Last Update: March 4, 2021

I really like Reaper. It’s powerful and funky and strangely hackable. A basic installation, however, benefits from tailoring.

Panel Arrangement

Media Explorer

The media explorer works well for me when it’s on the right side. Make it appear with ⌥-⌘-X, and then grab the panel’s tab and drag it there. On the default theme, I like the media explorer to occupy the entire right-hand side, even when the docked mixer is visible (toggle ⌘-M).

Routing Matrix

Where goes the media explorer, so goes the routing matrix’s (⌥-R) nation. Drag that over to the right-hand side, too.

Transport

Right-click the transport (not the buttons, but just within the general transport area) and change Docked transport position to Top of main window.

Preferences

General

• Turn off item selection for undo. Leave time selection on.
• Under Advanced UI/system settings, enable Allow snap grid … to stay open.

General :: Paths

• Set Default path to save new projects to something suitable
• Set Default recording path, when project is unsaved to somewhere tmp-ish
• Set the alternate path to something similarly tmp-ish

Project

• Make sure Save project file references with relative pathnames is checked
• Make sure When overwriting project file, rename old projects to .rpp-bak is checked
• Check Keep undo histories
• Check Save to timestamped file in additional directory and provide location

Project :: Track/Send Defaults

• Turn on input monitoring for record config.
• Set Send default gain to -inf.

Audio :: Mute/Solo

• Set Automatically mute master track to +18db.

Audio :: Recording

• Unset Start new files every ….
• Set Filename format for recorded files to $track-$year2-$month-$day-$hour$minute-$recpass000

Audio :: Seeking

• Set Seek playback on item move/size/fade adjustment, pre-roll: 1000ms.

Audio :: Loop Recording

• Turn on In loop recording, discard incomplete ….

Media

• Set Copy imported media to project media directory
• Turn on Put new peaks files in peaks/ subfolder ….

Project Settings

These are saved as default project settings.

Project Settings

• Playback resample mode: HQ
• Render resample mode: Extreme HQ

Media

• Path to save media files: media
• Secondary recording path: media-alt

Plug-ins

• Turn off Show comment field above FX UI

Shortcuts

Action	Shortcut	Notes
Quit	⌘-Q	The basic quit default.
Toggle Fullscreen	⌃-⌘-F	The usual macOS fullscreen toggle.
View: Scroll horiz reversed	HorizWheel (two-finger drag)	The macOS default drag direction.
Copy (focus-dep, within time sel)	C	Easy, fast C-CUP shortcuts.
Cut (focus-dep, within time sel)	X
Paste items/tracks	V
Undo	Z

Theme

⊕Theming is probably a rabbit hole. I think (completely unscientifically) a theme’s greatest impact comes from the first 5 to 10 seconds of viewing, and then a user becomes accustomed to whatever’s in front of them — if whatever’s in front of them is useful. Reaper is often called out for not being pretty, but other DAWs are changing their skin, subtly or dramatically, with every major version. Nothing’s ever finished. Theme your life away.

Post-6 Theme Preferences

I stick with the default. It’s a real improvement and very close to my pre-6 preferences anyway.

Pre-6 Theme Preferences

For now, I’m often in the default theme. Used with track colors I prefer, it works fine. I’m also frequently using these, in order of preference:

• Janne2016_v104_digitalfixRemix
• Janne2014 EZ Mod 2 Flat
• Janne2016II_v10

But the default theme comes with a nice selection of layouts.