Trying to record from another DAW to Audacity..?!?

Audacity Help Forum Windows
1

My main DAW for creating music is Reaper. I like cutting up samples, and doing various other processes in Audacity (It helps me feel tidyer having 2 seperate DAWs for seperate tasks!)

I don’t know if this is possible… But I would like to be able to hit play in Reaper, and then hit record in Audacity, and it records Reaper’s live output. (This would be very helpful to my creative flow…).

My Audio interface is a focusrite Scarlett 18i8. At present, if I want to record background audio on my desktop into Audacity (which I often do) I select on the Audacity settings-

Audio host- Windows Wasapi, Recording Device - Line Out (Scarlett 18i8) (loopback), Playback Device - Line Out (Scarlett 18i8)

This will record everything in the desktop background audio except any Reaper output!

Any ideas? Would appreciate immensely!

Windows 7
Audacity 2.1.1
.exe installer

2

In Reaper, use the File, Render command to render as a WAV file.
Then in Audacity, Import the WAV file.

3

This should work as long as Reaper is not configured to take exclusive control of the sound device, and if it did that you would see error opening sound device when trying to record in Audacity.

I can record from Reaper into Audacity on Windows 10 using (in Audacity) Windows WASAPI host, Speakers (loopback) for recording device and Speakers for playback device, and (in Reaper) setting the Device Preferences in Reaper to Wave Out or WASAPI (shared mode).

Have you got Reaper set to use the Line Out (Scarlett 18i8) as the output device, 2 output channels?


Gale

4

Hi Gale,
Thanks for that! In Reaper I switched the audio system from Asio to Wasapi, so both Reaper and Audacity have Wasapi selected, and it worked! I could record Reaper into Audacity.
Before in Reaper, when I had Asio selected, I had the “Asio Driver” selected as Focusrite USB 2.0 Driver (The driver for my scarlett 18i8). It seems that Audacity can’t record Reaper when Asio is selected on Reaper…! …(?)

I don’t really know my Asio’s from my Wasapi’s to be honest! Slowly gettin my head round it!

5

Out of interest, what is the benefit of recording Reaper with Audacity compared to exporting from Reaper and importing into Audacity?

6

Hi Steve,
Its just a personal preference! Its a way I can quickly capture little ideas without too much clicking… (and maybe elaborate on them or discard them) I like the way it feels a bit like having a tape player
I am a music artist and It is my preferred canvas! (I realize about the loss of quality going from digi to audio, but I don’t mind!)

7

You realise that you can do the job entirely in Reaper?

8

ASIO is a protocol for audio communication. It’s proprietary with a non-disclosure agreement, so as an open source application we cannot ship Audacity with ASIO support.

Audacity would probably not hear the ASIO stream unless you were to compile Audacity with ASIO support.


Gale