ReaperEffects

From CockosWiki

Contents 1 Reaper Effects 1.1 DirectX/DXi Effects 1.2 VST/VSTi Effects 1.2.1 Using VSTi instruments 1.2.2 How to Freeze a VSTi in REAPER 1.3 Jesusonic Effects 2 External free effects

Reaper Effects

DirectX/DXi Effects

Reaper supports most DirectX effects and DXi instruments.

VST/VSTi Effects

Reaper supports most VST effects and VSTi instruments.

Using VSTi instruments

VST instruments (VSTi) can be used with REAPER by following these steps:

1. Create a new track.
2. Click on "fx" to open the FX window.
3. Click on "Add". REAPER will scan the VST directory listed in "Preferences (Ctrl+P) > FX Plug-ins > VST plug-ins" and display a list of the available plugins.
4. Select a plugin and click "OK". REAPER will load the selected plugin into the FX chain.
5. Close the FX window.
6. Right-click on the Record button and select a MIDI input (MIDI devices are set in "Preferences > Audio > MIDI").
7. Record-arm the track by clicking on the Record button.
8. Click on the speaker icon to select Input monitoring.
9. Play something from your MIDI keyboard to make sure you are receiving MIDI correctly.
10. Press the Record button on the transport to start recording.
11. When you have finished recording, press the Stop button. A window will pop-up asking if you wish to save or delete the recording.
12. Assuming you've just recorded an awesome take, select "Save all".
13. Click the Record button to dis-arm the track.
14. Press Play to listen to your recording.
15. Repeat at will.

To use a VST effect, follow steps 1 to 5 of the same procedure. If you wish to use VST effects on an existing track, omit step 1.

How to Freeze a VSTi in REAPER

1. Follow the "Using VSTi's with Reaper" procedure to record some awesome MIDI.
2. Create a new track (Ctrl+T). This is where you'll convert your awesome MIDI to a WAV.
3. Create an "Empty Event" (Insert > Empty Event) on the new track that matches the length of your MIDI track (if you have reverb tails on the MIDI track you should make the Empty Event slightly longer than the MIDI track to make sure you record all of the tail).
4. Click on the "I/O" button of your MIDI track and route the send of the MIDI track to the new track with the Empty Event.
5. Click the "Record" button of the new track to Record-Arm it.
6. Right-click on the "Record" button on the new track and select a Stereo audio input if your VSTi output is Stereo, or a Mono audio input if your VSTi output is Mono.
7. Right-click on the "Speaker" button on the new track and select "Record: do not record" (Yes, I know that "Record: do not record" doesn't make any sense, but trust me, it works).
8. Click on the "Record" button on the transport to start recording.
9. Click on the "Record" button on the transport to stop recording. The WAV file will now appear in the new track.
10. Click on the "Record" button on the new track to dis-arm the track.
11. Click on the "I/O" button on the MIDI track and disable the send to the new track (otherwise you'll have both signals on the track).

You now have a WAV file of the VSTi output and can mute, disable, or remove entirely the original MIDI track and VSTi.

The same procedure can be used to record the output of a VSTi that uses folder tracks to send multiple MIDI tracks to a VSTi in the Folder FX chain. Simply route the output of the Folder to the new track.

Jesusonic Effects

The interesting thing about the JS (Jesusonic) effects is that they are user modifyable. You can edit them with a text editor or, you can insert a Jesusonic Effect List, and edit it from that text-based UI.

Most of the effects are fairly basic, and the delays/filters/amp modeling/distortion are tweaked primarily for playing with a guitar.

So, ultimately, the quality of these effects is not fantastic, but somewhat usable. Very little time (compared to a "real" effect) was spent on them...

• Here's a video of our last show, with Jesusonic providing all of the guitar amp modeling/distortion/etc for the guitar.
• Jesusonic homepage
• Jesusonic presets

External free effects

• SimulAnalog's Guitar Suite - Various guitar effects/distortions/modeling
• FreeAmp
• JVM 900 - JVM900 Modelling
• DigtalFishPhones - Excellent dynamics processors
• FreeverbToo Very good reverb VST or DX
• GVST Many plugins including pitch correction, synths and some unusual effects - Excellent quality
• Magnus Some great VST plugs, including Ambience - one of the best free reverbs, and NyquistEq - an excellent free 5 band paragraphic eq
• Voxengo SPAN An excellent free VST spectrum analyzer - indispensable!