Reaper tips - free

NVK - paid

WT antiflat - free

Flat madness - free

LCS flat - free

All these themes aim to improve the reaper experience. Everybody knows about reapertips, but there are other options.

Honourable mention - rLive

Long one here... cheers to you if you're bored enough to read it. I tried to group the topics for those with a short attention span or zero patience (like me).

I'm warming up to the idea of moving from Fender Studio Pro to Reaper. Not just thinking, I've taken some action. Sharing some thoughts so far here.

None of this is a diss, so don't take any part of it personal. 💯

Why the move:

• F#!k subscriptions for DAWs. My sub for Fender Studio Pro ends in a couple weeks and I'll have perpetual license for version 8.x. I have only used Studio One for the last at least 7 years (can't remember) and upgraded to FSPro b/c it was free with registered hardware. It's the only true DAW I know (I don't count Maschine as a DAW) - but I'm not trying to have my creative work and workflow affected by some arbitrary subscription plan. I want to buy, to own as much as possible. I'll probably still use the Project and Show pages from FSPro, though.

• The idea of being able to take all the things I like from Studio One and add what I couldn't add, mold what I couldn't mold, customize what I couldn't customize is incredibly appealing to me. After set up - more time creating and working, less time dicking around with settings and manual tasks that can be easily automated with scripts. (I was pretty good doing that with Studio One, but I think in the long term Reaper could be better).

• Reaper is part of my plan to have a production environment that is as 'hands-off' from vendors that need to 'call home' and potentially monitor wtf I'm doing with the tools I'm using... or even worse, make them unavailable entirely. (Also looking at stand alone groove boxes to support that.)

• All the efficiency of CPU usage, portability, cross platform stuff, too.

First Impressions (previous attempts):

• (I've downloaded Reaper a couple times, on Windows and Linux). First thought - this DAW is absolute trash and anyone singing it's praises doesn't know what they're talking about, or, has some extremely obscure use case for some ridiculously specific action that they are calling a 'workflow' and they're being a baby acting as though their desired set of esoteric features is what is holding them back from making music. (Just being honest). The things Reaper heads would get deliriously excited about were standard out the box in other DAWs. None of it made sense. And it's ugly as hell.

Today's Thoughts:

• Migrating is very similar to going from Windows to Linux in so many ways. I remember how much time I took learning how to use Linux and customizing it and making it mine (hot-keys, window managers, distro hopping, all the things that were locked in Windows were now open to tweak to my liking). I dual boot now, but Linux is what I use for everything except for music (totally different topic).

• There is some common advice that says "Don't worry about customizing when you start out with Reaper." The intent is to make sure a new producer/engineer focuses on what is important (producing, recording, mixing, etc.). I would agree for someone who is new to creating and recording music on their own. But for someone who has used any other DAW for any meaningful amount of time (not just messing around and has really completed songs/projects, etc.) I would say that some level of customization is critical up front. Mandatory even. The amount would depend on the person, obviously, but I think jumping in and feeling immediately comfy is the exception, regardless of what any YouTuber tries to tell you. So my focus right now is on set up.

• I made a list of things I would need and things I wanted before starting my journey this time. It helps a lot. But I only did that because I have a heightened level of commitment to the migration.

• It helps to take stems/tracks from my beats, drag them into Reaper and play around. Same for starting a new beat - just open a new project and try to create. I already know what I want to do. Working through the process helps me know what scripts I may need to look for and what tweaks I may need to make (it also informs the list I was talking about in the previous bullet).

• I see tons of posts like "thinking about moving from (not Reaper) to Reaper" followed by a list of questions. If that's you I say, "Bro... stop mentally masturbating and just try it." Like really try it if you want to see whassup. Nobody can have your experience for you. You gotta do that on your own.

Last thing, shout out to Cockos. Everything about how they've handled this DAW and its development feels counter-culture to these corporate vultures who have historically sought out new and devious ways of choking consumers and contributing to business models that make music inaccessible for many would-be creatives across the world. Cockos isn't going that route and hasn't changed course.

I find it kind of funny how MPC heads haven't stopped bustin' a nut since Akai opened up their system a bit, which has been the Cockos model the whole time. And Cockos did it before frontier models gave the public the means to hack any hardware/software. (Don't correct me on the technical stuff, you get what I'm saying).

Anyway - I'm wishing everyone fulfilling experiences making music in whatever form, genre, space and time that makes you happy.

===== Peace

P.S. - I'm 100% human and wrote all this without draining any lakes or ponds (no AI).

Edit: Thanks for all the responses and suggestions!!!!

I wanted a way to detect the chords being played for when i'm just jamming away without really planning anything out, or when a bandmate send me a new track that he hasn't charted. The script analyses the audio and spits out the chords, mapping them to the timeline correctly. All vibe coded with Claude, so if that contentious around here, most sorry. Works with midi tracks as well, has another script to convert the chords into a standard chart. Next up is a voice recognition script that will add lyrics... that's not quite ready yet.

For good measure I also Claude to build me a new theme. I like it - kinda loosely inspired by soviet era nuclear consoles, though I haven't taken it as far as I might do.

Don't know how you guys feel about vibe-coding but this is what I've been up to and thought some might be interested.

I'm having an issue where a couple of my midi notes are not playing even after recording again, ive checked that theyre all on the same channel too. It's the middle B2 and D3 notes, the only thing I notice is that the letter numbers are black and the notes that are sounding are white, not sure what that means. Can anyone help me?

How do I disable that a media item makes sound when I drag copy/move over a playing playhead?

I saw this pic on the reaper anti theme, and I wondered how I can get those icons for my plugins, in this case those vu meters. Using the anti theme.

I'm happy about answers!

Out of curiosity, I asked Google to make a script which adds tracks, each with an equalizer set for each individual Hz in the audible frequency spectrum and rejecting all others. It worked with limited success. Google provided the following script which prompts for frequency step size and Filter Bandwidth: Create_Frequency_Tracks.lua

I added 2000 tracks on my i9 13900k/64GB DDR5 6400 without crashing but the Equalizer, ReaEQ, is wonky. Best of luck and try not to crash Reaper or your system.

--  Create tracks equalized for each Hz across the audible spectrum
-- u/version 1.0

local START_HZ = 20
local END_HZ = 20000

-- WARNING: Setting STEP_HZ to 1 creates 19,981 tracks and will likely freeze/crash REAPER.
-- Keep at 100 or 500 for testing, then lower carefully.
local STEP_HZ = 100 
local BANDWIDTH_OCT = 0.05 -- Very narrow Q/bandwidth to isolate the frequency

function Main()
    -- Prompt user for confirmation and step size
    local retval, user_input = reaper.GetUserInputs(
        "Frequency Spectrum Track Generator", 
        2, 
        "Step Size in Hz (1 = 19981 tracks!):,Bandwidth (Octaves):", 
        tostring(STEP_HZ) .. "," .. tostring(BANDWIDTH_OCT)
    )
    
    if not retval then return end
    
    local step_str, bw_str = user_input:match("([^,]+),([^,]+)")
    local step = tonumber(step_str)
    local bandwidth = tonumber(bw_str)
    
    if not step or step < 1 or not bandwidth or bandwidth <= 0 then
        reaper.ShowMessageBox("Invalid input values.", "Error", 0)
        return
    end

    local total_tracks = math.floor((END_HZ - START_HZ) / step) + 1
    if total_tracks > 1000 then
        local confirm = reaper.ShowMessageBox(
            "You are about to create " .. total_tracks .. " tracks with active FX.\nThis may freeze or crash REAPER. Continue?", 
            "High Track Count Warning", 
            4 -- Yes/No
        )
        if confirm ~= 6 then return end -- 6 is Yes
    end

    -- Begin Undo Block and freeze UI for speed
    reaper.Undo_BeginBlock()
    reaper.PreventUIRefresh(1)

    local track_idx = reaper.CountTracks(0)

    for freq = START_HZ, END_HZ, step do
        -- 1. Insert new track at the end of the project
        reaper.InsertTrackAtIndex(track_idx, false)
        local track = reaper.GetTrack(0, track_idx)
        
        -- 2. Name the track
        reaper.GetSetMediaTrackInfo_String(track, "P_NAME", tostring(freq) .. " Hz", true)
        
        -- 3. Add ReaEQ to the track
        local fx_idx = reaper.TrackFX_AddByName(track, "ReaEQ", false, -1)
        
        if fx_idx >= 0 then
            -- Configure Band 1 as a Band-Pass filter (Type 8 in ReaEQ)
            -- Note: ReaEQ parameters are normalized (0.0 to 1.0)
            
            -- Set Band 1 Type to Band Pass (Normalized value for Band Pass)
            reaper.TrackFX_SetNamedConfigParm(track, fx_idx, "BANDTYPE0", "8")
            
            -- Calculate normalized frequency for ReaEQ (Logarithmic scale 20Hz - 20kHz)
            -- Formula: log(freq / 20) / log(20000 / 20)
            local norm_freq = math.log(freq / 20.0) / math.log(1000.0)
            norm_freq = math.max(0.0, math.min(1.0, norm_freq))
            
            -- Param 0: Band 1 Freq | Param 1: Band 1 Gain | Param 2: Band 1 Bandwidth
            reaper.TrackFX_SetParamNormalized(track, fx_idx, 0, norm_freq)
            reaper.TrackFX_SetParamNormalized(track, fx_idx, 2, bandwidth / 4.0) -- Max BW is 4 octaves
            
            -- Disable unused default bands (Bands 2, 3, and 4) so they don't interfere
            reaper.TrackFX_SetNamedConfigParm(track, fx_idx, "BANDENABLED1", "0")
            reaper.TrackFX_SetNamedConfigParm(track, fx_idx, "BANDENABLED2", "0")
            reaper.TrackFX_SetNamedConfigParm(track, fx_idx, "BANDENABLED3", "0")
        end

        track_idx = track_idx + 1
    end

    -- Restore UI and close Undo Block
    reaper.PreventUIRefresh(-1)
    reaper.TrackList_AdjustWindows(false)
    reaper.Undo_EndBlock("Generate Frequency Spectrum Tracks", -1)
end

Main()

Hey reaper community!

Im using the default reaper 6 theme, but have some of the settings changed in the reaper 7 theme adjuster. I once exported my config, tried another theme got back to my home theme, and the settings from the reaper 7 theme adjuster didn't apply. Is there any way to save those changes as well? :))

I hope it makes sense cheers

I've added soo many plugins, and have imported both wav and midi files from musescore to reaper. After I added Ample sound percussion plugin it crashed and did this. Help would be really appreciated. Thanks.

I'm wondering if there's a way to embed guitar tabs directly into the Reaper workspace.

The problem is that I often do recordings where I cover songs by my favorite artists. Previously, I had to use split screens for physical chord books or Guitar Pro, which isn't a great experience. So I'm looking for a way to embed guitar tabs directly into the Reaper workspace.

If anyone knows a way to integrate tabs into Reaper like this, I would be deeply grateful for the help.

Major performance updates are in the pipeline (up to 157.9x faster in certain visual canvas render operations.) Tested on a score with 48 Instruments and over 22000 notes in one orchestral piece.

As well as two different Playhead modes: Accurate and Smooth. Accurate will follow the actual note playing like a real philharmonic player would do with a latency of around 3ms.

The biggest thing will be a free Mastering VST that will help to demud your Soundtrack or Score based on Frequency Modulation. The DSP is ready for Windows and MacOS in beta. Installation happens from Reaper-Notator itself.

Good thing is you need only a few sliders and dials to completely bypass all other Mastering Tools. It will produce a good sounding orchestral piece out of the box. The DSP and VST3 is written as a novel tool based on frequency mathematics from scratch. When you look at Tonal Balance 2 for example you will see that every orchestral piece rendered with the new VST will be aligned into the Orchestral Sound Corridor without sounding off balance. Its honestly something i have ever dreamed off.

Biggest Update is made to the Melodic Pathfinder a score writing non Ai based algorithm tool which now also includes automatic profiling and percussion writing as well as Ensemble Mode and Guitar Mode improvements.

The Recording Page now has not just Autodivisi but also a new Fill Ensemble Mode. So you have 16 Instruments active but only 10 fingers? -> no problem 6 Fingers will be added to your recording and playback ;-)

you can follow for more on Vi-Control: https://vi-control.net/community/threads/free-reaper-notator-new-score-editor-multi-voice-cc-automation-for-reaper.175641/page-7#post-5930238

or Reaper Forum: https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=312101

Anyone know how I can get the multi output in Tal drum to transmit midi? Ideally I’d like to open Tal, create my drum pattern in midi editor, then push the pads to multi output so each kit sound has its own track in the TCP and mixer. Want to be able to mix and edit patterns off one instance of Tal. The multi output in Sitala works this way, but with Tal I have to route the outputs and midi doesn’t work. Just individual mixer tracks.

I'm trying to set up reaper but I keep getting this error message when trying to record my bass. Is there a way to fix this?
also, what are some essential plugins for reaper, from drum machines, synths, midis & whatever else would be good to have?

I wanted a way to introduce my kids to sound design—envelopes, LFOs, filters, unison—without putting them in front of a wall of knobs and technical terms. So I built Aurora, a free, zero-setup visual synthesizer that runs entirely in the browser.

Every element in the sky maps directly to a real synthesis parameter, and the whole landscape reacts to the audio in real time:

• Lumi (the star creature): Dragging X/Y morphs smoothly across an 8-shape wavetable (from soft flute-like sine/triangle tones to buzzy harmonics and bell-like timbres) and sweeps a low-pass filter cutoff. Lumi's shape, color, and facial expression change with the timbre.

• The Cloud (Envelope): Cycles through weather states—Stars (fast attack/sustain), Snow (slow 0.7s swell + long release), and Drops (short plucky decay).

• The Pinwheel (LFO): Adds wind gusts (1x to 6x/sec) modulating tone, filter cutoff, and subtle pitch vibrato simultaneously.

• The Nest (Unison & Chorus): Hatching the three eggs spawns orbiting star-friends that add detuned unison voices, a -1 octave sub-oscillator, and chorus.

• The Moon (Space): Four lunar phases controlling reverb size/length and stereo ping-pong delay.

• The Firefly Jar (24s MIDI Looper): Records note events (not audio) as glowing fireflies inside the jar, so any sound changes you make afterward affect the looping melody in real time.

• The Comet: Randomizes all 6 synthesis parameters at once for instant happy accidents.

For synth nerds & keyboard players:

• Plug in any USB/MIDI controller (Web MIDI across all 16 channels) and a keyboard icon automatically appears—letting you switch between white-keys-only (C major, impossible to play a "wrong" note) and full chromatic mode with velocity, sustain pedal, pitch bend, and standard CC mappings (Mod Wheel, CC 74, 71, 91, 93, 73).

• Press Q at any time to toggle a "behind the scenes" telemetry panel showing the actual synth parameter values moving in real time as you play with the sky.

**Try it free in your browser (works on desktop, iPad, and mobile. Mobile is not that comfortable since the space is pretty tight):** aurorasynth . hommelsound . com (can't post the full link, just merge the dots)

Would love to hear what you think—especially if you test it with a MIDI controller or with your own kids!

I'm trying to make the switch from the Presonus/Fender ecosystem to Reaper 7.86 (for Windows 11, all current updates). Part of this, I'm hoping, is to be able to use my Presonus ATOM pad controller in Reaper. I'd like to be able to use not only the percussion pads but the Transport keys as well. I've been searching high and low on the interwebs for workarounds that can help the controller and the software communicate. I've tried several and followed the instruction for each of them, but no luck yet. Has anyone tried anything that works in this application? At this point, I'm ready to bite the bullet and try a different controller. Any info helps. THANKS

I'm using a mac. I tried pressing play on my keyboard, with my mouse and with my midi keyboard, but nothing happens. Already restarted reaper. It came suddenly.

Happy about answers!

Hi everyone, i recently bought a new Casio CT-X700 and it doesn't respond to the Pigments (Atruria) plugin. I connect it via a sound card. The ripper itself responds to clicks, but the plugin doesn't. How can I fix this?

Like sombody already did it! TWO YEARS AGO!

I believe this was a consept for a redesign of the reaper plugin UI's so they don't draw people away from using them, cuss there actually really good and powerful stock plugins, they just look bad. this could be done in a simple update, like I know the reaper team is only 2 people. but comon.

good UI is such an important part of any workflow and I hope one day they do update the plugin UI to look more visually appeling to the human eye.

also IT DOSENT EVEN ADD BLOAT, all there really doing is changing the ui colors.

that's my little rant, GOOD DAY

REAPER user here, and the author of this plug-in, so take my enthusiasm with a grain of salt, as I also stated in my other post some days ago. Lots of improvements coming!

Plenio VST3 is an instrument that makes songs locally (YuE2 through ComfyUI, on your own GPU). That part works in any DAW. But REAPER's API let me go a lot further, and I think some of you will enjoy the details:

• Put on tracks builds a folder: Lyrics (an empty item per sung line, the line as the item's notes), Song (every take as one of REAPER's takes on one item), Melody / Instrument Line / Chords as MIDI (muted, ready for your own instruments), and the stems.

• The tempo map comes from the bars as they were measured in the take, written with SetTempoTimeSigMarker, so the grid follows the drift of a generated song.

• Choose a take on the take lane (or press T): the plug-in follows, and the stems, MIDI, lyrics and tempo map follow the take. Choose one in the plug-in: REAPER follows.

• The plug-in's own audio items get timebase Time, so importing a tempo map moves the grid, not the song (found the hard way: the default beats timebase stretched my first test to 63 % speed).

• The cover art becomes the tracks' icon, and space plays and stops REAPER even while the plug-in has focus.

• There's an ARA 2 part too: put Plenio ARA on a take's item and REAPER gets the take's tempo, key, notes and chords.

• New: ComfyUI can run on another computer than REAPER - the studio PC's name and a token in the plug-in's settings.

Free and open source (Apache-2.0), Windows; the macOS build is experimental. The songs themselves are non-commercial (the music model is CC BY-NC 4.0).

Tutorial (in REAPER): https://jplenio.github.io/Plenio-Music-Production-System/go/vst3-first-song/

Code and download: https://github.com/jplenio/Plenio-Music-Production-System/tree/main/vst3

More tutorials: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUL_VnoNiDU&list=PLaId01kYGcS0

If you know a cleaner way to do any of the API bits, I'm all ears. 🎹😁

Any difference in using AU, VST , VST3 plug ins? I'm thinking of CPU usage? I have in my head to just use vst as that's what I've been used to but is there any difference?

Hey all, I'm just starting to learn Reaper and I was following along with a couple different YT vids to learn the program. The person in the vid added ReaTune to their FX list and it looks like it automatically started tracking the notes for the track but when I add it it does nothing. It just stays blank. Any ideas on what I'm doing wrong?