Can Reaper song project file be brought into Cakewalk

[treesha]

Hi, A friend who works in reaper would like me to do a mix of his song so is there any way that his project file can open in cakewalk? In the past he has sent a wav file for each of his tracks which worked ok in the end but had some challenges, just wondering if there is an easier way? Thanks for any suggestions for ways to do this

[OutrageProductions]

Save a MIDI file from Reaper for markers/tempo/metronome if needed later.

Bounce all audio tracks so that they start at Bar 1 / Beat 1 and export as stems into wave files at original SR/BR. You may also want to save as Broadcast Wave files.

Label tracks/stems well for identification. 

Then when you import into CbB you can strip out the digital black and edit to your hearts content. 

Edited August 12, 2023 by OutrageProductions

[scook]

@azslow3 wrote a Cakewalk project to Reaper tool. Maybe a no frills return flight is possible too. 

[Andres Medina]

Although a little tricky, OMF files were designed to solve this problem. It's old but if handled properly it works just fine.

Reaper must have the ability to export it's file as OMF anyway. Not sure if it does.

Once exported, just open the OMF file in CW and you'll get all the tracks and its clips in their corresponding positions in your timeline.

But basically you have to build up your session from this basic scratch .

Here is the info in the documentation, if it helps: https://legacy.cakewalk.com/Documentation?product=Cakewalk&language=3&help=Exporting.11.html

 

[mettelus]

Unfortunately, the tempo map and broadcast wav file stems is the only "sure fire" way to pass things between (any) DAWs, but azslow3 would be the best bet to try to convert Reaper->Cakewalk.

Also bear in mind... there is no guarantee that each user has the same plugins available/used for projects, so even though it sounds cool on paper to collaborate projects with all the nuts and bolts included (even two Cakewalk users), this may not be practical at all (why broadcast wavs are often used anyway). Time-based FX (delays, reverbs, etc.) are the ones you may want not to bake into stems, but if you both have the same plugins an option there is to pass FX preset files back and forth as well as the stems. Save those presets from the plugin GUIs (not the DAW).

[John Vere]

As said if you have Midi as the template and then the audio exports as stems starting at zero it’s not a big deal. Everyone has different approach’s to what effects are used so personally I would not worry about duplicating what the first person used. I just go at it with my own methods which is why collaboration is a wonderful idea to get a completely different perspective of a mix 

[Starship Krupa]

3 hours ago, OutrageProductions said:

You may also want to save as Broadcast Wave files.

Hw are broadcast wav files different from regular wav files, and why would they be preferred for import to a different DAW?

[Lord Tim]

They have timestamps, so if you choose to import them at their timestamp positions, they (theoretically) all just snap back into place. It.... does work, but it's iffy in my experience, depending on how the destination project is set up.

I do a lot of remote mixing sessions for clients and the most common way we do it is like how @OutrageProductions mentioned. Most of the time they're just regular WAVs rather than B-WAVs but it doesn't matter if I have the original tempo map from the MIDI and they all start from the same place.

[azslow3]

I have no REAPER to Cakewalk converter. Target format must be completely understood for that, Cakewalk format is unknown (I can only extract some parts).

REAPER has no build-in OMF export, but there is (relatively expensive) software https://www.aatranslator.com.au/ which can do that. I don't know how good it works in practice, nor how good Cakewalk can import produced OMFs.

[mettelus]

Quick rewind to the OP again... It seems you did use stems for the collaboration, but can you expound on the "some challenges" part of your OP?

[treesha]

7 hours ago, mettelus said:

Quick rewind to the OP again... It seems you did use stems for the collaboration, but can you expound on the "some challenges" part of your OP?

We collaborated on 2 or 3 of his songs going back a few years ago and when we were discussing this one he reminded me it was difficult before and i vaguely remember that but not exactly what the issues were. His creativity is good and over time he sends me his songs and i tell him what i hear in his mix to improve. This one the mix is so very bad so I offered to mix it. He was and is better now but still not very daw experienced and has a disability so maybe just the unfamiliar steps on his end were difficult for him. I think he had been using cakewalk for all the others but moved to reaper so this one is created in reaper that i know nothing about.  So I just wanted to get ideas for the best easiest way to get his reaper work into my cakewalk. Thanks for the reply! 
ps. In this case his project file in reaper is likely very simple no bells and whistles to need to recreate on my end 

Edited August 13, 2023 by treesha
Ps

[treesha]

Thanks for all the replies, information and suggestions. An interesting discussion! I was reading about program called Satellite by mixedinkey for different daw collaborations posted on the forum that google brought up, i think its in the freeware large thread. I expect we will keep it simple and he will just send stems I will set up in cakewalk as before. Since its a basic bare bones project it should be fine. Thanks to all! 

[Glenn Stanton]

remember to do a MIDI export as well to capture tempo (if any) changes etc

[treesha]

1 minute ago, Glenn Stanton said:

remember to do a MIDI export as well to capture tempo (if any) changes etc

Thanks Glenn, no tempo changes in this one but I am glad to be learning about how to do this if needed sometime

[mettelus]

2 hours ago, treesha said:

I think he had been using cakewalk for all the others but moved to reaper so this one is created in reaper that i know nothing about.  So I just wanted to get ideas for the best easiest way to get his reaper work into my cakewalk.

Thanks for the response. If you have common plugins between both of you, you would also be able to work in Cakewalk and send the project file and audio folder back and forth as well (keep that folder clean before sending by doing a "Save As..." and saving to a new folder and copy the audio over in the save dialog box). This would take "reaper" out of the loop for the mixing phase, but may be simpler as he has used Cakewalk before. If the focus is helping him learn, this will also let him view mixing stages a little better.

Also to the "teaching" end of things, some video conferencing software (Zoom and the like) allow for screen sharing which would enable him to see and interact with you while you are working. There is lag associated with this and often a significant bandwidth usage jump (may be a limiting factor), but keep that in mind as well. When on the final stages of things, this can also expedite the back and forth with what is being done.