Reply To: Mix Prep - Gain Staging in Reaper

[Mark WarnerParticipant]

Since writing this "How to", I have changed the way I now gain stage in Reaper.

I still work out the gain stage reduction value as I did in the original method above. Now instead though I go to the "Take FX' button at the bottom of the Item properties window (double click on the WAV stem to open this window or left click the stem and choose item properties near the top).

Once you have clicked on the Take FX button it opens an FX chain window into which you can select and add FX plugins in the normal way. I search and select the JS Vol plugin and set the value to the one calculated. I then also copy the plugin for pasting into the next stem which saves a little time if there are lots of stems. The great thing about this method is that this FX chain is hidden and separate to the normal track FX chain. Consequently the value/setting is not effected by the track slider which remains at 0db and therefore this method is closer to having a true gain knob on a channel strip.

There is also, I believe, a method for adding this gain control to the Reaper channel strip, which I will post about when I have worked it out fully. It would be great if this can be included in a Template and have the setup automated 🙂

• This reply was modified 8 years ago by Mark Warner.