In my last Reaper-focused article, I skipped over the details of how to clean up the tracks.
Listening back to the samples I had thus cleaned, I noticed that even though they were passable, most of the sounds were plagues with several mistakes.
I have thus undertaken the extremely fun task of extracting and editing all samples once again, using new techniques that not only produce better-sounding results but also make the entire process a lot faster and even slightly enjoyable!
As such, the asset pack I've released yesterday was updated and now contains an entire folder of footsteps which I am quite proud of, to be honest. Feel free to grab it on itch.io!
Reafir
After noticing the horrible (ok not that horrible but definitely amateurish) quality of my work, I immediately tried to see if there was a "smart" way to eliminate the background noise other than EQing it out.
Thanks to Kenny Gioia's video, I have learned of ReaFir, a plugin that has been included with Reaper for a few years now.
Reafir is a FFT(Fast Fourier Transform) EQ and Dynamics processor.
What this basically means is that, like the Spectral Edits I've previously mentioned, one can affect the audio signal not only by standard subtractive EQ techniques but by modifying its frequency information in a direct way.
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| Darkened line shows "real-time" signal, while bright yellow line show resulting signal. |
Not only is Reafir great for monitoring frequencies during playback, it offers several modes, most notably EQ and spectrum-based Noise reduction. You can train it to a certain noise signature and it will magically remove the noise from your signals. While the resulting sound is a bit denatured (no way around it, really), it is by far the cleanest noise reduction method I've heard so far. Followed by proper EQ (trust your ears!!!), it makes room acoustics ***almost*** irrelevant. Try the sample pack linked above and judge for yourself!
As a side note, never underestimate the plugins which are provided with Reaper. While they might look deceptively barren when compared to high-end VST plugins, they are quickly finding their way into my workflow, making several powerful, pricey plugins almost useless by comparison.
No Mo' Normalizing
Bad Audio guy : no!. We're not in 2001 anymore, normalizing is a treacherous tool. It always kind of works but it mostly serves as an audio mangler. Sure, you get volume but unless your sounds are simple and short, chances are that unwanted hisses, noises and hums will infiltrate the sample. Listening to the samples at low to medium volume might sound decent but once you really crank it up or repeat the sound several times, garbage.
Instead, a simple compressor, with an adjustable ratio, will still kick up a sample's volume while allowing way more flexibility to how the frequencies are boosted. Why I didn't start with that? Who knows.
Subprojects
In the last articles, I simply used subprojects as a convenient way to isolate a wave file and edit it by its lonesome. It turns out that subprojects are absolutely insane, allowing you to use full reaper projects as tracks in a master project. Whatever edits you make to the subproject will be reflected in the master project when you switch back to it, allowing you to gain an insane amount of flexibility in song creation and sound design.
One quick example is to use a "dummy" audio clip when scoring a scene in a video or song. Usually, you would drag a random sound file and place it at several spots across the track, just to get an idea of the timing, without focusing on the actual audio content. Instead of using a static sound, you could use a Subproject which would contain a track with the static sound on it, as a take. Once your "dummy" media items are in place, you can edit the contents of your subprojects, which will immediately update all instances in the master project. The alternative would be to select all clips and replacing them one by one : a tedious, time-consuming wasteful method.
One quick example is to use a "dummy" audio clip when scoring a scene in a video or song. Usually, you would drag a random sound file and place it at several spots across the track, just to get an idea of the timing, without focusing on the actual audio content. Instead of using a static sound, you could use a Subproject which would contain a track with the static sound on it, as a take. Once your "dummy" media items are in place, you can edit the contents of your subprojects, which will immediately update all instances in the master project. The alternative would be to select all clips and replacing them one by one : a tedious, time-consuming wasteful method.
Simply drag a .rpp project file from your computer into your project and choose Insert project as media item. Alternatively, you can insert a new, empty subproject via the Insert Menu.
Conclusion
Those simple changes have turned my passable sound pack into something that I am actually quite proud of.Here's hoping that you will change your ways as I have changed mine, in an effort to better your audio game and make kick-ass sounds and songs.
Don't fear the Reaper : Embrace it!
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