Cockos REAPER updated to v5.97 - now communicates with Melodyne via ARA 2

Cockos and Celemony have announced that with version 5.97 REAPER supports the ARA Audio Random Access 2 interface extension. From now on, users of Melodyne and REAPER will be able to enjoy a greatly enhanced Melodyne workflow.

ARA Audio Random Access 2 improves the communication between Melodyne and the DAW by permitting them to exchange information about audio files, pitch, rhythm and much else besides. The upshot is a far more user-friendly workflow and the significantly more efficient integration of Melodyne functions by the DAW.

Thanks to ARA 2, it is now possible to open REAPER audio tracks in Melodyne directly – the tiresome transfers have been eliminated. So using Melodyne is now much less complicated and more intuitive. Whenever Media Items on a REAPER track are shortened, lengthened, moved or copied, Melodyne with ARA automatically makes the necessary adjustments. As a result, rearranging the track contents in REAPER presents no problems – even if you've already begun editing them in Melodyne.

Thanks to ARA 2, Melodyne is able to detect, edit and match the tempo in REAPER, and it is also far easier to take advantage of Melodyne's Audio-to-MIDI Export function. Furthermore, when sharing REAPER projects with collaborators, you need no longer concern yourself with transfer files or other housekeeping chores, as the whole business of data management is now taken care of automatically.

"We are happy to support technology like ARA 2 that makes it easier for our users to work with audio in a convenient and creative way, " says Justin Frankel, the creator of REAPER. "We especially like that ARA 2 is freely available to all developers, and we look forward to seeing all of the interesting features and behaviors that ARA 2 can enable."

To profit from the ARA 2 integration of Melodyne into REAPER, you need version 5.97 of REAPER and version 4.2 of Melodyne. Further information on how to integrate and operate Melodyne in REAPER can be found in the REAPER section of the Melodyne Help Center.

Changes in REAPER 5.97 & 5.971:

• 5.971:
  • ARA: fix adjusting plugin playback to project tempo when media item start position is not zero.
  • ARA: properly account for timing offset in certain situations.
  • Dockers: improve dock/undock focused window action (always affect docked window before the docker that contains it, set focus).
  • JSFX: fix gfx_a2 default when drawing into secondary buffers.
  • ReaScript: gfx_a2 is always reset to 1 on each gfx frame.
  • ReaScript: prevent possible crash when scripts terminating scripts.
  • ReaTune: fix per-take FX manual mode timing.
  • ReaTune: fix take FX manual mode inconsistencies with global project offset.
  • Video: fix YV12/YUY2 text rendering alignment with certain fonts/characters.
  • Video: allow drawing text with larger font sizes (up to 700pt).
  • Video: improve playback performance with looped playback.
• ARA:
  • support for ARA2-compatible plugins.
  • support for importing notes and tempo from plugins into project, or exporting as MIDI.
• Video:
  • sort and reorganize preset names into categories.
  • add new presets including Color Peeker, Decorative Oscilliscope, Decorative Spectrum Analyzer, RGB Histogram, Resize to Project Settings, Screensaver, Frame Rate Decimator, RGB Shadow/Midtone/Highlight, Apply Track FX Only Where Track Has Video Items, Vertical Wipe.
  • improve various built-in presets.
  • improve Chroma-key presets, add separate RGB/YUV versions.
  • add JSFX video sample peeker which can provide audio samples to Decorative Oscilliscope/Decorative Spectrum Analyzer presets.
  • add experimental performance tweaks and information to video window menu.
  • add experimental decoder prefetch support (improved multiprocessing, improved reverse video playback performance when enabled).
  • add option to show green frames for underruns, rather than previous frame.
  • add option to disable rendering cache for all media/video FX (can be used for low latency interactions).
  • avoid re-rendering video frames when tweaking parameters during playback.
  • better preview behavior when slip editing items.
  • improve monitoring FX performance during underruns/seeking, playback recovery after CPU overutilization during normal playback.
  • improve preview behavior when scrubbing backwards continuously.
  • always force rendered videos to be even in dimension.
  • do not process any video when rendering audio-only.
  • do not run video processors in monitoring FX chain while rendering.
  • increase maximum parameter count to 24.
  • parameters can now be specified without indices for convenience.
  • add processor support for gfx_a2, which can be used to control RGBA alpha-channel writing.
  • add processor functions: gfx_getpixel(), input_get_name(), on_parameter_change(), time_precise(), ui_get_state(), fft().
  • improve gfx_evalrect() (can take flags to process right-to-left, vertical, third source for 3-way blends, initialization code, returns -1 on error, add restrictions to processor code).
  • improve input_info() to not clear project_w/project_h if they are passed as parameters and input is not present.
  • support //@gmem=sharedMemorySegmentName (also shares with JSFX's options:gmem=).
  • fix RGBA chromakeyed blit.
  • improve internal colorspace management logic (reduction of excess colorspace conversions).
  • improve knob behavior relating to mousewheel, step sizes, and undo/redo.
  • fix VLC decoding to RGB.
  • fix ffmpeg hang when seeking some old miniDV .avi files.
  • improve VLC/ffmpeg decoding behavior near end of file.
  • improve DirectShow output performance.
  • fix refresh issues with linux or Windows/BitBlt() output.
  • optionally send CC events on video window mouse drag (once option enabled, right click in MIDI learn window to assign).
  • output colorspace preference no longer affects processor rendering pipeline, only final display stage.
• MIDI editor:
  • allow resizing right edges of notes down to note insert size if lower than grid size.
  • fix possible crash when editing notation.
  • obey note insertion length when in measure-grid mode.
  • event filter fixes and tweaks.
• OSC:
  • fix support for s/track/x/name setting.
  • fix unreliable setting of marker/region information by timeline-index.
  • support modifying/creating markers/regions by ID, using /region_id/@/time and /marker_id/@/time etc.
  • support writing marker/region values.
• ReaScript:
  • fix MIDIEditor_GetSetting_int.
  • EEL2 scripts support //@gmem=sharedMemorySegmentName starting line in first 100 lines of code (also shares with JSFX).
  • add reaper.gmem_attach() /gmem_read() /gmem_write() to Lua for interacting with JSFX/Video Processors/EEL2 ReaScripts gmem[] segments.
  • support UTF-8 characters in os.remove() /os.rename() on Windows.
• VST:
  • do not deactivate VST3 plugins before changing IO buffer information.
  • flush VST3 buffers on stop without resetting other plugin state.
  • inform plugins of project loop selection regardless of playback state.
  • report loop points to plugins even if project repeat is disabled.
  • restore pre-5.9x reset-on-stop default behavior for ET-200, FA3, Vienna Ensemble.
• Automation:
  • handle empty automation items more gracefully.
  • fix crash when duplicating empty automation items via region copy.
• Control surfaces:
  • add action to reset MIDI control surface devices.
  • actions for next/previous track update control surface offsets.
• Linux:
  • do not show (unused) video output colorspace options.
  • fix crossfade window glitches.
  • fix project bay menu issues.
• macOS:
  • switch to newer development toolchain for release (improves video playback on large monitors and fixes AUv3 issues on 10.14).
  • removed PPC bridging support.
  • workaround for NSWorkspace race condition when launching external editors after open-copy.
• Performance meter:
  • auto-resize text areas to configured view options.
  • optionally display video load.
• Project bay:
  • add position column for source media and media items.
  • allow dragging complete (not trimmed) media into the media items tab.
• ReaComp:
  • add pre-fader feedback detector mode.
  • deprecated non-fully-functional AA support, hidden when not used.
  • improve ratio/attack/rms slider curves and display precision.
• Stretch markers:
  • add new "transient-optimized" and "no pre-echo reduction" stretch marker modes.
  • add project setting for stretch marker mode.
  • improve timing of timestretch ramps with elastique and Rubberband Library.
• Actions: allow removing FX chain actions.
• Joysticks: fix joystick support.
• Projects: add actions to save copy of project (optionally prompting for new filename).
• ReaScript/JSFX: add gfx.a2/gfx_a2 for creating transparent images.
• Tempo map: fix importing initial time signature from MIDI tempo map.
• Theme: fix retina vs HiDPI inconcistency relating to label margins.
• Track FX drag: update mouse cursor when changing modifiers.
• Virtual MIDI keyboard: do not adjust center position in response to UI sizing.
• WALTER: fix HiDPI extended mixer mode setting.