Reason: Any way to batch convert WAV to REX?

Question

I've used several DAWs over the years, and my sample library has grown to a considerable size. I've been playing with Reason lately, and I rather like it, but one big turnoff is that 99% of my drumloops are WAV. Is there any way to batch-convert WAV loops to REX?

Answer 1

I used Reaper v4.261 To successfully convert a number of .rx2 files to .wav files

A trial version can be downloaded from http://www.reaper.fm/

Once installed, Go to:

File Batch File/Item converter

[Short cut: Ctrl+Shift+F]

A window will pop up - You need to add the files you want to convert into that window by clicking on the "Add" button and clicking "Add Files". Highlight the ones you want...

e.g. C:\Cakewalk Content\Audio Library\Loops\Loopmasters\BREAKS DRUM N BASS\DANNY BYRD\REXFILE1.rx2 , REXFILE2.rx2 etc.

If you want to save the file with the same name, leave the box ticked that says "Use source file directory". You can also leave the Output format as "WAV" and the "Resample mode (if needed)" as Better.

Enter Filename as: "$source" (Other wildcards can be used but this is easiest).

Click "Convert all"

When done, go to your directory where the original rx2 files were kept and open it. Your new .WAV files should be in there. Go ahead and open them up in a wav editor such as Goldwave or a Digital Audio Workstation such as Reason.

Answer 2

Not really. The trouble is the hit detection for the conversion is sort of hit and miss. And most tools, to even get semi-accurate hit detection happening, require you give it the BPM (as opposed to auto-detecting the BPM) before extracting hits.

There's a separate product available from Propellerhead for the creation of REX files called ReCycle that you might want to check out. I'm not sure if it has any batch processing facilities. It didn't the last time I used it, but that was many years ago.

You might also want to have a look at Translator from Chicken Systems. It's a more generic sample filer converter but it does support REX output. It's batch facilities are better, but again, going from WAV -> REX might not work. If you were moving from another sample format to REX it might be able to do batch conversion because the other sample format might have the hits and BPM embedded in the format as meta data already.