Fixing Your Disorganized REAPER Projects

[@georgebarry8640]

Jon, this is sooooo helpful. Thank you,sincerely. You clearly saw the need to do this, because it's apparent that Reaper's developers made some assumptions about file management that it's users find difficult to follow (that would be me!). By going down that road of "what is the users challenge, and how can I remedy that.." You have created a VERY important video. I seriously think you have done the entire Reaper community a great service, and I am grateful.

[@TheREAPERBlog]

Glad it was helpful! I think so too.

[@georgebarry8640]

@@TheREAPERBlog VERY Helpful!!! Thank you so much. I am now doing this on EVERY project going forward and,as time allows, every project I did in the past. I need disc space..so it's my hope I can loose files that aren't active.

[@aryabanerjee1179]

you have no idea how useful you are, keep going, you're saving our asses

[@MrBikboi]

Great video, this was a nudge I needed to sit and take the time to clean up my folder, instead of being lazy. Now to do my whole PC lol :)

[@motoxjosh29]

thanks for the help! reapertips sent me here. my first year of learning the software and self recording...i had several projects all together and who knows all the different recordings not needed from different takes... thanks again!

[@PerfectViolation]

This is so incredibly helpful! Now I can finally do relative exports with ease

[@timocarliermusic]

I like these 'inside look' type videos because I see other useful things; I didn't know, for example, that you can list items by colour tags in Mac's Finder! I was surprised to see how simple the organisation of your projects folder is, given that you must have a lot of projects. I have been putting projects in 'year' folders, to avoid having really old things pop up on the screen when searching. Or do you archive older projects somewhere else?

[@barberacohen]

Thanks for the video. I'm curious how to organize all of the previous backup files and wavs once you have this setup... Will I do this with every project file and then the backup files will later go into backup folder? How do I move all of the old backups into the right folder? Would I do this manually? Thanks!

[@gus3333]

Great info Jon! is there any function that allows automatic renaming the wav files in the directory identically as the track names? for example Track: Guitar L Heavy --> Guitar_L_Heavy.wav ??

[@The_Absurdistt]

Haven't watched the vid yet but gave it a thumbs up b/c I know it will be good.

[@treybushorr1544]

so when i started i made one master folder for everything for some reason. no subfolder. just a mess. i just did what you showed for one of my current projects to put onto a new ssd but in my master folder, the project and all of the audio files are still in there somewhere. How do i get rid of them and just have the new project completely on the new drive?

[@heinkrohn9189]

Excellent stuff Jon. Is it possible to do a video on the file system or file management when using sub projects? Things get messed up when I save my main project to a different name. Thank you for the videos

[@TheREAPERBlog]

Subprojects are a bit of a blind spot for me because I don't use them regularly. You probably know more than me here. As far as I know they get saved to the project media folder and changing your main project name shouldn't have any affect on that.

[@YombolMusic]

Is it possible to adjust the grid automatically when zooming in on the project? Just like Bitwig does. That, Automatically changes from 1/16 to 1/32 or 1/64 depending on the zoom you are doing with the mouse wheel.

[@cassius9120]

Can you please explain what the wildcard tab means and it's benefits or applications where you works use it. Thanks for all that you do!

[@TheREAPERBlog]

Wildcards auto-fill information into file names.

[@petermcateer1354]

These are great tips! Thanks a lot!

[@0e0]

i didn;t realize that settings option would populate a folder like that...neat!

[@brainiceland]

Dude, THANK YOU!

[@MathieuCONAN]

thanks so much jon ! You save my day :)

[@jdcandido]

im using windows 10 and it works. thank you very much this is very helpful.

[@Nimbin]

great! thanks

[@nomadlake]

Hi Jon, how can i save all my midi files in folder, like audio files save?

[@TheREAPERBlog]

By default MIDI items are saved in the .rpp You can change this in preferences/Media/MIDI to save as .MID files instead. And for imported MIDI it can save in the project file (default) or copy the .MID file to the project folder. Personally I don't see any benefit from changing off the default for this one.

[@raphaeln3725]

BRO YOU SAVED MY LIFE, thanks thanks thanks!! from Canada hey

[@tozzlin2964]

why is yo transport blinking yellow ?

[@socialmeaslesinpartnership1252]

I lost a project in my 'dooter, all afternoon to find out where it was in the computer. Frazzled! But I did eventually find it. Phew! I moved stuff to another drive. Hard to keep track of everything and I'm not sure what I can delete from the earlier drive till I get to a completion point of rendered product - when I can delete it and "see what happens" in a virgin situation. The depth of ignorance is such that I didn't even know that if I render something, the original remains. So I made a copy to try it first. I'm sure there are reasons but it's not exactly intuitive. I'm going to have to re-do the way I organise this stuff. If I might respectfully say something to our hard-working friend - a GLOSSARY is badly needed for all these acronyms and components. The whole trouble is - buy a computer and load Reaper etc is easy but it's poor on saying "What's what" in a project, Reaper is poor on displaying O.S. addresses or browsing choices (as some programmes such as video editors do rather better) and you need to understand your O.S. to a decent degree before we even consider this kind of organisation. Assuming this, Reaper needs a Glossary of the terms used for the various components of a project. At a guess (excuse me) - I'd suggest a blank Reaper screen, start a simple project, break down and name all that it produces, where to assign it and why from beginning to end. Start, store............all the way through to render/export on one single simple project to delineate the architecture of the process within the O.S. It might be easier to show than explain - screen by screen... record/save as/save/retrieve/render.... and why this produces all these "bits and pieces", what to do with them and whether or not you need them when you've completed your project and exported it - what bits you can then ditch (if any) if you don't intend to re-visit a completed project or...what if you do expect to revise it at a later date. This (I think) would be simpler than looking into what we have "going on" in an up-and-running bunch of stuff to "get our heads" around how to do this. Maybe it's already done...I'll check. This video is about cleaning up the mess we've already made. Back-up...that's for another day. Thanks for these videos - lost without them.

[@kurthendrix7324]

Does anyone know of a external Hard Drive that can be left powered ON every day?

[@TheREAPERBlog]

All of mine are for a couple years

[@kurthendrix7324]

@@TheREAPERBlog if you don't mind which brand are they ? I plan on leaving them on all day every day.

[@TheREAPERBlog]

They're G-Tech and I bought them from OWC

[@kurthendrix7324]

@@TheREAPERBlog Thank you Jon.

[@russellroth8105]

Yikes!! I made an edit in Reaper and the tracks suddenly disappeared. I got an error message that I had no more computer memory. Go directly to jail... Do not pass GO. The game is apparently over. Would organizing my files create more space on my drive so I can finish my project? What would you recommend? Thank you!

[@TomEzequiel]

Thank you very much man, saved my life ;)

[@LYSHEmusic]

Thanks so much!:)

[@jordanwolff5243]

I would really appreciate an answer to this one: I can set up my file folders to where I can open projects just fine, close and open new projects and everything is there and normal. The problem is, after about a week, Reaper will forget where to look. I will open a project and I get prompts that the files are missing. A prompt shows up for every missing file. My filings have been disorganized as shown in this video, but why does Reaper "forget" where to look, when it was working fine a week ago?!?! This makes me insane.

[@djabthrash]

Very helpful !

[@lokeshjain4278]

I am having a similar problem,got the whole reaper project folder transferred into a new laptop and for each project it shows half of the audio offline. Please someone let me know the solution.

[@emimele]

🤘 Ov Fire And The Void 🤘

[@TheREAPERBlog]

good spotting. I think I was using that for making MIDI drum patterns

[@michaellong25467]

I opened up reaper for the first time and used it for some drum tracking and there's hundreds of files saved to my desktop, any advice?

[@TheREAPERBlog]

Save as, move media to a folder

[@marksadventures3889]

Idon't have problems with files as I set the save project as...as soon as possible. If I get problems with the work, I have it all saved and I know where it is. Drive use is why I need another external and then I use one for audio and the other for video.

[@stuartwrigglesworth9339]

good video

[@TheREAPERBlog]

You got here quick! notification squad?

[@Not-Only-Reaper-Tutorials]

with CTRL+P you can declare the folder for rendering. I named it “Render” and each project is rendering up there.

[@elharrop]

Omg this is so boring and confusing for someone like me, can you fix it for me via team viewer, I will happily pay you!

[@TheREAPERBlog]

reaperblog.net/reaper-lessons/

[@elharrop]

@@TheREAPERBlog Can Windows users hire you for help?

[@TheREAPERBlog]

Yes I do many lessons with Windows users.

[@ianhorahan5904]

who the F disliked this video, I will throw hands