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Reaper: How to apply track FXs to source media ?

Fredeke

Senior Member
Hi. I was wondering: does someone know a way to quickly apply track FX(s) to the source medias, in Reaper ? Or anything to the equivalent effect.

The result I'd like is for the source medias to already contain the effect, while keeping all the editing I've done in the track.
 
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You can freeze a track, but that's probably not what you're looking for, right? Do you want to turn midi clips into wavs, or wavs into wavs with the track fx baked in?
 
You can freeze a track, but that's probably not what you're looking for, right? Do you want to turn midi clips into wavs, or wavs into wavs with the track fx baked in?
Indeed freezes won't do, because they discard the editing.

I am making crossfading loops in Reaper, for export to a sample library. I'd like to add some EQ and even multiband compression, but my loop points and fades are already set. Since those FXs completely alter the waveform, they must happen before the crossfades, or the loops will click. And I don't want to set all the loops again. So I was thinking, if the source medias were already EQed, that would work.
 
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Indeed freezes won't do, because they discard the editing.

I am making crossfading loops in Reaper, for export to a sample library. I'd like to add some EQ and even multiband compression, but my loop points and fades are already set. Since those FXs completely alter the waveform, they must happen before the crossfades, or the loops will click. And I don't want to set all the loops again. So I was thinking, if the source medias were already EQed, that would work.

Not sure if I understand your usecase exactly, but could it be as simple as selecting the media items, and right clicking them, then clicking "apply track/take fx to items as new take"? You'd need to disable the track fx afterwards or it's applied twice I think.
 
How many source media files are there? If they all will get the same processing, you could load them in a separate session, apply the FX, export them with FX, then replace the original source media with the new effected ones.

Best,
 
How many source media files are there? If they all will get the same processing, you could load them in a separate session, apply the FX, export them with FX, then replace the original source media with the new effected ones.

Best,

There's about 10 tracks, and 3 medias per tracks, each cut in 3 pieces/items.

Yes, I've considered that. I could be done. I'm wondering if there isn't something faster (I wouldn't be surprised if there weren't, but I thought there's no harm in asking)
 
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As far as I know there's not a direct way to apply FX to source media, unless Reaper has some surprises I'm missing. In terms of replacing, using Project Media/FX Bay and going to the Source Media tab is probably the quickest way to replace all the files, but that still does involve manually replacing each instance (which would be 30 steps in your case, unfortunately).

If you don't care about "destructively" editing the project, you could backup the whole project folder, export the effected source media with the same name, close the project, overwrite the original source media files with the new effected ones, and reopen the project. It's a little hacky but it's worked for me in a pinch.

Best,
 
As far as I know there's not a direct way to apply FX to source media, unless Reaper has some surprises I'm missing. In terms of replacing, using Project Media/FX Bay and going to the Source Media tab is probably the quickest way to replace all the files, but that still does involve manually replacing each instance (which would be 30 steps in your case, unfortunately).

If you don't care about "destructively" editing the project, you could backup the whole project folder, export the effected source media with the same name, close the project, overwrite the original source media files with the new effected ones, and reopen the project. It's a little hacky but it's worked for me in a pinch.

Best,

Yes, replacing the wavs is no worry... Well, I could do the 30 steps, but I've just started the loops over with cleaner samples, since it wasn't much more work. I expected so much, but as I said, I thought I'd ask anyway.

Renoise (a geeky sequencer and kind of a DAW) does this (apply track FX to original samples), but I'm not surprised Reaper doesn't, because I've always found the feature odd, and been wondering of what use it could possibly be... until today.

Thanks anyway.

[PS: I'm surprised no one mentioned scripts ;)]
 
No problem! I hope it helps. Reaper seems to follow a non-destructive ethos so they don't have much native functionality for overwriting/editing source files, but I know some scripts explore that territory.

Best,
 
batch.jpg

I'm not sure if this helps, but...

File -> Batch file/item converter lets you apply an FX chain to a bunch of files at a time.

You might have to output your identical filenames to a different folder, then copy to the actual project folder to overwrite your original ones. Just use $source as your output file name.
 
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batch.jpg

I'm not sure if this helps, but...

File -> Batch file/item converter lets you apply an FX chain to a bunch of files at a time.

You might have to output your identical filenames to a different folder, then copy to the actual project folder to overwrite your original ones. Just use $source as your output file name.
That looks like it. Thanks !!!
 
I might have missed a crucial point, but wouldn't the action "Item: Apply track/take FX to items" do it? That applies the track effects to all selected items individually, keeping crossfades and such.
After running that you get a new take lane (preserving the original source medie if you need to go back). Then you can disable the track FX and voilá!

EDIT: Just saw @MartinH mentioned the same thing.
 
I might have missed a crucial point, but wouldn't the action "Item: Apply track/take FX to items" do it? That applies the track effects to all selected items individually, keeping crossfades and such.
After running that you get a new take lane (preserving the original source medie if you need to go back). Then you can disable the track FX and voilá!
Exactly what I was looking for :2thumbs:
and it is indeed non-destructive
 
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