Recording multiple takes

Can Reaper do this? I have read the manual and it appears Reaper can't do the following: You record your first track. You then want to loop that track and record multiple takes so that with each loop a new track is created. At the end of say 6 loops you now have your original first track plus six new tracks with alternate takes from which you can select your best recording. In other words, during the recording process, you never have to stop the recorder, you always have your hands on your instrument. TIA

Yes, you can do this. Record your first track. Define the time selection for the area that you want to go over and over. Select Options, Record mode, time selection auto punch. Of course make sure the track you recorded originally is still armed. Make sure on the Transport Bar you have Toggle Repeat enabled. Start record - it will then record over and over again the selected track for the time selection. Each one will go to a new take, but on the same track. Stop recording when finished. If all takes are not visible, press Ctrl L to show in lanes. You now have two choices: 1. You can slice and dice (as explained in the User Guide p. 153) the takes and select for each slice whichever take you prefer (this is how I would do it) , or. 2. You can right click over the takes and choose Take, Explode all takes to new tracks if you prefer. This will give you a separate track for each take. You can then cut these up, edit etc. and use them in any way you like.

Same as Nicholas described except simply create a new track and arm that one for recording (leave the first track alone). Reaper will play your Bass/Drum track and will loop as you define, recording each take on the new track until you stop it. All of these takes will be on the same track in separate lanes and you can not only pick which take you like the best, but the specific piece of each take that you like until you get the best from each.

Reaper will not create a track each time the time slection (in fact loop selection because they can be different with a little check mark activated or not) untill you stop the repeating (recording loops) record process. After you stop the recording process (assume that you place the "rhythm"-clip in one track and rec-armed another track where your loop recordings place in) you can Explode all takes (in the looped time section of the rec-armed track) as NEW tracks and then Reaper will make those new different tracks for you with each take placed on a separate track. If you prefer to work so.

One other helpful tidbit: if you turn off "Link loop points to time selection" in the Options menu, you can set the region to record separately from the region to loop. I use this a lot, for instance, to give me some space on either end of a solo without recording any random noises.

I am puzzled by the word 'sequentially'. Did you use 'Explode all takes (in order)' to seperate your takes? That will place the takes one after the other on the same track. Might explain your problems. If you want your takes on individual tracks, use 'explode all takes to new track' instead. But as Nicholas pointed out in his first post, you don't need to do that. If you have 'Menue -> Options -> Show all takes in lanes' ticked you can see your takes when the track is big enough to show them. That will let you benefit from Reapers take system. There are a lot of different ways to deal with takes in Reaper, so it is confusing in the beginning, but it all makes sense in the end.