Recording without setting a BPM or length, then adjusting later?

Is this possible?

I just want to lay down a beat without having to mess with getting the beats per minute or measures set. Then go in and either adjust it or just loop it.

Either way, I feel having to find the BPM and use a click is hampering me.

I notice you can use the "length" feature to shorten a bar in various ways, but I still don't think that is exactly what I need. U can't change the BPM without changing what I laid down.

I saw a sampling video where it found the 16th notes and auto sliced it. You would think it could do that for a beat I lay down.

 

what you may want to try is 'painting' in your snare drums and then adjusting the tempo till it feels about right...then you might have a bit of luck recording and adjusting the tempo a bit...the problem with trying to lay down the beat at 120 BPM is that while you're in the middle of it, it's going to loop back to the start and you're going to record over your first kicks etc...

 

do you know about the tap tempo function?

 

I will explore the paint feature, but if I recall that is just single clicks instead of double clicks right?

As for it looping, that is one of the things I don't want...right off the bat at least. I just want it to record like if I was mic'ing an instrument. I figure if need be I can set the loop to the max measures to work around that.

I guess the thing is, I am new to MIDI, but I could have sworn Reaper has a function in the MIDI parameters to get you record the MIDI notes, then adjust stuff but the MIDI notes are not actually moved. Maybe I was seeing things, but that might be what I have to explore to do this. (the issue with this is that when used as a VST it didn't seem to want to record the MIDI, it was just using the sequencer in Machines software)

I just want to lay down the beat I hear or feel right off the bat and deal with the tempo and time sig later.

I have only had this a week.