How I write music in REAPER

[@Reapertips]

hey thank you for being here! Let me know if you would like more videos like this ✨ 💙 🎉Join the Reapertips discord → discord.gg/BfEnFwjeWZ

[@BradleyBemis]

I looove this video, Alejandro! This is not only helpful and educational, but super inspring as well. Keep up the great work! 🔥🔥

[@ИльяБойко-е9э]

YEAH MAN! MORE VIDEOS like this one! Love your content so much.

[@Reapertips]

yes yes yes 🤩 thank youuu!!!

[@Andrey_Zolotov]

It was very interesting and informative, please make more videos like this.

[@Reapertips]

sooo glad to hear! thank you, thats motivating :D

[@rotaryrevivalist5095]

Man I wish I could just download a file and have all your short cuts and custom actions and you just make a video telling me what you’ve added! The things you’ve chosen to modify just make sense.

[@meatpop8573]

hey man, your channel has been super super helpful to me for getting a start on reaper! Keep making reaper videos, they're the most helpful and intuitive ones I could find on youtube :)

[@Reapertips]

heeey. I ultra appreciate that! 🥰 very motivating. will keep going :D

[@GuitarJoe.DominicanPro]

DUDEEEE.... this is golden !!

[@Reapertips]

yaaaay thank youuu!! :D

[@pickngrin85]

Bro! What supremely amazing video! I've been down lately and haven't been writing much. I am now inspired again. so....thanks my guy!!

[@shad0wrunner69]

Really love your detailed and humorous comments along your process. Would love to see more. That's so inspiring! Thanks a lot!

[@Reapertips]

aaa thank you so much! very glad to hear you enjoyed :D

[@vintagetelefly]

Your approach to the drums is what I found most interesting and I will try it out soon. The whole video was still full of useful tips! I'm always amazed at how well and individually you can customize Reaper. Thank you for your work with this video!

[@johanjof5613]

Hey Alejandro. I have an advice I can give to have a really good bass sound created very easily without boring programming, considering you are a guitarist: take your guitar (yes your guitar), record yourself playing the bassline you imagine should be good, now put reapitch plugin on the recorded track and lower down the record by one octave. There you go, you have a perfect bass sound, naturally played, that you can mix the normal way you would with a real bassist part ! Generally, I use the central single coil mic for that (I have a 2 1 2 configuration on my guitar) but use your mic selector to your taste. PS: man if you wanna do a complete song with your metal ideas, please let me know, I'm in, I'm inspired they're dope !

[@4mb127]

Sounds cool. Full songs from scratch is really something I've been looking for.

[@thegreatnamehere5684]

Man, you uploaded this video EXACTLY when I needed it. Thanks so much !!

[@pietlange]

Absolutely love the final riff! Thank you for these helpful tips! ☀️

[@Wardo09_]

Thank you so much for this video! It’s unreal how you've managed to condense so much knowledge into just one video. I can't even imagine how long it took you to put this together. You’re killing it!

[@Bigwoody95826]

I love you! you cover all the stuff I need, wish I had this advice when I started my Reaper homerecording journey a few years back! I got to buy you a coffee!! At the moment I want to get really good at mixing so I can get clients. I still need to apply all your shortcut tricks too! Awesome!

[@dominicgebhardt7042]

Great video as always. As a fellow guitarist, songwriter and Reaper-user it is amazing how much inspiration I can get from you!

[@Reapertips]

so awesome dominic!! 🎸 seriously super happy to hear, thank you for the support ~

[@Morroh]

Making some of the best content out there my dude, appreciate all you do for us reaper users!

[@LetsTalkAboutReaper]

this is a fantastic idea and i am quite looking forward to seeing what you come up with!

[@Reapertips]

aw means a lot myke 🥰 - hoping you will make a video breakdown of blue drift? :o

[@LetsTalkAboutReaper]

@@Reapertips might make for a nice return to form 🤔

[@nanika3446]

New to reaper, watching your work flow helped a lot! Thank you for sharing! 💖

[@Reapertips]

Woaaaa that's awesome!! I was worried it wouldn't be too beginner friendly, but I'm glad it helps 🙏

[@dingbatjack1234]

I have been binge watching you're vids. Thank you for making them! You seem to approach things the way I would.Two questions. 1) Can you make you're toolbar available to load into REAPER? Perhaps a video of how you use it practically? 2) Is there a place to download the custom actions you use in this and other videos?

[@djabthrash]

I encourage you to learn to do custom actions and custom toolbars by yourself, even if it sometimes mean plainly recreating an exact copy of a custom action you've seen in a video like this.

[@FloodSociety265]

Christmas came early this year, what a boatload of great ideas to incorporate to my workflow! It was also massively entertaining, thank you so much! :D :D :D

[@TravisTennies]

Good stuff! I need to get on my REAPER now! Thanks bro

[@hello_nd]

Hey man! I truly appreciate your stuff. This video helped me make up my mind to buy the template at the end of the week. Just waiting for a few stuff to come in. I've just started with Reaper and have been watching a lot of stuff, causing some information overload lol until I discovered your channel and decided to focus here first. You're gold! Just joined the discord too!

[@LimitlessPotential12]

love this video man. You are giving us all ideas not only musically but in experimenting with Reaper!

[@Crencabeats]

Your workflow is just amazing bro. 🤘

[@remochiun266]

Sweet workflow. I'm for sure going to try to incorporate this when I get back to writing again. Thanks!

[@Reapertips]

Thank you so much!!

[@licccio2133]

Mate your content is pure gold. One curiosity, how did you make it so the items you select don't get that semi-transparent "screen" over them? It looks so good with just the white waveform

[@echuderewicz]

Thanks...very inspiring!

[@NathanaelPittman]

I’m 6 months in and just learned today how to fade the volume on MIDI tracks. The simple drag and go slider wasn’t working. It’s worked before but I can’t find a rhyme or reason why sometimes things work and sometimes they don’t.

[@menobeats]

Thanks again for the video mahn. The workflow videos are really useful :) Side note - what are you thoughts on fixed item lanes?, I didn't see you use that feature that much in this video, do you use them or do you prefer the take workflow?

[@Reapertips]

Thank youu. Nice observation! I have tried incorporating lanes into my workflow but I much prefer the take system. It's just much more straight forward for me

[@darylross]

Hey man, I like very much the way you play and approach composition! Every single riff is well thought! Keep on rolling...🤩

[@Reapertips]

Aw thank you soooo muchhhh!! 🤩

Damn, you are good. The Jazz-funky sounded like something Joe Satriani would have done. Really nice. I'm following this with a smile on my face.😁

[@Reapertips]

oww thank youu I was just listening to a lot of satriani this week! so excited about his new songs with Vai :D

[@DarkSkarStudio]

Quite inspiring as always, I will follow this to improve my method recording!!

[@Reapertips]

yess!! let me know how it goes ✨

[@adolfredomusic]

The awkard "feel" tip is actually pretty good! Never thought of that, I'm always trying to keep the groove

[@Reapertips]

Yeeesss, stole that from Gojira 😎

[@MattMontgomery]

Love the long form content! Wish I knew that you could double the metronome speed like that! Also, loop recording for double-tracked guitars is so smart. Great work! (vsthem from forum fwiw)

[@Reapertips]

aww so cool to see you here vsthem! thank you for everything ❤

[@Spladoinkal]

I was a drummer by trade for nearly 10 years (over 20 years of experience total) so I have the rhythm part down. I also have a decent amount of music theory knowledge which has tremendously aided in the music writing process. However, I can barely play other instruments. The great thing though about writing music in a DAW is that you can piece together one chord at a time and anyone can play a chord on a guitar or piano if given long enough to get their fingers in the correct spots. Is it very efficient? Definitely not, but each time I do it I'm going to get better at it. Also, if you have basic drum technique down KAT makes a 4 pad Midi drum pad for $100 and you can add pedals to it as well. Great for getting basic drums laid down using actual sticks.

[@nicolasalexander408]

Wow, what a good idea for a video and eh I got a cheap iPhone to put BIAS FX2 on (and it works now as well with my 10 year old iRig, bonus!) so for today, super relevant and it's my Nan's birthday as well, Happy Birthday Nan! 🥰

[@rolisaenz]

your GTR sound is DOPEE!!!! what emulator or plugin you use ? sound incredible! you have another sub !

[@Clagratte]

Hello thanks for your videos, just a quick question : in the action list i don't have "trim selected items to selection or cursor" (5:06 in your video) , i don't have anything that starts with "SW/AW" by the way. Can you please tell me how to get it in the list? thanks

[@Reapertips]

Hello! That's a good question! Those are actions that are part of the sws extension. I recommend googling' sws extension reaper' and installing that 👍

[@Clagratte]

@@Reapertips thanks! it worked. And i found another super andy script named ChordGun. Just discovering scripts in reaper and this is crazy 😂

[@DeskLazer]

I know you use different plugins, but bandmate (EZD and EZBass) has made my life so much simpler since it'll write foundations based on transients and notes (or you can play single line guitar and have ezbass read it). might be worth a shot!

[@Reapertips]

I AAAAAABSOLUTELY love this workflow!! I wish superior drummer had bandmate. I'm tempted to get ez just for that feature but I'd feel dumb if they integrate this to superior drummer later on. It's such a weird position! But nevertheless, I think this is the best most frictionless workflow ever!

[@TnSn5]

I'm kind of a newbie and I have to say that reaper is pretty amazing. Great video 👍

[@Reapertips]

Aw thank you so much!! Hope you have a cool weekend :D

[@TnSn5]

@Reapertips thanks you too musical brother

[@ThibaultTriat]

Loved the video and your energy ! Even if i'm a cubase user, it gave me ideas to upgrade my workflow 😙

[@djabthrash]

Learnt a lot from your videos, and now here is a suggestion to make your drum programming even better : put some kind of mic (even something really cheap will do) (or midi pedal) on the floor to use it as a audio to midi trigger for the kick parts, and use your hands on the controller just for the hands stuff (snare, toms, cymbals). This will feel way more like actual drums playing, will be more fun and intuitive and fast (also because you don't need to do a second pass to program the cymbals), and it will make you better at drums in general :)

[@Reapertips]

thank you sooo much!! this sound fun but I think I would do so bad hahaha i have teeeerrible coordination, but would be fun to practice!

[@djabthrash]

@@Reapertips Try it out :) Start by doing just kick and shells if you're struggling when playing the cymbals also.

[@Clinkz27]

Keep it up man! love the vids they´ve helped me so much

[@Joey.Darkwoods-Studio]

Such great tips and info! thx man

[@SunAndMirror]

Brother. Thank you for this. That guitar sounds awesome.

[@Reapertips]

Wow thank you!! So glad to hear 🙏

[@larazarecord]

Excellent video!! You can show us what your color palette is like for each track or instrument please? I really like your way of customizing the color on the bass, the drums and the others. Thank you very much!!!

[@rod-abreu]

Man, love your videos, gracias! On a second note, I think you should definitely try Superior Drummer 3

[@Reapertips]

I'm huuuuuge fan of superior drummer! I've been thinking of making a video of my superior drummer workflow, I kinda stopped manually programming my drums since it's so easy to build grooves with it, way better results too!

[@rod-abreu]

@@Reapertips Oh, I thought I had commented back yesterday, but I might have just left without replying lol Please, do it man, I'm already a big fan of your Reaper work and I've learned a lot from you, so some videos on Superior Drummer would be deeply appreciated :D

[@danielpisera]

Excelenete trabajo Alejandro! Ahora, me parece que (en el minuto 22:00, cuando pasás tu guitarra al MIDI para hacer el bajo), hubiera quedado mejor si bajabas la guitarra una octava y la dejabas en audio. No sé, es lo que hubiera hecho yo... Saludos desde Argentina! Daniel

[@Reapertips]

Gracias Daniel!! es verdad, hubiera quedado genial también :D

[@Piercybach]

Hi Alejandro. thanks for all the vids, I used to be a studio one user, and recently moved over to reaper, and loving it, especially after using your theme and going through your ebook for setting reaper up. The only problem I've had is the trick for two takes of guitar and explode them, I followed everything you do, with the custom action, but it doesn't seem to work, it just puts 2 takes on the one of the children tracks? any help would be appreciated. but I appreciate everything you've done for me so far. I even programmed a whole song of midi drums the other day, something I thought I would never be able to do. Amazing channel.

[@Reapertips]

that's soooo amazing to hear!! please DM me via discord or instagram so I can help you troubleshoot the custom action 🙏 you can send me a video / screenshot of the custom action so I can see what went wrong~

[@DaveZnoise]

Really interesting video, fun to watch!

[@AgrumeAcid]

hey! I love most of your tips, your theme for reaper, the "perfect setup" which I don't follow 100% but I would say 80% ... thanks for all the work you do, unfortunately I haven't paid you even a single bit yet coffee because I drink too much, but the time will come, I swear! I wanted to ask you a little nonsense, could you by any chance add the colored faders (or at least the red one) for the master track? it's useless, I know, but I've always dreamed of having the red fader on the master hahaha. before leaving I leave a little reapertip of mine mostly for beginners who don't even have a midi keyboard: you are used to opening the virtual midi keyboard and then telling it "send all inputs...", yesterday I asked myself why we have to do this useless double action and so I combined the actions... now I just press K and the keyboard opens with input reception activated automatically... when I don't need the keyboard I press K again and it disappears. I no longer have to press Ctrl+K (custom shortcuts) to activate or deactivate inputs.

[@Grinchone47]

I don't know how to start. My infinite gratitude to you for bringing knowledge and letting reaper being a really useful and fast daw. I have been making music for years in ableton for its easy access to music but then, I discovered you, Kenny and reaperblog and I found that reaper is even faster and that can also fill the weakness of ableton. I watched all your video and they are GOLD. I have just a very few questions concerning my experience in ableton and whether this can be replicated in reaper: 1. Is is possible to have a pencil tool such as in ableton for midi editing? For me sometimes is better in my work flow having the possibility to switch from them? There is a video but is working only with old reaper version. I think they erease some sws extensions 2. Is there a way to search samples based on their similarity like in ableton 12? 3. I would love if it will be possible also to have a session view better than super 8. 4. Do you know nabla sampler script for reaper live looping? Can you do a more deep tutorial(maybe it can be useful for somebody) I have tons of other questions that now don't really come up in my mind but I spent the entire month to setup reaper following your guide and adjusting to my taste. I am really loving it. Thank you for your time and your amazing videos. Ps. Can you do also a video on how to use reaper for editing video?❤

[@jackzdroneandphotos8398]

Exactly What I needed.. I want to have fun and learn How to use This reaper .. to Play guitar .. With Drum loops, add bass

[@thesilentbetta]

What script did you use to move the takes from parent track to the tracks inside the folder at 15:22?

[@djabthrash]

i think it's in his "how i record guitar" video or something

[@Matiasjury]

Que bien verte usando reaper!

[@diostaylow]

learned a lot of tricks on this one! thanks my guy!

[@Reapertips]

happy to heaar diooo

[@wiredmusictelevision2575]

This So very Amazing....Love this...Slowly I'm learning...

[@preexclamation]

helpful as alwayss!! this one didnt even feel like a 30-min video :>

[@greccoox]

Ideas for video: your favorite third part plugins; examples of paranormal fx; "how finish a song"... Must be hard to you be so good in reaper and think in easy video. But sometimes dont need be so complex man, just post it. I was watching yr videos all weekend like amazing how i am enjoying reaper more and more after all yr tips, i just want stay at home twiking reaper and making music is insane

[@Reapertips]

Thank you a looot!! You are absolutely right! That's why I've been posting a lot more frequently these months. I toned down the effort editing a lot and I've been posting a lot of basic entry level stuff. This has been super fun and rewarding since I get to introduce a lot of people to REAPER and I have an easier time making things :) - Every now and then I like to do a big project tho that I can take my time with it like this video, which is really rewarding too :D

[@treborretlaw]

apply play rate to bpm ...another cool repaer feature..I should right click everything

[@soumojitsarkar]

How to compose beats on reaper and all n all how to operate it? If possible please hit with a video tutorial from a beginner's perspective.

[@ninkichan7209]

Basically, you create a motif / seed either rhythmically or tonally and build from there.

[@Reapertips]

That's an excellent way to see it!!

[@tarunkrishnaswamy8207]

You are simply awesome man :)

[@Reapertips]

aw thank you so so much 🙏

[@lieutenantdan7212]

What's up Ottis! Awesome video man!

[@Reapertips]

hes happy you said hi to him! thank youuuu :D

[@elmolewis9123]

Nice job, as always.

[@Reapertips]

thank you so muuch for your comments 🙏

[@MoreMeRecording]

This is really cool stuff and a neat insight to how your workflow works. For me? Every tip required custom keys and toobars and nothing here offered tips using the native abilities in Reaper. I can't really seeing going through this. Even though the reward for all the effort would be great, I'm sure, there's just way way too many custom keys and why I never got into SWS. Remembering, and managing all those short cuts you need to create and assign is far too much for me. I come from 24trk tape days and while cumbersome compared to your workflow, it's how I'm wired.

[@Reapertips]

thank you a lot!! and I super understand 🙏

[@DouglasMelchiades]

Hey man, your template is absolutely awesome, thaks for all your work here! I'd like to ask you.. Where is the input fx buttom when i have the record engaged in your template? Really awesome content mate, thanks for your hard work 🙌🏼

[@Reapertips]

Thank you so so muuuuuch for getting it! ❤️ Your support means a ton. I'm not sure what you mean, can you maybe send me a video/screenshot of what you are looking for? Can be via Instagram @reapertips or message me via discord or an email :D

[@DouglasMelchiades]

@@Reapertips Sure mate!

[@aryabanerjee1179]

NEW REAPERTIPS YAYYY

[@abhicrax]

Alejandro the reaper wizard

[@nane-fi]

So cool and inspiring!🎉

[@VladBornuz]

Amazing video 🖤

[@audiosounddoctor5834]

You are great my friend!

[@Reapertips]

noo you are :D

[@djabthrash]

Didn't know you could change metronome speed (x1, x2, x4 ...) without changing tempo ... Thanks a ton !

[@saichiopy]

thanks for the tips brooo, can i know how to put that VU meter? thanks!

[@skitroplayz8887]

Hey what interface do you use? I am still in the procces of thinking what interface to get and also anyother things such as processors or pre amps that you use maybe the amp sim? Thanks!

[@Reapertips]

Hello! I use the Scarlett 2i4. Works pretty well! For amps I use neuraldsp stuff. My favorite is slo30

[@WizardOfArc]

I like your process

[@ank0559]

that first riff 😮‍💨😮‍💨

[@JayOneAlumni]

What drum kit do you use for superior drummer?

[@lebillski]

hey hey Alejandro reaper god, your playing and composing style reminds me a lot of Sithu Aye. Thank you so much for sharing this knowledge with us. 🙋

[@Reapertips]

thank youuuuuu. aw that's a huuuge compliment!! i wish I can be this good one day. been a bit more motivated lately with my guitar practice :D

[@VenxmHG]

the sr_Insert time signature based on time selection script doesn't show within ReaPack for me. Is there a separate repository you need for this?

[@Reapertips]

Hello!! im sorry I totally forgot to include the repository link for this one. It's Stevie's repository → github.com/StephanRoemer/ReaScripts/raw/master/index.xml Thank you for letting me know I will update the description :D

[@VenxmHG]

@@Reapertips You're the man thank you. Keep up the great work!

[@martinweber988]

21:00 Plini called and wants his arrangement back. Also: Otis!

[@Reapertips]

Hahahahhaha omg ❤️❤️

[@jason_andropolis]

That Bomberman Hero level clear sound though :)

[@Reapertips]

I love that you recognized it!! You are the first person haha

[@jason_andropolis]

@@Reapertips not only was that one of my favorite games growing up, the soundtrack is incredible! I still hum some of the tunes haha

[@Reapertips]

@@jason_andropolis same same! I am obsessed with the soundtrack and the game means a lot to me as that was the only game I had in my Nintendo 64 for like a year haha. So I just replayed that soooo many times!

[@michaelj.anderson1116]

This is my life everyday. Been at it for 6 + years or so.

[@tettsuo91]

I'm getting a lot of whine and noise from my distorted amp sims...any advise?

[@aklosabbaothofficial]

hi! In one of the videos Alex show a Routing Script, and I wanna give it a try; does anybody remember the script´s name? Thanks.

[@cosmicsea7]

What do you use for drums samples? Thanks.

[@Reapertips]

For most of these I'm using the core library in superior drummer 3!

[@santana2420]

Thanks thanks thanks. Grande

[@Reapertips]

graciassss :D

[@MagalyGouveia]

Great..❤

[@Diesel_And_Dust]

On 24 minutes in. I hear the interlude of Metallica's song msster of puppets..

[@despiertateymotivate]

IT'S FUN, NOT FON!... I am joking lol...honestly this is your 3rd video I watch (the first two were not very engaging because I was looking for something specific) and this time I am more into these experimental video man, appreciate the time you invested in creating and sharing this. Good luck!

[@markus918]

Oh, yes! Alejandro! Very, very, very cool!!! 🤓

[@APorTodas]

And Alejandro just wanna have fun...ohh Jandro just wanna haaaaaveeee

[@dfgvjnkjdsnbkjsbdvjkhdsb]

*isn't better with ezdrums and ezbass?*

[@Reapertips]

@@dfgvjnkjdsnbkjsbdvjkhdsb much better! But I wanted to show mostly a reaper workflow ~

[@PoopilussMcDoopiluss]

What midi keyboard are you using?

[@Reapertips]

@@PoopilussMcDoopiluss I believe it's called k-board by Keith mcmillen!

[@PoopilussMcDoopiluss]

@@Reapertips thank you! Your channel seriously changed my life man you’re the best!

[@johnborger]

Hi Otis!

[@Markrspooner]

Hi Otis ♥

[@elgnido]

Красавчик

[@mr.youngpower277]

Just record not metronom and find bpm after.

[@Tigers25]

Hi I'm from Berlin Germany. Love yr videos... professionelly cut. congrats of you did it all on your own. If interested i got an idea for you that will probably blow the roof. I'm an 63yr old musician who has thoughts on AI to push any product-to be worthy like yours...the better. Please understand i won't share my vision on this platform Greetings Take good care of yourself Frank