I've just starting learning Reaper and am curious if anyone would know why when I got to render a file it drops the volume significantly for various parts depending on what's playing. It's like it's ducking the mix or something.

It's annoying because I can seem to render it the way I actually hear it. It's like "If you could record the same way it's going to the speakers, that would be nice." lol

Btw, I'm very certain it's human error on my side.

Any ideas?

Are you using volume envelopes in it? Or any sort of compressor?

Both could do that.... but it's likely not that.

No. When the drums come in, the rest of the mix drops way down.

Figured it out. Thanks for taking a shot at it!

If it helps, this is not my experience with Reaper at all. It renders what I hear. Although sometimes I need to adjust and re-render several times cause what I hear is not what I actually want after a few listens. But I think we all do that...

It actually ended up being a dumb little setting in my soundcard/windows. It's something that supposedly compensates for loudness/volume changes for humans...um, ok. lol If they say so.

Inquiring minds want to know the answer.

I have never experienced any issues after rendering in Reaper. Having said that I’ll often render leave it for a day or so listen again and maybe redo it. I have found I do that a lot less since using Tonal Balance Control (a part of Izotope Ozone Advanced).

I did put up a link https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JwDcTPn2dvc yesterday. This really covers the basics in Reaper. I also recommend going to http://www.kennymania.com/reaper-videos/#reaper-5-explained
When it comes to Reaper Kenny Gioia is the man. This site has everything you need to know and then some about Reaper.

Tony

You're using the windows sound card?

Yes I was this time. It was for a quick ref mix.

HTL, that's really interesting. You're pretty clever to have found that. It would never have occurred to me to look at my soundcard settings.

All the best with your Reaper learning, it's such great software.

All the best,
Noel

Hear To Learn,

Thank you for taking time to respond to my question.

I suspect an issue with a sound card setting would affect render output of any DAW so your issue could happen to any one of us.

Thanks guys. It was pretty annoying. Everything was fine until the drums kicked in. Then everything dropped behind the drums, like it was ducking. Hopefully if this happens to anyone this will help.

Thanks for the responses everyone!