Reaper - any first starter tipps & scripts? Must haves?

[Caine123]

Ok i just got reaper for a great price and maybe it was throwing away money as i got also studio one on my list and the 30 day demo on my pc and might not use reaper in future but to extensively compare daws to my lovely fl studio i bite it now and am checking Tutorials how reaper works as it is not really intuitive like fl srudio but might get.
I read alot about scripts etc which are must haves. Which do you recommend? What beginner tips do you have?

If reaper crashes how does it reload projects?

[dupont]

first install ReaPack https://www.extremraym.com/en/reapack/ and SWS extension http://sws-extension.org/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjoDu_32ljI
you can get some information here https://forum.cockos.com/forumdisplay.php?f=3.
I tried FL studio 20 and find it less intuitive than Reaper, it's a matter of taste !

[Andywanders]

Reaper isn't the most intuitive daw - at first. It's more of a tweakers daw and as such, probably the most customisable daw out there. It's definitely worthwhile spending time setting it up to suit your workflow and there are loads of videos on YT to help you with that.

My advice: Firstly, install the SWS extensions. They add a lot of extra functionality to Reaper.

http://sws-extension.org/

Also, visit the Reaper forum. A lot of very helpful Reaper users are there and they're always willing to share tips etc.

https://forum.cockos.com/forumdisplay.php?f=19

[SoundPorn]

For one FL Studio isn't intuitive it may only feel that way because it's what you know but it doesn't really work like any other DAW. Now FL Studio is a great DAW for making beats don't get me wrong but Reaper and Studio One operate more intuitive imo in a linear fashion with flexibility.
I personally use Reaper and Waveform9 exclusively now and think Reaper is the best all around DAW it can simply do everything you need it to do. I also have Ableton10 Lite which is great with my Launchkey to jam and Studio One Prime which you can't use VST's so nvmd.
Reaper became my favorite DAW because of how comfortable it is and the ease of the way it routes things. Plus it's the most CPU efficient DAW ive tried yet. And I've never used scripts or even cared too.
If you're not making money off music I'd suggest Reaper which is the ugliest looking but arguably the most powerful daw and comes with everything you need outside of instruments and useless samples. Between Reapers stock effects and the JS plugins you got everything and then some covered to start. Reapers stocks are insanely powerful. Unlimited band parametric eq, unlimited multi band compressor, a IR reverb... You can even do spectral editing in Reaper and noise removal.
Studio ONe is great too but it's way more expensive.
If you're not recording yourself and just making beats I'd suggest checking out Waveform9 too

[woggle]

embrace using scripts, actions and mouse modifiers - as well as making your own toolbar buttons. You don't have to write scripts or anything like that but you will do better if you get used to using youtube and the forum to find answers "on the fly"
As everyone says Reaper is very customisable and my experience is that rather than try and make the perfect setup it is better to just think of in terms of what function you need right now and get some actions / scripts to provide that. Maybe those functions or actions or keystrokes that you setup become part of your everyday workflow or maybe you only use them once or twice - the key is not to care if they are permanent but just to get so familiar with using actions etc you are comfortable making them quickly in themoment

[EnGee]

1. I would first watch all the videos by Kenny Gioia (more than once!):
https://www.reaper.fm/videos.php

2. Start making my own toolbars and search for drum maps (like Battery 3/4).

3. Configuring my midi controller for a faster workflow.

Personally, I don't need to learn any scripting. Learning to master it needs a long time really as Reaper is a deep DAW.

[ruslan.st]

Better start without any scripts and extensions. Check if default fits. If it satisfies your needs by 80-90% in default configuration and with tweaks within default, then you can later fine tune Reaper with the scripts, themes and the other crappy Reaper community "masterpieces". If default will not be ok for you, no extension or script will help.

[Caine123]

thanks a lot guys, i started to check the tutorials atm. i definitely want to check if i can customize it a BIT like fl studio's advantages i like/workflow i like and my settings i made for FL Studio (sorting my VSTs in genres etc., having mixer presets, having my library displayed well of samples, how to route for send and especially adjust and see if i can use the piano roll nearly like fl studio) but combine it with more strengths of Reaper (and other DAWs i now test and bought Bitwig/studio one).

I DEFINITELY want to change the theme and definitely want to use something like the chord scaler/tracker from studio one, i love it already in there what i tested so far where you set a chord in the piano roll and it is shown what notes you may play and it does only let you set the notes on the chord. nice for newbies which still cannot play chords in mind :/

[DoubleDubz]

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1. I would first watch all the videos by Kenny Gioia (more than once!):
https://www.reaper.fm/videos.php (https://www.reaper.fm/videos.php)

Definitely follow this advice!!! I had Reaper on my computer for ages and never realized just how amazing this DAW is until I went through these videos recently. It seems a little overwhelming at first because of all the available options, but the Kenny Gioia videos cleared up almost all of my questions and I find that the program is actually quite intuitive.

[SamDi]

Beginner tips:

1. RTFM - Reaper is not that intuitive, than other "beginner's DAWs". It's unbelievable deep, so you do not get around to read the manual. And yes, it's exactly as not-sexy as the Reaper's surface, so it's not purely fun to read it. Of course you can watch the tutorial videos first

2. In every case: do the effort and customize Reaper as a first step. It's biggest strength is it's biggest weakness. While other DAWs do what you might expect, in Reaper nothing seems logical or intuitive. Mousewheel without modifier does zooming instead scrolling and other weird stuff. Workflow will first appear to you, after you customized Reaper, as you want to have it.

3. Get used with the one-track-concept and routing capabilities. At the beginning this is a really steep learning curve. But after you mastered this and learned to love the limitless capabilities of routing, every other DAW seems "undersophisticated" in that area

4. If you can imagine a feature or anything you want to do with Raper, google it, have a look in the actions menu and the extensions repository. There is a big chance that the feature is already there and Reaper can do it or at least there is an extension for it.

5. Get used to the professional features. Also in terms of organising Reaper is a beast. Window-sets, trackview-scenes, defining dockers and toolbars, defining key-command sets. With SWS-extensions you can even define different marker sets. Reapers capabilities go far beyond most DAWs features there.

6. Have a look at the Reaper plugins and JS-extensions. They sound better, than they look.

Yes Reaper looks unsexy and the menus and context menus look fragmented and redundant, compared to most other DAWS. But nevertheless I find it unfair to call Reaper's price as one of the biggest strengths. Because even if the price would be the same as for Cubase, Protools, etc., Reaper would win in terms of features, flexibility, workflow and extensibility. On the other side Reaper would loose in terms of content, instruments and of course sexyness of the GUI. Reaper is not a good tool for getting inspired by look and feel, nice vintage looking instruments, edgy content and algorithmic composing aids. But if you know, what you want to do and you want to do it fast without the DAW blocking your creativity flow, Reaper is at the top-end.

[andrei.tuduran]

Here's a showcase of scripts : http://www.admiralbumblebee.com/ReaperScripts.html
I'm using REAPER too and in the 1st place, it looked a bit intimidating but after diving more deep into it, found that it's my DAW of choice.
Watch Kenny Gioia's tutorials. He's a really good at explaining. https://www.reaper.fm/videos.php

[DRX36]

i use reaper and fl studio but honestly i use reaper for aroud 80% of my work...

reaper has things that fl doesnt have. vice versa but reaper actually has more to offer though.

only thing reaper doesnt have is the "slide" function for midi but you can still do it but it takes a little more effort. other than that...

whats really dope is that you can use fl studio as a plugin within reaper. so using both daws at the same time really makes everything come together. its really nice to use some of the plugins from fl inside reaper.

editing samples and doing crazy cuts is a ton easier in reaper. you can get alot more creative with the sampling game in reaper for sure. its just so much easier to project what your trying to do

[neverbeeninariot]

As a long time user, here's my tuppence worth; Reaper is a 'roll-your-own' deal, if you can think it, then it can usually be done (several ways) with a little effort, but you only need to do it once : )

Start with the basics, get your head around the one track for for everything paradigm, and with that comes routing (check out the routing matrix)

Right-click everything - Reaper is menu-driven for many things - if you find yourself looking for the same menu action frequently, add a button to the toolbar (there are many toolbars so you can group actions). Menus can also be edited to suit you.

Check out mouse-modifiers, this is where you can really start customising your workflow. The are modifiers for most gui contexts (arranger, midi editor, items, etc), this is where it's tool-less functionality come to the fore (cutting, stretching, trimming etc)

Check the preferences - most are semi-sensible but others are crazy (e.g. zooming and scrolling are batshitloco compared to other DAW's)

Watch Kenny's videos, one topic per vid, usually grouped by topic. He goes over things in a slow methodical way.

Then you can start thinking about scripts and extensions : )

Good luck! It can be a bit of a steep curve at first, but it's worth it IMO.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

The first post in this thread was 5 years ago so not sure why this was bumped, but one thing that has happened in the last 5 years that would help new Reaper users: watch the ReaperBlog's 3-part YouTube series called something like "the defaults are all wrong."

Most of the changes that took me months and months to find and tweak to my liking are covered in that series. Would've been a huge time saver if I knew about it earlier.

[neverbeeninariot]

It would have been a huge time saver if I'd checked the dates of the first post