reaper sound editor interview Asbjoern Andersen


Excitement for the REAPER DAW continues to build, and in this special two-part guide, Anne-Sophie Mongeau shares her insights on how to make the most of it as a sound design tool – based on years of working with it for sound design:


Written by Anne-Sophie Mongeau



 

Over the last few years, Reaper has gained exponential popularity among audio professionals. It is indeed a powerful sound design tool which allows great flexibility and rapid workflow, provided that you familiarize yourself with some of its atypical functionalities and develop good habits from the start.

I have put together a series of workflow tips which I have come to develop over some years of working with Reaper. They are meant to provide some insight on how to get started, developing good habits and taking advantage of Reaper’s unique features. In this first article of a two parts series, I will go through the setting up process. In the second article, I will explore the Reaper workflow as well as some useful features.

There is of course more than one way to work with this DAW, and more than one set of shortcuts. If you already work with Reaper, you may take some of these tips as suggestions rather than instructions. However if you are just getting started, I strongly recommend following these simple guidelines.

Getting started

Set the Reaper Project Settings

Setting up the Reaper Project Settings (File > Project Settings or alt+ENTER) to your liking at an early stage will allow you to save a considerable amount of time. By clicking ‘Save as default project settings’, you will only need to this step once. Given the use I make of Reaper (mostly for sound design), this is how I usually like those settings:
Reaper project settings

Under the Project Settings tab
• Project sample rate: 48000 Hz
• BPM: 120
• Time signature: 4/4
• Timebase for items/envelopes/markers & Timebase for tempo/time signature envelope:

This is relevant mostly if you are working with tempo changes (for example if you are composing music and/or working with video). It determines how those different elements will behave when you change the BPM (overall or per section). It also matters if you are working with sound files or MIDI. You usually wouldn’t want to stretch your sound files when changing the project tempo, as this might generate unwanted artifacts. However, MIDI files can be stretched in order to match your tempo change and the virtual instrument will adapt accordingly without affecting the quality. Hence, I usually leave the Timebase for items/envelopes/markers to Beats (position only) and the Timebase for tempo/time signature envelope to Beats.

However, I strongly suggest setting the appropriate timebase for each relevant track when/if necessary. (Right-click on a track > Set track timebase > Time. This is very useful if you have both midi and audio files within your project, or if some items/tracks are beat sensitive and some others aren’t.
 

Reaper project media settings

Under the Media Tab
• WAV bit depth set to 24 bit PCM
• Set a Path to save media files.

This will create a subdirectory within your project directory to store media files. It is very useful to keep project directories clean, especially when working with hundreds of files. I name this path ‘Audio’, it could also be named ‘MediaFiles’ or something equivalent.

I usually leave the Video and Advanced tabs options to their default state, and change them per project when/if necessary.

The Notes tab can actually be quite useful when sharing sessions. For instance, you can write something about your latest changes or incomplete tasks to let your coworker(s) know, and tick the Show notes on project load box to make sure it appears when the session is opened.

When you are happy with your settings, click the Save as default project settings button to make sure these are remembered for every subsequently created Reaper session. You can always go back and modify them per project.
 

Need more help with REAPER? Get it here:
 
Looking for more help with REAPER, or do you want to read or share tips, ideas and resources? Visit the new REAPER channel on the Sound Community Discord server here

Set the Reaper Preferences

In addition to the Project Settings, you can use the Reaper Preferences window to set various paths, device and appearance settings, and so on. One of Reaper’s great strengths is its customisability; the Preferences give you a tremendous amount of options to personalize your workflow. It would be impossible to go through the entire Preferences in one article, but the following are some of my favored settings:

General > Paths
Tick Store all peak caches (.reapeaks) in alternate path and set path.
This will save all the reapeaks files in an alternate directory which will leave your project directory much cleaner.

Project
Tick Prompt to save on new project.
I find it extremely useful to be prompted to save when creating a new session: it avoids ending up with sessions saved in the wrong places, or work in an unsaved project for a while (which is risky). I find it’s a disciplined way of keeping my Reaper sessions neatly organised.

Audio > Device
Select appropriate audio drivers & system
This is where you set which Audio system and drivers you wish to use, according to the equipment you are working with (audio interface). It is as straightforward as it is important: not setting the Audio system properly will result in errors when trying to playback or record audio.

Audio > MIDI Devices
If a MIDI device is not detected automatically, this is where you should see any connected device and be able to right-click it and select ‘enable input’.

Appearance > Media
I like to personalise the Media item buttons displayed on the items within the project. I find that the most useful ones are

Locked, Not locked (will allow you to quickly be able to click that button whenever an item needs to be locked);
Muted, Not muted (same with Mute button);
Per-take FX (will only show if an effect is present on the item);
Automation Envelopes (same with envelopes);
Notes (same with notes);
Item Properties only if resampled media;
Pooled MIDI;
Grouped items.

Plug-ins > VST
You can set one or more VST plug-in paths here and simply hit ‘Re-scan’ if you acquire new plug-ins and VSTs to update your database.

There are many other features you can customise, such as the scroll and zoom functionalities and anything appearance related, but I find that at least with those quick additions you are in a good place for an efficient workflow. Those settings will be remembered for all subsequently created Reaper projects.


Popular on A Sound Effect right now - article continues below:


Trending right now:

  • Cinematic & Trailer Sound Effects Abandoned Oil Tank Play Track 327 sounds included $40

    On a recording trip to the smaller Danish port town Struer, I came across an abandoned empty oil tank. Inside I found two giant wires attached to the floor and the ceiling of the tank, almost like a huge 2 stringed double bass. I’m telling you the reverb in there was longer than the Eiffel Tower on a cloudless day !

    On the outside this was just an empty abandoned building, but it turned out it was not empty at all because it was full of sound and a few dead birds. I’m glad I was curious enough to go inside for a closer investigation and not just pass by.

    After several hours of concentrated recording, it was nice to get my ears back out in dry air. I’m happy there are no open sends to Valhalla in real life but experiencing the eternal resonance on the low frequencies from the wires was absolutely amazing.

    Abandoned Oil Tank was recorded with a LOM basic Ucho stereo pair, a Zoom H6 and the LOM Geofon. All files are in 96 kHz/24 bit and contain the original recordings.

    The result is a unique sound effect library including balloon pop impulse responses from a truly unique location that very recently became even more unique since word says that the oil tank is no more and has abandoned this world.

    327 individual sounds – all tagged with Universal Category System (UCS) metadata.

    www.katrineamsler.com

    20 %
    OFF
    Ends 1713131999
  • Door Sound Effects Noisy Doors Play Track 44 sounds included $10

    This library contains recordings of eleven different types of doors specifically chosen for their interesting sound. I performed all actions with a lot of detail covering “open/close”, “knocks”, “bangs and thuds”, “handle grab and rattle” and when possible also “crackles and squeaks” (all recorded at various intensities)

    50 %
    OFF
    Ends 1711666799
  • Kawaii UI Trailer
  • Foley Sound Effects Pickups and Small Item Sounds Play Track 280 sounds included, 7 mins total $4.16

    Great Audio is Essential

    Essential Audio Pickups and Small Item Sounds contains 280 Foley sounds designed specifically for Video Game Sound Designers who need the usual Pick-Up sounds and SFX for common small items, including: Keys, Coins, Access Card, Pills/Health, Latches, Locks, Chains, Bags, and many many more!

    Features:

    •  280 sounds
    • Bags
    • Coins
    • Keys
    • Pill Bottle
    • Cable Ties
    • Camera
    • Lighter
    • Access Card
    • Chains
    • Locks
    • Clips and Clasps
    • Computer Mouse
    • Boxes
    • Papers
    • Clicks and Ticks
    • Tools
    • Scissors
    • Wood Game Pieces
    • Zippers

    Number of Audio Waves: 280

    Sample rate / bit rate: 44,100 Hz / 16 bit

    75 %
    OFF

Latest releases:

  • Birdsong from the countryside of the Swedish rural region of Värmland.

  • The physical version of Small Rantonen Kantele is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, still playable 5-string kanteles in the world, as it was made in 1770. The kantele was made famous by kantele player Antti Rantonen, who owned it and played it during his career.

    NOTE: FULL Kontakt 6.7.0 or higher required (NOT Kontakt Player)

    Kantele, also called kannel, is a traditional Finnish and Karelian plucked string instrument. Similar instruments include the Estonian kannel, Latvian kokles, Lithuanian kanklÄ—s, and Russian gusli.

    Main idea for the virtual kantele was to create an instrument you can play live, almost like a real kantele. We used pedals, velocity layers, and special keyswitches to create a playing experience closer to the real instrument. Strumming is a crucial part of playing the small kantele, so we kept that in the middle of the development from start to finish.

    Samples were recorded using different parts of the kantele, with resonance and without resonance, to give more options for the sound of the instrument. During the sampling the strings were tuned using a diatonic scale (CDEFG). With the virtual instrument it is possible to tune every string independently, so you can achieve the traditional D-tuning and many other tunings.

    We captured long, damped, and dead notes, and harmonics. In addition we recorded percussion with the strings and the body of the instrument. Many other delicious samples are also present, including the sounds of hand damping the strings!

    Below you can view the walkthrough video for the instrument.

  • The physical version of Large Rantonen Kantele is an old, large 30-string concert kantele made in 1902. The kantele was made famous by kantele player Antti Rantonen, who owned it and played it during his career.

    NOTE: FULL Kontakt 6.7.0 or higher required (NOT Kontakt Player)

    Kantele, also called kannel, is a traditional Finnish and Karelian plucked string instrument. Similar instruments include the Estonian kannel, Latvian kokles, Lithuanian kanklÄ—s, and Russian gusli.

    Main idea for the virtual kantele was to create an instrument you can play live, almost like a real kantele. As both hands are on the strings when playing a physical kantele, we used pedals, velocity layers, and special keyswitches to create a playing experience closer to the real instrument.

    We recorded long notes, damped notes, harmonics, and mallet hits. For the virtual instrument, we expanded these notes to cover the missing sharps and flats, and even more lower and higher notes. We also added a virtual damping board, two play modes, and a large number of options to help you to create your own sound and playing style.

    Below you can view the walkthrough video for the instrument.

  • Door Sound Effects Noisy Doors Play Track 44 sounds included $10

    This library contains recordings of eleven different types of doors specifically chosen for their interesting sound. I performed all actions with a lot of detail covering “open/close”, “knocks”, “bangs and thuds”, “handle grab and rattle” and when possible also “crackles and squeaks” (all recorded at various intensities)

    50 %
    OFF
    Ends 1711666799
  • Human Sound Effects Zody Play Track 1243+ sounds included, 151 mins total $55

    With abounding character and a penchant for speaking their mind, these little folk always have a lot to say. Wonder and amazement naturally follows.

    Having the honor to be able to observe these tikes in their natural habitats, it became clear how babies share a great deal across their mannerisms as the grow. A longitudinal family of vocalizations and sounds that span the first year of life and maturity, the heart of this library, centers on those personalities and mannerisms changing and taking shape over that period of time. The little ones have been recorded at infancy, 3 months, 6 months, 9 months, and 1 year old. Each of these developmental milestones mark a significant step forward for all babies and at these stages their personalities and expressiveness grow remarkably. It is the constantly evolving language of exploration and examination; always learning. Each vocalization in this library, even within the same stage of development, is unique. From giggles to shouts, questioning to cries, babbles, cooing, and inventive phrases all the way around.

    Additionally, strollers, toys, diaper bags, bottles, pumps, swings, and more have been captured as compliments to represent all of those ubiquitous items in a baby’s world. The strollers were profiled on different surfaces and from different mechanical perspectives. The toys were recorded both in-play and as Foley. Bottles and diapers were used in their normal function and fashion, while other tools and devices of the dedicated and savvy parent were selected for their sound and utility.

    Joyfulness is easy to hear in this library.

Need specific sound effects? Try a search below:


Saving a Reaper session

When saving a new Reaper session, you should always:
• tick Create subdirectory for project
Copy all media into project directory.

reaper file names
This allows the Reaper session to be completely independent and non destructive to original files. It will create a folder containing the Reaper session file along with copied media files. The ‘Audio’ Path to save media files created earlier in the Project Settings will create a subfolder within the directory for all media files. If you don’t do these steps, you will encounter issues when moving the project and could be modifying original files.
 

More reads on REAPER
Want to know more about REAPER? Here are some more A Sound Effect stories about it:

The Rise of REAPER – with Justin Frankel
5 useful tips for making the most of REAPER – by Jon Tidey

 

Set and use shortcuts

In Reaper (as in any DAW really), keyboard shortcuts are your friends. Many of them will be set by default, you may like them or want to change them according to what you are used to from a previous DAW workflow, or simply adjust them to what makes more sense to you. You can access all actions and shortcuts through the Action list window: Actions > Show actions list…
reaper shortcuts

• To find an action (per type or per name), use the Filter (for instance split, glue, nudge, etc);
• To find out what actions are performed by specific shortcuts, use the Find Shortcut button;
• To set custom shortcuts for existing actions, use the Shortcuts for select action section at the bottom left. Simply select the action in the action list, click the Add… button and enter the desired shortcut. If the shortcut is already used, Reaper will prompt you to decide if you wish to override it or keep the original one.
• To create custom actions click on Custom actions: New > drag desired actions. You can then assign a shortcut to your custom action. This is very handy and can greatly increase your workflow speed when you need to perform some repetitive task.
 

Get the SWS extensions

They can be downloaded here

The SWS extensions are a collection of features which integrate directly and seamlessly into Reaper as additional functionalities. It is entirely free and extremely simple to install, you can find a full list of their actions here.

This concludes how to get set up using Reaper. Keep an eye out for the second article of this two part series to know more about the Reaper workflow and some of its useful and unique features.
 

A big thanks to Anne-Sophie Mongeau for her REAPER insights! Part two of this guide – covering workflow and some of the unique REAPER features – is here

 

Please share this:


 

 

About Anne-Sophie Mongeau
Anne-Sophie Mongeau is a game audio engineer at DIGIT Game Studios, and has a great blog about sound here. You can also meet her on Twitter here.

 



 
 
THE WORLD’S EASIEST WAY TO GET INDEPENDENT SOUND EFFECTS:
 
A Sound Effect gives you easy access to an absolutely huge sound effects catalog from a myriad of independent sound creators, all covered by one license agreement - a few highlights:

  • Door Sound Effects Noisy Doors Play Track 44 sounds included $10

    This library contains recordings of eleven different types of doors specifically chosen for their interesting sound. I performed all actions with a lot of detail covering “open/close”, “knocks”, “bangs and thuds”, “handle grab and rattle” and when possible also “crackles and squeaks” (all recorded at various intensities)

    50 %
    OFF
    Ends 1711666799
  • Cinematic & Trailer Sound Effects Abandoned Oil Tank Play Track 327 sounds included $40

    On a recording trip to the smaller Danish port town Struer, I came across an abandoned empty oil tank. Inside I found two giant wires attached to the floor and the ceiling of the tank, almost like a huge 2 stringed double bass. I’m telling you the reverb in there was longer than the Eiffel Tower on a cloudless day !

    On the outside this was just an empty abandoned building, but it turned out it was not empty at all because it was full of sound and a few dead birds. I’m glad I was curious enough to go inside for a closer investigation and not just pass by.

    After several hours of concentrated recording, it was nice to get my ears back out in dry air. I’m happy there are no open sends to Valhalla in real life but experiencing the eternal resonance on the low frequencies from the wires was absolutely amazing.

    Abandoned Oil Tank was recorded with a LOM basic Ucho stereo pair, a Zoom H6 and the LOM Geofon. All files are in 96 kHz/24 bit and contain the original recordings.

    The result is a unique sound effect library including balloon pop impulse responses from a truly unique location that very recently became even more unique since word says that the oil tank is no more and has abandoned this world.

    327 individual sounds – all tagged with Universal Category System (UCS) metadata.

    www.katrineamsler.com

    20 %
    OFF
    Ends 1713131999
  • Magic & Fantasy Sound Effects Magic and Spell Sounds Play Track 682 sounds included, 29 mins total $19

    Magic and Spell Sounds is a custom designed sound library covering many types of magic and spells. From shining in the light to bringing darkness.

    Elements: electricity, energy, fireballs, ice, vines, rock, wind and water. Covering actions such as: blasts, casting, conjuring, impacts, healing and more.

    682 total sounds (422 magic and spell sounds, 260 bonus sounds from Pro Sound Collection).

    ALL sounds from this library Magic and Spell Sounds are included in our full sound library Pro Sound Collection. So if you need more sounds be sure to check it out before purchase.

    24 %
    OFF
Explore the full, unique collection here

Latest sound effects libraries:
 
  • Birdsong from the countryside of the Swedish rural region of Värmland.

  • The physical version of Small Rantonen Kantele is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, still playable 5-string kanteles in the world, as it was made in 1770. The kantele was made famous by kantele player Antti Rantonen, who owned it and played it during his career.

    NOTE: FULL Kontakt 6.7.0 or higher required (NOT Kontakt Player)

    Kantele, also called kannel, is a traditional Finnish and Karelian plucked string instrument. Similar instruments include the Estonian kannel, Latvian kokles, Lithuanian kanklÄ—s, and Russian gusli.

    Main idea for the virtual kantele was to create an instrument you can play live, almost like a real kantele. We used pedals, velocity layers, and special keyswitches to create a playing experience closer to the real instrument. Strumming is a crucial part of playing the small kantele, so we kept that in the middle of the development from start to finish.

    Samples were recorded using different parts of the kantele, with resonance and without resonance, to give more options for the sound of the instrument. During the sampling the strings were tuned using a diatonic scale (CDEFG). With the virtual instrument it is possible to tune every string independently, so you can achieve the traditional D-tuning and many other tunings.

    We captured long, damped, and dead notes, and harmonics. In addition we recorded percussion with the strings and the body of the instrument. Many other delicious samples are also present, including the sounds of hand damping the strings!

    Below you can view the walkthrough video for the instrument.

  • The physical version of Large Rantonen Kantele is an old, large 30-string concert kantele made in 1902. The kantele was made famous by kantele player Antti Rantonen, who owned it and played it during his career.

    NOTE: FULL Kontakt 6.7.0 or higher required (NOT Kontakt Player)

    Kantele, also called kannel, is a traditional Finnish and Karelian plucked string instrument. Similar instruments include the Estonian kannel, Latvian kokles, Lithuanian kanklÄ—s, and Russian gusli.

    Main idea for the virtual kantele was to create an instrument you can play live, almost like a real kantele. As both hands are on the strings when playing a physical kantele, we used pedals, velocity layers, and special keyswitches to create a playing experience closer to the real instrument.

    We recorded long notes, damped notes, harmonics, and mallet hits. For the virtual instrument, we expanded these notes to cover the missing sharps and flats, and even more lower and higher notes. We also added a virtual damping board, two play modes, and a large number of options to help you to create your own sound and playing style.

    Below you can view the walkthrough video for the instrument.

  • Door Sound Effects Noisy Doors Play Track 44 sounds included $10

    This library contains recordings of eleven different types of doors specifically chosen for their interesting sound. I performed all actions with a lot of detail covering “open/close”, “knocks”, “bangs and thuds”, “handle grab and rattle” and when possible also “crackles and squeaks” (all recorded at various intensities)

    50 %
    OFF
    Ends 1711666799
  • Human Sound Effects Zody Play Track 1243+ sounds included, 151 mins total $55

    With abounding character and a penchant for speaking their mind, these little folk always have a lot to say. Wonder and amazement naturally follows.

    Having the honor to be able to observe these tikes in their natural habitats, it became clear how babies share a great deal across their mannerisms as the grow. A longitudinal family of vocalizations and sounds that span the first year of life and maturity, the heart of this library, centers on those personalities and mannerisms changing and taking shape over that period of time. The little ones have been recorded at infancy, 3 months, 6 months, 9 months, and 1 year old. Each of these developmental milestones mark a significant step forward for all babies and at these stages their personalities and expressiveness grow remarkably. It is the constantly evolving language of exploration and examination; always learning. Each vocalization in this library, even within the same stage of development, is unique. From giggles to shouts, questioning to cries, babbles, cooing, and inventive phrases all the way around.

    Additionally, strollers, toys, diaper bags, bottles, pumps, swings, and more have been captured as compliments to represent all of those ubiquitous items in a baby’s world. The strollers were profiled on different surfaces and from different mechanical perspectives. The toys were recorded both in-play and as Foley. Bottles and diapers were used in their normal function and fashion, while other tools and devices of the dedicated and savvy parent were selected for their sound and utility.

    Joyfulness is easy to hear in this library.


   

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