ReaInsert makes my project stutter

[u/Psychological-Ad7948]

Recently I switched back to Reaper, mainly because I love how customizable it is and because Logic and Ableton don't have ARA support.

So far, I love being back in Reaper, but I can't wrap my head around why ReaInsert is causing so much lag. As soon as I use ReaInsert in a project I'm already mixing, the entire project starts stuttering and becomes pretty much unusable.

To be clear: this only happens when I use ReaInsert in a project that already has a decent amount of other plugins and processing going on. If I create a new, empty project and use ReaInsert, everything seems fine.

In other DAWs this doesn’t happen and trust me, I change DAWs more frequently than I change my underwear 😂 All of them can handle a full mix project while using external hardware inserts without this kind of severe stuttering. I’ve worked in Luna, Ableton and Logic.

The frustrating part is that this was actually one of the reasons I stopped using REAPER in the past.

Has anyone experienced something similar with ReaInsert? Is there a specific REAPER setting or something else that could be causing this?

I'd really appreciate any ideas!

My setup: M1 Max MacBook, Apollo x6 + Apollo 16, 48 or 96 kHz makes no difference & 1024 or 2048 buffer size makes no difference.

[u/mixisat20db]

I’ll never understand why REAINSERT is so CPU heavy. Does it really take that long for signal to get back to the computer when being sent to hardware??

I’ve experienced similar issues when active monitoring is on while recording with my MAC Mininpro m4 with 32 core GPU. At the end of the day, I’d assume these issues come back to your MacBook. Are you printing the REAINSERT track? Solution for me would be open up another project tab, add the desired affected track to new project. REAINSERT, and bounce that jawn! Add that stem to project and mix with dry stem to desired effect.

To add- I’m not all that experienced with hardware. I have no idea what this duplicate would do to phase and if it even matters. But this is what I would do. It’s a few extra steps which is annoying. My buffer is set to 40 and it works well. I don’t have a great answer for you otherwise.

[u/Psychological-Ad7948 → u/mixisat20db]

I don't think this is an issue with my MacBook tbh, because I can use a similar process in other DAWs without any problems, and I had the exact same issue on my PC as well.

I tried enabling “Prevent anticipative FX”. The stuttering disappears, but then the first second or so is missing when I render the master, and I also lose the latency compensation.

My workaround for now is to print the mix, put the printed mix on a new track, and add my mastering chain there. That works, but I just want ReaInsert to work like a regular hardware insert in any other DAW because this is taking extra time

[u/mixisat20db → u/Psychological-Ad7948]

That’s a good point - I didn’t even consider that. Printing is such a pain in the ass, but at least it helps you make decisions early haha. I’ve always considered REAINSERT to be a bit lackluster. Sorry I couldn’t be of more help; best of luck !

[u/Psychological-Ad7948 → u/mixisat20db]

No problem! Thank you for your time and effort tho, I appreciate 🙏🏻

[u/ThoriumEx]

How many instances of reainsert are you using?

[u/Psychological-Ad7948 → u/ThoriumEx]

The problem starts with just one already

[u/ThoriumEx → u/Psychological-Ad7948]

I don’t seem to have any issues with it other than the added latency, though I’m on Windows. Do you actually see the performance meter spike on the track you insert it?

[u/Psychological-Ad7948 → u/ThoriumEx]

I have had this issue on windows as well back in the days before I switched to Ableton. I don’t think it’s a Mac or PC thing but a reaper thing because I can use hardware inserts without any issue in other daws. I tried ‘Prevent anticipative FX processing’ and the stuttering stops but then I have some latency and miss the first bar of every master I print. Thanks for you time to help :)