Newbie hoping to get some hardcore help!

[eimatam]

Hello there! How are you doing? Well long story short I got hyped to create some music and I found out that reaper software is one of the most advanced one and well I gotta say, I have never been "friends" with music at all, all I know there is do-re-mi (Might be different in english ?).. Well anyways, so I got reaper and I faceplant the harsh reality, I don't know what should I do, how should I start.. I would like to create some dubstep, electro or house and so here are my questions, it would be just more than awesome if I could get any answers.

1: What is/are kick, subs, bassline, snare, pad, synths, hats/cymbals ? What instruments do I use to create them ? What kind of frequence in EQ should I Use for each one of them ?

2: Where should I start at my song ?

3: What plugins would you recommend using (I downloaded bunch of random ones) ?

Thanks in advance!! I might have more questions later, but as for now I would be so grateful for any kind of answer!

[viscofisy]

To be honest, you really have to google stuff and look for beginners tutorials, because what you're asking is for a complete guide from scratch!.....when you can find out most of that online.

From the stuff you listed, most of it is drum kit pieces.

Except for

*basslines - which are notes played on...... a bass;
*synths - which are synthesisers
*pads - which are particular types of synthesiser sounds

You need to decide for yourself where to start your song.
Maybe with a drum rhythm?

You'd be better to take one step at a time, have a think about how a song is built, and then ask one specific question at a time.


So your first question might be :
"How do I make a basic drum pattern in Reaper?".

[PigPenofsoftware]

Reaper comes with a bunch of plug-ins already. When you can't find what you need there only then should you go looking for stuff to add.

Start really simple.

What you are hoping to do is very complex.

It took me 3 weeks from downloading Reaper to mixing a guitar track and a vocal track. And I didn't even do the recording on Reaper!

Just comprehending the vocabulary and the functions in Reaper is a large task (even if your native language is English and you have a complete grasp of frequency, phase, attenuation, filtering, latency, and many other basics)

Book- Home Recording for Beginners is helpful because the examples are Reaper specific.

[eimatam]

Originally Posted by viscofisy

To be honest, you really have to google stuff and look for beginners tutorials, because what you're asking is for a complete guide from scratch!.....when you can find out most of that online.

From the stuff you listed, most of it is drum kit pieces.

Except for

*basslines - which are notes played on...... a bass;
*synths - which are synthesisers
*pads - which are particular types of synthesiser sounds

You need to decide for yourself where to start your song.
Maybe with a drum rhythm?

You'd be better to take one step at a time, have a think about how a song is built, and then ask one specific question at a time.


So your first question might be :
"How do I make a basic drum pattern in Reaper?".

Yep I did ask a lot of questions, but I did some research on the internet, nothing to be found, but now I understood my mistake as PigPenofsoftware said, I should look for tutorials overall and not specific for reaper. But still thanks for the answer!

[ponk]

You can start out easy, though, and learn as you go. Here's a five minute vid on how to make a song with loops and vstis - enough to get you started, and to help find what to ask for. To quote Lao Tse, "a journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step"

But you still gotta read the user guide

[eimatam]

Originally Posted by PigPenofsoftware

Reaper comes with a bunch of plug-ins already. When you can't find what you need there only then should you go looking for stuff to add.

Start really simple.

What you are hoping to do is very complex.

It took me 3 weeks from downloading Reaper to mixing a guitar track and a vocal track. And I didn't even do the recording on Reaper!

Just comprehending the vocabulary and the functions in Reaper is a large task (even if your native language is English and you have a complete grasp of frequency, phase, attenuation, filtering, latency, and many other basics)

Book- Home Recording for Beginners is helpful because the examples are Reaper specific.

I see, well yep I expected too much, but I"m sure it will pay off at the end. Also, now after I wrote this thread, I found a lot of tutorials, but most of them are on cubase (like how to make the beats or just a person showing how he created a whole song), am I okay with watching those ? (I mean it is a different platform, but almost the same thing), also I would like to know what are "many other basics" ? (Sorry for bugging you so much, I really hope I won't give you a headache, but I"m very thankful for yours and everyone's answers).

[eimatam]

Originally Posted by ponk

You can start out easy, though, and learn as you go. Here's a five minute vid on how to make a song with loops and vstis - enough to get you started, and to help find what to ask for. To quote Lao Tse, "a journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step"

But you still gotta read the user guide

Yep saw it already, I did learn the basics of reaper, now I need to learn the basics of music itself.. :P

P.S That's a nice quote.

[jerome_oneil]

I rarely say this, but you shouldn't be using Reaper right now. Get Garage Band, or it's Windows equivalent (Fruity Loops?) and start there. You'll be making music faster, and you will come to understand all those things in a more user friendly way.

When you're ready to make the leap, you'll know.

[eimatam]

Originally Posted by jerome_oneil

I rarely say this, but you shouldn't be using Reaper right now. Get Garage Band, or it's Windows equivalent (Fruity Loops?) and start there. You'll be making music faster, and you will come to understand all those things in a more user friendly way.

When you're ready to make the leap, you'll know.

I see.. I will probably do as you say, thanks!

p.s I hope they do have trial versions tho.

[Cosmic]

"Faceplant the harsh reality"

Oh god I love the way you young people talk!

I have a feeling you're gonna be good at music..just take yer time and google EVERY SINGLE QUESTION you have.

Thats how I started

And in fact thats what I still do..I type questions into Google on every subject.I'm sure everyone does at this stage.

Anyway..good luck and good to have you here

[whiteaxxxe]

not ontopic, but ... when I started there was no Google. there were books ... you know, the kind where people type or print something onto paper, 400 pages of paper glued together to a big pile you first had to find in a library (where thousands to millions of these books were on big shelves in large halls), take it home and read it.

and no search engine. you had to guess by title whats in the book.

oh my, what times ... what a great big bullshit!!

and the problem nowadays with the internet is, that all the information is so cluttered up and all over the place. if you had a good book in former times you didnt need a second book. if you were lucky ...

[ponk]

btw, welcome to the forums! One of the best places to start is an excellent, free course from Berklee Collge of Music, introduction to music production - covers most of the common "how to get started" questions, next session begins April 21st. And of course, keep asking questions here

[jerome_oneil]

Originally Posted by eimatam

I see.. I will probably do as you say, thanks!

p.s I hope they do have trial versions tho.

Garage Band is free. Don't know about Windows stuff, but I'm sure there is something out there.

Once you do start to grok this stuff, you'll find Reaper to be completely awesome.

[PigPenofsoftware]

I found that googling just opened too many universes of things I didn't understand and too many pathways to stuff I didn't need yet.

The Home Recording book (there is a Kindle version) kept me focused on fundamental things and gave specific words for actions in Reaper. Unfortunately, the vocabulary you use matters a great deal when you are learning things for the first time.

For instance- what word should you use for the action of saving the work you've done in Reaper into a file so that your music can be played on your computer?

The brown cloud over my head had several suggestions based on past experience but none worked.
The magic word is 'render.' It makes sense in hindsight but it isn't anything that I could google or find in the user manual to help me.
There are a lot of magic words in the world of DAWs.

Combining the Home Recording book with excursions into the user manual started building my vocabulary and now I can do about 5% of what Reaper is capable of.

I faceplanted very quickly on drums in my first day or two and decided I'll try that later. I don't know when I'll get back to trying them.
I may just revert to whacking on a cardboard box and recording that for simple drum sound. I'll get a result on that weeks before the MIDI version....

[eimatam]

Originally Posted by Cosmic

"Faceplant the harsh reality"

Oh god I love the way you young people talk!

I have a feeling you're gonna be good at music..just take yer time and google EVERY SINGLE QUESTION you have.

Thats how I started

And in fact thats what I still do..I type questions into Google on every subject.I'm sure everyone does at this stage.

Anyway..good luck and good to have you here

Hehe don't be so judging. Thanks tho! Good luck for you as well. :]

[eimatam]

Originally Posted by PigPenofsoftware

I found that googling just opened too many universes of things I didn't understand and too many pathways to stuff I didn't need yet.

The Home Recording book (there is a Kindle version) kept me focused on fundamental things and gave specific words for actions in Reaper. Unfortunately, the vocabulary you use matters a great deal when you are learning things for the first time.

For instance- what word should you use for the action of saving the work you've done in Reaper into a file so that your music can be played on your computer?

The brown cloud over my head had several suggestions based on past experience but none worked.
The magic word is 'render.' It makes sense in hindsight but it isn't anything that I could google or find in the user manual to help me.
There are a lot of magic words in the world of DAWs.

Combining the Home Recording book with excursions into the user manual started building my vocabulary and now I can do about 5% of what Reaper is capable of.

I faceplanted very quickly on drums in my first day or two and decided I'll try that later. I don't know when I'll get back to trying them.
I may just revert to whacking on a cardboard box and recording that for simple drum sound. I'll get a result on that weeks before the MIDI version....

Well ok then.. You persuaded me to read it, thanks for your answer once again!

[PigPenofsoftware]

Originally Posted by eimatam

Well ok then.. You persuaded me to read it, thanks for your answer once again!

For me it was really, really important. Without that introduction and vocabulary lessons I couldn't even use this very forum because I had no understanding of what the questions were asking nor what the answers meant.
Sometimes the answers contain magic words from other DAWs.

You KNOW you are in trouble when you are 3 steps below 'newbie.' That was me a month ago.

Now I'm only 2 steps below 'newbie' but coming up fast :-)

[eimatam]

Once again, I cannot stress enough how much do I appreciate your answers, but that last question still remains, can I watch tutorials on other platforms and then try performing them on reaper (/garageband).

[jerome_oneil]

Originally Posted by eimatam

Once again, I cannot stress enough how much do I appreciate your answers, but that last question still remains, can I watch tutorials on other platforms and then try performing them on reaper (/garageband).

Yes, and you should. Right now you should be looking to understand concepts. If you can apply a concept on multiple DAWs, then you probably get the concept. If you're just following along rote, then you probably don't.

[ponk]

Originally Posted by eimatam

Once again, I cannot stress enough how much do I appreciate your answers, but that last question still remains, can I watch tutorials on other platforms and then try performing them on reaper (/garageband).

Again, take this free course:
https://www.coursera.org/course/musicproduction
All tutorials can be done in Reaper.

[PigPenofsoftware]

Originally Posted by eimatam

Once again, I cannot stress enough how much do I appreciate your answers, but that last question still remains, can I watch tutorials on other platforms and then try performing them on reaper (/garageband).

You can do anything you want and decide for your self it they are helpful. We're not the boss of you! :-)

I've been reading and watching stuff from TheRecordingRevolution recently and found it useful for learning concepts and techniques generally. But those particular videos aren't about how to operate ProTools - they are about the concepts. (some of which have magic words associated with them and might not mean anything until you've tried manipulating the equivalent tools yourself)

Learning stuff is iterative. The more you know, the more you can learn. It's just that starting from zero is really hard because the stuff you hear is just jibberish for awhile. Sounds like English but the words don't mean anything for you at first.

[lpcrispo]

the best thing I did was record a demo album with my band and sit beside the "audio guy" and watch him ( he was an amateur guy, but still he knew a lot more than I).

then i bought my own recording gears and bought all of Kenny Gioia's tuts on groove3! watched all of the recordingrevolutions tuts on youtube too...

then i recorded my band's first real album ( releasing in the near future :P) by myself!!

[eimatam]

Originally Posted by ponk

Again, take this free course:
https://www.coursera.org/course/musicproduction
All tutorials can be done in Reaper.

I will do that, tho I have never done that before, I'm not even sure how it works.

Originally Posted by PigPenofsoftware

You can do anything you want and decide for your self it they are helpful. We're not the boss of you! :-)

I've been reading and watching stuff from TheRecordingRevolution recently and found it useful for learning concepts and techniques generally. But those particular videos aren't about how to operate ProTools - they are about the concepts. (some of which have magic words associated with them and might not mean anything until you've tried manipulating the equivalent tools yourself)

Learning stuff is iterative. The more you know, the more you can learn. It's just that starting from zero is really hard because the stuff you hear is just jibberish for awhile. Sounds like English but the words don't mean anything for you at first.

It's indeed the same now, looks like english, but I don't know what anything means.. I will check out TheRecordingRevolution as well. (Pretty sure if I learn the concepts and those "magic" words, I won't need additional tutorials for reaper itself)

Originally Posted by lpcrispo

the best thing I did was record a demo album with my band and sit beside the "audio guy" and watch him ( he was an amateur guy, but still he knew a lot more than I).

then i bought my own recording gears and bought all of Kenny Gioia's tuts on groove3! watched all of the recordingrevolutions tuts on youtube too...

then i recorded my band's first real album ( releasing in the near future :P) by myself!!

Sadly I don't have any friends that would be interested in creating music with me, tho I will check out recordingrevolutions as I already stated, thanks for the answer!

P.S And once again there is a new question, EQ, I just want to know if I "understood" the meaning of it. So EQ helps me to fit my music sounds into 20-20000 hz "box" ? But each of those sounds has to has it's own frequency part ? (Let's say drums at 80hz and kick at 200hz ? Those numbers are fictional as I didn't get into them yet. And if I overlap the sounds of 2 instruments into the same hz it will sound badly ?

Let's say I found this in one of the tutorials: http://www.iub.edu/~emusic/361/image...xeqlowpass.png

So the spectrum of this is set from 20hz and starts drop of at 1.3khz , and most of the images are like this (in the tutorials), one instruments takes over more than half of the equalizer.. So now about the picture, does it mean I can't place anything else in that spectrum because if will overlap with the first instrument ? Or does it mean something else ? Thanks again!

[PigPenofsoftware]

Originally Posted by eimatam

P.S And once again there is a new question, EQ, I just want to know if I "understood" the meaning of it. So EQ helps me to fit my music sounds into 20-20000 hz "box" ? But each of those sounds has to has it's own frequency part ? (Let's say drums at 80hz and kick at 200hz ? Those numbers are fictional as I didn't get into them yet. And if I overlap the sounds of 2 instruments into the same hz it will sound badly ?

Let's say I found this in one of the tutorials: http://www.iub.edu/~emusic/361/image...xeqlowpass.png

EQ is a very important magic word and means "adjusting the sounds using frequency boost or suppression filters."

"To EQ" something actually doesn't say what is being done.

The graph you posted is a low pass filter. It rolls off (or suppresses) frequencies above 1.3khz. (that's actually a pretty low frequency for the low pass setting). There would be a LOT of discussion behind why you would do that.
It's more common to roll off all tracks except drums at 100Hz and below to suppress room rumble. That would be a high pass filter - passing everything higher than 100 Hz. Another common low pass filter is used to roll off freqs in vocals higher than say 5 kHz - this reduces the S sounds (also known as a de-esser).

EQ can be used many more ways. (reading, videos, and tinkering on your own DAW with your own tracks is where to learn it. I learned a lot of this from RecordingRevolution blog articles but I already know the concepts from my electrical engineering background.)

The question about instruments and their frequencies is more foundational.
The simple theory is that overlapping frequencies in the mix make an ugly mess when mixed together. I've proved that to myself by recording the same 12 string guitar playing different styles (picking or strumming) then trying to combine them using panning L and R. It just made a mess when listened to because they occupied the same frequencies.

[eimatam]

Originally Posted by PigPenofsoftware

EQ is a very important magic word and means "adjusting the sounds using frequency boost or suppression filters."

"To EQ" something actually doesn't say what is being done.

The graph you posted is a low pass filter. It rolls off (or suppresses) frequencies above 1.3khz. (that's actually a pretty low frequency for the low pass setting). There would be a LOT of discussion behind why you would do that.
It's more common to roll off all tracks except drums at 100Hz and below to suppress room rumble. That would be a high pass filter - passing everything higher than 100 Hz. Another common low pass filter is used to roll off freqs in vocals higher than say 5 kHz - this reduces the S sounds (also known as a de-esser).

EQ can be used many more ways. (reading, videos, and tinkering on your own DAW with your own tracks is where to learn it. I learned a lot of this from RecordingRevolution blog articles but I already know the concepts from my electrical engineering background.)

The question about instruments and their frequencies is more foundational.
The simple theory is that overlapping frequencies in the mix make an ugly mess when mixed together. I've proved that to myself by recording the same 12 string guitar playing different styles (picking or strumming) then trying to combine them using panning L and R. It just made a mess when listened to because they occupied the same frequencies.

And what happens if let's say I have 2 instruments (/sounds) and I make one of them 20hz-5khz and other 20hz-1.3hz (once again random numbers, but they both occupy 20hz-1.3khz room), will they overlap ? If yes, what to do that they wouldn't overlap ? If no, what happens then ? Thanks in advance.

[PigPenofsoftware]

Originally Posted by eimatam

And what happens if let's say I have 2 instruments (/sounds) and I make one of them 20hz-5khz and other 20hz-1.3hz (once again random numbers, but they both occupy 20hz-1.3khz room), will they overlap ? If yes, what to do that they wouldn't overlap ? If no, what happens then ? Thanks in advance.

Remember that I'm 2 steps below Newbie myself but -

I think the advice would be to roll off the 1st instrument somewhat below 1.3 kHz. Or arrange the music so they don't play at the same time. Or roll one off while the other is brought up then switch them later when it makes sense (different verse?). Or try to find better definition in the frequencies they actually occupy and see if they separate when looked at with a finer view.

There probably is not a 'formula' answer for this. Do what sounds good.
But expect you'll have to deal with the overlap somehow to get a good clean sound. You can separate them in - time, frequency, or space (stereo).

I forgot to mention in my example of the 2 guitars - two sounded really great in headphones because of the complete stereo separation. But in mono it was really bad.

Perfect mixes sound good in : stereo, mono, on nice headphones, on cheap earbuds, in your car stereo, and in the speaker over your table in the restaurant. (good luck with all that!)

TheRecordingRevolution blogs cover this kind of stuff over and over again - mixing and some ways to approach issues like this.

Reaper has a mono button on the Master Track so you can check out the mono sound as you make your mix.

[whiteaxxxe]

Originally Posted by eimatam

And what happens if let's say I have 2 instruments (/sounds) and I make one of them 20hz-5khz and other 20hz-1.3hz (once again random numbers, but they both occupy 20hz-1.3khz room), will they overlap ? If yes, what to do that they wouldn't overlap ? If no, what happens then ? Thanks in advance.

you cant say that. dont look at the numbers. eq is about listening. there are no sets of rules. record something and play with an eq to get a grasp of what the knobs do and (important) how that sounds.

you will get it relative quickly. the rest is experience. some of that "rules" will then make sense if you know what they are talking about and that it depends.

I made songs with 15 - 18 equal sounding guitars and sure they mashed up, thats what I wanted. so you have no rule that in every case is right as saying such things that instruments are not allowed to take up the same space frequency wise. what should a symphonie orchestra do? there is no mixer and lots of the instruments take up the same space frequency wise. there are up to 20 violins playing in the same space for example.

these rules about equing are a line you can stumble along when running into problems, as for example you have a guitar and a piano and they disturb each other. normally its absolute ok if they occupy the same space and play nice along. they do since ages in all live music, that is not amplified or mixed.

starters are overwhelmed by all this gadgets and scientic phrases and terms that are the secret language of musicians. and by eq, vst, vsti, samples, samplerate, resolution, panning and whatever ... dont oberthink it. start making music, record something and see how it sounds and the work on it and record more and see what falls into places and where problems occur. and care about the problems, the things that are ok are ok and dont bother about them.

do not try to have a grasp at everything and to have all the knowledge and then start making music.

that doesnt work.

make music and deal with the things as they come along.

[eimatam]

Originally Posted by PigPenofsoftware

Remember that I'm 2 steps below Newbie myself but -

I think the advice would be to roll off the 1st instrument somewhat below 1.3 kHz. Or arrange the music so they don't play at the same time. Or roll one off while the other is brought up then switch them later when it makes sense (different verse?). Or try to find better definition in the frequencies they actually occupy and see if they separate when looked at with a finer view.

There probably is not a 'formula' answer for this. Do what sounds good.
But expect you'll have to deal with the overlap somehow to get a good clean sound. You can separate them in - time, frequency, or space (stereo).

I forgot to mention in my example of the 2 guitars - two sounded really great in headphones because of the complete stereo separation. But in mono it was really bad.

Perfect mixes sound good in : stereo, mono, on nice headphones, on cheap earbuds, in your car stereo, and in the speaker over your table in the restaurant. (good luck with all that!)

TheRecordingRevolution blogs cover this kind of stuff over and over again - mixing and some ways to approach issues like this.

Reaper has a mono button on the Master Track so you can check out the mono sound as you make your mix.

Ok here is one more image I found, I know you say you are "2 steps below the newbie" yourself, but well I"m 2 steps below you, so I still expect you to know way more than I do.

http://www.dnbscene.com/forums/index...ttach=78;image

So basically, couple of sounds can occupy same frequency, as long as they have a different volume set up? Sorry for all these frustating question, but as I understand, understandment of eq is crucial for the "strong mass of music". I will watch some of therecordingrevolution , but I would like to at least understand what does it do.

[eimatam]

Originally Posted by whiteaxxxe

you cant say that. dont look at the numbers. eq is about listening. there are no sets of rules. record something and play with an eq to get a grasp of what the knobs do and (important) how that sounds.

you will get it relative quickly. the rest is experience. some of that "rules" will then make sense if you know what they are talking about and that it depends.

I made songs with 15 - 18 equal sounding guitars and sure they mashed up, thats what I wanted. so you have no rule that in every case is right as saying such things that instruments are not allowed to take up the same space frequency wise. what should a symphonie orchestra do? there is no mixer and lots of the instruments take up the same space frequency wise. there are up to 20 violins playing in the same space for example.

these rules about equing are a line you can stumble along when running into problems, as for example you have a guitar and a piano and they disturb each other. normally its absolute ok if they occupy the same space and play nice along. they do since ages in all live music, that is not amplified or mixed.

starters are overwhelmed by all this gadgets and scientic phrases and terms that are the secret language of musicians. and by eq, vst, vsti, samples, samplerate, resolution, panning and whatever ... dont oberthink it. start making music, record something and see how it sounds and the work on it and record more and see what falls into places and where problems occur. and care about the problems, the things that are ok are ok and dont bother about them.

do not try to have a grasp at everything and to have all the knowledge and then start making music.

that doesnt work.

make music and deal with the things as they come along.

Basically that's what I'm doing now, I did try to lay down some beats and loops just when I opened the program, as I thought it would be really easy, but then after doing that I understood, I have no ducking idea of what am I doing and what should I do. I didn't even know that you need to lay your music/sounds all over the frequency rate to make it sound strong.. I thought you just put some drums and effects and it's automatically like that.

[PigPenofsoftware]

Originally Posted by eimatam

Ok here is one more image I found, I know you say you are "2 steps below the newbie" yourself, but well I"m 2 steps below you, so I still expect you to know way more than I do.

http://www.dnbscene.com/forums/index...ttach=78;image

So basically, couple of sounds can occupy same frequency, as long as they have a different volume set up? Sorry for all these frustating question, but as I understand, understandment of eq is crucial for the "strong mass of music". I will watch some of therecordingrevolution , but I would like to at least understand what does it do.

That is a graph of loudness vs frequency occupied of a drum set. Nice to know I guess but doesn't help you record good material. Set it aside until it becomes relevent.

The stuff I've been reading about mixing is more about how a kick drum and a slap bass occupy the same part of the spectrum and how they can be de-conflicted to sound good. (I don't have either one so it's not relevent to me.)

Not sure what you're doing but if you're putting down some drum beats into Reaper you're ahead of me on that. That exercise stumped me when I tried it and I've set it aside for some other time when I know more or really need it or decide to take on a really hard puzzle. (I don't even know how many bits and pieces of s/w are needed to make it play.)

Once you have the stuff recorded and you're stumped - that's what the book will help with. (I think)

[eimatam]

Oh well haha, do you remember me saying that I wasn't familiar with the music at all before my hype started.. ? Well I can prove that this way: I actually tough kick, pad, hats and other drums are not drums, I thought they are all created with different instruments (Like pad with drums, hats with violin or so)... Anyways..

What kind of interval would you offer for me to use in my drums loops ? so it wouldn't sound too fast but not too slow either.

[PigPenofsoftware]

Originally Posted by eimatam

What kind of interval would you offer for me to use in my drums loops ? so it wouldn't sound too fast but not too slow either.

There is a speed control in Reaper just to the right of the start/stop/pause buttons (the "transport buttons"). Experiment with that.
You can also type in the musical time signature 4/4 is the default.

It's up to you to figure out what you want. That's why it's called "art."

(This answer brought to you by the guy who hasn't figured out how to make drum sounds in his own copy of Reaper.)

[eimatam]

Originally Posted by PigPenofsoftware

There is a speed control in Reaper just to the right of the start/stop/pause buttons (the "transport buttons"). Experiment with that.
You can also type in the musical time signature 4/4 is the default.

It's up to you to figure out what you want. That's why it's called "art."

(This answer brought to you by the guy who hasn't figured out how to make drum sounds in his own copy of Reaper.)

Could you maybe offer me some of recordingrevolution's most useful tutorials when starting ? I know all of their tutorials and tricks should be very good, but just to start off.

[PigPenofsoftware]

Originally Posted by eimatam

Could you maybe offer me some of recordingrevolution's most useful tutorials when starting ? I know all of their tutorials and tricks should be very good, but just to start off.

RR doesn't use Reaper in the videos so there's nothing there about where to find the buttons you want.

The RR blog has several articles and videos about making drums sound great but I think that's about real drums - not loops.

I realize your predicament is that you want to get started but don't have the vocabulary to ask specific questions (I'm pretty limited on that myself).

RR gives perspective on home recording - what's important, what's not, where you should spend your time (and not your money), and offers some techniques for mixing recorded tracks. It's possible that might not be where or how you want to start.

The Home Recording book is still my top choice for where to start.

[eimatam]

Originally Posted by PigPenofsoftware

RR doesn't use Reaper in the videos so there's nothing there about where to find the buttons you want.

The RR blog has several articles and videos about making drums sound great but I think that's about real drums - not loops.

I realize your predicament is that you want to get started but don't have the vocabulary to ask specific questions (I'm pretty limited on that myself).

RR gives perspective on home recording - what's important, what's not, where you should spend your time (and not your money), and offers some techniques for mixing recorded tracks. It's possible that might not be where or how you want to start.

The Home Recording book is still my top choice for where to start.

Well I guess I don't really want to learn where are the buttons, but the concepts of music, mixing and eq and well yes I do want to build up my "music vocabulary".

[PigPenofsoftware]

Originally Posted by eimatam

Well I guess I don't really want to learn where are the buttons, but the concepts of music, mixing and eq and well yes I do want to build up my "music vocabulary".

RR will help with mixing and eq.

"music" is a really, really, really big subject ;-)

RR's advice along those lines are - work hard to be a good musician so you're recording good stuff. The better you perform, the better the recording, the better the final mix.

[whiteaxxxe]

Originally Posted by PigPenofsoftware

There is a speed control in Reaper just to the right of the start/stop/pause buttons (the "transport buttons"). Experiment with that.
You can also type in the musical time signature 4/4 is the default.

...

dont.

dont do that.

dont use the speed control to adjust the tempo of your recording. that "speed control" manipulates the samplerate and alters the pitch if you change that.

and a tempo of a song has nothing to do with time signature. forget that real quickly. the tempo of the song is set in "beats per minute", BPM, and the time signature is set to something that fits the rythm of the song. mostly 4/4, but often 12/8 or 6/4 or 3/4. and after that it has some influence on the grid and the quantization.

oh my ... I would recommend a book about "what is music" in the first place.

I didnt sigh because of the lack of knowledge - I wont tell you what I did when I started making music, not funny - I sighed because there has to be a lot of knowledge before you should even start a DAW.

take some CDs, rock, classic, pop (from the 80s and more back, not nowadays pop), folkand easy listening. listen to it and think about what are the instruments? how many are playing? which are deep, which are high? do they all play together? do they all play different things? and why the f*#§ are they playing different notes and tones and it sounds together?

and so on and on ... go over to youtube and watch and listen to a symphony orchestra. thats the groundbreaking things to the question "what the f*#% is music and how the f#*& its is done?".

watch and learn. watch bands live playing. (I mean really live playing, playing instruments, not firing loops and sing or mimic to a playback.) figure out what the weird people on the stage with the even weirder things in their hands are doing. and stay away from loops. and HipHop and EDM. that bullshit doesnt do no good.

[PigPenofsoftware]

Originally Posted by whiteaxxxe

dont.

dont do that.

dont use the speed control to adjust the tempo of your recording. that "speed control" manipulates the samplerate and alters the pitch if you change that.

Sorry. Less than newbie misleading another less than newbie.

(I've not used those controls myself)

[eimatam]

Originally Posted by whiteaxxxe

dont.

dont do that.

dont use the speed control to adjust the tempo of your recording. that "speed control" manipulates the samplerate and alters the pitch if you change that.

and a tempo of a song has nothing to do with time signature. forget that real quickly. the tempo of the song is set in "beats per minute", BPM, and the time signature is set to something that fits the rythm of the song. mostly 4/4, but often 12/8 or 6/4 or 3/4. and after that it has some influence on the grid and the quantization.

oh my ... I would recommend a book about "what is music" in the first place.

I didnt sigh because of the lack of knowledge - I wont tell you what I did when I started making music, not funny - I sighed because there has to be a lot of knowledge before you should even start a DAW.

take some CDs, rock, classic, pop (from the 80s and more back, not nowadays pop), folkand easy listening. listen to it and think about what are the instruments? how many are playing? which are deep, which are high? do they all play together? do they all play different things? and why the f*#§ are they playing different notes and tones and it sounds together?

and so on and on ... go over to youtube and watch and listen to a symphony orchestra. thats the groundbreaking things to the question "what the f*#% is music and how the f#*& its is done?".

watch and learn. watch bands live playing. (I mean really live playing, playing instruments, not firing loops and sing or mimic to a playback.) figure out what the weird people on the stage with the even weirder things in their hands are doing. and stay away from loops. and HipHop and EDM. that bullshit doesnt do no good.

I appreciate your opinion, but with all the respect, not going to listen to it, but still thanks!

Anyways.. I'm reading the manual, I signed up for the online course (I think ponk told me about it), I find it quite useless to look at recordingrevolution at least for now, because I find it more not tutorial-like, but tips and tricks-like.. Tho yesterday I came across some videos/guys that showed how they created their song from 0 to 100, should I watch them (It's from around 30 to 120 minutes) ? Thanks in advance

[PigPenofsoftware]

After further study on the topic of drums for myself in Reaper I've concluded that there's so much to it that I'll have to set the idea completely aside until I find a tutorial that was typed very, very, slowly so that even I can understand it.

This seems to be another area in which those who know more than I do regard Reaper as incomplete. (it's probably more true that my expectations were wrong)

I consider myself demoted an additional grade below where I was as a sub-newbie due to failing drums.