[Gigakoops]

(This guide will assume that you already know how typical venue authoring works. If you do not, use the docs as a guide)

Making a special venue track for the song you’re authoring can give that song something special visually for both those playing and anyone at the party spectating. But venue direction can be so tedious! If you do a venue that has a lot of special effects, lighting, and camera cues, it can look all messy in Reaper, and if you decide you want to go and change something, you’ll be greeted with this kind of mess!

Taken from “Ghosts ‘n’ Stuff” venue track

The good news is, it doesn’t have to be as confusing as it tends to be. Thanks to a member of the old RBN forums, there was a method discovered so that you can have seperate tracks for different elements of the venue. This way you have a lot more visual room for every element. This tutorial will explain an alternate method of venue direction that will help to unclog the potential mess you’ll make while venue directing.

Step 1 – Making Tracks

What you want to do is add three more tracks in your project. I’ll name them “Camera,” “Lighting,” and “Post Processing.” Keep the old venue track, since it will have the track name and any MIDI notes (such as sing-alongs and spotlights) you use for your venue. You may want to move these new tracks right below the Venue track for a future step. Last part of this step is to add new MIDI item onto these tracks (Insert -> New MIDI Item), and adjust it to be as long as the venue track. Your new tracks should look like this.

Step 2 – Authoring in Individual Tracks

Now instead of authoring everything into a single venue track, the new tracks allow you to seperate the elements into their own track. The names should explain which events go where, but here’s a rundown of what each track should look like:

– “Camera” track: [coop_d_closeup_hand], [directed_bass_cls], [coop_all_far], etc.

– “Lighting” track: [lighting (verse)], [lighting (silhouettes_spot)], [next], [bonusfx], etc.

– “Post Processing” track: [bloom.pp], [space_woosh.pp], [film_contrast_red.pp], etc.

– “Venue” Track: Should only include the title track (“VENUE” Track Title event) and any MIDI notes you use in the song.

Step 3 – Collapsing Tracks into Seperate Takes

Now that the venue is done, Go ahead and select all four MIDI items.

Next, right click on the VENUE MIDI take, go to “Take,” then “Implode Takes Across Tracks Into Takes.” It should now look like this.

Then, right click on that, go to “Item Settings,” then select “Play All Takes.” While it doesn’t look any different, this does make a huge difference.

Step 4 – Exporting and Compiling

This is the easiest step. Just export the MIDI and build like you would your typical Rock Band custom! If you’ve followed the steps above and have a chart free of technical errors, then it should compile normally.

Step 5 (Optional) – Editing It Later

If you wish to change something in the venue, right-click the Venue MIDI track, go to “Takes,” then select either “Explode All Takes to New Tracks” or “Explode All Takes In Order.” Then move the tracks to their respectful places, remove any superflous tracks if necessary, and then edit them. To put them back together repeat Step 3.

…

And that is the alternate method to doing this that I wanted to present to you all. If you have any questions or concerns please leave them down below.

[Colonel 32dll]

NIce! Thanks! ” src=”/wp-content/uploads/invision_emoticons/default_SA_smile.gif” />

[StackOverflow0x]

Could you also do this through channels in the MIDI? I think I’ve seen some that do it this way.

[Gigakoops]

Sorry for the late reply, but I wouldn’t know. If you want to test it I’d be interested in knowing. I myself would prefer to use MIDI takes anyway, though.

[Oddbrother]

Nice thinking with this guide!

 

This technique could also help with PART VOCALS so that lyrics don’t get in the way of animation text events.

[Atruejedi]

This is pretty clever and I will be giving it a shot when I start making the venue for my second custom. Thanks.

[Atruejedi]

Step 5 (Optional) – Editing It Later

 

If you wish to change something in the venue, right-click the Venue MIDI track, go to “Takes,” then select either “Explode All Takes to New Tracks” or “Explode All Takes In Order.” Then move the tracks to their respectful places, remove any superflous tracks if necessary, and then edit them. To put them back together repeat Step 3.

 

…

 

And that is the alternate method to doing this that I wanted to present to you all. If you have any questions or concerns please leave them down below.

 

It’s actually even easier than this. Once you’ve collapsed the tracks into one track with separate takes, you can simply edit those takes and save and export as you normally would. You never need to explode again! Just expand the height of your venue track, like this, until both takes appear:

 

 

I learned this the hard way because I kept accidentally adding more and more takes to the initial track. At one point I unwittingly had four different takes in my track, three of which were the same but slightly modified. It really screwed up my lighting, so I knew something was wrong and investigated.

[Gigakoops]

I guess when I wrote this guide, I didn’t take that into account! Good thinking, that definitely seems much easier ” src=”/wp-content/uploads/invision_emoticons/default_SA_cheeky.001.gif” />

[Atruejedi]

I guess when I wrote this guide, I didn’t take that into account! Good thinking, that definitely seems much easier ” src=”/wp-content/uploads/invision_emoticons/default_SA_cheeky.001.gif” />

 

TEAMWORK. I’m releasing my first custom tomorrow and it has a completely customized venue, and this made doing the lighting very simple. I could tweak the entire take at once instead of having to worry about misplacing cuts and effects. So thanks again!

[Author]

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