From Cakewalk to Reaper ( useful tool, thanks to Azslow3 )

[aidan o driscoll]

Hi guys,

I am working with a band member who uses MAC and also uses REAPER on the Mac. I need to share my CW projects with him back and forth. So I went looking for a way of moving a CAKEWALK project to Reaper and found that @azslow3 has a tool to do this exact thing mentioned over at the old forums so I thought it should be brought over here:

http://forum.cakewalk.com/Sonar-to-Reaper-in-4-clicks-public-alpha-m3725610.aspx

The latest version seems to be from July 2020:

https://www.azslow.com/index.php?action=downloads;sa=view;down=57

So I had a go and ITS WORKS a treat. Ok, there is a bit of tidy up because it seems to import CW tracks inside track folders, something to do with the routing I think? But thats easily sorted in Reaper.

At the link above is a DLL added to a folder in reaper .. then simply open reaper and File/Open .. it sees the CWP file - open it, that it really. It brought over the Audio tracks + the midi tracks with plugins intact

Im sure @azslow3 might have more to say. Thanks for this tool. I wonder would it be possible to develop this tool to go the opposite way also - Reaper to CW?

 

 

Edited December 19, 2021 by aidan o driscoll

[azslow3]

2 hours ago, aidan o driscoll said:

Im sure @azslow3 might have more to say. Thanks for this tool. I wonder would it be possible to develop this tool to go the opposite way also - Reaper to CW?

Theoretically, everything is possible ?

But practically, as far as I know, ReaCWP is still the only existing converter which deals with more then just audio tracks (at most with volume automations). I guess DAW developers don't want people transfer whole projects away from own eco-system (internal converters exists, f.e. Cakewalk <-> Bandlab).

Another aspect is the format. There are several interchange formats (Cakewalk supports OMF), but there are for audio/video only. MIDI, FXes and other staff is not foreseen. REAPER has a text based and so a kind of open (not really officially documented) project format. Cakewalk use proprietary binary format. And so converting from Cakewalk is hard, but way simpler then converting to Cakewalk. Converting to and from REAPER is technically not a problem (and the reason more export/import projects exist).

Converted projects have Cakewalk signal flow. That signal flow is not obviously limiting when you work in Cakewalk itself, but once observed in the "freedom universe" of REAPER, things in fact look fancy. MIDI and audio are separated, Synths are in general different from FXes, buses and tracks are not the same... BTW the signal flow is converted with explicit sends. While REAPER folders could be sufficient in most cases (Cakewalk strip always has one "primary" output), "unrolling" the project to make it more "native" will break routing otherwise.

 

[aidan o driscoll]

8 minutes ago, azslow3 said:

Theoretically, everything is possible ?

But practically, as far as I know, ReaCWP is still the only existing converter which deals with more then just audio tracks (at most with volume automations). I guess DAW developers don't want people transfer whole projects away from own eco-system (internal converters exists, f.e. Cakewalk <-> Bandlab).

Yip .. but I think I illustrated a very good & Legit reason why your tool to go from Cakewalk to Reaper is very useful. Not all band members use the same software NOR the same computer hardware/op sys. In my case our keyboard player is MAC ONLY which Cakewalk doesnt support ( easily anyway ) BUT has REAPER which is supported on PC and MAC. So using your tool I can now easily give him my CW project via Reaper. This is very useful and convenient, so thanks again.

If Cakewalk was available for Mac I wouldnt have this scenario to deal with .. so as a way around this is your useful tool

Edited December 19, 2021 by aidan o driscoll

[aidan o driscoll]

On 12/19/2021 at 6:21 PM, azslow3 said:

Theoretically, everything is possible ?

But practically, as far as I know, ReaCWP is still the only existing converter which deals with more then just audio tracks (at most with volume automations). I guess DAW developers don't want people transfer whole projects away from own eco-system (internal converters exists, f.e. Cakewalk <-> Bandlab).

Another aspect is the format. There are several interchange formats (Cakewalk supports OMF), but there are for audio/video only. MIDI, FXes and other staff is not foreseen. REAPER has a text based and so a kind of open (not really officially documented) project format. Cakewalk use proprietary binary format. And so converting from Cakewalk is hard, but way simpler then converting to Cakewalk. Converting to and from REAPER is technically not a problem (and the reason more export/import projects exist).

Converted projects have Cakewalk signal flow. That signal flow is not obviously limiting when you work in Cakewalk itself, but once observed in the "freedom universe" of REAPER, things in fact look fancy. MIDI and audio are separated, Synths are in general different from FXes, buses and tracks are not the same... BTW the signal flow is converted with explicit sends. While REAPER folders could be sufficient in most cases (Cakewalk strip always has one "primary" output), "unrolling" the project to make it more "native" will break routing otherwise.

 

@azslow3 Belated Thanks for this BTW. Works enough to get CW projects direct into Reaper. As I said my band scattered across world are using REAPER to bridge the platform thing, some use Macs, others PC ( PC users use CW ).

I noticed it does bring across extra tracks and folder tracks etc, as you said I think its to do with busses etc? Any way i wonder of just getting across track per track .. keeping it simple   

 

[martsave martin s]

27 minutes ago, aidan o driscoll said:

@azslow3 Belated Thanks for this BTW. Works enough to get CW projects direct into Reaper. As I said my band scattered across world are using REAPER to bridge the platform thing, some use Macs, others PC ( PC users use CW ).

I noticed it does bring across extra tracks and folder tracks etc, as you said I think its to do with busses etc? Any way i wonder of just getting across track per track .. keeping it simple   

 

what i,v done is to remove the buss in cakewalk before open them in reaper much simpler that way,i made the full transition on reaper with azslow3

plugin !!! amazing...

Edited February 16, 2022 by martsave martin s

[azslow3]

11 hours ago, aidan o driscoll said:

@azslow3 Belated Thanks for this BTW. Works enough to get CW projects direct into Reaper. As I said my band scattered across world are using REAPER to bridge the platform thing, some use Macs, others PC ( PC users use CW ).

I noticed it does bring across extra tracks and folder tracks etc, as you said I think its to do with busses etc? Any way i wonder of just getting across track per track .. keeping it simple  

Yes, (most) extra tracks are buses. The concept of "Track/bus output" in Cakewalk more or less match the concept of "Parent send" in REAPER, so I create folders based on original output. But I still create explicit sends, for the reason explained before. Unlike "simple" converters, I also convert FXes. So converting buses is not just  complicate the result ?

And you can select buses and delete them quick  (requires SWS and simple macro if I remember correctly, have not done that for a while).

[Xel Ohh]

I made a video for this if anyone comes to this feed about opening CWP files in Reaper .. thank @azslow3 for making this ..