SOUND ON SOUND

[ef37a]

Came across this in Techniques, Reaper Sept 2010.

From the wording this seems to suggest that Reaper can record the OUTPUT of a soundcard and this is just the facility I have been looking for for my Lenovo T510 which has NO form of audio input.

I also have an elderly W7 desktop that did not have 'Stereo Mix' activated in the soundcard but eventually, after tracking down the actual Asus drive I got it back. STILL won't record the *&^& Radio though!

I have spent a few minutes setting up 'save output to disc' on the W7 machine but no joy so far. Does Reaper ACTUALLY 'look' at the sound card's output? I can now set this up on another desktop via a F'rite 8i6 but the ability to do it on the T510 would be magic!

Dave.

[Aled Hughes]

I think it bounces Reaper’s output to disk in real time, not the soundcard’s output.

[Sam Spoons]

That's what I thought so I've just tried it and, yes, that's what it does.

[ef37a]

I think it bounces Reaper’s output to disk in real time, not the soundcard’s output.

Don't think so? The article talks of "recording general chat and jams between takes' so Reaper cannot be recording an output it has not got yet?

My (limited!) understanding is that this is a DAW's equivalent of the routing possible with my 8i6 and was a feature of the ESI 1010e that I have recently retired. Mind you! Getting the routing matrix sorted in that was a nightmare, I never really understood it but hacked about until I got the 'loop back' working then saved the setup.

If I am playing YT sound or the radio there clearly IS a digital signal floating around in the PC. Does not seem beyond the wit of man (or whatever wrote Reaper!) to grab that in a DAW?

Dave.

[Sam Spoons]

Will test later as I can't get the MBP's internal mic to come up in Reaper but you might well be right and it records everything that reaches reapers main outputs regardless of what you are doing in Reaper itself.

What is it you are trying to do Dave?

[ef37a]

Will test later as I can't get the MBP's internal mic to come up in Reaper but you might well be right and it records everything that reaches reapers main outputs regardless of what you are doing in Reaper itself.

What is it you are trying to do Dave?

Ever since I got this Lenovo Sam I have been unable to record the internal sound. Not only does W10 defeat "Stereo Mix" which allowed me to do it on my old HPg6 but the Lenovo does not appear to have any kind of audio input save the internal microphone which is, as always, disabled.

I have tried a couple of the third party apps that purport to do this but all seem to assume every soundcard has an input.

I have Reaper, paid for on two other machines but running free atmo on the T510, if I can get Reaper to record the card's output I shall cheerfully stump the wonga!

I know I can do this with an external AI such as a UCA 202 lashup but I want fully integrated system.

Dave.

[James Perrett]

I have Reaper, paid for on two other machines but running free atmo on the T510, if I can get Reaper to record the card's output I shall cheerfully stump the wonga!

Are you going to be using all 3 copies of Reaper at the same time? If not, you can use one of your other licence files on the T510 quite legally with no problem.

I think you may need to install some kind of audio routing software to do what you want though.

Edit: Reaper CAN do this - see my post below for instructions

[Martin Walker]

I think you may need to install some kind of audio routing software to do what you want though.

I agree with James. Reaper's 'save live output to disc' is a great way to record whatever is currently appearing at Reaper's master output, whether that's a project being played back, or live input signals from any channels that have their 'Record Monitoring' switched on.

I even used it instead of Render on one occasion a few months back when a particular plug-in refused to be captured correctly at any speed of offline render, so I instead activated 'save live output to disk' and monitored this plug-in to make sure its settings were correct throughout normal playback.

However, it isn't designed to capture the output from other applications in real time (the infamous Soundblaster "What U Hear" function)


Martin

[Eddy Deegan]

I even used it instead of Render on one occasion a few months back when a particular plug-in refused to be captured correctly at any speed of offline render, so I instead activated 'save live output to disk' and monitored this plug-in to make sure its settings were correct throughout normal playback.

I had to use the feature when I was trialling Ozone 9. On one project Ozone would crash (and take Reaper down with it) every time I rendered audio. I never figured out why.

The 'save live output' feature got me out of a tricky situation, as the project in question was needed for someone else and Izotope support were unable to resolve the issue at the time!

[FrankF]

I capture audio in real time from YouTube, DVDs, etc. using Audacity: is that what you're trying to do?
I've never tried to do it with Reaper, simply because it's so easy with Audacity: open a new project, hit record, and you're off.

[ef37a]

I capture audio in real time from YouTube, DVDs, etc. using Audacity: is that what you're trying to do?
I've never tried to do it with Reaper, simply because it's so easy with Audacity: open a new project, hit record, and you're off.

But what INPUT is Audacity recording to?

Dave.

[FrankF]

Not sure what you mean by Input, but:
I just opened Aud. and Reaper, pressed Play on a Reaper multitrack project, then Record on Aud., and it auto-recorded the Reaper output to a stereo pair in Aud. in real time, w/o me having to assign tracks or owt like that.

Does that make sense?

[ef37a]

Not sure what you mean by Input, but:
I just opened Aud. and Reaper, pressed Play on a Reaper multitrack project, then Record on Aud., and it auto-recorded the Reaper output to a stereo pair in Aud. in real time, w/o me having to assign tracks or owt like that.

Does that make sense?

No! Sorry Frank. How is Audacity configured in 'Preferences'? Then of course I don't want to record the output of any DAW, I want Radio 3! Butty-but-but...I do not see any real difference between replay of a DAW and the audio of radio or YT?

I have this annoying feeling that the soundcard DOES have inputs buried in the BIOS but I do not want to risk hacking in there when I have alternative solutions.

Dave.






/

[FrankF]

Whatever is "playing" on the PC (YouTube, Radio Covid-19, hamster por-n, a disc in the dvd-rom player...) will be recorded in stereo, tracks 1 and 2, of Audacity.

You have to faff with the settings in Aud., but once it works, then you might want to scribble them down, even though they're saved automatically.
So, in my Audacity, the 4 grey dropdown boxes beneath the transport controls (hover over them if you're not sure which is which) are set as follows:

Audio host - Windows WASAPI
Rec. device - loudspeakers (loopback)
Rec. channels - 2 stereo (or "1 mono" if you want mono files!)
Playback device - loudspeakers

[ef37a]

Whatever is "playing" on the PC (YouTube, Radio Covid-19, hamster por-n, a disc in the dvd-rom player...) will be recorded in stereo, tracks 1 and 2, of Audacity.

You have to faff with the settings in Aud., but once it works, then you might want to scribble them down, even though they're saved automatically.
So, in my Audacity, the 4 grey dropdown boxes beneath the transport controls (hover over them if you're not sure which is which) are set as follows:

Audio host - Windows WASAPI
Rec. device - loudspeakers (loopback)
Rec. channels - 2 stereo (or "1 mono" if you want mono files!)
Playback device - loudspeakers

Holy ******g ***t! Frank. That works! I have been arsing about with this problem on and off for WEEKS! One thing, you have to untick 'Software playthrough of input' or the system goes loopy. To think, I have had Audacity FOREVER and never knew it could do this.

The Windows sound box shows a volume slider for Audacity now and I have had to pull that back to 10 from 50 to get the recording in the -18/peak -12dBfs region but, Whaaahey!

My son in France is going to be SO pissed? I spoke to him about this and he said he would really like the facility. I can now tell him how to do it but he can't get any internet at the moment !

Mucho thanko Frank.

Dave.