[RWP] Tips for selecting audio

Sun Jun 24 20:19:31 EDT 2012

I do most of my editing in Reaper these days, only using SoundForge for little touch-ups and over-all mastering stuff. I agree that Reaper doesn't replace SoundForge. It's an entirely different way of doing things. This having been said, everything you want to do is quite possible in Reaper, though completely different than what you're used to in SoundForge.

For example, editing the entire project's timeline is different than the various modes of ripple editing, which allow you to edit stuff on individual tracks without effecting the overall timeline of the project, something that isn't possible in SoundForge due to it's two-track nature.

One thing that will really help when doing linear edits in Reaper is to set repeat with control+r. This, quite literally, repeats the time selection over and over again when the cursor hits it. Note that the cursor is completely independent of time selection. You can make a selection, then go anywhere else in the project, while the time selection is still active elseware. Another thing you won't see in SoundForge, and something to get used to.

So, let's take your specific questions individually;

>>> Firstly, in sound forge, I could press control, shift and end to select from the current point, to the end of a file, for example, to trim off the end of a recording. Is there an equivalent keystroke in Reaper?

I don't know of one keystroke that will do this, but here's how I do it. Find the point at which you want to start your selection. Press shift+alt+left bracket. Now, press end, then alt shift right bracket. You now have a selection from point X to end of project. To go the other way, follow the same steps logically. It may be useful to set markers to help you not lose your place. Control 1 through 0 quickly set markers 1 through 0. Pressing just those numbers jump back to those markers. You can select between any two markers by simply going to one, pressing shift+alt+left bracket, jumping to another marker, then ending the selection with shift+alt+right bracket.

>>> Also, in sound forge, there's a nice way to do basic selection, by holding down the shift key and arrowing forward. Does Reaper have such functionality?

Yes. Once you have a time selection set, you can use several keystrokes to expand, contract, and nudge the time selection left or right. Here's how this works.
First of all, the zoom ratio is set with numpad plus and numpad minus by default. Plus gives higher granularity, thus, everything moves in smaller steps. Basically, the lower the number, the larger your movements will be.
Now, we will assume you already have a time selection in place. Otherwise, these keys won't do much.
You can nudge the entire time selection left or right by pressing comma and period, respectively. Increase or decrease the left side of the selection with controlcomma and period respectively, and do the same to the right side of the selection with control+alt+comma/period. Again, having repeat set will give you a better idea of what's going on in the project while you manipulate this stuff in real time, as does using loop mode in SoundForge, assuming you aren't using something like the Snowman's jaws scripts. I should also mention that everything is completely context sensitive, so you'll want to make sure that, after making a time selection, that you're actually working with the timeline rather than a track or item before performing an edit operation. Usually, what I do before deleting a time selection, just to make sure I'm actually effecting the timeline itself, is to press left or right arrow after making a selection, moving the cursor slightly, so that a time related command is the last thing I've done, then envoking the desired action. Otherwise, I might end up accidentally deleting a track. Been there, done that. It's not fun, especially when you go on blissfully editing and saving a project, only to discover that you deleted something 500 edits ago that really needs to exist.

>> How can I apply a fade-in or fade-out to a selected piece of audio? In sound forge, I used to select the desired audio, go to process and fade.

This can be done with two actions that, as far as I know, are not associated with a key by default.
These actions are called fade items into cusror and fade items out from cursor. Once you've assigned keys to these two actions in the actions list, (f4,) you can simply fade in and out using time selection or relative position of cursor. The fade length will be determined by the selection length, although you can edit the fade lengths of individual items by selecting those items with control left/right arrow on the track with the appropriate items, then going to that item's properties with alt+f2, and changing the values for fade in/fade out. I will say that this is something I much prefer doing in SoundForge. Don't worry though, because there is an easy way to import and export items from Reaper to SoundForge and back again.

First, you need to tell Reaper that SoundForge is your primary audio editor. You can do this in preferences under external editors. Just brows to the full path of forgeXX.exe, depending on your version of SoundForge.
Now, here's the easiest way I know of to get a selection of audio from Reaper to SoundForge.
First, make an item split on either side of the material you want to edit with your external editor. Do this by finding the point of interest with your cursor, pressing "s" at start of selection, then doing the same for the end. Now, select your previously split item by using control+left arrow. With that item selected, bring up the context menu for items, and find the option that says "render item as new take." If you don't do this, opening the item in an external editor will open the entire file rather than a small portion, which is usually not what you want. I'm still using an older version of Reaper, so getting the right context menu may require pressing control+up arrow a few times under Reaper 4.x.
Anyhow, after your item has been rendered as a new take, go back to that item's context menu, and select open item in editor. This should bring up your selected audio in SoundForge. Do whatever you want to it there, then save from SoundForge. The newly edited item will automatically exist in the project. Keep in mind, however, that anything you do that drastically changes the length of your selection may have interesting consequences, as the item length was already set in the project, and has nothing at all to do with the length of the file itself, so you may have to adjust length settings and other things later in life, using a combination of ripple editing and manually putting in numbers. This can get a bit tricky, especially with multiple tracks, making sure that everything is still lined up at the end of the day. If you're just doing basic dynamics processing, fade in/out, etc. this shouldn't be a problem.

I hope this is at least somewhat useful.

On Jun 24, 2012, at 3:59 PM, Indigo wrote:

> Stewart, Sound Forge is the best audio editor, in my opinion, and since you already know all those edits in  Sound Forge, why not install Sound forge on your computer that has Reaper, then set Sound Forge as your associated editor.
> In Reaper's options/preferences; there's a long listof topics; beginning with Audio, and toward the very bottom of those topics is a place to set Reaper's associated editor.
> Now, I haven't done this yet, though I will in time, so I can't say how you take the track from Reaper to Sound Forge to do things like fade in fade out, but there must be a method.
> I'm hoping it's simply selecting an audio track in Reaper, then in Reaper's menus will be Sound Forge, click on it and Sound Forge opens with the selected audio track in place.
> This is how apps like Sonar do it; I believe;  but I'm only guessing.
> If you try it, please tell us how it worked.
> Sorry, I can only help with what I've done so far, but I'm glad to help with that much,
> Indigo L
> 
> 
> 
> On 6/24/2012 1:32 PM, Stuart Lawler wrote:
>> Thank you Indigo. How can I apply a fade-in or fade-out to a selected piece of audio? In sound forge, I used to select the desired audio, go to process and fade.
>> 
>> Stuart.
>> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: rwp-bounces at reaaccess.com [mailto:rwp-bounces at reaaccess.com] On Behalf Of Indigo
>> Sent: 24 June 2012 17:04
>> To: Reapers Without Peepers
>> Subject: Re: [RWP] Tips for selecting audio
>> 
>> In ReaAccess, you can split any audio track into items by first selecting the item.
>> I arrow to the track in question and press ctrl+shift+right arrow to select hhe item.
>> You can then left or right arrow to locate the cursor at the point you want the split to occur; then press the S key.
>> You then have the portion of the track  previous to your split point called item 1 and the remainder of the original track as item 2.
>> Then you can do what you like with either item, delete it; cut and paste it to a new track, whatever.
>> You can split these items again and again into ever smaller sections; or items as they are called; by the same method.
>> 
>> Other people may suggest other methods, there are usually many ways to do things in Reaper.
>> Hope this helps,
>> Indigo L
>> 
>> On 6/24/2012 10:24 AM, Stuart Lawler wrote:
>>> Hi,
>>> 
>>> I'm still very new to Reaper, but want to learn to do a few things. Thanks to Gianluca, a member of this list I think, I have a nice project template that allows me to set up ducking, so that music fades down nicely when a voiceover is inserted. Now however, I'm wanting to perform some very basic selection commands.
>>> 
>>> I'm coming from the Sound Forge school of editing, so excuse me if some of these questions are really basic.
>>> 
>>> Firstly, in sound forge, I could press control, shift and end to select from the current point, to the end of a file, for example, to trim off the end of a recording. Is there an equivalent keystroke in Reaper?
>>> 
>>> Also I'd like to know the opposite, in sound forge, I could press control, shift and home, to select from the current position to the beginning of the file, again, is there an equivalent?
>>> 
>>> Also, in sound forge, there's a nice way to do basic selection, by holding down the shift key and arrowing forward. Does Reaper have such functionality?
>>> 
>>> Many thanks for any help.
>>> 
>>> Stuart.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> RWP mailing list
>>> RWP at reaaccess.com
>>> http://reaaccess.com/mailman/listinfo/rwp_reaaccess.com
>>> 
>> 
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> RWP mailing list
>> RWP at reaaccess.com
>> http://reaaccess.com/mailman/listinfo/rwp_reaaccess.com
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> RWP mailing list
>> RWP at reaaccess.com
>> http://reaaccess.com/mailman/listinfo/rwp_reaaccess.com
>> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> RWP mailing list
> RWP at reaaccess.com
> http://reaaccess.com/mailman/listinfo/rwp_reaaccess.com