Argle

If you've imported audio into Reaper, you might have seen files with .reapeak extension lying around. Usually in the source directory of the imported audio. Let's be honest, they're REALLY annoying. And if you delete them, Reaper will just recreate em next time you open the project. They are a necessary thing for Reaper, but there's a way to keep them all in a directory of your choosing. Out of sight, out of mind. Just be warned, your peak folder CAN get big over the years. You're free to clear it out once in awhile, Reaper will just rebuild the peaks next time you open a project.

Automation is the adjusting of volume, pan, or plugin parameters as your project plays, and envelopes are the way you do it. Just in case you didn't know. It's very simple to view the default envelopes of a track, there's a button in the TCP. To adjust an envelope or point, drag it up or down. Shift-click creates a point, while alt-click deletes it. If you look on the envelope control panel, you'll find some useful functions, including bypassing the envelope, moving it to the track lane, and deleting it. Now let's do something more interesting. You can automate any plugin parameter as well as the basic controls we've already seen. Say we have a highpass filter in ReaEQ that we want to automate. Using the same steps as before, it's very easy. By now you can see all the possibilities opening up by using automation envelopes. Note all the new parameters available in the track envelope window. Every plugin in your track will have its own set of envelopes.

Yep! You actually can toggle the behavior on and off, there's a button on the toolbar. Yes indeed. In general, the Shift modifier in Reaper bypasses grid snapping. Also, you can manually turn off snapping

What's the BSOD error message? That might help you in diagnosing the problem.

Setting up a multi-out VST can be confusing in Reaper until you learn the way to do it. But the good news is you only have to set it up once. Let's set up an instance of Omnisphere, which has 8 outputs. So, we have our VST plugin and 8 outputs now. Next step is to create MIDI tracks to the plugin. Note that this command always builds 16 channels of MIDI, while Omnisphere only has 8. All you have to do is delete MIDI tracks 9-16. Using the track manager we can take a look at the tracks we've created. First comes the actual VST plugin track. Next comes the 16 channels of MIDI Reaper created. Last is the 8 audio outputs of the VST. Now let's move into a bit of power user strategy. You may notice that all these tracks create a bit of a mess. And this is just an 8-output VST; a 16 channel one will create double the clutter. However, we can hide certain of these tracks in the TCP, and others in the Mixer. Let's hide the plugin and audio outputs in the TCP so that they're only visible in the mixer. Then we'll hide the MIDI inputs in the mixer, so that they're only visible in the TCP. We can use the track manager to accomplish this. Much nicer, huh? Hiding tracks in one view or another is a useful feature for your own sanity. Next comes setting up the internal routing in the plugin. This is different for every virtual instrument so I won't show it here. Lastly, select all the tracks and save them as a track template! Now you never have to do this again. If you want to create a different multi-out VST, it's as simple as deleting the existing plugin and adding the new one to the same track. In this case, I could swap out Omnisphere with Stylus RMX in a matter of seconds, then save that as a separate track template. Pretty handy.

By using Ctrl-click and drag on an item in the arrange window, you can quickly copy items. BTW, this also works in the piano roll for MIDI notes or CCs.

By default the transport bar is underneath the arrange window. To me this makes no sense; it should be near the top. Fortunately, by right-clicking in blank transport bar space, it is easy to change the position.

Sure thing. Long story short, time signatures ARE annoying in Reaper. There are a couple ways to tackle them, though. I'll do a future post on them.

Say you have a pair of tracks. You've got the tracks named, panned, EQ and compression on each, and one of them armed for recording. Problem is, it's time consuming to set up. That's what track templates are for! We'll select the two tracks and save them as a template. The next time we need a pair of guitar tracks, we can right-click in the blank TCP space and select our template. Yay! Keep in mind that you can save items and envelopes along with a track template. You can also create your own folders in the track templates directory. This is a great way to keep your list of templates nice and organized.

If you're familiar with other DAWs, you might wonder where the piano roll/MIDI editor is in Reaper. Unlike most other DAWs, you can't open a blank piano roll... you need to double-click on a MIDI item. But what if you're starting a fresh project with no existing MIDI items? Simple, just Ctrl-click and drag to create a new MIDI item. Easy!

Ok, let's get this thing started. Let's start simple. If you're familiar with tabbing between fields in Windows, this is the same idea. Using tab and shift-tab, you can skip to the next or previous track label. If you have a bunch of tracks to name, this will save you some time.

Yes, that song was made in Reaper, as well as all my other game remixes. I've been using it for a couple years, after... irreconcilable differences with Sonar.

Absolutely, I am going to cover a ton of customization and custom actions.

I try to think of a genre that I would like to adapt the source material to.

Looks like you're the only one. Well, I may still try it anyway.

You should try to get someone to play a real acoustic guitar for the lead part. Also some rhythm acoustic might be cool as well.

Watching some Youtube videos it looks like some people do muscle ups on rings. Hmm. Unfortunately I have no ceiling in my house that I could attach rings to.

Weighted pullups are a good idea. I'm definitely down with that. What is the best way to do that, a belt or vest? I tried putting a dumbbell in a backpack once but that was terrible.

man, I'm trying to learn to do muscle ups, cuz I'm pretty decent at pull ups, I can do a good 15 of them in a row. But it's ridiculous. I get to the halfway point, aka where a pull up ends, and I literally can't budge an inch further. this is crazy hard.

So buy it. It never goes on sale, so your choices are simple: buy it new or look for someone selling it secondhand. KVR marketplace is a good forum to watch for used copies.

It's weird, I also tend to play Chrono Trigger in the fall season.

I think the important thing is that they start doing this going forward. That's the easy part, no real effort required. There's no time like the present. Going back and retroactively adding links for past remixes, I agree that will be time consuming.

Agree that remixers should have their links posted right up top in the Youtube. It takes very little extra effort, and it's a good way to use OCR clout to help the musicians who contribute to its success.

It depends on when you come to OCR. A lot of people start their musical journey here and branch out. Conversely I've been writing original music for eons and frankly I'm bored of it, so for me OC remixing is a good change. If I get bored of remixing I'll go back to originals, or finally learn to play my guitar, or quit or something. Whatever strikes me fancy.

I've been using Reaper for a couple years, and I'm continually impressed by all the little tricks and techniques you can do that can dramatically speed up your workflow. So, I'd like to share some of the tips I've picked up. Hopefully they will be useful to people starting out in Reaper, to demonstrate the power and flexibility of the program. I don't want to have all the fun, anyone is welcome to post their own tips. I'll keep updated links in the first post to all of the tutorials. btw, I was going to call the thread Reaper Tips and Tricks, but that tutorial series already exists (and is very much worth your money, as are all of Kenny Gioia's Reaper tutorials). There's a little bit of overlap between it and this thread, but he goes into a whole bunch of stuff that I don't intend on covering. If you're new to Reaper and want a grounding in the basics, DEFINITELY start with his Reaper 4 Explained series. It's the best tutorial I've seen for new users bar none. He goes into detail on the things I gloss over or assume the user is familiar with. Misc stuff Tabbing Track templates Mouse modifiers Portable install Looping and skipping Preferences search Bus creation Editing and techniques Quick item copying Item volume knob Fade curves Item muting Sidechain compression Trimming items Pitch envelopes Swiping Auto trim/split items Exploding items to different tracks Envelopes and tempo Envelope basics Envelope volume offset Envelope curves Tempo and time signature changes MIDI Where's the piano roll? Sends Note ends Drawing notes Note coloring Naming notes Note length to grid size Drum mode Alternate views Strumming Multi-item editing Strip CCs from game MIDIs Stepping through notes Transposing actions Chord creation actions Chord voicing Drag note selection Reversing and inverting notes Plugins Multi-out VSTs Default presets Renaming plugins FX chains Custom FX folders Quick FX chains Project Pesky peak files Render region Project folders Batch rendering Actions and custom actions Actions and key binding Custom actions Fast folder creation Fast copy-pasting Renumbering markers Last touched actions Play next slice SWS extensions SWS extensions Layouts and visuals Transport bar on top Simplified timeline display Docking Track coloring Item label display Fast track coloring Toolbars Themes Layouts WALTER Screensets Dual monitor configuration Grouping folders Cool FX time_adjustment stereoEnhancer ReaControlMIDI drumtrigger sequencer_baby arp!0 ReaSamplomatic5000