MIDI to WAV rendering

[gl.tch]

First off - I really, really hope I'm not forcing a rehash of old stuff here. If this has been covered in depth elsewhere, please link me to it. I've had a poke around the forums, but either couldn't find what I was looking for, or found it and didn't understand or realise.

Basically, I've got a drum track. It's a MIDI track, and the VSTi is the EZDrummer suite. This actually has quite a CPU load, comparatively speaking, and so once I've finalised it, I'd like to render it to WAV to promote smoother monitoring.

[If it matters, I'm using a Toneport GX USB interface to monitor through, as I record all my guitars through this. It has a standard headphone jack on the back, into which I plug my monitoring headphones. This is the default ASIO set-up.]

I've worked out that one can render the MIDI track to WAV by creating a blank track and making it receive the MIDI track. Or, to put it more plainly, send the MIDI to a blank track. I then change the recording option to 'Output, Stereo', arm the blank track for recording, mute everything else, hit record, and it happily records the MIDI onto the blank track as a WAV.

Great!

Except that as I go along, I quite often decide I don't like a particular drumsound, so I edit the MIDI track. What I want to know is: Is there a way of rapidly rendering a MIDI track (with its effects, obviously) as a WAV in a blank track, without having to do a real-time recording using sends?

Gawd, I hope this isn't mind-bogglingly trivial...

[EricM]

Sure, "Apply FX as a new take" renders all the parameters
from track into another take of the original item, being
MIDI or audio.

I use a macro to simplify this to a one click command using
time selection to define what area to render:

[img]http://img188.**************/img188/7931/midirenderg.gif[/img]

[img]http://img340.**************/img340/6004/acta.jpg[/img]

The macro requires SWS extensions installed to work, and you
can get it in Reaper by importing a file I've attached to this
post into your Actions list.

You can throw out the first and last action that disables
and reenables "trim behind items while editing" if you have
this turned off by default (see Options menu).

e

[gl.tch]

Oh, man. Thank you so much - that's exactly what I was looking for.

My mistake came in two parts: not realising I had to physically select the time portion rather than simply the MIDI file on the track, and secondly, getting waylaid by the 'render as new take' option, rather than the 'apply FX as new take'.

The irony is that this is covered completely in the Reaper Power guide I have by Geoff Francis, but - as I often find - I missed it, because I wasn't quite sure what to look for.

Thanks, again.

[chrisharbin]

so "render selected track to stem tracks" doesn't apply here?

I have to admit though I've been using reaper quite a bit since I got it, this is a bit new territory.

Don't mean to hijack.......just checking.......

[EricM]

Welcome, gl.tch.

Originally Posted by chrisharbin

so "render selected track to stem tracks" doesn't apply here?

No, or at least it's inconvenient for two reasons:

1/ Stem render renders the whole track from the beginning
of the project to the last item
2/ It does not detect silence to reduce render time
(apply FX does not either though...)

e

[elec_monk]

Hi,
I've imported a midi track, and so there are no FX - I'm not using VSTi. When I do "Apply track FX to items as new take", a blank wav take is created.
Is there a way around this?

thx


Brett

[EricM]

Originally Posted by elec_monk

Hi,
I've imported a midi track, and so there are no FX - I'm not using VSTi. When I do "Apply track FX to items as new take", a blank wav take is created.
Is there a way around this?

Yeah, put a VSTi on the track

[elec_monk]

I tried it, but it sounds like crap. I just have a midi drum track that I imported, and using the Reasyndr just turns the kick into this horrible doof doof.
Sorry if I'm missing an obvious thing here -can you spell out for me how I can turn an imported drum midi into a wav so that it's present when I render the whole project?

Thanks,

Brett

[RichardM]

The midi just contains data on when to trigger the sounds, how long, what the velocity is, etc. Midi doesn't have sound.

The actual sound you need is created by the VSTI that you have inserted on the track. Try different VSTIs until you find a sound you're happy with.

[EricM]

Originally Posted by elec_monk

I tried it, but it sounds like crap. I just have a midi drum track that I imported, and using the Reasyndr just turns the kick into this horrible doof doof.
Sorry if I'm missing an obvious thing here -can you spell out for me how I can turn an imported drum midi into a wav so that it's present when I render the whole project?

Thanks,

Brett

Are you using a hardware synth that sounds good? in that case
you will have to connect the audio output from the synth to
your audio input in reaper and record that on a track.

Or find a VSTi that sounds good, there are tons of free and
payable synths that emulate different instruments.

[elec_monk]

I didn't realise VSTi's were all over the web and accessible. Have now downloaded a GTG Drum Sampler and rendered my ass off.
Thanks for the replies, all, I am completely new at this and appreciate the explanation.

[johnnymegabyte]

Originally Posted by elec_monk

I didn't realise VSTi's were all over the web and accessible. Have now downloaded a GTG Drum Sampler and rendered my ass off.
Thanks for the replies, all, I am completely new at this and appreciate the explanation.

Is GTG Drum Sampler based on only 10 drum pieces or cover all GM drum instruments ?