whenever i send a track to another track

i always see this 1/2 to 1/2

whats the first 1/2....and the second 1/2.....

when do you need to change them?

 

Reaper has the option to use/add multiple outputs and inputs.
The first 1/2 means that the stereo file is send, the second 1/2 means that the normal stereo input is used. See it as stereo out -> stereo in.

 

by default, Reaper uses Stereo channels on Tracks,
if you want to have let's say 8-channel track, you can and more numbers to be seen,

when you're sending stereo signal of one track to another track, it's 1/2 -> 1/2,

for fancy things like sidechaining one track as detector for compressor on another track, you'll be doing 1/2 -> 3/4 because compressor will see channels 3 and 4 as sidechain signal when applying compression to the actual audio on channels 1 and 2,
for even more fancy things like 5.1 surround or even Atmos, you can go as high as 64 channels in one track, for example when making music for film, you want 6 channels in a track so using a multi-channel Limiter plugin will work as intended

 

damn i can't understand anything...i need vacation

 

A good starting point for understanding Reaper, is the user guide. In the current v6.64 user guide look for:
section 2.24 REAPER Routing Essentials

This should clarify the basics onward for you. Videos can be found here: https://www.reaper.fm/videos.php

Happy tracking!

 

Also, if you want true mono tracks, not dual-mono, you can use 1>1. Then some plugins [those who recognise mono channels] use 50% less CPU because they work in mono. I have a great need for that since it's advisable to process quite a good number of channels in mono [lead vocals, drums, bass] don't want to use dual-mono as it screws up the volume if you have the pan law set at anything else then 0. Reaper's routing is incredibly flexible and it makes it possible to do just about anything. You should really learn how to use it.

You can start by putting some multi-channel instrument on a track and then try to route different channels to different tracks. You probably have Battery or TAL-Drum, Speedrum, D16 Nepheton or Drumazon, Kontakt? You can route all the outputs to different channels/tracks with these, so they can be processed differently. It is especially important for drum-machines since it is advisable to have different compression and the amount of FX on all the different drums.

I have a template for TAL-Drum that I use [I also use Battery 3 and 4 in Windows] which consists of a folder I call simply "Drums" then I make an instrument track within it with TAL-Drum and as many additional tracks for different drums - "Kick", "Snare", "Toms", "Hihats" that I need. By using a "track template" you avoid having to repeat this process every time you want to process drums differently, which is - every time.

This is pretty important to know for mixing and very powerful, both knowing how to route audio and MIDI and creating templates and presets for everything to speed up your workflow.

Cheers!

 

Last edited: Aug 5, 2022

if you see it from the receiving track point of view instead of the sending track point of view as per your picture

Channels 1/2 is from the receiving track --- > Goes to channel 1&2 of the sending track? (opposite basically?)

thanks!

 

That's kind of a weird question, @petrrr , although I understand you're confused, and maybe this is a good source of your confusion.

Unless I'm misunderstanding your statement, you should only think about the audio signal going in one direction in a single routing, because that's all that happens. Audio (and/or MIDI, if you route that) routed is sent FROM the sending track, to the receiving track. It doesn't go back the other direction too (unless you route it again back the other direction, which would be weird to do in most cases and likely create a "feedback loop").

So audio goes like so:
Sending track -> Receiving track

It's not bi-directional like:
Sending track <-> Receiving track

Here's an example of sending audio channels 3+4 from track 1 into audio channels 1+2 on track 2. I'm just using 3+4 as channels for the audio output being sent from so you can differentiate things in the send/receive a bit easier (maybe).

From perspective of track 1:
https://i.imgur.com/919RQBS.png
(Note that it shows this as a "Send" on track 1)


From perspective of track 2:
https://i.imgur.com/IGFDnoh.png
(Note, it shows this as a "Receive" on track 2)

Audio from channels 3+4 of track 1 go into track 2 on channels 1+2. One direction.
Track1 (3+4) -> Track 2 (1+2)


Just to give you a practical example of why you'd send audio from 3/4 somewhere (since this is the example I chose), @SineWave touched on it.... many drum samplers split various drum parts into channels.. ex. kick might be channels 1+2, snare on 3+4... so in my example, we're sending snare signal in track 1 off to track 2. Why do we use 1+2 on the inputs on track 2? That's cause we want to hear it. Channels 1+2 on a track default to playing out through the master track.

And why do we not just leave it on track 1 then, cause we'd already hear it there, right? Well, perhaps we want special processing on the snare that we dont want on other drum parts... example, a gated verb on the snare. We'd add that gated verb on track 2 and it wouldn't impact the rest of the drum kit, since only our snare signal is being sent to track 2 in this example.

I'd really suggest going on YouTube and looking for videos on routing though, as I think there's a lot of detail here to try and cram into posts and it's typically something easier to see in action than to read about.

 

Last edited: Aug 5, 2022

I think Kenny Gioia explains everything quite well.

This is essential watching on this subject:

In this one he explains the plugin pins, plus goes into routing, including routing on channels other than 1+2.

Here's one that explains how to sidechain (so an example of routing into channels 3+4 on a receiving track).

 

No. That window in my first picture only shows up when you create a send and will always show 1/2 from the sending track --> to 1/2 to the receiving track.

If you open the I/O window on a receiving track it will look like this:

This is track 2 that has a receive from track 1 and also has a send to track 3. On the left side of the window for sends, the first 1/2 is for track 2 and the second is 1/2 for track 3 (send --> receive). On the right side of the window for receives, the first 1/2 is for track 1 and the second is for track 2 (send --> receive).

 

Gosh this forum is full of great blokes, eh? One would absolutely not expect that kind of support from developers, although in Cockos' case you should visit their internet forum and see what's there. Everything is being discussed freely to the bone. That's one of the things that keeps us "Reaperites" stay with Reaper. It's hard to go back [to Cubase in my case, I see so many flaws and feel constricted by too many things].

Been using Reaper since 2006... Cubase 5 used to crash too often on me.

Cheers!