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Old 07-10-2018, 04:15 PM   #1
kineticeon
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Default How do YOU use reaper for live?

Hey guys,

Over the last couple years I have been playing keyboard/sampling/video fx for an industrial band. We began in ableton but ran into many glitches with forced video formats and heavy CPU just for the running software.
I have been using Reaper in my studio for production for about 8 years and love it!!!
The reason I am bringing this to top thread (hopefully) is reaper hidden gems for live is pretty hard to come by as the common questions are microphones and basic midi assigning. I have had a really hard time locating threads on HEAVY usage live sets.

Now I am not a programmer, so using the nitty gritty of reaper just does not work, both in workflow and time frame. BUT I did manage to make a template for our band that is useful for what we do (we did run into a problem as of yesterday).

here is what we have:

- The first channel has our backing track/video on it. (due to 60 minute set we used 13 separate videos for 13 tracks instead of one HD video).
- This channel has a couple video FX set up that worked pretty good for us and controlled on our Arturia keyboard.

- Each "song" has its own channel with a folder group of channels. For songs that I am sampling in, we simply add sounds to each resampler (located in one top channel in that song group called "sampler") has 6 resamplers titled fx/synth/drone etc, each resampler routed to the proper channel in it's group. This took a minute to figure out, but worked great.

- We have 4 songs using VSTi instruments like Alchemy, Zebra, SubboomBass. those channels we still group under the title channel for that song (for organization).

Now, this is where I think I went very different from forums or what I probably should have done, but it was really the only way I could get it to work right
I have EVERY channel muted, and use the solo buttons to turn them on over the other tracks. example. the backing track has mute and solo on all the time so it does play, the other channels by default have only the mute on and I trigger the solo with "toggle solo channel 3, 4, 5 etc.")This helped keep synth/fx/delay feedback from popping on every time you turned a solo off to go to the next track. is it right?? not sure, but it works...lol

My audio card ms delay is CRAZY BAD to get this all to work, right now to not get pops or crackles it is about 56/78 ms. which for any live person is a headache large amount of delay.. I practiced through it and managed to time myself close enough to be on.

Now with everything set up, every key located to midi, buttons located to markers to jump around if needed etc. etc. I am getting a synth issue that affects ALL synths, not just 1 type, or one brand. I will solo the instrument and it will show midi signal, but no sound. I have to reboot reaper to get it work. did it to all 3 of the synths listed above. rebooted 3 times.

This never occurred with our 30 minute set, but we also had a few reaper updates since then so am I missing something?? And how are you doing your electronic sets? DJ/Band or other? I have attached an example template from our old 30 minute set. just ignore all missing files. This version does not have any VSTi's but will give you the idea of what I did.

Sorry if I type a lot. sometimes I think using software like this we need a old school chatroom so we can talk piece at a time with larger or more in depth topics where I get SO LOST in threads..lol

NOTE: with instruments, I am horrible with the whole channel routing, I have always just gone to MIDI - All midi inputs on each channel. every time I try to route to specific channels I just seem to screw things up more.
Attached Files
File Type: zip Live set example.zip (7.1 KB, 416 views)
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Old 07-10-2018, 10:12 PM   #2
moliere
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I use Reaper in a similar setting. I've got a few projects, but the most complicated is a post-industrial metal band I play keyboards/samplers/vocoder/extra guitar in.

I have a set of tracks set up in an 'output' organisational folder :
'Kick'
'Snare'
'Stereo Backing'
'Stereo Keyboards'
'Mono Samples'
'Mono Vocoder'
'Stereo click track'
'MIDI out - Guitar FX Program Changes'
'MIDI out for DMX'

and a bunch of submix folders that I use for simple practice times (ie 'Stereo Everything', 'Mono Everything')

I have a set of tracks set up in an 'input' organisational folder :
'Moog/Other'
'Akai MPK'
'Vocoder Mic'
'Drum Trigger 1'
'Drum Trigger 2'
'Drum Trigger 3'
'Drum Trigger 4'

The inputs are routed to anything that needs my midi controller (sample pads and keys), audio from my Moog or whatever hardware I'm using, or audio from my Vocoder. My midi controller is set up so I have fader control over the output track levels routed to the faders on the MPK61.

Each song has it's own separate organisational folder, and within those folders are:
1.folder for click tracks and cues to go to our percussionist
2.folder for Synths that I'm playing and a track for Moog/Other if that's being used for that song. Also track for sample pads from my keyboard.
3.track for backing track that'll include stuff the band isn't playing
4.track for MIDI->DMX lighting for that song
5.track for drum sampler (currently Poise) that takes the triggers from the percussionist (who's using a hybrid kit - real cymbals / trashy metal things, pads for everything else)
6.track with program change messages for the guitarists FX unit, so he can concentrate on playing and not pushing pedals all the time.
7. Track for software vocoder.

All those tracks are sent to their appropriate output tracks as mentioned above so I can mix on the fly if I need to.

Each song is marked by it's own region for easyish set rearrangement,
and each VST has bypass automation items / mute automation items, and the MIDI sends to each song have mute automation items. All the automation is annoying, but it saves cpu used for routing and running those VSTs.

I have a few other tracks that I organise per show that are noisy interludes between songs so we can push play and if we never fuck up, we push stop at the end of the set and we're done. I have a 'pause'/'play' set up on my keyboard for inadvertent issues though.

It's not ideal, there's a bunch of things that would make this easier if implemented in Reaper (allowing non-rendered Sub Projects that pass through midi /audio input would make rearranging sets so much better without weird midi bpm/time sig weirdness)

But this setup has worked for years with low latency (I run about 128 samples, which is less than 10ms total roundtrip I think on my Fireface 800), and I run the outputs of my interface to an 8 channel DI for the soundie.

When we were doing this without our percussionist, I used to run an IPOD with one channel mono/backing drums and the other channel as SMPTE timing code that my Reaper project followed through an audio input. That allowed me to pull my entire laptop rig out, and the drums were still going, reboot my machine and open reaper and it would jump right back in at the correct spot.

I don't currently do live video, that would just be a machine killer, I'd prefer that to be on a separate box, which I could send midi timing code to or SMPTE or whatever if needed.

Band is a 5 piece : Singer, Bass, Guitar, Percussionist, Keyboard/Samples/Vocoder/Second Guitarist.
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Old 07-10-2018, 11:07 PM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kineticeon View Post
I am getting a synth issue that affects ALL synths, not just 1 type, or one brand. I will solo the instrument and it will show midi signal, but no sound. I have to reboot reaper to get it work. did it to all 3 of the synths listed above. rebooted 3 times.
I've had similar things happen before, never really finding a cause, but recently I had it happen and managed to figure it out. No way am I saying that this was your problem, or that it was even my problem in the past, but something to investigate :
My midi controller sometimes glitches and sends a CC 7 message through to my VST with a 0 value (or something like that). This is a volume change message and actually changes the volume on the VST if the VST supports that. I ended up fixing that weirdness by being very specific about the stuff I was letting into the VSTs, using Midi Filter JS plugins etc, so they only got the stuff I wanted to give them.
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Old 07-11-2018, 01:14 AM   #4
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Found a few videos on the subject. Maybe it'll give you some new ideas.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Tdc...j&index=2&t=0s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bc1_mCxB-_s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NueQXl6m-XI&t=513s
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Old 07-11-2018, 07:31 AM   #5
mschnell
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In these forums, several users are very active, who use Reaper for Live playing as Keyboarders, Guitarists, Wind Controller users or DJs.

One keyword for finding appropriate messages in the forums search is "LiveConfigs" and might (or might not) come up with message threads that could be interesting for you.

Unfortunately there is (still) no dedicated subforum for Live users of Reaper. (Edit: now we are in it )

-Michael (Keyboarder, very happily using Reaper as an extremely sophisticated sound engine)

Last edited by mschnell; 12-12-2018 at 11:09 PM.
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Old 12-12-2018, 05:59 PM   #6
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Default Pipo tv box X32 sws region playlist

Using sws region playlist as a set list manager player .
This allows us to skip songs but also let’s the playlist smoothseek to next song.

I have these track set to send hardware outs to interface
Samples mono hw 1
Percussion mono hw 2
Backing vocals mono hw 3
Bass mono hw 5
Click track 6

Each song has stems that get summed to the above tracks depending on what they are.
For each song to make easy level adjustment of whole song I setup vca fader to control every stem track with automation item for each region.

My interface is a x32core with a sd16 box.
I have scenes setup to match the mono hw outputs like a Di , or I can sum the lines depending on how much the venue can support , and never need a sound guy to mix my in ear mix. My ears come straight from the sd16 as you can monitor all lines from inputs, matrix bus , outputs and p16 channels.
Because I play drums , I’ve done pre production And got the acoustic drums set how I want them to sound , and send that down the drum line to foh guy. We do hiphop so it’s kick and snare heavy with a fat soaking comp on it. I line or sound check foh will just tell me to bump up or down on kick and snare to balance.

Because I’m not running any VSTi I am able to run this on a small pipo tv box computer . This setup runs on a atom cpu with 4gigs of ram of a flash drive.
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Old 12-12-2018, 06:01 PM   #7
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Regarding the midi issue sometimes the mod wheel effects midi volume ... and you can change what mod wheel does on your midi keyboard if it allows it ..
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Old 12-12-2018, 08:10 PM   #8
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I'm actually running it on my laptop with a spare interface to use as fx for my mixing board. I just put the setup into the aux loops and I have some real nice delay and reverb on the aux knobs now! Pretty cool.
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Old 12-13-2018, 06:58 AM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kineticeon View Post
Hey guys,..
I don't understand what you mean by "channel".
I don't understand what you mean by "resampler"

Regarding muting and unmuting multiple tracks art the same time, LiveConfigs (coming with SWS) works great.

-Michael

Last edited by mschnell; 10-23-2020 at 10:35 PM.
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Old 12-17-2018, 09:53 AM   #10
klausbert
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I've never managed to use the SWS LiveConfigs... I've learned to use the Project List utility that comes with SWS extensions and assign a keyboard controller to switch between projects tabs.
The only downside to this comes from the RAM limit I have on my notebook.

We use to play live backing tracks so every project has a BPM because of sync in delays etc... I use ASIO4ALL and my sound output is from the notebook headphones.

Also, I create Project Lists that can change depending on what kind of live event we have.

To create splits I use the midi extender plugin.


Apart from that, Reaper always gave me stability and good performance, that is priceless!
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Old 12-17-2018, 10:40 AM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mschnell View Post
I don't understand what you mean by "channel".
I don't understand what you mean by "resampler"
I think by "channel" the OP is referring to tracks and by "resampler," they just mean "sampler."
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Old 07-09-2019, 01:36 AM   #12
Yorky
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I opened the Live Set example the OP kindly provided. Grateful if anyone could let me know how the MCP displays 2 rows of channel faders - 1 thro 23 & 24 thro 46, one on top of another? Is this a theme tweak or is there a setting to explore? Thanks in advance. Cheers
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Old 10-23-2020, 03:22 PM   #13
kineticeon
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Hello all!
I know a few people used the template and found it useful. I have been slaving away for a another set in a different way given some SWS actions and ReaPack scripts and regions.

Once completed I will post the download attachment to the new template.
NOTE: I have a Axiom 25 routed with Realearn on one channel and a small nanoKONTROL2 set up on another channel for commands/functions. I am not sure those items/midi routes will carry over with it or how having these kind of custom actions set up. But hopefully I can figure it out to be as plug and play as possible.
( any of the reaper guru's add in options there)
Changes:
- songs put within regions so they can be moved around in a set list
- video set into each track region with a logo overlay channel.
- smooth seek next region start action at end of each song, (set to stop so you can start when needed).
- reaper Limiters staged on each song so mix stems can be used instead of mastered backings. (IE drum rack, melody, synth, subs, Bass) for easier soundcheck and adjustments for different space/speaker rigs.
- color coded regions and song/channels.
- SWS action for moving to next song folder group and resize actions to make song waveform take up screen to see while playing, reset to small at end of track)

and so much more!
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