[CaliaMoko]

I'm using Reaper 5.111 rev 4db86a, on a laptop running XP, and recording through a PreSonus AudioBox 44 VSL.

I cannot hear what I'm recording in Reaper. I can hear the sound when I play it after I'm done, but I hear nothing while I'm recording. I can find a place to set up output choices, but nothing I choose helps.

I've recorded sound from a tape recorder, which plays fine when I'm done, but I can't hear it going in. I've recorded sound from an old Roland keyboard--same thing. I record vocals on a microphone. Same thing. If I'm singing harmony with myself, I can hear the track or tracks already recorded, but I can't hear myself singing with them.

I've hunted online; I've hunted through the documentation. Maybe I'm not using the right search terms, but I'm not finding anything helpful.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Vicki

[Boydie]

I am not familiar with REAPER but I think you need to RIGHT CLICK on the record icon and select "Monitor Input"

You may also want to look for "Record Monitoring"

From checking a screen shot there appears to be an "M" (Mute), "S" (Solo), and then under these is a little green speaker icon - clicking this should cycle through the record monitoring options - I am guessing you will want this turned on or "auto"

[CaliaMoko]

Boydie! Your first paragraph was the charm! I had already looked through everything else you mentioned--except I don't see any little green speaker icon. Maybe you mean the little green icon that turns FX on and off?

Anyway, I never would have thought of right-clicking the record button on the track. So thanks a million. Already hit the next roadblock, but I'll do some research before I beg for more help.

[adamfarr]

It's a little thing in a square box that looks a bit like a funnel with the wide bit on the left and the narrow bit on the right - see it next to the IN button? http://www.reaper.fm/v5img/320_tcp.jpg

You may have to enlarge the height of your track in order to reveal this and the other controls.

I have to say that for me it doesn't work that well as I get a lot of delay between the live and the monitored signal but that may be just my set-up so I mostly listen to the signal from my interface.

[Boydie]

I get a lot of delay between the live and the monitored signal but that may be just my set-up

This is referred to as "latency" and it is one of the key things to get right with any daw system

When you sing or play in to a mic (or play a plugged in instrument) the sound has to go through the audio interface, get converted from analogue to digital, go through the daw/computer, get processed, go back to the audio interface and get converted back from digital to analogue so you can hear it in headphones or on speakers

The time it takes the sound (or rather the signal) to make this journey is referred to as the "round trip latency"

Direct monitoring is a good, simple, way to overcome this problem but often you want to hear the effects/processing of the DAW - eg if you are using an amp sim to record an electric guitar plugged in to your interface

The key steps to reducing latency are:

Get a good audio interface with good drivers - ideally ASIO drivers (I would avoid "Asio4all", which is a generic driver that "fakes" an ASIO driver as it can cause all sorts of problems by just being installed!

Check your "audio buffer" settings - this is usually a slider that will give low numbers (96, 128, 256) where you will get a lower latency BUT this will put more strain on your system (especially CPU) so you may hear crackles and pops in the audio, experience "audio dropouts" or your daw may just refuse to play

In this case you can increase your audio buffer (eg over 1000) which will take the strain off of your system but the latency is likely to be too high to play along to

Finding a good balance is the key

The more plugins you use the more strain you put on your system so you may have to increase the audio buffer if you add lots of effects to stop the pops and crackles etc.

A good rule of thumb is to do your RECORDING with the minimum amount of plugins so you can keep your audio buffers (and therefore latency) as low as possible

When everything has been recorded latency doesn't matter at all as you are not playing anything live so everything gets delayed by the same amount (there might just be a bit of a delay between hitting play and your track starting)

This is where you can increase your audio buffer and take the strain off of your system as you add plugins during the mixing stage


One final common culprit for latency issues...

Some plugins use a "look ahead" feature or are really cpu heavy so even with a top of the range system with the best drivers these plugins will make the system behave with high latency

Common types are convolution reverbs and mastering tools like multi and compressors

[pompeyjazz]

Spot on Boydie - Latency drove me mad when I started off using reaper. Whatever buffer settings were tweaked there was still an issue. The resolution for me was a Focusrite Scarlet Audio interface which cost around £70 - Guess that's around $100

https://www.djkit.com/focusrite/focusrite-scarlett-solo.html?gclid=CMKiydin6soCFQk8Gwodjd8P8w

Made a huge difference

Hope this helps

John

[adamfarr]

Yes, I seem get this even with zero plugins so there is still mucho tweaking to do. I have to confess I have looked at my buffer settings (8 x 1024 so clearly quite high) and until now not really dared to make drastic changes.

However, especially for vocal tracking I know I am not really getting what I need - and with my vocal every little would help...

Thanks for getting into the topic!

[Boydie]

I would try out 256 and see how that works

If it is fine try 192

Both should be workable

The other thing worth mentioning is that WiFi cards/adapters can sometimes interfere with latency and cause "spikes" so if you are having issues it is also worth disabling WiFi whilst recording

There are programmes (eg Latency Mon) that can help identify system "spikes"

[CaliaMoko]

Bingo! This was my next challenge. I  had done some research and knew the word was "latency" and that those things Boydie said that don't mean much to me [yet] were involved in some way. I shouldn't have any wi-fi impact, as my DAW computer is not connected to the internet and has no wireless card in it. But I'll be checking on that ASIO thingy as soon as I can. Someday I'll know what all these words mean. If I live long enough.

[pompeyjazz]

Hi Vicki. It can be very overwhelming but stick with it. Reaper has excellent documentation
I reckon that I only use about ten percent of the features 
John

[CaliaMoko]

Adam: Thanks for JPG. I found it! It wasn't green, so I wasn't looking there.

Boydie: The audio driver was setup as "WaveOut". I changed it to ASIO. I'm using the AudioBox 44VSL. Is that the "interface"? I am getting nothing (nothing on the meters, nothing through the headphones) with ASIO, so something else somewhere must be setup to use only the WaveOut?

PompeyJazz: Thanks for the encouragement. I need it. Some days I just want to bash everything up with a hammer and bury it. You know, those days when I've reached a point where I can actually do something and it works, and then I change one little thing and then nothing at all works anymore, and even putting the "one little thing" back doesn't fix it? That was two days ago, though, not today.

Step by step, little by little. I just need patience....

Vicki

[Boydie]

It may seem like a backward step - especially as you are now not hearing anything!  - but I do think it is worth getting your system sorted using ASIO drivers

I have never used REAPER but I am confident we can get you up and running

Check out page 13 of this guide:
http://www.reaper.fm/files/0.x/WIP_REAPER_Quick_Start_Guide.pdf

Make sure that the "audio system" drop down is set to "ASIO"

Make sure your "Audio Driver" is set to your AudioBox ASIO driver

Select the first and last input range (eg I would select the first and last available input so you have all inputs available

Do the same for the outputs

When running with ASIO drivers you need to change the buffer settings within the driver settings - "ASIO Configuration" button should be a shortcut to open your driver control panel, where you can change buffer settings etc.

Once you have these settings within the preferences of REAPER you may need to go to the tracks you use and re-assign the inputs and outputs of your tracks and busses to ensure they use the new ASIO inputs and outputs

Good luck and post back how you get on...

[CaliaMoko]

Woh! I never saw the quick start guide before! I have a gargantuan manual, in which I never seem to be able to find anything (that I can understand at least), so I've become reluctant even to look in it.

Anyway, I downloaded the quick start guide and printed the ASIO page and took it to the computer with Reaper. It must be a different version, but I followed the instructions as close as I could, and.........it worked!!! I'm so excited. I can now monitor what's playing (should have done this before I copied the cassette tapes), and there's no latency. Well, almost none. It's so tiny, it really doesn't matter. I'm pretty sure. It just sounds kind of like a faint reverb.

Before now, I had planned to try to figure out how to use midi to record my keyboard, but I'm scrapping that idea and using the headphone output on the keyboard instead.

I have to tell you, this is the high point of my year, so far. Thank you, Boydie! for pointing me to the solution, and thank you, too, Adam, for bringing up the latency problem!

Now excuse me while I do happy dances the rest of the evening (it's only about 5:30pm where I am).

Vicki

[Boydie]

Awesome!

I am so please you are up and running

This recording lark is a really steep learning curve but once you get your set-up sorted you can start capturing your ideas

I would suggest that you get stuck in to recording some tracks and your next "leap forward" will be designing a "template" that has all of you tracks, instruments, fx, busses, routing etc. all loaded up and ready to go when you open a new project - but just start recording for now so that you have a good idea of how you want your first template set up

[CaliaMoko]

Urrghh...gurgle....busses?? There are templates?? Never mind. As you (Boydie) said, I'll get to that later.

I recorded four measures of three tracks last night (a bass line and two tracks of ooooo's. It was so awesome. I have to go to town today, so I don't know if I'll get to anything, but I'm ready to roll on something.

I can't thank you people and these forums enough for providing the information I needed.

Vicki