Reaper project loses sync on Render

[Sloan Simpson]

Wondering if anyone else has seen this and possibly knows of a cause/fix.

I'm mixing soundboard and audience feeds from last night, so two stereo files. I have a few VSTs running on each track and some on the master bus. None are delays. I've moved the soundboard track over with the Nudge feature until the time alignment sounds good. I render out my FLAC files (render details below), drop them in Winamp and the sources have been mixed down out of sync. I still have the session open in Reaper, so I went back to check the sync, and it still sounds great playing in Reaper.

Source files are 24/48, I'm converting markers to regions with SWS extensions, and using the Auto-Render to 16/44 FLAC with metadata included.

Any thoughts?

[Sloan Simpson]

Hmm, exporting a selection rather than regions seems to be working properly. Which is less than ideal, as I'd like to insert my markers in Reaper and render individual files instead of making a second pass in CDWave.

[if_then_else]

I'm not a Reaper expert but I had a similar effect on Samplitude twice (both droney stuff). The tracks were aligned perfectly but the time-stretching algorithm made the rendered file go out of sync. Choosing "resampling" instead of "timestretching" solved the issue for me.

[voltronic]

I don't have a solution, sorry, but as a long time Reaper user I came here to give a major +1000 to using SWS extensions.  I only recently discovered them and they save a huge amount of time.

[Sloan Simpson]

I forgot to mention I wasn't doing any stretching, as the files were from the same device.

[Sloan Simpson]

I don't have a solution, sorry, but as a long time Reaper user I came here to give a major +1000 to using SWS extensions.  I only recently discovered them and they save a huge amount of time.

I've just realized that using SWS extensions to convert markers to regions, then auto-rendering regions to output single songs is giving me tiny gaps between songs on playback that don't happen when I render a single file and split it with CDWave  I was trying to eliminate CDWave from my workflow and do everything in Reaper.

Still no solution to my sync issue, other than that it doesn't happen on every session, and when it does happen, reopening Reaper/the session later fixes it.

[voltronic]

I don't have a solution, sorry, but as a long time Reaper user I came here to give a major +1000 to using SWS extensions.  I only recently discovered them and they save a huge amount of time.

I've just realized that using SWS extensions to convert markers to regions, then auto-rendering regions to output single songs is giving me tiny gaps between songs on playback that don't happen when I render a single file and split it with CDWave  I was trying to eliminate CDWave from my workflow and do everything in Reaper.

Still no solution to my sync issue, other than that it doesn't happen on every session, and when it does happen, reopening Reaper/the session later fixes it.

I don't think they're gaps; I think you're hearing a "tick" at fade out / in at your split points.  By default, when you hit "S" in Reaper to make a split, it does a very fast fade out at the end of the item on the left, with a corresponding fade in on the new item to the right.  You can disable this by going into Options > Preferences > Project > Media Item Defaults and unchecking "Create automatic fade in / fade out for new media items".

The other thing you can do is to split at the nearest zero crossing.  To do this, place your cursor and hit ALT+Z.  Then, just be sure you move your cursor to where that split was made (probably close by) and drop your marker.

To avoid this, you can use the "split at zero crossings" shortcut

[Sloan Simpson]

I don't have a solution, sorry, but as a long time Reaper user I came here to give a major +1000 to using SWS extensions.  I only recently discovered them and they save a huge amount of time.

I've just realized that using SWS extensions to convert markers to regions, then auto-rendering regions to output single songs is giving me tiny gaps between songs on playback that don't happen when I render a single file and split it with CDWave  I was trying to eliminate CDWave from my workflow and do everything in Reaper.

Still no solution to my sync issue, other than that it doesn't happen on every session, and when it does happen, reopening Reaper/the session later fixes it.

I don't think they're gaps; I think you're hearing a "tick" at fade out / in at your split points.  By default, when you hit "S" in Reaper to make a split, it does a very fast fade out at the end of the item on the left, with a corresponding fade in on the new item to the right.  You can disable this by going into Options > Preferences > Project > Media Item Defaults and unchecking "Create automatic fade in / fade out for new media items".

The other thing you can do is to split at the nearest zero crossing.  To do this, place your cursor and hit ALT+Z.  Then, just be sure you move your cursor to where that split was made (probably close by) and drop your marker.

To avoid this, you can use the "split at zero crossings" shortcut

I haven't been doing splits, but rather pressing "M" to create markers, then converting the markers to regions. But perhaps your solution above will still work, as a region is probably considered a media item as well. I'll try it, thanks.

[voltronic]

I don't have a solution, sorry, but as a long time Reaper user I came here to give a major +1000 to using SWS extensions.  I only recently discovered them and they save a huge amount of time.

I've just realized that using SWS extensions to convert markers to regions, then auto-rendering regions to output single songs is giving me tiny gaps between songs on playback that don't happen when I render a single file and split it with CDWave  I was trying to eliminate CDWave from my workflow and do everything in Reaper.

Still no solution to my sync issue, other than that it doesn't happen on every session, and when it does happen, reopening Reaper/the session later fixes it.

I don't think they're gaps; I think you're hearing a "tick" at fade out / in at your split points.  By default, when you hit "S" in Reaper to make a split, it does a very fast fade out at the end of the item on the left, with a corresponding fade in on the new item to the right.  You can disable this by going into Options > Preferences > Project > Media Item Defaults and unchecking "Create automatic fade in / fade out for new media items".

The other thing you can do is to split at the nearest zero crossing.  To do this, place your cursor and hit ALT+Z.  Then, just be sure you move your cursor to where that split was made (probably close by) and drop your marker.

To avoid this, you can use the "split at zero crossings" shortcut

I haven't been doing splits, but rather pressing "M" to create markers, then converting the markers to regions. But perhaps your solution above will still work, as a region is probably considered a media item as well. I'll try it, thanks.

Well then maybe you've got the "ticks" because when it renders those regions as tracks, you aren't at zero crossings.

Most of what I do has the applause and other non-music stuff edited out, so I don't really run into this.  Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

[Sloan Simpson]

Just tried rendering regions with that setting unchecked, no difference. Oh well, back to CDWave most likely.

[voltronic]

Just tried rendering regions with that setting unchecked, no difference. Oh well, back to CDWave most likely.

Did you try the ALT+Z zero crossing split?

[Sloan Simpson]

Just tried rendering regions with that setting unchecked, no difference. Oh well, back to CDWave most likely.

Did you try the ALT+Z zero crossing split?

I didn't. I'm not sure of the workflow with splits. I ended up using the markers-to-regions/auto-render method because everything else seemed to involve tricky selecting or something.

[voltronic]

Just tried rendering regions with that setting unchecked, no difference. Oh well, back to CDWave most likely.

Did you try the ALT+Z zero crossing split?

I didn't. I'm not sure of the workflow with splits. I ended up using the markers-to-regions/auto-render method because everything else seemed to involve tricky selecting or something.

I do this all the time.  It's what I have to do because for my recordings I want a fade in / out at the start / end of each track, and fades can only be placed on the boundaries of an item (therefore needing the split).

1. Make sure snapping is enabled, but grid is disabled.
2. Create splits at the start and end of each track.  Adjust fades if necessary.  For tracks with fades, I use S for a normal split.  For continuous / gapless, this is where I'd suggest using the ALT+Z "nearest zero crossing" split.
3. Create markers at split points to mark track in / out.  If you used ALT+Z, zoom in close to make sure that your markers are exactly aligned to your zero-crossing split (snapping helps).

Then you can use SWS to create Regions from your markers, and then Extensions > Autorender > Batch render regions.

[voltronic]

FYI, I just posted links to some very neat stuff using SWS Extensions to the Reaper Tips thread.

http://taperssection.com/index.php?topic=174517.msg2199750#msg2199750

[Sloan Simpson]

Just tried rendering regions with that setting unchecked, no difference. Oh well, back to CDWave most likely.

Did you try the ALT+Z zero crossing split?

I didn't. I'm not sure of the workflow with splits. I ended up using the markers-to-regions/auto-render method because everything else seemed to involve tricky selecting or something.

I do this all the time.  It's what I have to do because for my recordings I want a fade in / out at the start / end of each track, and fades can only be placed on the boundaries of an item (therefore needing the split).

1. Make sure snapping is enabled, but grid is disabled.
2. Create splits at the start and end of each track.  Adjust fades if necessary.  For tracks with fades, I use S for a normal split. For continuous / gapless, this is where I'd suggest using the ALT+Z "nearest zero crossing" split.
3. Create markers at split points to mark track in / out.  If you used ALT+Z, zoom in close to make sure that your markers are exactly aligned to your zero-crossing split (snapping helps).

Then you can use SWS to create Regions from your markers, and then Extensions > Autorender > Batch render regions.

Just gave this a shot and found that the soundboard and audience files are split at different spots when forced to zero crossing.