February 8, 2019
Learning Reaper
Automation and Envelopes
Reaper – Envelopes and Automation
Continuing my learning with Reaper, I went through this tutorial to learn a bit about the envelopes and automation. These two things together basically allow you to vary the parameters of parts of the track at any time in anyway you want.
Each track has a “share” looking button that allows you to access the envelopes for that track. Here you can see all of the parameters available have options to create envelopes to automate, as well as any of the FX tied to this track. Making them visible shows them (either on a separate track or on the same track, which can be swapped). Arming them dictates which ones will be written over if you decide to write new automation.
There are also several automation modes:
- Trim/Read: Plays automation with some editing capabilities
- Read: just plays automation
- Touch: records actions while doing something, then stops applying whatever you’re doing immediately on release
- Latch: lets you record during play, but then continues to apply your last action when you let go
- Write: records whatever you’re doing specifically, including nothing if you stop performing actions
You can also apply separate envelopes to the Takes, as opposed to the track. This lets you apply separate and different envelopes to an item that aren’t specifically tied to the track. This gives you multiple levels of control to affect the track.
You can also apply envelopes/automation to several tracks at once through master/slave connections. Use “Grouping”, and assign a track (i.e. the Master Track) as the master, and then choose the group which you want to apply to as the slaves. You will also want to select the parameters you wish to automate. Just creating an envelope for the master will NOT instantly apply to all the slaves. You need to set the master to a write mode, and it will record all the automation to the individual tracks. So you could technically use it to apply an envelope to multiple tracks, then delete the original master track and keep those additions.