A Beginner's guide on how to create Gunsync videos.

Introduction

This guide will focus on getting you set up on how to make Gunsync videos. You do not need any prior experience with making music or knowing music theory to follow this guide.

Keep in mind that even though it looks finished this guide is prone to changing...

Also, this guide will be done on the Microsoft Windows operating system; the inputs and directories may vary from macOS or GNU/Linux distros, and it may require extra work on your end to find your OS build equivalent.

Prerequisites

Downloading Reaper + VLC + FFMPEG + FOOBAR2000

Downloading Reaper:
Grab the latest version of Reaper for your operating system from here: Reaper Download
Reaper is freeware (not to be confused with free software) and operates just like Winrar with a fake 60 day trial expiry date.
You can still use the software after the 60 day trial limit has passed.
You will just have to wait when starting up the program until the 5 second "Buy Me" counter expires so you can click on the "Still Evaluating" button.

Downloading VLC:
Grab the Latest 64 Bit version of VLC for your operating system from here: VLC Download
In order for the view video function of Reaper to work properly to display the video you are making you need a video encoder such as VLC.
Once you have it installed start up Reaper, go to Options → Preferences → Media → Video, click on the button that says Show Decoder Information, and it should show VLC as follows if you have it installed correctly.

Downloading FFMPEG
Grab the latest ffmpeg-[latest version]-full_build-shared.zip from FFMPEG Download
In order for you to render correctly using H.264 video codec you are going to need to manually install ffmpeg inside of Reaper.
Once you have it downloaded Press Windows Key + R to bring up the Run command and type in %appdata% and press Enter.
Once you are inside of your Appdata folder go to Appdata → Roaming → Reaper → UserPlugins
Now open the ffmpeg archive you downloaded and go to the bin folder.
Select everything inside of this folder and put it inside of your Reaper UserPlugins folder.
When you are done click on the Show Decoder Information button in Reaper again and it should look something like this:

Downloading Foobar2000
Grab the latest download of foobar2000 from here: https://www.foobar2000.org/
As well as the free encoder pack: https://www.foobar2000.org/encoderpack
This will be a way for you to convert videos files into .wav or .mp3 files, because Reaper does not allow certain file formats.

Setting Up Reaper

Saving all of your reaper project files in one directory

1. Go to Options → Preferences → Paths
2. Create a new folder on your hard drive where you will keep all of your Reaper project files inside of and put it under Default Path To Save New Projects.
3. Check the Store all peak caches (.reapeaks) in alternate path box, create a new folder/directory for your .reapeak files to cache in, and select that folder/directory in the field by click on the ... button and locating it, or type the directory in.

Autosaving Projects

1. Go to Options → Preferences → Project
2. Under Project saving instead of 15 minutes put Every 5 minutes when not recording.
3. Check the Save to timestamped file in additional directory box and create a new folder on your hard drive where you will keep your extra Reaper backups inside of.

Always make sure you have backups enabled and saving every 5-7 minutes as Reaper could suddenly crash or your PC might turn off with you forgetting to save your project file.

Finding The Right BPM For Your Song

You will need to be able to get a song's BPM (Beats Per Minute) in order to align your gun sounds with the song.
There's a few ways you can do this:

• Finding the BPM of the Song Online
  Usually with more popular songs there are a lot of websites on the internet that will tell you the BPM of a particular song but if that is not the case for your song continue reading.
• Mix-Meister's BPM Analyzer: Download (Windows)
  Mix-Meister BPM Analyzer is usually right, most of the time, with the BPM output when you insert a .wav or .mp3 file into it but if that is not the case continue reading.

• Manually Tapping The BPM
  You can manually time the BPM of a song using tools such as https://www.all8.com/tools/bpm.htm by playing the song and tapping alongside with the beat until you get the correct BPM.

Creating A Gunsync Video

Reaper Shortcut Keys

Before we start here is a list of Reaper shortcut keys that we are going to be using throughout this guide:

ALT + L - Snap/grid setting(s)
CTRL + T - Create a new track
F2 - Selected item(s) properties
CTRL + SHIFT + N - Normalize selected item(s)
S - Split sample/item (over timeline cursor)
DEL - Delete selected item(s)
ALT + Drag Mouse - Align the item(s) starting location
CTRL + C - Copy selected item(s)
CTRL + V - Paste selected item(s)

Setting Up Your Reaper Project

1. Start Reaper and create a new project.
   Go to File → New Project.

2. After you have created your new project now it is time to set up your BPM grid.
   Go to Options → Snap/grid → Snap/grid Settings (ALT + L on Windows).
   Change the Show grid/line spacing from 1/4 to either 1/16 or 1/32.

3. Obtain the BPM of your song either by inserting a .wav or .mp3 file of the song inside of Mix Meister BPM Meister or looking it up online.

4. After you created your new project right-click on this open space below your tool buttons and click Insert new track or press CTRL + T.

Create two new tracks one which you will name "BGM" and the other "Gunsync"

5. Make sure the Master Track volume is set to at least -10 dB so you can avoid the audio from clipping.
   

Aligning the Song to the grid

Drag your audio file into the BGM slot we just created.

The thicker black lines are where you will position the start of your audio file just like this:

Now hold down the ALT key while having the file selected and drag the song's drum loop waveform to the start of one of thick black lines
(In my case the drum loop is at the start of the song)

Now we need to make sure that the start of the song's drum loop waveform is 100% correctly aligned to the starting position.
Use your middle mouse button to scroll as far as Reaper allows you, and again press and hold the ALT key to align the waveform to the starting position.

If you want to check if you correctly did this:

1. Start by position your mouse cursor at the start of your song's drum loop
2. Then left-click and drag your mouse cursor until the entire region up until the 2nd black thick line is selected.
3. Then press the Toggle Repeat Button
4. Now press play and you will know you did it right by hearing a drum loop

Example of a drum loop: https://files.catbox.moe/w2wx35.wav

Setting Up Your First Gun Sound

Drag and drop in your first gunsync sound file.

Now we need to cut out everything that is not the gun sound itself.
Press and hold the ALT key to align the gun sound to its starting position.
Then drag the end of the file using your left mouse button to cut out the remaining sounds.
(Note: Pressing the S key on the part you want to cut will split that section into half which you then can delete)

Now we need to make sure that we Normalize the audio of the gun sound.
This is important to make sure that all of your gun samples have basically the same audio volume.
Click on your gun sound and press CTRL + SHIFT + N to normalize your audio.

Alternatively you can press F2 on your keyboard while having the sound selected and it will open up the item properties of the selected item where you can then normalize the audio or change a lot of other settings.

Sometimes normalizing audio doesn't work for sounds that are too loud in which case you will have to manually adjust the sound by dragging the top of the item using the left mouse button downwards.

Gunsync

Now you should try to duplicate your gun sound for this section.
Press CTRL + C on your keyboard to copy and then CTRL + V to paste the gun sound.

Result: https://files.catbox.moe/xo0x3k.wav

We can tell that the gun sounds are matched to the BPM but this is not exactly what we want.
What we want to do is to match the gun sounds to the melody so let's try and do that.

Result: https://files.catbox.moe/xsxuic.wav

The gun sounds now match the melody but it does sound boring to reuse the same gun sound over and over.
So let's try to match a bunch of different gun sounds together.

Result: https://files.catbox.moe/mzlpd6.wav

In Gunsync the most important thing is that we want to hear the gun sounds loud and clear and that you should be able to separate them from the original song's drum loop.
So instead of aligning the gun sounds completely to the start we will shift them to the front a bit.
Select all of the gun sounds in your composition and press and hold down the ALT button and drag using your left mouse button.

Result: https://files.catbox.moe/dk18qi.wav

Now let's try completing the first part of the melody using the method above.

Result: https://files.catbox.moe/psbiyq.wav

Hi-Hats

In Gunsync you can create your own drum hi-hats using the weapons reload sounds.

Let's insert a new track by pressing CTRL + T and naming it "Hi-Hat"

Then drag in our first gun sound that has a reload sound and align any section of the reload sound to the start of the grid.

Cut the item into 2 grid boxes. (Press the S key to split items in half and del key to delete the item)
Normalize the item. (CTRL + SHIFT + N)
Copy and paste the item skipping every 2 grid boxes until the first section is full. (CTRL + C and CTRL + V)

Result: https://files.catbox.moe/ef5kl9.wav
It sounds a bit rough but you get the point.

Now let's align it with our Gunsync audio.

Result: https://files.catbox.moe/v9dnqy.wav

Hi-Hats can be created in many different forms here are a just a few examples:

https://files.catbox.moe/1xaf1q.wav

https://files.catbox.moe/phy9g3.wav

https://files.catbox.moe/qqlio3.wav

Serifs (Vocals)

Here is the example that we will be working on: https://files.catbox.moe/6i1spc.wav

Find the vocal sample you want to use and drag it into the project file.
(Note: Not all vocal samples are going to be able to work with together with the song. If you fail to match the vocal sample to the song after several tries its best to give up on it and try another one instead.)

Now I want you to go ahead and cut all of the words in that vocal sample.

Then with ALT+DRAG drag the samples of the words to the start of the first letter of each word and make sure you don't cut it out.
(Note: It is imperative that you can hear the first letter of the word even if it is cut out a bit.)

Then align the words to the lead of the song using keys like ALT+DRAG on the end of the sample to extend or shorten the samples and cutting out unneeded parts and then select all of your samples and press CTRL + SHIFT + N to normalize them.

Here is a comparison between the adjusted and the unadjusted files:
unadjusted: https://files.catbox.moe/y4mrgv.wav
adjusted: https://files.catbox.moe/swrqu6.wav

A general idea is that for the best results you want to keep the playback rate of the sample at 0 so instead of shortening or lengthening the samples you want them to remain at the normal playback speed but this is not going to work always.

Here is an example of the playback speed remaining at zero but matching the lead of the song.

Result: https://files.catbox.moe/asv27u.wav

Sometimes there are situations that you are going to encounter that are like this:
You followed all of the steps where you cut up all of the words and tried to match it to the lead but it all sounds very stretchy and the final result is just bad.

Final Result: https://files.catbox.moe/rdkkj4.wav

This is why sometimes your best bet is not to cut up all of the words and fade some of the parts together even if it looks off sync, because here you are just focusing on the final results not how the process is meant to be done.

Final Result: https://files.catbox.moe/cctn6t.wav

Here is an example of how all of the steps above (Gunsync + Hi-Hat + Serifs) would sound like if paired together.

Final Result: https://files.catbox.moe/nbxkt4.wav

A general tip I can give is that you should try and match your vocals together with the Gunsync like for example you have a sample that is someone throwing a grenade and then put in a sample of a guy screaming "Grenade, get out of here!"

Pitch Shifting

Pitch shifting is the idea of making the pitch of a sample match the melody of the song. An example I can give is here: https://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm8269592 at 1:58.
Avoid making the sample you are using to pitch shift from sounding like an actual instrument by using any kind of effects on it. A pitch shifting sample would be best left unaltered and if it doesn't work for a specific part try to find another sample that does.

METHOD 1: Shortcut key pitch shifting

Create a new track and Insert a sample like someone planting a bomb and press SHIFT+0 and SHIFT+9 on it to pitch it up and down.

Then pitch shift all of the samples to match the melody of the song.

METHOD 2: ReaSamplOmatic5000 MIDI

Create a new track but this time do not insert any sample but open the effects option for the track and look for something called ReaSamplOmatic5000 and add it to the track.

Then in ReaSamplOmatic5000 click on the Browse... button and select the sample that you are going to be using for the midi

Now in ReaSamplOmatic5000 on the left and right of the waveform you are going to drag the start and end of where your sample starts and ends.

Now in the Reaper project file we are going to make a selection of the melody part in that song on the track the effect is located in and go to Insert → New Midi Item

Now double click on the midi item you have created and you should be ready to lay down the samples.

Effects (ReaEQ and ReaVerbate) (Optional)

When you are done putting down the audio it is time to find out how it will sound with a few non-fancy effects like ReaEQ and Reverbate.

First I'm going to separate all of the gun sounds that sound like Kicks and Snares into different tracks.

Then I'm going to apply a effect called ReaEQ to all of them and choosing choosing the Basic 11 Band Kick for the Kick and Basic 11 Band Rock Snare for the Snare from the preset menu and adjust them to my liking.

For the vocals I'm going to add a ReaEQ preset called Basic 11 Band Full Vocals and a ReaVerbate preset called insert MixAlive that I'm also going to adjust to my liking.

Here's a comparison of how it sounds.
With Effect: https://files.catbox.moe/fz95j4.wav
No Effect: https://files.catbox.moe/1dk26j.wav

Adding the Video

Now that you have your audio ready it is finally time to add the matching video to the gun sounds.

Create a new track in your Reaper project file and name it "Video" then copy and paste the Gunsync samples into that new track and mute all of the audio from the samples.

Now select all of the samples that you duplicated from a single gun sound and go into media item properties by pressing F2 and then click on Choose new file... and replace it with the video version of that EXACT SAME audio sample.

Now you can preview your video if you go to View → Video

Mastering (WIP...)

WIP...

Rendering Video and Audio

Now when you are finally finished with everything it is time to render the project either for a quick preview or to finalize it.

Go to File... → Render... and the first option you want to change is in Bounds make sure it says Time Selection instead of Entire Project and then select a directory where you want it to be rendered to.

Then in your project select the region that you want to render out by pressing and holding down M1 and dragging out the region you want to render out.

Now you want to go back to the render settings and select the format you want to render it out in the Format options.

Basic Rendering Settings for .mp3 where the higher the Bitrate the better the quality but also the bigger the file size.

Basic Rendering Settings for .wav do not change the WAV bit depth beyond 24 bit PCM as you will basically see no change.

Basic Rendering Setting for .mp4 using ffmpeg where the Video kbps and Audio kbps amount determines the quality

Now if you followed the initial tutorial on getting Reaper set up you will see that you have none of these codecs missing.
Click on the Render button and your video or audio file will start rendering out.

Gunsync Pack

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare - Gun Sync Pack 1.0
Torrent: magnet:?xt=urn:btih:c6b82bf2d40f3c449f...