Reaper DAW Terminology: Understanding the Basics for Audio Production

Hey there, it's Michael here and thanks for tuning in. Marty and I have been throwing around an idea and I'm taking the plunge and just getting it done, mainly because it is Sunday morning and I haven't pre recorded something Got to be fully transparent with you. So I'm going to share some resources with you to get started with Reaper and maybe will get producing some more content about Reaper in the future. But trust me, by the end of this episode you'll have plenty of resources to get started. Reaper is a Digital Audio Workstation or Daw that allows you to record, mix, edit and produce audio. It doesn't matter if the audio is a podcast or if it's a song and it was developed by Caucos Incorporated. One of the key things about Reaper is it's very customizable, you can make the interface fit your needs and of course, more importantly, it's very cost effective. It is $60 and will work on Windows, Mac or Linux and has a dedicated user community. I will give you a couple of resources specifically for the blind or sight impaired individual. There's a website called Reaperteacher.com. You can go there to get more information about live calls and where you can get to theglobalvoice info. Reaper, which has a couple of things that I'll go through the headings of includes core concepts with Justin and Scott installing reaper Osara SWS on windows with Scott installing reaper Osara SWS on mac with Jennick configuring Osara with both of them. Intro to editing with Justin and Scott and Reapers Without Papers. Or as Autocorrect fixed it to Reapers Without Papers. Songwriting and self producing with Noah Lawson. So that's just a quick overview of some of the headings that are available at theglobalvoice info reaper I'm going to give you an understanding of how I use Reaper. As a podcast editor, I don't do anything with music. However, I have been producing podcasts with Reaper since 2018 and am still learning new things to improve my workflow. And I figure throughout this series of random audios that I share with people, we can get to know Reaper a little better and maybe I'll improve my skills as well. Reaper is a digital audio workstation that provides nondestructive editing. And if you're new to editing, you might not understand the concept of nondestructive editing in traditional editors. Any changes you make to your audio are permanent. Nondestructive editing, on the other hand, allows you to make changes to your audio and it doesn't affect the original file. What I like about this is I can experiment with different effects and making different edits and not affect the original audio. This is a huge advantage, especially if you're working on a project with multiple tracks, often like you might be in podcast. Editing a project in Reaper is like a document in your word processor. It's where all the changes you make live Reaper projects are saved as the RPP files and you can configure settings, for example, to save all of your related media with that RPP file in a subfolder. We'll get more into that probably in the future. A track is inside of a project and that track can have audio or Midi. Midi is something I can't quite explain to you, but I bet if you go check out theglobalvoice info reaper, they'll explain it to you as well. You also can control the routing of the audio and the effects that that audio has. A track lives inside of a project. Inside of tracks are items, and these items can also be audio or Midi. An item can be positioned on the track and have a specific length. Maybe it goes as long as the track is, or maybe it's just half a second. Takes are different versions of an item that you can cycle through. Markers are used to indicate specific points in your project that you may want to reference back because it's a start of a new section or a significant event. Regions are similar to markers, but they define sections inside your project and you can add comments to both markers and regions. Automation allows you to perform actions on audio over a specific period of time. Envelopes are similar to automations, but they allow you to perform changes to specific sections of the project. To render a project means to export a copy of it, and the Reaper Render dialog provides you the ability to customize what information in your project is rendered into any file format almost that you need related to audio or video. That's a brief overview of the general concepts you need to understand for Reaper. Please stay tuned to the Unmute Podcast feed for more information. And if you have questions about reaper, bring them to our Tuesday call 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time. That's 01:00 P.m Eastern ACB. Commun. For more information or listen live ACB Media Five. It'll also be podcasted after it's completed unmute be heard.