Working faster with MIDI Editor Actions in REAPER (better keyboard shortcuts)

[@TheREAPERBlog]

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[@DrProgNerd]

I'm relatively new to recording. Until now, if I wanted to duplicate a MIDI selection to a different instrument track and play the second track in octaves, I have been manually moving the notes up one at a time. I knew there had to be a shortcut. I thought "I'll get to it later". A perfect example of laziness actually making the work harder. This one tip alone made my day. Thank you.

[@IDDQDSound]

I just wanted to mention that we did not plan to both release a midi action video this week. It's pure telepathy! Of course as always, you went so in depth with it! Great stuff!

[@TheREAPERBlog]

That's right. This is all stuff I was thinking about a month ago with the last Fresh Start episode and I recorded this on Oct 30th.

[@TomaszKalusMusic]

I use Reaper for 8 years now and but you keep surprising me with more. This in particular is gonna be a game changer for me

[@GlamourSwinexXx]

I am stealing all of these, you sir, are a genius. SO much time saving I didn't even think about!!

[@Stemage]

I was just going to comment that your lighting looks especially good right now. And then you mentioned the Skillshare course. I guess it's working. Thanks for all you do!

[@TheREAPERBlog]

I'm always tweaking the lighting and probably always will be. So many good film making classes on Skillshare.

[@ghshgs3224]

The custom duplicate action was just what I needed! Thank you!

[@dayzrustream]

Thanks for that tips! Was able to upgrade some of my shortcuts to a better ones. The more I'm using Reaper, the more I'm loving customization and whole Reaper community.

[@MixYourWay]

Amazing! I'm grabbing the Midi velocities quick insert!! As always, Thanks Jon!

[@fernandohood5657]

this was super helpful, ive been looking for the move the note/octave up down left right shortcuts and was a bit lost in the Actions screen, and now feel silly cause it was rly easy to find them :) cmg from ableton to reaper i find these workflow tweaks and actions pretty useful, thnks again

[@NihilQuest]

Is there a way to make a selection of notes without a mouse? I'm thinking of something like selecting cells in Excell or Google Sheets. I remember working like that when I used trackers, and I think FL has that kind of workflow as well.

[@drd8974]

I have already set some of these amazing shortcuts from watching earlier Reaperblog videos. And I'm probably going to forget these settings again in like two weeks.

[@birdbrainsane]

Thanks Jon, exactly what i was looking for. I could not figure out how to change grid size with key stroke so easily. Working alot to input sheet music into midi editor, and with this 11:40 multiply grid size and setting notes to "grid" works perfectly.

[@TommoGuitar]

Thank you so much for this! Just what I needed!

[@claudiobertolin]

Can I have custom keystrokes (or actions) belonging to one specific project without affecting global action settings?

[@itspedroteixeira]

9:28 can´t do that in windows

[@audiosounddoctor5834]

I am impressed what reaper can do......I am studio one and cakewalk user and a long time a go Pro tools user but cockos is so versatile

[@thefrozensea9314]

Great tips! Very happy I found this channel :)

[@zakrahman479]

Excellent video. Thank you.

[@biosyncfarm]

I can't wait until i am more fluid with reaper. this is epic

[@beaston_guitar]

Excellent tips! Thank you so much!

[@rabornjohnson]

Excellent, Jon! Thanks so much!

[@jefffogle1288]

Helpful as always! Thanks again Jon.

[@mahnplaysmusic]

Super useful, if I had this on my last project, I probably would have saved at least 100 hours (seriously, it was a lot of MIDI!)

[@lieutenantdan7212]

So SO HELPFUL! Thank you so much!

[@TheREAPERBlog]

Glad it was helpful!

[@Ranga1.0]

Thank you john! 15:45 this is a life saver tip.

[@unsertrefflicher4678]

It's really nice your effort when you are not an midi guy :) ty John.

[@eprotz]

This is pure Gold! Thanks!!!

[@marceloribeirosimoes8959]

Thank you very much!!!!! I know it may sound a bit off-topic, but I'm looking for a way to keep the sliced (Dynamic Split) audio parts' start points linked with their respective MIDI notes. So we can "fine-tune" those start points avoiding losing some clicks that the Dynamic Split can not detect properly. So we could adjust those audio slice start points and MIDI note start points (one by one) at the same time.

[@sirvaant]

How about a drag while adding midi notes for hi hats instead of clicking them in?

[@TheREAPERBlog]

Find “draw line of notes” in mouse modifiers. I think it is on shift-alt-left drag by default

[@sirvaant]

@@TheREAPERBlog awesome thankyou!!!

[@ThomasECahill]

Always great stuff, thanks for all you do.

[@MrDo2an]

Very very useful, thank you!

[@auroranamex5886]

Any tips on selecting notes via keyboard? Thanks for the vid!

[@Nikos4415]

your Reaper's colour scheme is ecxeptionally beautiful and easy on eyes! i think i will copy a big part of it for my Reaper and this particular video is very useful as well, thank you!

[@philippes1987]

Wow man, so much good stuff!

[@aryabanerjee1179]

Wow dude! How do you colour and flatten your playhead line like that? It's so helpful to see that when you're playing something

[@XELOhh1]

I have a question about panning in midi editor it doesn't seem to work on vsts have you been able to figure that out?

[@TheREAPERBlog]

depends on the instrument. For a multitimbral instrument like Kontakt, UVI Workstation, or Sampletank it should work. But if using those, usually you'd want to control the audio output track in the mixer . Personally I'd rather use track envelopes than MIDI cc lanes.

[@kernelxsanders]

I find the first tip here is most helpful for my workflow, it's nice to not have to double click everything I want to insert. How is it that you make the velocity events have those little bars that stick out from the top of the note which makes the velocities easier to grab? Mine just has points and it gets frustrating trying to grab them as opposed to bars.

[@dirtyharry1881]

+1

[@JoseSuarezGuitar1]

Hello !! thanks for taking the trouble to teach us Reaper. Could you tell me where I activate the horizontal bars that show the speeds? Thank you....

[@MattyB3]

Hi Jon, just wondering if you have any videos on the best way to set up and record a bass VST in Reaper. Thanks 🙏

[@kostasmanikis]

Can you make a video about Midi CC actions,especially Multi tool?

[@vertigopulse]

Any shortcuts for taking a stacked set of notes and making them an arpeggio instead?

[@rodrigonoales]

Hello how do you get that horizontal "handle" on your midi velocity lane values ? I can't find how to set that up... thanks !

[@Agent56000]

is there a way to insert notes with previous note or previous selected note?

[@1onewayout]

Hi Jn, I was wondering how you get that horizontal line on the velocity section? Thx, Jeff

[@ThomasECahill]

The horizontal lines in the velocity lane: Right click - Options > CC/Velocity lane > show note length It kind of looks like this in Logic Pro X

[@robkir1974]

How to make the midi editor remember the zoom level. When I create midi items the midi editor does remember the size of the window, but when I hit record to create a new midi item the window gets smaller.

[@clothes4060]

CAn I panning piano midi each note by note ?

[@zimouspero]

Wow wow wow...i was waisting for this videos for a long long time

[@bryanmoseley6533]

I’m trying to figure out how to put in a rest? If I’m putting in a drum groove I don’t want to put an instrument hit on every beat. Or doing cord gun. I’d like to be able to put in a rest for one beat when I want.

[@JohnJewel]

Hello Reaper man, the midi window is not even opening and so I'm stuck on day one and it's been a few days. I got some musicxml ( midi ) files to actually play and that part was pretty easy. However if I am unable to program the midi files I won't get anything done. I have over done my budget and can not afford lesson yet. Please see if there is some way to resolve this by myself.

[@TheREAPERBlog]

I'll send you an email today

[@cj9045]

How do you make it so you can hear the preview of the note being inserted via the key command? I can hear it when I use the mouse but not the keyboard

[@redwoodlloyd4320]

Thanks Reaper Blog. Just curious, is there a way to prevent the playhead from moving to the end of the inserted notes and just stay in its original position?

[@TheREAPERBlog]

I couldn't find an option or preference for it, but there are two insert actions "Edit: Insert note at edit cursor" and "Edit: Insert note at edit cursor (no advance edit cursor)" as well as "Edit: Insert note at mouse cursor", Which also does not move the cursor

[@redwoodlloyd4320]

@@TheREAPERBlog Thank you for your prompt reply. Take care and have a great week ahead.

[@RenzoOrlandini]

Is there a way to transpose notes, let's say oct up or down, directly by having selected the item, withou haveng to open the midi editor?

[@daviddahl8562]

I googled the shortcut keys for reaper on mac on my keyboard for entering notes is command + num 5 I tried that it works but a pain in the butt its easier just to click twice to enter. On my mac keyboard I don't have a insert key so I haven't figured that one out yet

[@TheREAPERBlog]

you can set to any key you find convenient

[@daviddahl8562]

@@TheREAPERBlog I know you also got to be real careful with that I learned that the hard way with the hotkeys

[@Astral52_]

i may be slow on the uptake, but what is this keyboard plugin youre using exactly. Im new to reaper and ive been looking for this exact keyboard display for reaper. I've also seen it being used in Composerily's how to sound like camellia video

[@synthesaurus]

but how do you program "insert note at the mouse cursor" with A? Reaper is not allowing this. Also, how do you change the cursor to a pointer? Thanks!

[@danielclifton3319]

I can't find the insert midi note actions in my actions list 😢

[@danielclifton3319]

I'm using reaper 7, latest update

[@TheREAPERBlog]

Action list top right, Section=MIDI Editor

[@joseeulogiosanguinopayan6268]

Is there a shortcut to duplicate a note at the same position but at a different specific pitch (even if you have to type it manually)? That one would be quite useful to add keyswitches (granted, you might have to move your keyswitch a few pixels forward afterwards so it's active when the actual sounding MIDI note is played).

[@asiullopes]

you'll definetely have to make up your own custom actions to fit what you're actually needing but it's possible cause it has actions like "move pitch cursor to nearest E", so with some combination of copy and move actions you can do it, but it might take more than one action. you can also use the "decrease/increase pitch cursor one octave/semitone" more than once and make combinations to make actions for intervals or something like that

[@adammacmeekin9926]

Unfortunately midi notes actions for UP/down semi tone are broken when using the new custom ordered named notes, I pointed this out in both bug and pre-relase forums but I think I got ignored.

[@zachary963]

Hi, can the background be color graded? Like, the first bar is light blue, and then the further to the right in the project I go the darker the color scheme gets?

[@TheREAPERBlog]

I don't think so

[@daviddahl8562]

Is there a free app to write midi guitar in reaper The piano roll gives you treble and bass clef I just want the treble clef for guitar in the piano roll

[@xRiseAgainstx]

What’s the finest amount you can move a midi note? Looks like the default ticks per quarter note is the finest but hoping I can get it in smaller increments

[@mark-ze4en]

Hey Jon. I've been using REAPER for some time now and have had little success with midi functions. I am using an external controller( Yamaha Motif ES 7,, yeah, I know, that's ancient). I have reinstalled the only Yamaha driver available( Yamaha usb midi driver WDM) and ran through the Reaper midi device ins and outs. The ES 7 is recognized as a possible output device but ''not'' as an input device. Any advice? I am curios about the midi ID numbers and how they are configured. I've never seen anyone address that in any videos. The input and output devices that 'are displayed' do not always have the same number. Seems the devices should share the same ID regardless of input or output designation??

[@Heafyshiu]

I programmed a piano parts and it sounds robotic. I tried to lower the velocity, moved the timing etc but still it sounds robotic. Dnt know what to do now. :(

[@tillsommerdrums]

How do I select notes via the time selection in the Editor ? I can only make a time selection but the notes stay untouched by it. I am on Mac

[@TheREAPERBlog]

right-drag should do it, you can always check and customize the assignments in Preferences - Mouse Modifiers

[@daviddahl8562]

what kind of computer are you using I'm using a mac mini 2020MI ventura 13 ios I point and press a nothing happens

[@EyeOfThe_God]

Hi, how do you make it possible when you click on a note to put it on at once, so you don't have to stretch it out a bit to make it appear in the midi editor

[@Mix.intheBox]

Fantastic

[@CinzanoBiancoLister]

Brilliant

[@asiullopes]

the midi duplicate one is a life saver, idk why reaper doesn't just make that the default

[@Dunbar0740]

inserting a midi note with a mouse only takes a single left click. Point the cursor anywhere on the grid, click the left mouse button, hold, and move the mouse slightly.

[@TheREAPERBlog]

And another click and hold for changing velocity while your other hand is doing nothing.

[@ketiwww]

Nice!

[@maplefoxx6285]

It's like he is reading our minds guys. can you give us some tips on Quantizing, and Humanizing and aslo... Freezing Tracks.. i do not really understand what it is doing,, it is not the same as Ableton, I want to render tracks to audio so you can unplug those vst's and save cpu while working on stuff. It is super easy to understand in Ableton but in Reaper i just don't get it... what is going on when i Freeze a Track , what does that actually mean, and there are a few different options for Freezing Tracks as well, i do not understand. edit: i found your video from 4 yrs ago about freezing tracks. You have a lot of videos.

[@jackofeverythingmasterofno7804]

why is there no smart daw? should be able 2 create a track, pick up instrument, hit a note and boom... routed 2 that track. gain stage, tone shape etc... repeat for all tracks as needed and hit record. y no auto bpm? auto grids? etc... where are all the a.i. elements? we have plug n play everywhere. why no plug and record? y is the focus of a daws capabilities mostly put on the backend of recording? shouldn't it be mostly on the front end?

[@Eduaro2U]

Sorry about my dumbness - "Insert Key"? I've searched all over my fullsized Mac keyboard - no insert key.

[@TheREAPERBlog]

Should be with Home, End, delete. Im using a windows kb though.

[@Eduaro2U]

@@TheREAPERBlog Sadly no. I don't think there ever has been an insert key on a mac keyboard actually. Also of interest that the default in my mac version of REAPER is for the insert key to be used in that instance. Possibly the programmer was also using a windows keyboard. Not to worry - it's obviously easy to assign another shortcut for the job. Thanks so much for getting back to me and for your amazing work.

[@thisgeneration2894]

Smile man..

[@Hermiel]

Is it just me or has Jon's voice been sounding a little nasal and phasey these days? I'll have to revisit some older videos but it seems that lately whenever I click REAPER Blog after watching, say Curtis or Bandrew there's a definite weirdness that my ears have to adjust to.

[@BukanIbuMu]

It's the mic

[@Byron101_]

What a mess. Reaper is for coding nerds with too much time. Cubase has all this midi functions as standard with very fast and better workflow. Reaper ist not so good in Midi.

[@talaynt2656]

Nobody asked 👍

[@rano12321]

Bro, go meatride nuendo and cubase. how pathetic you'd have to go to every reaper videos and leave negative comments like this as this isn't the first time I'm seeing you do this. unironically, cubase has the most outdated midi features and reaper can do everything cubase can do.

[@rano12321]

get a life dude, you leave negative comments like these under a lot of reaper video. in reality, reaper can do a lot more than what cubase can. keep coping.