Why Reaper is The Best DAW for mixing
Hi, and welcome back.
Apologies for the click baity thumbnail that I'm probably going to create for this video.
Views were down for my last video, so drastic measures are called for!
So on the subject of DAW wars, let's start with a universal truth: the best DAW is the
one you know how to use.
Or to put it another way, the software is only ever as capable as the person operating
it.
However, for the people who are interested in my opinion, or maybe those who have yet
to learn any DAW and want to know where best to invest their time, it's also true that
Reaper is the best DAW for mixing, and the rest all suck.
Before you leap into the comments section in outrage, let's be clear that this is true
for me, even if it's not for you, and it's partly because of the universal truth that
Reaper is the one I know best.
But there's also a feature that neatly sums up my reasons, which I'll show you shortly.
Now, it's come to my attention that some of you are still using DAWs with mixers that
don't provide convenient polarity switches.
You have to open up channel settings, or maybe even load a plugin to achieve it.
And I wonder why you put up with it frankly, given that it's a basic feature of any proper
console.
And it's very useful when playing with comb filtering tricks, like the one I'm about to
show you.
This is a technique I like to use when I have two parts conflicting in a similar frequency
range, and I want to separate them better.
Typically it will be two guitar parts, or a guitar and a keyboard fighting in the mid
range, but in this case I've got two synth parts with lots of upper mid and high frequency
content.
I'm going to start with just one of them… and send it to a parallel channel which I've
called "Comb".
This parallel channel now needs a delay, but it needs to be a very short delay with no
feedback, so something like Timeless 3 wouldn't be suitable.
If you've got a basic stock utility delay, that'll work fine.
Alternatively try Voxengo Sound Delay.
Personally I like to use FabFilter Volcano, mostly because I can then also add gentle
6dB low and high pass filters, to restrict the comb filtering effects to just the mid
range.
So I'll pick one of these filters… and delay it by a few milliseconds… and notice how
that changes the sound…
mixing the delayed signal with the dry signal results in a regular series of boosts and
cuts, which can become steep notches when the dry and wet signals are at the same level.
Now I'm going to tune that delay time while listening carefully to the effect it has on
the sound and, importantly, in context with the rest of the mix.
Note that neither of the parts I'm concerned with has any significant content below about
200Hz: the delay time I dial in determines the frequency of the lowest notch in the comb
filtering response, and this reaches down that low with only a couple of milliseconds
of delay.
While you can set the delay time as long as 30 or 40 milliseconds, and it will still blend
with the dry signal rather than sounding like a discrete echo, in this case for what I'm
trying to achieve I'm probably better off keeping it much shorter, down below about
4ms.
Which helps to reduce the range of settings I need to try…
I'm listening for one of two things: either a setting that makes this part sit better
in the mix, sounding more like I intended it; or precisely the opposite, a setting that
makes that part sound really bad, obscured by and buried in the mix.
In the latter case you can then try inverting the polarity of the delayed signal… which
will invert all the comb filtering, so cuts become boosts and vice versa.
The opposite of a really bad setting might just be a really good setting.
Note that you need to be careful with the level of the delayed signal: if it's at unity
gain you'll get hard notches in between each boost, which will probably always sound way
too coloured.
So I tend to trim it down a few dB while tuning the delay time, so those notches become gentler
cuts instead.
This is basically the same method I use to tune a Haas delay, and I've demonstrated this
in a FabFilter video previously.
As I also pointed out in that FabFilter video, if I subsequently want another Haas delay
for another part, it might be a good idea to reuse the same delay time, but flip the
polarity the opposite way, so the cuts become boosts and vice versa.
This is in fact the Super Separator trick: we use comb filtering to create equal and
opposite patterns of EQ boosts, which help these two parts to fit around one another
and create separation and space in the mix.
But there's a problem: we can only tune one delay at a time.
This makes finding a suitable setting quite a challenge: you have to tune one delay until
you find a good setting for that part… then set the other delay the same with opposite
polarity and hope that setting also works for that part.
Chances are it won't however, in which case you have to rinse and repeat, until eventually
you might find a single delay setting that works for both parts.
How can we improve this I wonder?
What we really need is to be able to adjust the delay time for both parts simultaneously,
so we can listen to both parts at the same time, and look for a setting that makes them
both sound good… or a setting that makes them both sound bad so we can try it's opposite.
Now, there's probably a way to link those parameters so I can adjust both delays at
once.
But Reaper offers a much more elegant solution: just use one delay; send both parts to that
delay; then invert the polarity for one of the sends.
Yes that's right: Reaper provides a polarity flip for an aux send, and you'll be amazed
at how useful that is.
Now we have a single delay plugin providing equal and opposite comb filtering for both
those parts, and its suddenly way easier to find a good setting that works well for both.
I say easier rather than easy because you will still need to spend some time tweaking
delay settings minutely and listening carefully to the results.
But trust me, it's usually worth it: listen to this mix as I toggle mute on the delay
channel…
Now as it happens, both these parts are sending to the same reverb; an instance of UVI Plate.
So I can get even better results by also sending the delay channel to the same reverb, to get
the comb filtering into that as well.
And now listen as I toggle mute…
So there we have it: Reaper rules for mixing, and if your DAW can't do this trick it sucks.
This isn't the only use for the polarity flip on aux sends by the way: I've previously shown
how you can use it to create your own crossover filters: and I've got at least one more cool
trick to show you that relies upon it.
I often get asked why I use Reaper, and honestly this is the biggest reason.
Not the polarity flip for aux sends specifically, but more generally the freedom it gives me
to route any track to any other.
I find it remarkable that so many other DAWs copy the functionality of hardware consoles
in terms of routing and so on, while apparently forgetting that those hardware consoles were
invariably hooked up to a patch bay that allowed anything to be routed to anything else.
Reaper allows me to do exactly that, with full unbreakable plugin delay compensation
by the way, so long as I avoid feedback loops.
Not being able to create proper feedback loops is a fundamental issue with digital audio
that I'm prepared to live with in exchange for all the other benefits it provides.
But I don't want extra limitations, just because the developers copied the console routing
options but forgot about the patch bay.
Ok that's all for now.
Thanks for watching.