I see a lot of misinformed posters on here saying you can use Reaper as long as you like for free.

You can't. You're meant to pay for it after an evaluation period.

This is a direct quote from the actual nag screen:

REAPER IS NOT FREE.

It is a paid software product. If you use it more than 60 days you are required to purchase a licence.

When you spread this "free forever" BS you're encouraging piracy against a company and software that you also think is f*cking awesome. Why try to keep money out of the hands of the devs who deserve it?

In reaper 6, I could just record the same part over and over.. double click the take-folder and select the right parts by just scrolling with the mouse.. Reaper 7 didn't do that.. I had to learn it all over again, instead of comping recordings by default, I now need to create a "Composite Lane" to tell reaper I want to compose between different takes.. well, I was fine with that once I learned it.. but now I hate it

I just recorded a bass track, with a separate DI track, and a mic recording the amp.. So I have TWO tracks..

In reaper 6, I would group the tracks, and if I would edit 1 comp track, the grouped track would just follow, keep everything in sync and in time.. In reaper 7, with Lane composing, I doesnt matter if I group the recordings together, it only shifts ONE track and all grouped tracks will not follow

Now I'm just working on a 2 channel bass track so i can manage.. but HOW the fudge would you Comp between drum tracks.. where you have 8 or more tracks, that need to stay in perfect phase sync?!?!

Am I missing something... because in Reaper 6 this was default, easy and straight forward.. I understand that Lane comping in reaper 7 gives more options, but HECK it not intuitive, or self explanatory at all.. and I don't expect this from reaper.. you made it worse, not better to work fast...
Take lanes SUCK, i want the behavior back like reaper 6 did it.. plug and play, no hassle...

Am I missing something, or did reaper 7 just introduce something that is bogus (I always trusted reaper team and open source, it must be me right? Pls let me know, or otherwise Reaper.. fck your new strategy in lane comping.. only bad stuff, nothing better came out of this)

A couple notes upfront:

• I have an M2 Macbook Air.

• The $200 for Logic is a non-issue for me right now, so please don't use the price of the software as an arguing point.

I play acoustic guitar and I want to write and record chamber music for acoustic instruments (acoustic guitar, cello, upright bass, violin, clarinet, etc.) That is to say, I'm not a producer, EDM artist, rock band, or anything like that; I'm not going to have tons of tracks with tons of effects.

I want to record my guitar, add basic effects, and create MIDI demos of the other instruments, translate those to sheet music, and eventually record real musicians playing those parts. I'm an amateur without tons of experience with DAWs, but am very computer savvy.

A while ago I dipped my toes into my first DAW, Reaper... I like its customizability, but its interface is uninspiring and I felt like I needed to be a technician to operate it. Which is great - my brain likes learning software and technical things - but when it comes to making music I'm looking for something a little more streamlined so I can focus more on the music itself. If I was producing music for other people, I think I'd be more interested in diving into what Reaper has to offer. But as a musician who's going to be sitting there in front of the computer with guitar in-hand, I think I'm going to go with Logic, which has a more intuitive and inspiring interface, and from what it sounds like, will work better straight out of the box, so to speak.

Do your worst! I came to this sub knowing I may get flayed alive.

For those of you that are out of the loop: REAPER Mania uploaded a video today (he took it down) and it had the terrible word "SUNO" in it. The comment section in that video was a fucking DISGRACE to read: people that were saying "goodbye and never again, Kenny", "Sold out", "I hope the money was worth it, Kenny" and alike.

Like, REALLY? All it takes is ONE SINGLE VIDEO for you to jump off the REAPER Mania boat? Kenny has been making the highest quality videos about REAPER for at least ELEVEN FUCKING YEARS and you draw the line at the ONE VIDEO (literally ONE) with AI?

Kenny is and ALWAYS will be the GOAT in our community. Grow a fucking pair.

I’ve been thinking about something that could honestly be revolutionary for the REAPER ecosystem.

Right now collaboration in DAWs is still stuck in the “export stems → send files → version chaos” workflow. But imagine if REAPER had something like Google Docs-style real-time collaboration, where multiple users could edit the same project simultaneously.

Not just audio streaming or jamming, actual project co-editing.

For example:

• Multiple users connected to the same session
• Edits to tracks, MIDI, automation, or items appear instantly for everyone
• Live cursors showing what other collaborators are doing
• Shared transport (play/stop/loop)
• Optional audio monitoring streams

I know ReaNINJAM exists, but that’s designed for latency-compensated jamming rather than true real-time project editing.

From what I’ve researched, the real solution would involve something like:

• A REAPER extension using the SDK (C++)
• A background observer that detects project changes
• Broadcasting those changes via WebSockets to a collaboration server
• A sync engine using CRDTs or operational transforms (similar to Google Docs)
• Remote clients applying those edits instantly

In theory, the plugin could hook into REAPER’s Undo history, since every action is already recorded there. That might make it possible to transmit edit events rather than entire project files.

Audio monitoring could be optional (using something like **Jamulus-style streaming or similar tech).

I know this would be a huge engineering challenge, but considering how flexible REAPER’s API is (thanks to Cockos), it feels like this should be possible.

The result would basically be:

“Google Docs for DAWs.”

Which would massively improve remote collaboration for producers, engineers, bands, and composers.

So my question is:

Has anyone attempted something like this seriously?
Or are there developers here who think this could actually be built as a REAPER extension?

I’d love to hear thoughts from people familiar with the REAPER SDK or networked audio systems.

REAPER's actions list and scripting are genuinely one of its best features once you know your way around, but I remember how intimidating that was starting out — you're trying to learn music theory, mixing, AND a DAW that assumes you already know what a "action" is, all at once. A lot of the "just watch a 4-hour YouTube course" advice doesn't really work if you learn better by doing and asking questions as you go.

So I built a bridge that lets an AI assistant like Claude actually control REAPER directly — not just answer questions about it, but write real MIDI, set up tracks, run EQ/compression, adjust levels, the whole thing, live in your project. The idea being: instead of hunting through menus or reading docs, you can just ask "why does my mix sound muddy" or "make a simple drum pattern in a trap style" and watch it actually happen in the session while it (hopefully) explains what it's doing.

Some things it's turned out to actually be decent at:

- Explaining why something sounds a certain way while it fixes it, not just fixing it silently

- Building out a first draft of a mix (EQ, comp, sidechain, bus routing) genre-appropriately so you have something to react to and adjust, instead of a blank slate

- Chopping/rearranging vocals for genres that lean on that a lot (future bass, chillstep, etc)

It's not trying to replace learning REAPER — more like having someone next to you who can drive while you watch and ask questions, which is honestly how I learn best.

It's open source, runs entirely locally (nothing leaves your machine), and it's still fairly early — I'd genuinely rather hear what's broken or missing from actual REAPER users than pretend it's finished. If anyone's curious: https://github.com/xDarkzx/Reaper-MCP

Happy to answer questions about how it actually works under the hood too, if anyone's curious about the REAPER-scripting side of it specifically.

** update Video Attached **

I didn’t take the time to edited the video. Someone explain to me what’s wrong with my hardware and why it’s glitching.

*Both for audio and image generation.

There's this recent post about Kenny using AI for a thumbnail, and though that's not enough for me stop supporting Kenny (dude's a legend who helped so many of us), I was surprised that a lot of commentors had a "who cares" attitude towards it.

Me personally, I wouldn't touch AI for any art related thing, but what does the Reaper community think of it?

What use cases are acceptable and what aren't?

I know I just admitted I don't particularly support AI, but my curiosity for the sub's answers are real. I'm not here to debate if anyone is wondering.

Edit: I just learned Kenny didn't generate it himself.

https://trancefish.de/2025/11/20/to-all-vst-developers-the-time-for-linux-is-now/

Stability isn’t a luxury — it’s a basic requirement

The internet is Linux. That’s not an empty phrase — it’s a fact. 8 out of 10 servers run Linux. There are several reasons for that, but the main one is stability. Linux basically never crashes. I mean compared to Windows, it really never crashes. That doesn’t mean Linux is 100% fault-free, but the reason most high-availability services use it is the rock-solid stability Linux provides. Add to that:

ASIO, DirectSound, WASAPI: To get low latency on Windows, you need special drivers. For real-time performance, there’s no way around ASIO. If your audio interface doesn’t have native ASIO drivers, you need ASIO4ALL or FreeASIO to even approach latencies under 10 ms. Linux ships with PipeWire and JACK out of the box. Combined with a real-time kernel, any standard USB audio interface runs more stable and faster than it would on Windows.

Updates only when I want them: Linux might suggest that you should update, but it will never apply updates without your consent. Which means: Your studio session will never be interrupted by an unasked-for reboot.

Security and repositories: Most Linux users get their software from official distribution repositories. Developers can maintain updates much more cleanly and centrally, because a Linux user’s system is updated holistically. Unless you’re on bleeding-edge Arch, the software has been tested by thousands of users and runs stable.

My Studio, My Rules — Privacy and Control

Windows phones home constantly and sends telemetry data. That costs CPU cycles, RAM, and so on. Every byte sent to Microsoft is performance you’d rather use for an amazing delay sound or granular synthesis. A studio PC is an isolated tool, not an ad platform. When I’m making music, I don’t need Candy Crush or OneDrive. I also don’t need an OS wasting resources to take screenshots for some background AI.

Power for Music

If the PC only does what I configured it to do, then my DAW and its subprocesses (plugins) get exactly the performance they need. I can tweak services based on forum posts so that a DAW runs on a 10-year-old laptop almost as well as on a brand-new Windows machine. I’m no longer forced to constantly buy new hardware because the OS insists on stuffing my RAM with telemetry. Plugins get all the resources.

TPM and Legacy

A major reason many studios still use Windows 10 is that their machine doesn’t have a TPM chip — and even though the PC is only five years old, it technically needs to be replaced just to run Windows 11. We all know the hassle of reinstalling every VST, every copy-protection system, every config. Many studio owners aren’t elite IT people. They just need the machine to run. Reinstalling everything is a real burden. And let’s be honest: Microsoft desperately wants everything in the cloud. By Windows 12 at the latest, this will be a serious problem for studios.

I'm using REAPER since a year ago, but now I'm looking for another DAW with better MIDI features (this piano roll is meh). The problem is that I found that other DAWs like Fruity Loops don't have the track system thas REAPER has, and it's confusing for me to adapt to it.

What other DAWs have this track system (where you can put FX directly, make folders, etc.) but with a better MIDI feature?

Edit: Ok, guys, you convinced me. I put my hands to work and got a much better workflow customizing the actions in the MIDI Editor, and docking it instead of the floating window (I did many other changes).

And also do you think reaper gonna be new "meme daw"? what i mean by meme daw is most popular daw of the era, in mid 00s it was cubase, in early 10s was fl studio, now it's still ableton most popular, you think reaper gonna become meme in the 20s?

Here's the plugins being used:

Samplomatic

ReaEQ

The stock javascript distortion plugin

Poise

Vital

Moving from ableton and Luna and trying reaper for 48 hours. So if I want to copy and paste a bar of audio in reaper you need to carefully select the region by dragging over blank space then right click copy from region the ctrl v where you want it. Only it doesn't replace the audio it pastes directly over so there are two clips playing. SO there's a option in project settings to replace the existing audio instead of blending it, only this disables the grid.

So to copy and paste you need to delete the that needs replacing first.

In ableton you just select any part of the clip ctrl c go to where you want it and ctrl v done. Reaper is full of unintuitive basic things and overly complicated, so much of reaper is so frustrating. Thers got to be a better way other than setting custom shortcuts.

I know the easy answer to this is to just start using a more common DAW. I was on a budget before and haven’t had the time or money to switch.

I’m able to consolidate the tracks but I’m worried certain effects (stock reaper pluggins) won’t translate into a different DAW.

Is there a way around this/ does it even matter?

As stated above I have a hard time getting a nice sound when I record vocals or guitar in Reaper. MIDI audio is sounding just fine.

I am using the Scarlett 2i2 interface and the settings on the interface should be correct (phantom power enabled, gain is adjusted and recording on instrument function). I am selecting the right input on my computer as well.

The sound is just trash. I thought it was my microphone, but now I’ve tried a really expensive one and the result is the same.

I think it’s a problem with the settings in Reaper or something like that. Or maybe I need a driver (I don’t really know if that’s just for MIDI). I would really appreciate all the help I can get 😅🙏

Edit: I feel so dumb 😆😅 My computer had simply changed input and output to my computer by mistake. Glad I checked all my settings again, but wow, rookie mistake haha.

Hey everyone,

I've been working on something called Hipare — an AI assistant that lets you control REAPER using plain language. Instead of clicking through menus, you describe what you want and it happens live in your REAPER project through a Lua bridge. You can watch tracks, effects, and MIDI appear as you chat.

How it works

- Runs a local server on your machine — nothing is sent anywhere except your chosen AI provider

- Connects to REAPER via a Lua script (MCP bridge)

- Supports multiple AI providers

- You just need one API key to get started. e.g. Openrouter, Groq or Google. Google even had a offer on 300 dollars of credit on their AI´s.

Download👉 https://github.com/Hipare/Hipare-Reaper-agent/releases/tag/v1.0

This is the first public release so it's definitely far from perfect. If you run into issues or have ideas, I'd love to hear from you: [email protected]

Oh and the name — Hipare is our dog Hippu's nickname. She´s the Muse of this project. The heart in the logo is the shape of the marking on her nose. 🐕

☕ https://buymeacoffee.com/hipare

Download John Bass!

[IMPORTANT: Please read the Read Me before using the plugin.]

Where can I get the above for free which don't have viruses, trojans etc that work with reaper? I had a scare with a trojan today after getting 'piano one' from a certain website

Edit: I wasn't trying to pirate anything. I simply followed a link from YouTube from a tutorial. After downloading and decompressing, my antivirus told me I had a trojan.

I'm done with Reaper and going back to Ableton.

The stock plugins seem lackluster, the workflow seems stifled, the learning curve seems way too steep for me. People say they like the sends/return "routing"... not me. it feels messy Ironically, moving/chopping/editing "items" seems simpler in Ableton, despite spending hours to customize Reaper's settings. Simple solutions require googling/reading manual rather than just intuitively figuring it out on the go, because there's a million settings. and sometimes a setting changes accidently and its another journey to try and figure out what's happened. It's overwhelming and perhaps I'm just a simpleton. But I got sick of researching solutions for EVERY simple thing.

I just want to make music, not feel like I'm having to focus so much on setting up the DAW. I really tried to make it work and adjust. I kept telling myself that I'm just used to Ableton and that's what's making Reaper hard. But I realised I was forcing it. The first time I changed from FL Studio (back when it was Fruity Loops) to Ableton, I remember it instantly felt right and I fell in love with Ableton straight away despite knowing FL better... That never seemed to come with Reaper.

It's not you, Reaper...It's me. Goodbye.

I need help, I have 150 dollars, do I buy an audio interface, headphone and microphone or a midi controller?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9TFetP0tg0

- Everything that used to be percentage-based (ADSR, fades, etc.) now works in milliseconds

- Improved time-stretching — drum transients no longer get smeared or doubled

- Added a Time knob — slow down or speed up a sample without changing its pitch

- New Signalsmith time-stretching mode — works well for vocals and pads; selectable from the Time knob context menu or the main menu

- Loop now has three modes — Forward, Ping-Pong, and Reverse

- Loop and Trim are now realtime — automating their boundaries affects notes that are already playing

- Loop Shift — a new parameter that moves the entire loop using a single automation lane; dragging the loop from the middle writes Loop Shift automation

- Skip — a mode that starts playback directly from the loop region: move the loop and hear it immediately, making it easy to find the right region

- Double-click the loop to snap its boundaries to zero crossings

- Loop context menu — choose a musical length (1/16 to 1 bar, including dotted and triplet values)

- LP/HP filter next to the waveform — quickly cut unwanted lows or highs

- New MSEG engine — snap points to the grid, lock movement to an axis while dragging, and use different segment types (sine, triangle, saw, square — you can even draw LFO shapes); modulation depth is also automatable

- In MSEG mode, you can modulate not only volume, but also pan, pitch, and filter

- The filter has 4 types (LP, HP, Band-Pass, Notch), with adjustable slope, resonance, and key tracking

- Global button in MSEG mode — applies the curves to the sampler's other modes as well

- Gate added to MSEG mode — the note plays only while the key is held instead of always playing the sample to the end

- MSEG point multi-selection — Shift+drag to box-select points, then drag to move the whole group

- Added fades to Slicer

- Grid-based slicing in Slicer — right-click the waveform to create evenly spaced slices based on the sample tempo (1 bar to 1/32, including dotted and triplet values)

- One Shot is now monophonic — triggering it again restarts the sample instead of layering another copy

- New BPM detector — more accurate sample tempo detection

- Ctrl+click the sample navigation arrows to load a random sample from the folder

- Added 4 new themes — Deck, Paper, Void, and Fjord

- More UI scaling options — from 75% to 200%

- Sliders no longer teleport the mouse cursor after dragging, and double-clicks now register on the first try

- Lots of small UI improvements and minor bug fixes