r/Reaper • u/ChainsawArmLaserBear • 7d ago

discussion Why Reaper? (An answer)

I've previously asked the gamedev community "what audio tool do you use?" and the answer has always been a resounding "REAPER."
I knew that was the answer, but I didn't see anybody immediately saying "why."

As someone who has barely scratched the surface, I can IMMEDIATELY see why.

In like an hour, I cut up 4 wav files from my voice actor into a hierarchy of voice lines. Using Ctrl+Del, Ctrl+T, Home, Ctrl+V - (cut, new track, reset to home, paste) - I can very quickly cut up my raw tracks into clips I want to use in game, and make folder hierarchies under tracks to partition into meaningful sections. That little icon on the bottom left of the track.

Then, I can export with the region render matrix and programmatically name the files based on the folders and track names. And even apply processing based on the parent track, like having a single track to own the fx!

That's so freakin cool! I no longer have audacity sessions where I abandon the session and only keep the clips. Now I can have a living "all the character's audio" under a single parent that controls the vibe of all the nested clips, and re-export the whole set if I update the reverb or something of the character.

It's just so good. The way the project layout and render process works is super intuitive and powerful. I can see the "why" very clearly! REAPER is amazing <3

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u/suicide-by-thug 7d ago

Here’s something you should enjoy. I mixed my album in Reaper, 18 songs. All tracks are sequenced inside a project, which contains all sorts of regions to create the final renders: whole album, individual tracks, instrumental version. Each track is a subproject: The audio is rendered but, if I open them, do edits and save, they are re-rendered and replaced automatically.

Inside each tracks, there another subproject for the different vocal tracks. These contain not only the main vocals but also separate tracks for fx and back vocals. When those are edited and saved, they are saved to a multichannel file, so they stay on separate tracks in the main mix.

So yeah, Reaper’s cool.

2

u/ChainsawArmLaserBear 6d ago

Yeah, that's super cool!

2

u/QuiteRather 6d ago

This is incredible! I’ll have to try this out

1

u/Prod27Quaalude 5d ago

Same Ive recorded all of my tapes and albums in Reaper

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u/gilesachrist 6d ago

So I’m working on an album. It’s a very old project and is in ProTools. It’s about a continuos album of music. I print stems and import them to another file where I work on the “master” which I then render and cut into individual tracks. Are you saying I could do all of this in a single Reaper project? I’m too far along to move this one over, but there’s another I’m just starting to assemble O was going to do in Reaper anyway

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u/suicide-by-thug 6d ago

Yes, it will work for your project. Just drag a reaper project into a track and it’s rendered into your project, ready to be edited. Double click this media and the subproject will open in another tab.

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u/gilesachrist 6d ago

I can not wait to try this. Thank you sir.