Creating A Loop Station Using Reaper

Loop Station Objective 

 My aim was to create a looper using the Reaper DAW and controlling it with a Behringer FC1010 foot pedal. I started by looking at various loopers and soon decided that they were too expensive for the features I required. What I wanted was a way to record while swapping instruments to quickly create demo recordings while I had an idea for a song, or just to jam wh myself. The features I settled upon were. 

 1. Need each section of the song to loop until I wanted to jump to another section.

 2. Want up to 5 sections representing Intro, verse, chorus, middle 8 and outro. 

3. Need to be able to switch between any sections seamlessly

4. Want to be able record lots of tracks, (1 at a time) and switch between them. 

5. Want to be able to toggle between play and record.

 6. I would like to toggle overdub, replace recording mode.

Implementation On The FCB 1010.

After a false start using 3 banks of presets I decided that approach was far too complex to operate. So I designed a one bank approach. I downloaded an app called FCB1010 manager that allowed me to program the pre-set switches. I started by uploading the foot pedals settings using FCB1010 Manager's receive function. I had issues in some programs using the preset switch midi values so decided to change them all to MIDI notes that every app I had seemed to prefer as inputs to map to functions. I set the MIDI channel to 1 and assigned notes to each of the 100 presets. That would take an age on the pedal but was just a matter of setting the first one and using the auto increment feature on FCB1010 Manager to set the rest. Then I down loaded the settings to the pedal board using the Send feature of FCB1010 Manager. The app gives you a step by step guide when you select this option of how to get the pedal into CONFIG mode and receive mode, not forgetting to change the MIDI cable to the interface send and foot pedal receive sockets. 

The FCB1010 Manager Preset Page

Reaper Implementation

 The next stage was to decide the pedal layout and map the switches to Reaper functions in the Reaper Action List page. After a few trials the layout I went for is:

 Region 1      Region 2     Region 3      Region 4              Region 5

 Play              Record       OverDub      Previous track     Next Track 

 It took a bit of experimenting to work out how to deal with song sections in Reaper. It has a function whereby you can create and name regions of a project.   I created a prototype project with 5 regions named as Intro Verse Chorus Middle8  and  Outro. I gave the regions each a different colour so they could be easily identified. I found Reaper had actions to select a region but in order to make the region loop Reaper requires that the time selection is set to the region. I found a set of extensions to the Reaper actions that allowed me to do this called SWS Extensions from www.sws-extension.org. These included functions to select a region and smooth seek to it. That means it waits until the current region has finished playing before playing and looping round the selected region. At first I intended to just have a select previous and select next region. I could not get this working properly when I needed to skip a region. It would have let me have any number of regions but instead I opted for a limited number of regions which were easier to select.

Mapping Switches To Actions.

 To map a foot pedal function to an action you just find the appropriate action in the action list and select it by clicking on it once. (Twice executes the action and closes the window, I did this loads of times by accident.) It is easier said than done finding the correct action. There are so many of them. There is a filter where you can type in a keyword to limit the number. When the action is selected there is an add button at the bottom left. Pressing this brings up a dialogue box. Then you just press the switch you want to map on the foot pedal and the mapping is done. 

Changing Regions.

 To get the smooth seeking and looping working several preferences had to be set. This was the hardest part of the whole setup. I played around for ages before hitting on the magic combination. Options: Loop Points Linked To Time Selection needs to be enabled The loop button next to the record button needs to be on. In the Looper preferences make sure smooth seek is switched to wait until current region has ended. 

Changing Tracks

 For the tracks I set up standard tracks for Drums, Bass, Guitar 1,2,3,4 Vox 1,2,3 and a MIDI track for Keys. In order for the track selection to work I enabled an option "Automatically arm track when selected". This is an option you get when you right click on a track. To set this option on all of them highlight the while lot and then right click and enable the option. Now pressing the previous/last track pedals not only switch the track but arms it for recording and disarms the deselected track. The only caveat is that it is best to swap tracks like this when the record mode is not on. 

Takes

Reaper never deletes tracks any way, it just records a new take. So I could start recording just before a loop and end just after I enabled an option to discard takes before and after a complete loop. I set the complete threshold to 90%. Thus the trash before and after a complete loop is discarded. 

 Play on/off.

 I used the standard Reaper action to toggle this. It is also mapped to the space bar by default and acts as a pause mode. 

 Record On Off

 I tried switch record/on off at start of next measure but did not like it. I wanted to either hear what I was playing or immediately hear the recorded loop, so in the end just mapped the record switch to Transport Record

 Overdub.

 This I could find no way to do easily except on MIDI tracks. I changed the switches function to Stop and Save all media. 

Expression Pedals

 I then decided to map the two expression pedals to Reaper functions. I chose Master volume for Pedal A and Selected track volume for Pedal B. Unfortunately the way FCB1010 maps the MIDI values to these pedals means the open pedal means no volume and pedal down means full volume. That means you have to remember to open both pedals before using them or you can get an unintended full volume. I have automatic mute for all tracks on my Reaper setup which saves the eardrums and speakers if volumes go unexpectedly high. I have not tried reversing the values on the FCB1010. The manual says the first open value has to be lower than the second closed value which suggests it does not work with them reversed. Equipment setup.

Using The Loop Station.

 To enable rapid swapping between guitars, drums etc I employ a mixer which takes as input all the various instruments. I only have 4 channels at the moment set up as vocals, guitar, bass and drums. I have a feed to a Zoom digital recorder that I use as an effects unit. Unfortunately I cannot automate its controls so have to dial up an appropriate effect when I swap instruments. I usually only use an effect on the guitars. I run the stereo output of the mixer into a Focusrite USB interface that also has a MIDI input for the FCB1010 foot pedal. I have headphones plugged into the Focusrite so I can hear the output from the DAW. I generally start off by choosing a tempo and switch the Reaper metronome on to keep me in time for the first loop. I like to put down a strum on a guitar first of all to give me an idea of where I am. Drums go on next to keep me in time. I then usually switch the metronome off. I then jump to guitars and bass as I feel inspired. Sometimes I will just work on a single region and other times work through the regions on an instrument. 

The nice thing about being in a DAW is all the takes are recorded and afterwards I can manipulate them, copy thong between regions etc and end up editing it and rerecording like a standard multitrack recording. Yet I can just start off jamming and see what happens.

 Summary.

 It took me a long time to get this working as I intended over a period of a couple of years! I was mostly busy programming my game or playing guitars etc so did not work on it often. I almost had a setup working when Windows decided it would delete the whole of my user profile and with it all my Reaper settings and FCB1010 settings. At least I could upload the FCB1010 settings back from the board but I could not remember what I had done in Reaper and could not rebuild it until I managed to get a new licence as that was also lost. It was one of those days when you discover that you had not been backing up enough. Indeed it is really hard to back up Appdata in your user profile as some files are continuously in use so a backup fails. It is only when you lose your user profile you realise how many things apps have saved behind the scenes. I am glad I have finally realised my dream (apart from the overdubbing). Perhaps I should have just gone out and bought the Boss loop station. I wanted an integrated solution that would allow me to develop full blown tracks from jams and that is just what it does. To get the equivalent functionality you would probably have to fork out £350. If I costed my time it probably cost in the order of £6000 but I hope this blog makes it easier for anyone who ants do do a similar thing.