TUTORIAL - How to setup reamping with REAPER on a Mac

J

JustinAiken

Inspired
Hopefully this helps some people...

1) Download REAPER: REAPER | Download

It's free for a month to try, and cheap after.

2) Get an AxeFX II

It'll take a month to get, and it's not cheap at all.

Plug it in via USB, install the drivers, and turn it on.

3) Set up an aggregate device in Audio/MIDI Settings

Pull up Audio MIDI settings (it's a standalone program, not in REAPER).
Create a new aggregate device..
I put my built-in output first, then the AxeII next - this will let you use the AxeII as an interface for bringing audio in/out, but still have the final sound come out of the speakers plugged into your soundcard.

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4) REAPER

Install it, run it for the first time. It will ask if you want to set up audio device now, say yes; choose the aggregate device you just created.

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5) Create Tracks

Create 3 tracks; one will be our wet sound, one will be DI, one will be the "reamped" sound. To set them up, choose the inputs and outputs listed below... To change the input, click the "i" on the track in the bottom, go to mono or stereo input, and choose the input there. To change the output, double click the "io" button, and change the Audio Hardware Output

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WET track - Output - Should be going to your main speaker output - Output 1/2 for me. Input - the main inputs from the Axe - 1/2 for me.
DI Track - Output - Should be going back to the AxeII; Output 3/4 for me. Input - The alternative outputs from the Axe - 3/4 for me.
REAMP Track - Output - Should be going to your main speaker output - Output 1/2 for me. Input - the main inputs from the Axe - 1/2 for me.


6) Record a track

Now, first off record-enable your WET track and DI track, and set the input monitoring for the WET track to on (it's the speaker button below the record arm button.) If you play, you should hear sweet Axe noises coming out of your speakers, and see the meters move on both the WET/DI track. Hit the big record button, and record some riffage.


7) Profit!

On the AxeII, go the I/O menu, and change the input 1 source from analog to USB. Now mute the WET track, and arm and input monitor the REAMP track. Hit play, and you should hear your riff being played back; but now if you make changes with the AxeII knobs, your recorded sound is altered... tweak it until it sounds good, then hit record to save your riff played with your new sweet tone! SUCCESS!
 
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Do you really NEED to record the first wet track, since you're probably not even going to use it?

Isn't it just a monitoring track?

ALSO, if you wanted couldn't you monitor yourself through the hardware output 2 (with FRFR, or the like) and just record the dry through USB in your DAW?

Just asking, because if it where me, this is how I'd want to do it, (I like to record "live" with a whole band, sometimes, so this would be awesome) so I want to know if you can even do this or not.
 
Guitar-Tiz said:
Do you really NEED to record the first wet track, since you're probably not even going to use it? Isn't it just a monitoring track?
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Yes, recording the WET track is optional. I like to though; it's come in handy in the studio before!

ALSO, if you wanted couldn't you monitor yourself through the hardware output 2 (with FRFR, or the like) and just record the dry through USB in your DAW?
Just asking, because if it where me, this is how I'd want to do it, (I like to record "live" with a whole band, sometimes, so this would be awesome) so I want to know if you can even do this or not.
Click to expand...

Yes, you could do this too. That would be more of an approach if you were recording a band practice type scenario, whereas I'm coming more from a sequencing in the home studio scenario... Either way would work though. The way I've described here though has the advantage of being able to play tracks through REAPER that don't pass through the AxeII at all, so one could say take a backing track from Rock Band/Guitar Hero to play along with easy...

Personally, my built-in digital out is going to a Presonus Central Station, then to a pair of A7s, so that's what works for me...
 
JustinAiken said:
Yes, recording the WET track is optional. I like to though; it's come in handy in the studio before!



Yes, you could do this too. That would be more of an approach if you were recording a band practice type scenario, whereas I'm coming more from a sequencing in the home studio scenario... Either way would work though. The way I've described here though has the advantage of being able to play tracks through REAPER that don't pass through the AxeII at all, so one could say take a backing track from Rock Band/Guitar Hero to play along with easy...

Personally, my built-in digital out is going to a Presonus Central Station, then to a pair of A7s, so that's what works for me...
Click to expand...
Awesome!

I like to record the original scratch tracks as a full band. It's usually easier to get in the "mood" if everyone is playing together.

It was a lifesaver with my last drummer, he couldn't play a song with a click to save his life, and if the rest of us weren't playing along with him, he'd screw up, so we'd lay down a track with all of us (a one mic quickie) and then just re-record everything using the scratch as a guide. It made the flow a lot easier for us, and if I could lay down a "dry" track for my guitars at the same time we do the scratch track, it could really save some re-recording time.
 
Thanks for this. I've been trying to figure out reamping but I must still be doing something wrong even after following your instructions. I setup my Mackie Onyx 400f and the Axe II as an aggregate device (I'm using Mac OSX 10.6.6). In addition to the 10 Mackie inputs, I'm only seeing the following related to the Axe Fx:

Front Left
Front Right
Front Center
Low Frequency Effects

Is there something I need to change from the I/O on the Axe Fx itself?
 
Also, if I select a stereo input in Reaper, I see:

Front Left (Axe Fx II Audio) / Front Right (Axe Fx II Audio)
Front Right (Axe Fx II Audio) / Front Center (Axe Fx II Audio)
Front Center (Axe Fx II Audio) / Low Frequency Effects (Axe Fx II Audio)
 
JustinAiken said:
Did you mess with the speaker setup on the Audio/MIDI settings? It seems to think your AxeII is a 5.1 system...
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Not that I know of. I'm pretty new to Mac and OSX but I'll check into it. BTW, I see the same Axe Fx inputs as I mentioned above when using PT 9 (Left, Right, Center, Low Frequency Effects).
 
Any Idea how to do this in Cubase? I'm also on a mac and i've tried this method but it doesn't seem to work for me. I am setting my aggregate device to the axe-2 as you've done, with my m-audio profire2626 but i'm occassionally not getting audio
 
Not sure as I've never tried Cubase... I imagine the Profire has a lot more inputs/outputs than the built in digital output, so your inputs/outputs will probably be offset..
 
Yeah there are quite a lot and they all say 'aggregate device' so i'm pretty confused. I did get it to kind of work just using the Axe-2 as the interface but for some reason when I play back the D.I through USB (i.e to reamp) the real-time reamp sound comes all down the centre and is not panned. This makes it very difficult to get a perspective in the tone in regards to the mix. If I pan the D.I track to the left while this is happening, the signal just becomes more phasey. If I pan to the right, the signal disappears. Any idea how I can fix it? It's the one thing that's stopping me now and i've went through with such a headache trying to get it to work correctly.
 
klaushouz said:
Is it true this is not possible in Windows 7 or earlier, because of the aggregate device limitation?
Click to expand...

EDIT I figured it out yesterday and its quite simple..

Use the AxeFx II's ASIO plugin

First input IN1 and last: IN3
Outputs you can have as normal (First: OUT1 and Last: OUT2)

Set up 2 tracks, on with input 1 and the other with input 3.
Arm them both and record:)
 
I have no trouble using AxeFx inputs and outputting to my speakers on Win7. I think I just used ASIO4All driver instead of the Axe ASIO driver.
 
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