MuCol-Functions

After installation and configuration of the MuCol-components in Reaper (for details please refer to the respective video), there are two buttons available:

  • ToggleIndicator: The arrow-button ">>" is used to toggle the marking of tracks - the possible markings are: ">C"opy tracks, generate ">B"acktracks, or both ">C>B".
  • ProcessProject: The track markings control what will happen when the "Run MC" button is clicked. "Run MC" obviously stands for "Run MusiCollaboration".

In general whenever a project (main or instrument) is opened, the MC-script shall be launched. And when the work is done and there is results to be shared with the other participants, the MC-script shall be launched once again.

Copy Tracks to Instrument Projects

In the main-project, i.e. the project the producer or composer started with, a folder track named "*REC" must be inserted. Any tracks below it can be marked with a ">C" using the arrow button, no matter if those tracks are folders or ordinary recording tracks.

When clicking on the "Run MC"-button those tracks are made available in the respective instrument-project. If the instrument-project does not yet exist, it is created in a subdirectory of the directory of the main-project.

When the instrument-project is opened the first time, it is empty. When "Run MC" is executed in the instrument-project, the above mentioned tracks are imported and copied under an automatically created track also named "*REC".

Once the "*MIX"-folder exists in the main-project (s. respecitve chapter on this page), tracks below it can also be marked with the ">C" and are processed as described above.

Generate Backtracks

In the main-project tracks under "*REC" or "*MIX", in the instrument-projects tracks under "*REC" can be marked with ">B" using the arrow botton ">>".

When clicking on the "Run MC"-button those tracks are "stemmed", i.e. a mixdown in a new track is created. All stem-tracks from all instrument-projects (including the main-project) are collected under the folder track "*BACKTRACKS". Under "*BACKTRACKS" each instrument-project (and the main-project) is represented by a separate folder track named "*REC-<instrument>" (as mentioned above, it is also possible to mark tracks under the "*MIX"-track, the respective folder track under "*BACKTRACKS" is named accordingly).

Because the main- and all instrument-projects must be independant in order to avoid conflicts when the recordings or backtracks are synchronised over the internet, the main-project is required to function as the central instance of the synchronisation process. This complicates the synchronisation to a certain degree: After the instrument-projects have generated their backtracks, the main-project must be opened and "Run MC" must be launched here also in order to make the latest version of the backtracks available to all other instrument projects. Thereafter the latest version of all backtracks are retreived by the instrument-projects when the "Run MC" is executed there.

Collect MIX-Tracks

Like in the main-project, in the instrument-projects too tracks under "*REC" can be marked with ">C" using the arrow botton ">>". But in the instrument-projects this markings have a slightly different meaning:

Towards the end of the MC-script in the main-project a confirmation message asks the user, if he/she would like to copy the tracks marked with ">C" to the "*MIX" folder. If the user confirms, all those tracks are collected and copied under the folder track "*MIX". For every instrument a separate subfolder is created. This way the individually created recordings can be properly mixed.

If plugins are used in the instrument-project, that are not available in the main-project, the owner of the instrument-project can stem his/her recordings to a new audio track and mark this stemmed track with ">C".