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Post by BootHamilton on Sept 27, 2017 17:33:43 GMT
It has been suggested that I start a thread on the basics of REAPER. I just had a much better idea, which I'll tell you about in a minute. REAPER, IMHO, is a pretty fantastic value in DAW's - Digital Audio Workstation - $60 usd. Not only that, but you can download it for free to try it out - and it is NOT a cut-down version. What you get is the full version of REAPER. All they ask is that after X amount of days, if you want to keep using it, please pay for it - total honor system. So... how can it be very good if it costs so much less than almost everything out there? It's pretty simple, really. Justin Frankel, founder of REAPER, created a music player called WinAMP. around 1996. A couple years later AOL bought it for something like $59,000,000 - that's Fifty-nine million USD. He don't need no mo! REAPER puts almost no load on your computer, seems to do everything I would ever need - MIDI, Audio, Video editing, etc. etc. You can customize it any way you like - including it's appearance to suit your taste - just by downloading free "Themes" that others have created. Here's the stock mixer: Here's a different 'Theme': Now, this subject has been done to death. So I'm not going to re-invent the wheel. Here is a great place to start. Kenny Gioia is a pro-instructor with some excellent free videos. But he talks kind of fast and he's from 'Joisey - so just get used to 'rewinding' a lot. Then come back here for help over the stumbling blocks and I'll try and help out. Go here: www.reaper.fm/videos.php
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Post by BootHamilton on Sept 28, 2017 3:57:53 GMT
OK. I don't know if anyone's paying attention or not, or interested at all, but I will start at the very stupid level, which is where I started, and we'll go from there.
First off - I'm on a pc, and I assume many of you are on Mac's. Shouldn't make much difference, just that some of the file locations and certain shortcut keystrokes may be a little different from time to time. But we'll figure it out.
What are we going to do? I think most, if not all, want to put midi into their computer. Either one track, or 100 tracks. REAPER does this. And also audio. And also has the ability to drag in a vid clip, and edit it.
What do we need?
1.) A computer.
2.) A VSTi plugin to generate sound. REAPER comes with none (but it does come with a ton of EQ's, compressors, reverbs, etc.) But this is absolutely no problem. I repeat - the fact that REAPER includes no plugins is not a bad thing. Why? Because there are least 45 tons of FREE VSTi's available for download all over the interwebs. I went for years using nothing but freebies. We'll look around and find you some. I assume everyone here can play enough piano to enter the notes they want. So we'll find y'all a little free piano VSTi.
OPTION: MIDI keyboard controller. I highly recommend a midi keyboard controller. You can enter MIDI notes click by click with a mouse, but this seems pure madness to me. However, I realize that I may seem the epitomy of madness to many so, whatever works for you. Even a very basic MIDI keyboard with a MIDI/usb output to plug into your computer will be a great boon to achieving our goal of getting the MIDI into REAPER's MIDI Editor. They can then be moved around, shortened, added-to, removed, etc., etc.
It has been pointed out to me that many here choose to enter midi notes manually, via mouse-click. Doesn't make any difference to me. It's your choice.
Other than speakers and/or headphones, that's all you need.
Next: Getting this puppy fired-up.
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Post by BootHamilton on Sept 28, 2017 5:00:11 GMT
Let's get going. Download REAPER, here: www.reaper.fm/download.phpDouble click or whatever it tells you and install it on your machine. This should be super simple. Now we've got to get you a voice for it. Go get one of these free piano VSTi's: www.vst4free.com/free_vst.php?plugin=City_Piano&id=2293www.vst4free.com/free_vst.php?plugin=Keyzone_Classic&id=2848(I've not tried the second one, but it looks interesting). EDIT: I tried out that "Keyzone" freebie and it is, by far, the best of the lot (the others sound like ill-maintained pianos). Grab the Keyzone.
Make sure you download the appropriate file for your machine. I'm on a 64 bit pc, so I'd download the 64bit VSTi. It looks like there's two available for Macs - a Mac OSX and Mac AU. Not sure what thats all about, do a little research. Now this next thing is a one time deal - pay attention and your life will be a lot easier. Create a folder and put it anywhere on your machine and don't move it. I used to create a new one every year to keep things sorted. I'd call mine VST 2017. And I'd have it like here: C:\VST 2017 It doesn't matter where, just somewhere 'safe'.
Now unzip whatever piano VSTi you DL'd, and put the .dll file in that folder (I'm not sure what the file is going to be called for you MAC guys & girls). NOTE: BIG CORRECTION! MACS / OSX does NOT use .dll files (these are for Windows-only). MACS use files of ".VST" file type. Here's what my 2015 folder looks like: (I've got so much crap in there that I never use. Some day I'm going to get organized). EDIT: Note - If you grabbed the "Keyzone", read this. Keyzone installs a bit differently, in that it comes with an 'installer' of it's own. No problem. In this case, unzip the download. Then double-click the "exe" file. It'll ask you where to 'put' the contents. I opted for my desktop. After that you'll have a folder called "Bitsonic". Just drag the whole darned folder to your newly created "VST" folder and that's it. Here's mine:We're just about done with the one-time hard parts. Hang in there. Next: Trying to Avoid Pulling Our Hair Out. Attachments:
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Post by Dave Dexter on Sept 28, 2017 8:40:03 GMT
This is great stuff Boot, keep it coming.
One nitpick - I enter everything with mouse clicks. Don't put off people who can't play piano (the most common midi-input form)! While piano will definitely be quicker for some musical forms, I think I could probably be quicker and more flexible in other ways. Working in piano roll with a mouse means your tool for input and editing is the same; you don't have to enter a phrase with a keyboard then edit or fix or move with a mouse, you can input, edit, tweak, add all at once, without needing to constantly playback. I'm pretty nippy. And because what I'm doing is completely unrelated to my skill as a musician, I'm limited only by what I can imagine.
That's it really, just don't want to worry other DAW beginners!
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Post by BootHamilton on Sept 28, 2017 18:24:44 GMT
OK. This is it. Open REAPER by double-clicking. I can't remember exactly what REAPER is going to look like for you the first time (I've customized mine to look how I like it every time I start it up). So, you may have zero tracks showing. If that's the case, let's add one. Click the REAPER window somewhere so it's active. Now, (on my pc) just hit Cntrl T ("T" for Track). You can do this once or a hundred times. Try it. Ctrl T, Cntr T, Cntrl T - over & over. OK STOP! That's enough! Let's stick with one track for now. Delete all but one - While holding Cntrl Shift, select all but one of the new tracks, then hit delete. Oops! Didn't mean to delete? No problem. Find the ALL-IMPORTANT " Undo Button" at the upper left and click it to undo last actions in reverse chronological order. Here's a little demo of the above:
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Post by BootHamilton on Sept 28, 2017 19:27:18 GMT
Finishing initial Set-up
(You want to have the path to your "VST Folder" handy. I'd just copy it, so you have it ready to paste). The "OPTIONS" Window This can be a very heavily-used area, both during initial setting-up as well as later on. Especially "Options/Preferences". Let's go there now. There are two ways to get there. Long Hand: Go up to the top of the REAPER window, find "Options", click it, then go down to the bottom to find "Preferences" and click that also. Short Hand: Hit Cntrl-P (for " P"references). We're looking for where to enter your VST Folder location so REAPER can find it. So... Hit CNTRL-P, then at the lower portion of the "Prefs" window find one of the last things listed, "VST". Click "VST". In the little window at the top - Paste-in your VST Folder location.NOTE: You can enter as many different paths as you'd like here. Just separate them with a semi-colon; For example, I have about 14 dozen locations (not quite, but you should try and keep things as organized as possible). I could have: "C:\VST 2017; C:\VST 2016; C:\Yo' Mama\VST 2015" etc. That's it!
(BTW - if a VST doesn't show up, it's probably because you just added it to your folder and need to hit "Re-scan" (under the little window). That's usually all it takes ). Hit "OK" at the bottom of the window to close-out the "Prefs" window. Here's what you're going to do: Next: Let's See If It Friggin' Works.
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Post by BootHamilton on Sept 28, 2017 20:03:44 GMT
Here's the B I G T E S T Inserting your VSTi into your Track Open REAPER On your single track, find the little "FX" button. This will open the list of FX you have (in your case - not much). Here you can add as many VST's to your track as you'd like. For now, we're sticking to the piano VSTi you downloaded. Clicking the "FX" button. A window pops up showing all the available VST's and VSTi's. WOW! That's a lot of VIrtual Studio Technology and instruments! How can you find what you're looking for? Relax. It's easy (of course, it's REAPER). In the little dialogue box at bottom, type in a few letters of the VST you're looking for. If it's the "BitSonic Keyzone", just start typing "Bitsonic and it'll show up, filtering-out all others. Or in your case, you could narrow down the selection by going to the upper left of the window, selecting "VSTi", and it will list only the VSTi's you have - exactly one. When it shows up, double click it and it will insert into your track. Like this: (Oh-oh. File exceeds size-limit. Gimme a minute (How's he going to fix that?)). Like THIS:Pt. 1 Pt. 2 Hey! It Works! How did I fix the over-sized GIF movie? Oh, that was easy. I dragged it onto a REAPER track, SPLIT it in the middle, rendered as two individual files and TA-DA: Bob's you're Uncle! Next: The Actual MIDI Editor.
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Post by BootHamilton on Sept 28, 2017 21:30:50 GMT
Let's get some MIDI going. Personally, I record something with my MIDI keyboard, then I go into the MIDI track and tweak things afterword. You can, of course (to which I've previously alluded) do the whole thing manually. All this requires is inserting a 'Blank MIDI item" and going from there. We may as well look at doing both. BTW, while I'm doing these lil' GIF vids, I think I'm going to use a variety of different 'themes', just to show you some of the customization that's available (mostly free themes which you can download to change the entire look of REAPER. This flexibillity is just the visual way to allow you to work in whatever fashion is comfortable for YOU. there are many more non-visual tweaks available, too.
Here's what I do. I hit "Record", play something, hit "Stop". And then, by double-clicking on the media item I've just recorded (the MIDI item right in the recorded track) the MIDI editor will open. Like this:
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Post by BootHamilton on Sept 28, 2017 21:37:08 GMT
You can, of course, also enter things manually. In that case, you need to go up to the upper left of the REAPER window, find the "Insert" drop-down, click it, select "New MIDI Item" and you're there. Again, just double click on the " New MIDI Item you've just inserted and the MIDI Editor will open up.
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Post by BootHamilton on Sept 29, 2017 3:53:05 GMT
Questions so far?
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Post by king2b on Sept 29, 2017 8:28:11 GMT
NO questions as of yet I am struggling opening the piano VST!
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Post by BootHamilton on Sept 29, 2017 13:22:46 GMT
NO questions as of yet I am struggling opening the piano VST! What exactly is the problem? Where are you in the process? Although I'm on a pc and you a Mac, I don't think we should be able to botch this too badly. You've obviously downloaded a piano VSTi - which one? Have you unzipped it? If 'Yes', what do you see after unzipping? And then, what did you put where? Finally, are you sure that you've inserted into REAPER the correct path to your VST folder? Please let me know some of these answers so we can get you sorted asap.
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Post by king2b on Sept 29, 2017 13:54:58 GMT
This is what I have in my VST, no Piano yet it says I have put it there.
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Post by BootHamilton on Sept 29, 2017 15:59:04 GMT
This is what I have in my VST, no Piano yet it says I have put it there. Aaaaaaa-HA! THAT's the problem. There are "VST's" and there are "VSTi's". VST's are audio effects (FX) and / or signal processing plug-ins. VSTi's are VST's that are Instruments, which is what we're looking for. So if you've put things in the correct location and provided REAPER w/ the correct path to your VST/VSTi folder, you just need to: Select either "All Plugins" or "VSTi".
*Note #1:
The common nomenclature "VST" and "VSTi", intended to differentiate between an insert that is an effect or an instrument, although accurate, has largely become blurred - with most people now calling all of them VST's.
**Note #2:
VST's and VSTi's each can, and usually do reside in the same folder.
***Note #3:
In the case of REAPER's plugin list (as displayed in the above pic), the items "VST", VSTi", VST3 and so on, are available as a convenience; a filter. Clicking on any of these will filter-out all others. This is pretty handy when you have (as I shamefully do) a ton of all kinds of plugins and, for instance, cannot remember the exact name or desire to segregate for any number of other reasons. However, clicking on the top item, "All Plugins", will display contents of all plugins in all locations provided to REAPER.
****Note #4:
Don't forget - By clicking "All Plugins", and then typing the name of the plugin in the dialog box at bottom, you are provided yet another form of filtration to zero-in on your target VST. Please let me know how you make out.
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Post by fuguestate on Sept 29, 2017 17:53:57 GMT
It's little nitty technical details like this that stumble users all the time. Very helpful to point this out!
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