Unison authoring, beat track, and track alignment
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So I’ve finished charting my first song and am trying to create unisons.
I’ve managed to get the 4 tracks (guitar, bass, drums, keys) open in one midi window, but can’t figure out how to actually create a unison. I’ve made a single overdrive in one track and then tried the “use the U command” that the authoring docs recommend to copy it to the other tracks. Does this just mean I type U? (I remember finding the tempo mapping with q a bit odd). All I get is the general error noise on my computer if I try this. Maybe something is set up wrong? As a work around, could I just copy the overdrive to the other tracks manually and things would recognize them as being lined up and count as a unison?
As a follow up, do unisons need to appear on the vocal track in any way? Couldn’t find this in the docs.
Possible issues that could be affecting things
a ) My dry vocals appear to be in my beat track? Should they be here? It’s definitely possible I messed this up somehow being a noob. I did the render mono stem tracks thing with them already to prepare for exporting if that causes it. If this is not supposed to be there, do I just delete them, or will doing the “generate beat track” thing that I need to do soon fix this issue?
b ) My bass track is not lining up with the others when I have them all open in the same midi track. I suspect this was the track that got messed up when I was working on authoring it (I was trying to copy/paste a midi that I found into the track when I began, somehow this destroyed the track beyond my fixing). I ultimately had to recreate the track but maybe things messed up when I did. This was months ago and I thought the issue was fixed until I opened them all in the same midi window. The overdrive phrase I’ve authored lines up in all the tracks when I toggle through them until I get to the bass track. Then it jumps a measure backwards for some reason.
Ugh. So close, but so far.
Edit:
c ) One additional thought. Could the bass track be messed up because (if I remember correctly) I copied a blank bass track into my current project after having done tempo mapping? So my fresh bass track (to make up for the one I destroyed) is not quite at the same tempo as the ones that existed after my tempo mapping? In this case, would going back through and re-doing my q’s in my tempo map fix the issue?
This is the list of actions that you need for your custom U command in Reaper (courtesy of Whizzer). Without this custom command the U will not work and you will have to manually do the overdrive and unison between the tracks like you said.
Not really sure that I understand what is going on with your bass midi track … the tempo map will apply equally to all your midi tracks so I don’t think you need to re-do your tempo map.
If you scrub through your bass track (slowly drag the cursor through the song audio) do your bass gems line up with the music?
I’ve yet to do dry-vox so I am not much help with that (yet) I am afraid … but IIRC there is a dedicated track for dry vox (not the beat track).
As a follow up, do unisons need to appear on the vocal track in any way? Couldn’t find this in the docs.
No, unison phrases never include vocals/harmonies.
Feel free to post your project, so we can have a closer look at the bass track.
This is the list of actions that you need for your custom U command in Reaper (courtesy of Whizzer). Without this custom command the U will not work and you will have to manually do the overdrive and unison between the tracks like you said.
Not really sure that I understand what is going on with your bass midi track … the tempo map will apply equally to all your midi tracks so I don’t think you need to re-do your tempo map.
If you scrub through your bass track (slowly drag the cursor through the song audio) do your bass gems line up with the music?
I’ve yet to do dry-vox so I am not much help with that (yet) I am afraid … but IIRC there is a dedicated track for dry vox (not the beat track).
Thanks doa. I encountered that list of actions after I posted (through Google search – I find the forum search is not very helpful). I’ve yet to try it, but might just try doing usisons manually this time. I think I’ll go the more complicated route next time.
Scrubbing does show the bass track lines up with the music, but when toggling through the bass track, the gems do not line up with the other tracks. It’s bizarre.
No, unison phrases never include vocals/harmonies.
Feel free to post your project, so we can have a closer look at the bass track.
Whizzer, thanks for the reply about unisons.
Do I post my reaper file to let you look it over? I know there are associated dry vox files and the original mp3 that might produce errors if I don’t include. Do I zip the whole folder I’ve been working out of to avoid that?
Whizzer, thanks for the reply about unisons.
Do I post my reaper file to let you look it over? I know there are associated dry vox files and the original mp3 that might produce errors if I don’t include. Do I zip the whole folder I’ve been working out of to avoid that?
Feel free to include the original song mp3 if you send me a private message containing a link. I won’t need the dry vox files, but if it’s easier to zip the entire folder, that’s fine too.
If it helps, here’s the mis-alignment I’m referring to:
When my tracks are layered (which I did not do until working on unisons)
My bass track views like this
But my guitar, keys, and drums look more like this (currently guitars are shown)
The overdrive I’ve placee is set from measures 12.3 to 14 when they are viewed individually, but when toggling through, they don’t line up. Just want to double check this will be OK. Whizzer looked over my project and didn’t spot any issues, but it’s still freaking me out.
Is that from the file I sent you back? I shifted a few tracks to match the fix in the tempo map, but not all of them. Chances are, if you shift the keys track, it will match up with the others again.
Also, shift the drum fill back by 1/16th again, as they were perfectly in place before.
That is an updated version of what you sent back to me. I thought you decided the drums were off by 1/16, so I’ll shift them back to how they were.
I adjusted keys and vox like you suggested, but the bass track is still doing that funny business I’m trying to show. It only seems to be the bass track, and only when I overlap the tracks that I notice anything. When the bass track is the top layer, the other tracks line up with each other, but not with the bass track. When one of the other tracks is the top layer, the bass track is out of sync with the rest.
I’m working on exporting and will see if it causes any issues. Wish me luck!
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