Reaper 101 (2024) Part 1:- The Basics

[@adamsteelproducer]

Just to be clear - yes, I have "left" KZbin, this was all filmed before my moving to working full-time at Audient and will be released over the next few weeks.

[@chriswaltonmusic]

Congratulations on getting the Audient job Adam 🙌🏻 I'm looking at getting the evo 16 this week!!!

[@garyoneill5648]

goodluck Adam

[@JD-vj4go]

Thanks for uploading this and congrats.

[@JayPren]

Great video Adam...But, I'm stuck with the tracks i've recorded because they're all offline. I've tried, Items>media>take all online etc....I've also tried clicking the desktop behind Reaper, then clicking on Reaper again, no luck with those even though they worked on the KZbin videos...Please help! Jay....

[@iamleek]

Congrats!!!! All The Best Adam!!!! Enjoy and Cherish every moment.

[@ptupy]

Dude, the makers of Reaper should pay you handsomely for these videos. You are the reason why I’m about to purchase this daw. Most other developers don’t have accessible instructional videos, and I bet this turns many people away, especially those new to recording software.

[@Michelle-mu1wp]

Adam...I would have died totally stressed out without you!!! You saved my ass so many times!!! Thanks man!!❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

[@fujimanxt-3420]

Adam, you are clear, concise, and you don't talk down to viewer. You nail the presentation and demystify software that, to many, probably appears daunting. I am thoroughly enjoying this presentation and you have already made this software so much more accessible to me. Bravo and well done.

[@keithklassen5320]

Good lord, you are good at this. Breaking things down to the level of a beginner, and knowing what it is that a beginner will need to know, is a genuinely rare skill and it takes a unique person to do it well, while still knowing how to work at a high level. It's incredibly easy to forget all the thousands of baby steps it took to get to a high level of skill; most of the time, forgetting those steps is actually vital to becoming good at something, because those steps take up valuable space in our minds, space that is better filled with our workflow, new ideas, advanced techniques, etc, and we rely on muscle memory for the basics. Being a good teacher is so much more than just being good at the subject you want to teach. You are an astoundingly clear teacher.

[@joegrant413]

Awesome. Spending some holiday break time to dive into Reaper. You have a great, engaging speaking style. Everything has been clear and helpful in this first segment. Look forward to the next!

[@ericstrauch3215]

Adam, I just purchased a licensed version yesterday and found your video to be extremely helpful. Concise, step by step, and instructive. Congratulations on your new gig, good luck at same! Thank you for these vids. I've subbed and liked also. Cheers, mate!

[@richardcramer3542]

Congrats again on your new gig. I have been using Reaper for 3+ years. I am/will be looking forward to your refresher course. Comping in 7 is a game changer for me. Your video on remote control via a cell phone has also been a huge help. The Reaper community is a blessing. Safe travels.

[@rayz5508]

Thanks for doing an updated series. I learned lots from your previous Reaper tutorials!👍

[@headbangerslife6969]

oooh maaaan, i work with reaper for years now and i would never be able to explain it so completly and in that understandable nice way! Awesome. I had to see the full video because of your way of explaination. Thats the best 101 i´ve ever saw. Greetings from Germany ;)

[@manupbritain5232]

Sad to hear you have left this platform when I just joined your gang! It looks like I have come at the right time, I just finished your last Reaper series and it taught me a lot. I'm sure I'll pick up some more with these new episodes too. Great to see such great content from my side of Manchester!

[@rogues1370]

Cheers mate. 🤘 Cant wait for the rest of the series! 🤘

[@randytellez2451]

Great tutorial. I bought my first midi board and after being too overwhelmed trying 2 other DAW's this has me started and looking forward to getting things started within Reaper. Thank you

[@teresaymusic]

Thank you for making this step by step! I initially came across the one you made 4 years ago, and this one is much more concise and easier to follow along. I can see how much work you've put into this and I am looking forward to going through all 10 steps to get me started!

[@EchoHoundmusic]

I just downloaded Reaper and within 5 minutes, i was making music. i feel this tutorial and DAW is so user friendly unlike other "free" DAWs I played with. I plan on buying a license. i'll be studying these tutorials!

[@Drumming_Monkey]

YES, thank you!!! I was waiting for a new version of your course. Amazing stuff. I just want to mention my own experience, which relates to the double sound/ghosting you mentioned at 25:41. This was exactly what initially caused me a problem when I started recording guitar with my NUX MG30 which doubled as an interface. Since my guitar audio was directly coming through the unit, but monitoring was also on by default, I heard a crackle when I played and at first I didn't understand what it was because the ghosting was sooo small, basically unnoticeable.

[@ianpilborough4846]

Thanks

[@johnfeole1971]

Adam, this is very good, exactly what I was looking for to understand Reaper better.

[@stuartchapman5171]

Great video. I do a lot of audio, Im about to switch to my first grown up Daw from Audacity. This is to allow me to use a laptop and midi controller, instead of two massive pedal boards for table top gigs. Im looking forward to the rest of the series. You have laid this out in a great flow. Im neuro-divergent. Software and menus are almost impossible for me to learn. Thank you.

[@LaurenceRutherford]

Great stuff Adam... very useful series

[@phillippebruneau]

Excellent tutorial! I will be be watching all then move on to the Ultimate Guide. Thanks - really appreciated.

[@bradleynicoski7427]

This is really helpful information presented in a clear and concise way. Thanks!

[@mchammer655]

Adam, pivoting from musician to production seems daunting with all the available DAWs. Aware of all the Ptools anxiety… this succinct lesson for Reaper is really good. Thank you for the clearly delivered overview!! 🙌🏼 mc

[@conrow1157]

Your focus to stay simple is amazing

[@Diolenios]

Thank you so much for sharing man!

[@drutgat2]

Great stuff, Adam. I love Reaper, and your tutorials. Many thanks.

[@BigMTBrain]

Wonderful, wonderful. Up to this point, I've only dabbled with music production. Now, however, I've become quite serious, so this series couldn't be more timely.

[@zublacus]

This is fantastic. I will be following this series closely. I downloaded Reaper a year ago, and have played with it, but haven't made an actual recording even though I have 50+ videos of riffs piled up and backlogged. Things that I want to know as a NEWBIE 1) Best EQ ranges for bass, guitar and drums. I don't know where to cut things off and what to boost for those areas. 2) How to lay down that first track? Use a click? 3) How do you use products like Ozone 11 to master a track with Reaper? or even...how do you Master a track without those tools haha.

[@derekcleffi6476]

Okay so it’s probably been explained to you whether you found a video or Adam covers it later in the series. Reaper has fx channels for each track. Even the master track. So you can drop a mastering plug-in like ozone there. I’ve seen people export to mp3 then drop that back in to a fresh project and master there. On the eq question, use your ears and play around. There isn’t a perfect guide to eq a guitar to sound good in a mix, it’s all opinionated. Of course, some opinions can be bad. 😂 anyway yeah play around with it, listen to your favorite music and try to hear what they do with their mix. I’d recommend either studio monitors or headphones (or a good car stereo system) as these options show the mix clearer. (Studio monitors being the best option) finally, you can use a click to lay down the first track, you can program some midi drums if you are a drum first kind of guy. (I do guitars then drums then bass then vocals.) hope this helps! Take all of this with grains of salt, and do some research of your own.

[@derekcleffi6476]

And as to how you master without a big time suite like ozone, you can achieve a similar sound with stock plugins. Reaper has enough mastering options that if you were to dive into it and get good at using them, you can outperform those expensive mastering plugins. Look up how to master, how to mix, listen to how different albums are mastered. It’s all about the war training and figuring out what you like and how to do it. To give you a little push, mastering typical consists of light eq, compression, and limiting (which is really just more compression but in a _special_ way.

[@derekcleffi6476]

Finally, I’m not an expert, just a guy who likes to have fun with this stuff, so if anyone else would like to correct me please feel free.

[@keysey72]

This is brilliant. Thank you Adam!

[@wiredmusictelevision2575]

Thank You So Much for this Reaper Basic...Sir! It realy guides me...doing music...😊👍🙏

[@borojammin6509]

Very helpful. Thanks!

[@greccoox]

a man gotta do what a man gotta do... good luck monster.

[@M5guitar1]

Thanks for the update. I just downloaded Reaper 7.

[@BELFEGOR_stories]

Hello! The volume knob on my Audient ID 14 mk2 jumps from the lowest level to the highest and back etc. when I tweak it. It behaves chaotically. What should I do? Can it be fixed somehow? Thanks.

[@adamsteelproducer]

Talk to the Audient support team, that’s not what I do but I’m sure they can help you

[@YPLabs]

Great series! I am still a newbie in music production. is Reaper more of a Record/Mixing tool? Is programming midi and sound design also easily accessible compared to other DAWs?

[@landerjondechos1941]

Looking forward for this series🤙🤙🤙

[@almur88]

is there a walkthrough tutorial on how to make your own theme in Reaper? I'm considering switchin from Presonus SO but even the most beautiful and personally satisfying Imperial WT theme is not perfect. is it hard to do? I fancy wood panels framing tracks and other 70s vibe to sweeten the eye

[@ta3p-theannex3project84]

Thanks 👍

[@sanlin20]

Hi Adam. I am hoping that you still monitor questions coming to you on KZbin and have some bandwidth to answer. First of all, I am a complete newbie so please bear with me. I have installed Reaper on my laptop. Is it possible to play a KZbin music-video on the same laptop, and use the music being played in real-time as one of audio tracks in Reaper? If so, how to set up for recording and monitoring? Thanks in advance!

[@williamshaneblyth]

The boxes where you choose options look like a very old windows OS system from 30.yrats ago. band in a box was originally a DOS program and has a similar look in these boxes .

[@mattholt3744]

When you said "fear not" at the beginning, it was a huge missed opportunity to say "don't fear the Reaper."

[@agdtwinkie001]

No matter what I try I can't get reaper to play my recording. It will pick up signals from my audio interface it shows that my microphone is picking up sound in the meters. All the simple things like arm the channel and making sure it's not muted. I assume there is something wrong with how I've set it up. However I can't figure out what that would be

[@woutermissiaen4745]

Great video!

[@mwj5368]

I don't have Apple, I have Windows 11. Does this mean your lessons don't really work with PC's? Also, I can tell you are a very good teacher. Thanks for this magnanimous deed even though with my PC I might have to quit your lessons but hope it works.

[@louyCIA]

Reaper is the same in Windows and MacOs, some shortcuts and audio configurations may be different, but in general this tutorial (or any other) works for any operating system

[@tommyzai7038]

Adam, I notice you are using an Audient iD interface. May I ask, how are you setting/compensating for the latency? Are you conducting some kind of analog loopback? Other?

[@davidtulkop1580]

Hello Adam, I am new to your channel and so far you are easy to follow. I do have a question and my first problem. I followed your steps, and I am at the point of creating a track. I opened the screen, double clicked on the blank space, selected insert then selected media file. I did not get the secondary drop down with all the files to select from. There is a peaks folder and a learning test however, nothing opens with a ware form in the track. I am stuck and don/t know how to proceed, can you or anyone help?

[@nicolasalexander408]

Wow, look at you kid! 🥰

[@christianboyd9957]

What if the mixer is stuck on the right hand side?

[@Graveyard_666]

Wait, I can use this on my Steam Deck?

[@Shawnee845]

Adam Glen had a problem with his Mac. And playing music. Can you talk about what his problem was. Every time he jumps to a different track, it would hiccup.

[@adamsteelproducer]

🤷‍♂️

[@mecdrum7]

I bought reaper and have license but can seem to install it.

[@lof5844]

im still trying to get power drum 2 to show up in reaper :,)

[@DanielPulido-g3c]

Man, thanks for all

[@matthiasdoffek3282]

Your videos are really good, but I can understand only half of it and subtitels don't help. Would it be possible to translate it in German language with HeyGen for example? I'm sad that there are only videos in German language about the basics, but not a complete course. You will find out all about Cubase, Studio One, Ableton Live, but nothing about Reaper DAW in German..

[@CowtownGuitarSetups]

Pay for it or DO NOT Use it. Agree!!!!

[@ZacharyMoonshine]

I just updated mine to 7 and i cant really tell any differences yet.

[@JohnJennings-y4y]

A gentle observation, hands waving around is an irritating distraction. The advise though is great, thank you.

[@Jasonmakesvideo]

still... evaluating

[@Easydoesitdave]

GREAT STUFF!