Not just a fun reference to one of my favorite bands, growing up (BÖC), but also a nod towards my DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) of choice, Cockos’ Repear. Now, going into this album’s production, I had *just*, and I mean within the previous week and a half or so, switched over from ProTools. So, with that, it’s probably wise to go into why I switched and then how it influenced the production process.
Why I Switched
It boiled down to CPU bludgeoning, plain and simple. Basically, I learned how to do everything I could do in ProTools with Reaper and with maybe 1/4 of the CPU cost which became very important as I started mixing a goodly number of tracks that, in Reaper, caused stuttering. In ProTools, it just choked and died. If there’s one thing that REALLY kills a workflow, it’s making a tweak, rendering the output, listening to it, going back in, making a tweak, rendering it out, and so on. So, it was really simple for me to switch when one was able to give me everything I needed and not die a horrible death when asked to do just a little more.
The Impact
The impact was immediately discernable. Full disclosure – behind closed doors, I created the projects for the first song in both ProTools and Reaper. I still wasn’t willing to give up the familiar, comfortable, “industry standard” without a side-by-side comparison doing the exact same thing. So, again, the impact was obvious and definite. I added all the drum stems (kick, snare, tom 1 – 4, hi hat, crash), bass stems (di & mic’d), guitar stems (R & L), violin stems (takes 1 & 2) and vocal stems (primary, double). So, it total, I added 16 tracks to each DAW. Then I pressed “play.”
Background: my system, at the time, was an AMD Athlon II Duo-core 3GHz system with 8GB RAM.
So, I pressed play, first in ProTools then, later in Reaper. The result? ProTools chopped, stuttered, stopped. Reaper, played, though with choppiness, at first, which smoothed out after about 30 seconds. Now, I know there are settings in each to optimize playback so that it’s not quite so bad, but, to me, if you can’t handle the first song I throw at you with your default settings, I’m sorry but…it’s not me, it’s you.
So, the impact on production was that, at least on my desktop system, I was able to track and edit every song including one that’s a 22-track romping wall of sound. My laptop, on the other, was less forgiving than even the desktop and Reaper was the clear choice, there, though even it couldn’t play the two monster tracks…poor laptop.
What sealed it? Actually adding effect inserts on the tracks. Reaper kept chugging while ProTools seized and just refused. So…yeah, from a workflow standpoint, being able to do things with the tracks was a major plus, as I’m sure you’re aware.
Update to the above number – because of the necessity to layer the vocals even more and add some “oomph” to the drums in places, it’s become a 28-track monster, but that also includes side-chained bussing for effects sends and better overall track organization. That said, it still choked ProTools dead.
Next installment – Part III – Style’s substance
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