SOUND ON SOUND

[Arpangel]

You probably know this already but don't you have Reaper create subdirectories for each project and tick the "copy all media into project directory" box? You can also have it save 'reapeaks' files into a sub folder within the project folder to reduce clutter.

Yeah, I have copy all media, but I didn’t know about the sub folder.

[Sam Spoons]

I can't remember offhand where the reapeaks sub folder option is but I'm sure I haven't made it up :) I'll have another look later.

You still get a certain amount of clutter if you have multiple takes or several redundant tracks but hiding the reapeak files definitely helps.

[manwilde]

What Sam just said is one of the keys for a clean organisation of your projects. I´ll try to briefly summarize what my setup is:
- First of all, if you haven´t done it already, create a folder called "Reaper projects" on your hard drive of choice. Open your Reaper Preferences (CTRL+P), and on "Paths" (Under "General" on the left-side column) insert the path for this folder on the first field ("Default paths to save new projects")
- Second: go to your "Project Settings" window (ALT+ENTER), second tab "Media" and go to the first field ("Path to save media files") and type "\AUDIO" (no quotation marks) or whatever you want to call the subfolder in which all your audio will be for each project. Instead of clicking "OK" click on "Save as default project settings".
- Now let´s go with the peak settings: open your Preferences again (CTRL+P). Just for the sake of clarity, click first on the topmost category on you left column, "General". Now, on the "Find" field at the bottom left type "peaks". Every time you click on "Find" Reaper will take you to the next preference containing that word.
First one, "Store all peak caches in alternate path: untick that.
Now click several times until you reach this Preference: "Put new peak files in peaks/subfolder relative to media". This has to be ticked.

This should be it.

Of course, every time you save a new project you have to tick the option for "Create new directory for project" and "Copy all media into project directory". You should also do this to save new versions of your scattered projects, and once you´ve done for all of them you can get rid of the old ones.
Besides, make regular backups of your projects in a different hard drive (I guess you already do this).
Hope this hepls.

[manwilde]

Sorry, long post and I didn´t see your new ones making some of mine a bit redundant...

[shufflebeat]

Sorry, long post and I didn´t see your new ones making some of mine a bit redundant...

Good to have a systematic summary.

I have distributed my pathways in such a way as to keep everything to do with a project within a discreet folder but many will want to keep things centralised.

For every project I start, sometimes with multiple tabs, I have a project folder and within that separate "audio" (with Reapeaks), "mixes", "video" (just in case) and a "text" file for emergency notes, lyrics, PDFs, etc.

[manwilde]

I do that too. One thing worth mentioning for those unaware of it: when using external samples, reverb impulses or anything from an external library, it´s important to "Copy all media into project directory" when saving the project. That will create a subdirectory on the "Audio" folder for the project containing the relevant files...

[James Perrett]

I always use "Move all media into project directory" rather than copy as I don't see any point in leaving the original files in the default directory.

At the end of a session I will copy everything to a backup drive (although if I was really organised I'd use Syncback).

[manwilde]

Yes, normally it´s more practical to move rather than copy, but only if it´s your own recordings, surely you wouldn´t want to move your samples or IR files from its original location... In that case it´s copy rather than move (when saving for the first time since you included the sample or IR in your session, that is!).

Thanks for the Syncback link, I´ll check it out!.

[James Perrett]

If you are using samples or IR's in a plug-in then the plug-in should take care of where those samples go. In the case of Reaverb, it creates its own IR folder automatically under the project directory where it saves copies of the IR's that it is using.

[manwilde]

Yes, sorry for not explaining myself properly. All that is true as long as you keep the project in the same computer. If you want to take it to a different location, the IR won't no longer be avilalable unless you do the "copy all media" thing.
I discovered this when I first took a project on an usb stick from home to the project studio, and Reaverb could not find the IR file. As I have the same impulses on both computers, but differently allocated, I had to reload the IR pointing to the proper folder.
Now I always take care of doing the "Save as/copy all media" routine whenever I take a project to a different computer.

[James Perrett]

I discovered this when I first took a project on an usb stick from home to the project studio, and Reaverb could not find the IR file.

I think this has changed fairly recently as it certainly automatically saves the impulses it needs in the same folder as the project now but I don't remember it doing that before.

[manwilde]

That´s good to know, thanks. I´m still on Reaper 5 (.4 I believe), and trying not to obsess about all the goodies that keep coming along... although automation items are something that keep me tempting to upgrade :)

[James Perrett]

There's lots of good stuff in the newer releases and it is very rare that they release a duff version. I don't always stay up to date but so far I'm finding the latest version is just as good as usual.

[shufflebeat]

I've just had my third reported issue fixed in the last update. It's incredible. It wasn't mentioned in the update list but a problem I posted about (one other guy had the same problem) just vanished.

There is more under the bonnet than I'll ever find a use for but that doesn't matter. There are enough tools for me to cobble some kind of workflow together and if something niggly gets in the way - people fix it.

I wish Justin & Co made gas boilers.