Dividing a track into separate songs in Reaper

[arthurhenry]

I am new to Reaper and have used it to digitise several cassettes. How do I separate a 30 - 45 min 'side' of a cassette into songs, which could then be played either individually, or consecutively as an album?

To explain in a bit more detail; some cassettes are of my own ideas and snippets, which I would like to separate out and then perhaps group together in a folder called for example "Bass ideas 1"

Some are radio broadcasts of concerts etc. Which I would like to convert to MP3s, which could be played as a whole, or as separate tracks in itunes for example.

Edited January 20, 2021 by arthurhenry

[skidder652003]

Split the whole 45 minute tape into sections (songs/ideas etc) once you've inserted it onto a track in Reaper. Save that as your template. Then delete the sections behind and ahead of the section you want to use or keep. Save that section as "Bass ideas 1" or whatever you want to call it, then render that to you desktop or library as a wav or mp3. You have your first track. Repeat with that original template you saved and do the same for each section you want to save as a separate idea/song etc. There's probably a much quicker way of doing this but I can't think that quickly at the moment. Good Luck!

[jrixn1]

I think a quicker way is, for each section, highlight the time range you want and then 'Render', then choose 'Time selection' instead of the default 'Entire project'.
 

[skidder652003]

1 hour ago, jrixn1 said:

I think a quicker way is, for each section, highlight the time range you want and then 'Render', then choose 'Time selection' instead of the default 'Entire project'.
 

Yes that's much quicker!

[Happy Jack]

Why did I not think of this?

Doh!

 

[Dad3353]

This is fine if, as per the OP, there is only one track in the project. For a multi-track project, cutting the tracks ('S' shortcut...), selecting the cut sections and copying / pasting these into a second, empty, project would be my suggestion. Just sayin'. 

[SubsonicSimpleton]

I haven't tried this in Reaper, but if you use Audacity, you can place a marker at the beginning of each section and then on the export menu there is an option to export all the sections separately - there are several options for individual filename schemes when doing this including using the text labels for each section of the recording for the tracks.

Audacity is free, and it might be the case in this instance that using a different tool is more efficient in terms of general workflow.

Here is a guide on how to do the above process in Reaper

 

[ambient]

I always use ‘render’ - ‘custom time selection’ - ‘enter from and to times’.

I’m not sure what the difference is between that and just time selection.

Just use the solo button if you’ve got more than one track on a project screen, and only want to render a certain item or items. It’s good advice that Dad3353 gave above if you’ve got a multitrack project - use Command/click to select more than one item.

Reaper is an incredibly deep DAW. I’m using it for up to ten hours a day at the moment, but I’m constantly learning new things about it. I always used Logic Pro before, and swore by it, but it seems like a toy somehow now compared to Reaper.