Reaper to the rescue!

DiscoStu

I downloaded it a couple of years ago after you lot all went on about it. Tried it, could see it was amazing for free and so paid the licence for it, and then had nothing to use it for.

But now I do!

I have a Zoom digital multitrack recorder but I find it difficult to edit on it as there is just a text screen, no visual sound waves to work with. I recorded a couple of friends of mine last month with it, they are a female folk/acoustic duo and we did a couple of acapella tracks with me thinking it would be easy to clean up and edit afterwards on the desk. I was wrong.

Struggled with it for a few weeks then discovered PC software that can convert the Zoom backup files to WAV and then I can get them in to Reaper.

Awesome. It's been a steep learning curve as I've never really tried the DAW thing as I have no interface for recording but now that I know I can get files from the desk to the PC, I'm extremely chuffed!
I've removed all the swallowing, the glottal sounds, fixed a vocal that I cut the end off by accident on the desk, cut up and moved the vocals around to fix timing issues, added some Sony compression, noise gate and reverb, and mixed it down.

I know I am only doing the 'basics' but it is mostly all new to me and the results are far beyond what I thought I would manage.

I am VERY impressed.

Go Reaper!

Fez

Reaper is great. I use a stealth plug for recording guitars but you need something else if you want to record vocals.

DiscoStu

I have tried a couple of interfaces on my PC and laptop before but there is always that very slight delay from latency which bugs the hell out of me.

The Zoom desk though is fantastic for recording. 8 inputs, phantom power for my SE2200A mic, 8 tracks at once if need be and NO latency. Plug in, press record and go.

It's just the editing that's a nightmare. Yeah you can punch in/out to delete noises but not when they are right next to the vocal (that's how I cut the end off by mistake) and it's very difficult to cut up a track in to pieces and move it around to adjust timing problems.

Dead easy in Reaper. I'm converted.

fretmeister

What model Zoom thingy is it? I might have to look at that!

DiscoStu

Zoom MRS1608CD

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/516A2WSTY7L._SX300_.jpg

I downloaded Audio File Manager from here http://www.zoom.co.jp/downloads/mrs1608/software/

You need this software to hook the desk up to a PC via USB card IF your desk has one which mine doesn't; USB was an optional extra and was over £100 more and I thought the CD burner would be enough.

So... save a backup of the project to CD, put the CD in your PC and copy the folder and files over (each track will be .DAT files as opposed to WAV), then here's the sneaky bit - delete the BACKUP info file from the folder on your PC and then the AFM software will recognise the track files and you can import them and convert them back to WAV.

Load in to Reaper and away you go!

So actually I now have a fucking great setup. My desk gives top quality recordings and with this 'hack' I can finish them off in a DAW.

ThePrettyDamned

Very cool! I use Reaper, but I'm even more basic than you - no idea how to remove swallowing sounds and stuff.  

Try and get a demo up, I'd like to know what the zoom recordery thing is like!