Reaper for Post Production
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Introduction
Basic Editing Capabilities
Trim, split, fading, cut, copy, paste are all there. At v3.0 its way of making selections is a little unorthodox, but it works for most things.
Setting Up Your Own Keyboard Map
Much of the elements of the Graphical User Interface of Reaper do nothing but trigger actions, which the user can also tie to as many keyboard commands or midi messages as he/she desires. This is achieved in the Actions Window, where you set up, import and export your keymaps. You can also run the actions from that window one by one if you wish.
Actions can be combined in to macros. A macro can consist of one action or more, even other macros. Including other macros only copies the macros actions in to your newly created macro. They can be named.
The top-most entry in the Actions menu of Reaper "Show action list", or its default shortcut '?' will lead you to the Actions Window. This can be kept open at all times, if one wishes to do so.
Available actions, including any multi-action macros you set up, are available in the action list. The list can be filtered by entering text in to the box above that list. Whether or not a shortcut is tied to a particular function can be determined by clicking on the Find Shorcut button.
Once an action is selected in the list, a key from the keyboard, or a midi message including midi notes, can be attached to that command by clicking on the Add button in the bottom left of the Actions Window, as well as removed with the delete button.
Timeline, Grid and Snap Setup
Grid and Snap settings are combined in to one window and are accessible via right-clicking on the Snap or Grid icon in the top left of the arrangement view, or via the Options menu under "Snap/Grid Settings". The standard shortcut is ALT+L on Windows.
The Timecode type can be setup by either right-clicking on the timeline above the arrangement area or accessing the project settings tab of the Project Settings window. That Project Settings window can be called up via the File menu, the default shortcut ALT+Enter(Windows) or the Project Settings icon on the top left of the arrangement area. It's the little wrench icon.
Frame-sized grids can be made by setting the timeline the BPM time in the transport section below the arrangement view to one value, and the grid line spacing to another value. These value pairs are as follows for different timecode grids :
| FPS | BPM | Grid Line Spacing |
| 23.976 | 60 | 1000/24024 |
| 24 | 60 | 1/24 |
| 25 | 60 | 1/25 |
Setting up Video
External Video
Reaper can send LTC and/or MTC. Here's how to do it.
Insert a new track. Make a time selection from the start of your session to somewhere in your session. From the Insert menu, choose the action "SMPTE LTC/MTC Timecode Generator".
You will now have a new item labeled "Timecode Generator". Access its Source Properties (default shortcut CTRL+F2 in Windows), also available via the right-click context menu of the item itself.
A window will appear allowing you to set up the time code generator to your liking. The MTC (midi) or LTC (audio) will be sent to whereever you routing takes it. Place the timecode generator correctly at the timecode you entered as the starting timecode in the Source Properties. Reaper will NOT do this for you.
The Timecode Generator item can be trimmed out to cover whatever session length you wish.
Internal Video
Drag and drop a video file in to the timeline, on to any track. Reaper can playback anything the system can play. On Windows that means anything for which a codec is installed.
Supported codec and containers are AVI (Xvid/Divx/Indeo/DV/...) and Quicktime MOV (everything).
Recommended container/codecs combinations are
| Container | Codec | Comments |
| AVI | XVid | The Iframe distance can be setup during encoding making this codec fairly useful for seeking quickly. |
Editing Dialog
Setting up ADR, Foley & VO cues
Reaper can insert and name empty item as place holders for ADR lines, foley cues and VO. This is useful for recording in recording in "Autopunch selected items" mode.
Extensions and Companion Programs
For now these extensions exist only for Windows. Sws is working on a Mac version of his extension.
Xenakios Extension
Dozens of useful commands, some configurable in a seperate configuration window. The extensions menu exposes most of these commands and the configuration window.
Available here: http://sites.google.com/site/xenakios/
SWS Extension
Adds a Marker List and a Track List to Reaper, accessible in the View menu. They can also appear via keyboard shortcuts and midi messages. Dozens of useful commands are part of the package as well.
http://www.standingwaterstudios.com/reaper/sws_extension.exe
Shanes Autorender
Regions in Reaper are markers that extend from one timecode position and end at another. They are created with the default shortcut SHIFT+R. They appear as green bars in a small track strip above the marker track strip. They can be named by SHIFT+double-click on the region strip, and by double-clicking in the region name in the Marker List of the SWS Extension.
Shanes Autorender application is a compiled AHK script, that renders each region to a file named with the regions name. It features a multitude of additional options to help folks. Remember that after you press GO in the Autorender window, you can press escape as the render dialog appears to change the settings of the renders.
http://code.google.com/p/autorender/
Feature requests can be posted here http://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=16207
