recording options.

You could just record output. Of course, if you playback, the FX would be applied again to the recorded track (which already has FX applied).

Alternatively, you could set up an input FX chain (also found when you right-click the track arm button) and have no FX on the track itself. You then just record the input as normal (which will have the FX applied).

However, would you kind explaining why you want to do this?

I thought you just wanted to simplify/level out listening to different sources. Now you re talking about recording other people's music with your FX applied ...
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Old 09-09-2021, 02:32 PM   #25
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Thanks. This all started when I was trying to find a way to get my MP3 player [OTSAV] to play the music but with VST fx applied to it. Then the next step would be to record the music with the fx to like create a CD mix with it and use the recorded mp3 file or cd to play back in any player so I can hear the mix with the fx.

I had found that Virtual DJ does all of this but I have always wanted to it all with my fav player OTSAV and not any other software. So now I am almost there.
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Old 09-09-2021, 02:53 PM   #26
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OK - well, once you have you audio in Reaper and recorded, you may want to render it to the format you want.

There are various rendering options too (including options to normalise the loudness). Depending on which FX you are applying there may be simpler workflows to achieve what you want to do.

The more detail you can provide about what it is that you want to do, the easier it will be for someone to describe the simplest method to do that.
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Old 09-09-2021, 03:31 PM   #27
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There are only 2 main VST fx [Reverb and Delay] I trigger on different parts of each tune. I simply want to record the final output of my tunes with the fx on it so I am not sure sure how else I might explain this? Whether I save the recoding [final output] as either wav or mp3 file does not matter really.
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Old 09-09-2021, 03:45 PM   #28
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You might not need to render at all, in that case.

Assuming all of the FX are on the track itself (rather than in other tracks or on the master), you could just record the output. Or, if you do have multiple tracks, you could just put them all in a folder and record the output of the folder.

Where reaper will save that recording and in what format can be set up in project settings (in the media tab).
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Old 09-09-2021, 03:57 PM   #29
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The music will be playing in OTSAV, I will put a playlist totaling like 90 minutes, OTSAV will autoplay the playlist crossfading every tune. I will trigger the fx's whenever and wherever. When the last tune in the playlist is finished then OTSAV's music will stop and that's when I will need to save the entire recording as either wav or one single mp3 file which I can then burn to cd as one file or play the then 90 minute mp3 in any MP3 player.
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Old 09-09-2021, 04:15 PM   #30
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If you are happy to have the playlist as one file, the method above should work fine.

If you want more of a CD type image with separate songs (rather than one long audio file) then you may want to explore the rendering options (where you can set up markers to show the start of each song). See Chapter 21 of the manual if you need it.

The choice of format may be important if you want to fit a lot of songs onto a CD, of course.

Good luck!
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Old 09-09-2021, 04:24 PM   #31
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Yes, happy with just one file as the output. Sorry can you confirm which post's instructions above is what I wlll need to do for this please?
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Old 09-09-2021, 04:47 PM   #32
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Sure - it was this one.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Alistair S View Post
You might not need to render at all, in that case.

Assuming all of the FX are on the track itself (rather than in other tracks or on the master), you could just record the output. Or, if you do have multiple tracks, you could just put them all in a folder and record the output of the folder.

Where reaper will save that recording and in what format can be set up in project settings (in the media tab).
Once you stop recording, the file will be saved to the folder you have specified in project settings, in the format you have specified.

To record the output, right-click on the record arm button on the track you are recording and select one of the Record: output options (probably Record Output (Stereo).

Press record and start your music. Press stop when you want to stop recording.

The best thing is to just try it on a short bit of audio and you will see what I mean.
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Old 09-09-2021, 04:52 PM   #33
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Cool, appreciate the instructions, will try it out tomorrow and report back, thanks!

BTW, I notice that whenever I restart my pc Reaper does not save the ReaComp settings, it always goes back to default, is this because I am using the trial version of reaper right now? I will purchase Reaper after the Evaluation period has expired but just curios if this is how Reaper will work even after it is licensed.
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Old 09-09-2021, 05:08 PM   #34
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Originally Posted by juan_r View Post
ReaXComp is Reaper's stock multiband compressor. It is in JSFX format...
I’m afraid this is false. The Rea plugins are actual compiled plugins in a proprietary format. They are not JS and cannot be edited. Some of them are available in VSTs for use in other DAWs as a separate download. But yes, they are mostly pretty great.
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Old 09-10-2021, 12:24 AM   #35
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mikehende View Post
Cool, appreciate the instructions, will try it out tomorrow and report back, thanks!

BTW, I notice that whenever I restart my pc Reaper does not save the ReaComp settings, it always goes back to default, is this because I am using the trial version of reaper right now? I will purchase Reaper after the Evaluation period has expired but just curios if this is how Reaper will work even after it is licensed.

There is no difference in Reaper. The "trial version" is the full version.

The settings should save, assuming you save the project when you exit Reaper.
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Old 09-10-2021, 07:27 AM   #36
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Ok yes, I see, I never click the Save project option when shutting down.

The recording works GREAT [Thanks!!], just a note, I am not seeing the option to save as mp3, only wave, which is not a problem for me as I can use Goldwave to easily convert the wav file to mp3.

Only issue I have now is whenever I activate the ReaComp the BBD [Full Bucket Brigade Delay] window goes away. if I then click on the BBD again it appears but then ReaComp window goes away. It's like I can only see one or the other window at a time, thing is I don't have this issue with the Ratshack fx and ReasComp as the Ratshack window stays on all the time regardless, any ideas please?

https://i.postimg.cc/Fsp0V3fL/IMG-3058.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/jdx7228d/IMG-3059.jpg

Last edited by mikehende; 09-10-2021 at 07:42 AM.
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Old 09-10-2021, 07:43 AM   #37
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Yeah um, you kind of want to get in the habit of saving your work!

Save often! You can add a version number or comment to your project name as you please. That leads to being able to go back to a previous point in your project before you screwed something up (when that comes up). ie Literally opening up an old version you saved.
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Old 09-10-2021, 07:46 AM   #38
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When I closed and SAVED the session I notice it is not showing in the reaper Media folder, so in which folder is this session/project saved please?
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Old 09-10-2021, 07:58 AM   #39
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Default is to save into the current project folder. Reaper will keep the last place you pointed it to to save, however. If you pointed it somewhere else it will stay pointed there until you change that.

Get in the habit of making a new project folder for a new project first. Do a 'save as' if opening an old project to use as a template. Do that first and then all audio files and project files are pointed there by default.
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Old 09-10-2021, 08:05 AM   #40
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I think this is what's confusing me with the project saving issue. I am accustomed to simply opening, playing and closing my MP3 players without having to save anything. So yes I guess with reaper I will have no choice but to save every time I close it.
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