REAPER 5 Explained - 13. VCAs Video Lecture | A Complete Course: Reaper Tutorial - Video & Sound Editing

okay next we're gonna check out VCAs in
reaper now VCAs
is a new feature introduced in reaper 5
but it's a very powerful feature for
dealing with grouping our tracks and the
best way to explain how it works is to
compare it to other ways of grouping our
tracks like typical track grouping or
using folders let's review track
grouping
let's make a new track here bring it to
the top
and let's select it go to track grouping
and make this a master
then we'll choose these tracks and make
them slaves
Steff we play our track
this fader is going to adjust the level
of all the tracks together
but no audio is actually being routed to
this track this track is just
controlling these faders because it's
grouped as you move it they move
together
now if instead we use track folders
let's get rid of this group
hit none
if we made this a folder instead
all these tracks are being routed
through this track so it can still
adjust the volume from here but the
actual audio is being routed to this
track so we can have plugins to it and
we see the level
on this meter here but as we bring this
down notice the level on these tracks it
stays the same because when I was just
in the level on the individual track
just the folder which is where the audio
is being routed after here which is why
it still shows up on the meter but
that's a drawback to it as I mentioned
in the folder video
let's make a send
have it in the folder
and let's send from a kick track
drop it on here
and it's a post-fader send
we'll take it out of the master parents
end but we're going to see the level on
the meter
and if we pull this down watch the meter
over here even with it all the way down
this is still getting level
so this is a reverb or delay or any
effects return it's still gonna get the
same signal being sent from our kick so
it's not going to be proportioned to our
drum sound so that's a drawback to using
folders
let's take this out of being a folder
and instead let's make it a VC a master
will choose it will go to track grouping
but instead of choosing master over here
we'll choose a VC a master right here
and we'll choose these tracks and make
them VC a slaves
let's close it
and now let's see what happens
notice the fader is still controlling it
but watch the meters over here
it changes the level on the individual
tracks because the audio is not being
routed to the VCA master
this volume and this pan are just
controlling the individual tracks that's
why the level changes on the individual
track meters now check out our send over
here watch this meter it also goes down
the
because we're controlling the individual
tracks that affects the post-fader send
same thing with sending from over here
affects the return on our effects
returns so that's a better way of
handling tracks with post fader sentence
but the negative is that audio isn't
going through this track
we can control the level but on this
meter we're not seeing anything because
no audio is being sent there so if we
put an effect on this track
what's using EQ
we'll make it a Lopez
it doesn't do anything because the audio
isn't being routed to this track this
tracks volume and pan are just
controlling the individual volumes and
pans on these tracks so it's more of a
control than a bus or a folder but it's
still very powerful like for example
let's say one that he uses as a sub
mixer let's change our slaves on the
guitars
turn these off
and now this VCA is just controlling our
drums so it's a sub mixer for a drum
level as we're mixing if the drums are
too loud
we could adjust it here let's do the
same thing for our guitars let's get rid
of this track and make a new one we'll
put it up here
and let's make this one Avicii a master
but we gonna use group two instead BCA
master
choose our guitars and make them VCA
slaves for group two
so now this track is controlling these
guitars
so you can control guitars altogether
with this one fader
a drums here and the guitars here
but we could also create VCAs that
control the same things so let's make
another fader
now let's make this Avicii a master
we use Group three
VCA master then we'll choose our drums
and the guitars but not the VCAs
just the individual tracks and make
those VCA slaves for group 3
it's now the individual tracks are
slaves to two different VCA groups but
they're still gonna work and they mix
together so if we want adjust the drums
we could do it here the guitars here and
all together over here so tracks can be
VCA slaves of more than one group which
makes it a lot easier and flexible for
mixing having multiple vc8 groups at the
same time maybe one for all the vocals
another one for just the background
vocals another one just for the
harmonies so it's very flexible and
powerful but it does have limitations
when we use it this way for instance it
only controls the volume and the pan
doesn't control the mute so if you mute
this we still hear the drums
or the guitars or both because like I
said the audio isn't running through the
VCA master tracks it's still over here
but we can add that control using track
grouping let's go back to this one
so I'm Group one it's a VC a master but
we can add other parameters to this like
mute and solo let's go to these tracks
and do the same thing on the slave side
mute and so all
so now this VCA master still controls
the drum level to RVCA but we can also
mute the drums or solo them so it's
using our VCAs and our track grouping
but notice we're not using the parameter
volume we don't want to do that because
if we do
you master
in the volume slave
if we move this fader these faders move
as well so not only are we controlling
the VCAs on the individual tracks but
we're also moving the faders so every
time we move this fader 1 dB we're gonna
hear 2 DB of change and we don't want
that
so when using VCAs don't use the volume
or the pans in our track grouping
let's add that to a guitar master
mutant soil and it's also during this
one
mutant solo
and all the individual tracks
mutant saw
so now we can mute our drums here we
could solo drums here we can adjust
their volume through a VCA
right here we could do the same with the
guitars mute them so them or just them
here with the VCA master and we can do
everything from here mute solo
and adjust it
so like I said it's a very powerful
feature
and it's even more powerful if we use it
with automation or envelopes but we're
not gonna get into that yet we're gonna
save that for the automation video but
just know that there's more we can do
with VCAs so anyway that's VCAs
in reaper let's move on
you
ah
you