REAPER: Track types????

How to use channels and tracks in Reaper!

Support me by becoming a Patron:

Check the studio here:

Follow me on Twitter @whiteseastudio

[marekvoosen]

Reaper blog and reaper mania are the best youtube channels for learning everything about Reaper

[TonyPelosi-music]

I left aside everything else and now Im just doing everything in Reaper. I did my own layout, organized my plugin's flow in 3 different ways, created my exclusive templates, and finally have peace of mind. Everything plays in Reaper (even MP4), it is light and fast as hell, it sounds great and the native EQ (and some other plugins) is as transparent as any other hi-grade costly plugin. Love it.

[ourmusicvideos]

Love Reaper, change themes, setup templates, color coding every task is so easy and logical.

[sethmathis]

that is so sick you can double click to add tracks! I seriously love that, despite the fact that it would take some getting used to, like if they added it into Live or something

[zicmanislord]

You make me laugh. What energy. That's excellent! Vive Reaper!

[CornSw]

Cool, I've been using Reaper for a while now and you showed me some things I still hadn't come across!

[marekvoosen]

Use sws expansion for auto coloring tracks by names, folders, sends and so on. SWS Expansion will make Reaper so complex and also easier to use. A must for reaper users and free.

[stonail]

You can play midi and audio at the same track simultaneously by enabling Free Item Positioning.

[heavymetalmixer]

Given that as you said, going crazy with what you put in a Reaper track can become quite a hassle, I tend to use color code for tracks, like blue for drums, pink for vocals, orange for rythm and clean guitars, dark green for Aux tracks (like reverbs and delays) and red for mix buss and group busses.

So yeah, my workflow is kinda the same as in any other DAW, but I don't have to worry what version of a plugin to put in a track.

[seanemmettfullerton]

Thank you Thank you, Wytse! You got me started
on Reaper for MIDI programming. I can't believe how
simple and fast it is compared to the ever horrible Pro Tools...

[nicholassturgess-monks]

Your excitement is an appropriate reaction to Reaper haha. It is insanely powerful software for the price. You should definitely explore the routing matrix and Reaper's various LFO tools and in-track automation. Also make sure that you grab the SWS Extension (it's free). If you're clever with your signal flow and what tracks you use as noise generating tracks and which you use for FX, you can treat Reaper as a fully modular in-the-box system. Rhythmic automation of send volumes is the key in my experience. The only negatives with Reaper for me are that its native synth and reverb are both pretty terrible. I'd argue that its compressor and EQ are some of the best around though, despite their pretty utilitarian UIs.

[niklassilen]

.. and the content of a track can be any kind of video file, compressed audio file and even different kinds of images like .jpg, .png and .gif. Also, the tracks can be dragged as folder tracks which creates a sort of bus. You can even do feedback routing in Reaper (it's smart enough to ask you if you really want to do that before doing it though). In short: Reaper is absolutely amazing and by far the best DAW out there in my opinion. I'm an ex-Pro Tools / Samplitude (back in the old days!) / Logic Audio (5.5 RIP!) / Cubase / Cakewalk and FL Studio user.. so I have quite some experience in different DAWs

[tomvos]

"Why is my macbook making so much noise? SHUT UP!" XD

[Andrath]

I prefer folders in reaper, it will also sort out the routing for you

[vetvet]

:)) Reaper.... so, in addition to crazy "all type track", try "track free item positioning". It will blow your mind complitely :D

[juliusmarinus]

Hi! Look for the folder option, it's like submixs in reaper and it's really handy!

[frankb]

Don't forget VIDEO, IMAGES, EMPTY/NOTE items... also you can right click the pan knob and change to stereo panning.. RIGHT CLICK EVERYTHING.

[koteotake]

For coloring you can use SWS auto color. Add pattern something like this: (rule type)Track, (name) AUX, (color)0x5331dd. Then all track named "AUX" apperar in one color.

[derChili]

Try Reaper SWS Extensions. Besides other usefull addons for reaper there is feature called something like "Auto Color/Icon/Layout" so i.e.everytime the name of a track has a defined string in it like i.e. "bus" "midi" etc you can define a colour and layout that reaper puts automatically on that track. Reaper can do everything ;) it just takes a serious amount of time to configure it. And be carefull that customizations are a rabbit hole ;)

[tozzlin]

do a Script&cutsom action feature of this thing, this is the most charming part of it.