Working on a fun REAPER branch relating to keyboard shortcuts. I will allow some pretty sweet things, but it will also give people a lot of rope to hang themselves with. You can have a bunch of alternate main keyboard mapping sections (which also affect mousewheel mappings), so you can switch sections by action/toolbar/menu/whatever.

You can also engage a section momentarily by action, so you could: make Ctrl+F be "momentarily use the main section named "FX", then that section could just have a ton of mappings to particular FX: Ctrl+F followed by E for ReaEQ, Ctrl+F followed by C for ReaComp, etc.

What's also fun is that when they are momentarily engaged, they act globally... so if you are in a text field and do Ctrl+F, then the following E or C still work, or if you have the Ctrl+F as a global hotkey, then that momentary switch makes the E or C effectively global too, but only when following the Ctrl+F.

But -- if you accidentally run an action perma-switching to a section that has no keyboard mappings... well nothing will work until you switch back via the correct action in the actions window, or you restart reaper. Which is where the rope to hang yourself is.

4 Comments

I'm digging it. A lot. Not as huge to me as some past Radiohead albums were, but then again I probably ruined some of the impact for myself seeing them play these songs live a few times first, whereas before I heard Kid A the first time I had never heard any of it. Not that I'm complaining-- seeing Radiohead live is absurdly fantastic...

After over a month in beta, we finally released 2.0 final. Woohoo. Here's the changelog (condensed but shown here so I can reflect on the lengthh of it):

• added elastique Pro, Efficient, and SOLOIST as pitch shifter/time stretcher options
• action: new actions to toggle/clear/set individual lock modes
• action: actions to set take by index (1-9) active
• action: "Take/Paste as takes in selected items"
• action: "render items to new take" (which is like apply fx but without fx)
• action: action to toggle item "preserve pitch when changing playrate"
• automation: added option prefs/editing/"Automatically add/arm envelopes when tweaking parameters in write modes"
• automation: autoadding vol/pan/playspeed envelopes autoresets trims to unity
• automation: mute envelopes for tracks/sends (no UI integration for automation recording yet)
• automation: fixed vol/pan/playspeed tooltips when in automation modes
• compatibility: perf meter: fixed incorrect ram usage on w2k
• compatibility: fixed a win2k text drawing gdi corruption issue
• compatibility: fixed a win2k media explorer refreshing bug
• compatibility: vertical zooming now flickery in WINE (since WINEs WM_SETREDRAW breaks things -- WINE developers, contact us)
• defaults: made Take Lane viewing on by default
• display: fixed bug with changing screen resolutions
• editing: fixed cutting items in ripple all mode
• editing: split items at loop selection selects only items in selection (not unsplit previously selected items)
• editing: apply fx to new take now works on empty items
• editing: better zoom from scrollbar when zoom set to center on mouse cursor
• editing: enabled zoom out to see more than a few hours
• editing: better envelope behavior in item moving and ripple editing
• editing: fixed bug with slip editing items fudging automation
• editing: shifting/nudging loop selection works better with time signatures
• editing: main track view sub-pixel accuracy improvements
• editing: ctrl+dragging loop selections when item left/right locked now works
• editing: force selection to beat lengths now supports multiple time signatures
• editing: new item lock modes (item edges, controls)
• editing: better drag and drop file positioning in certain instances
• fx: comment window is now modeless
• fx: added vertical scrollbar to comment window
• fx: you can now rename instances of effects to better describe their application
• fx: action to build multichannel routing for the output of multichannel VSTis
• fx: action to build 16 channels of midi routing for the current track
• fx: vsts that have latency and send MIDI now can send ahead of time
• fx: updated VST samplerate change calls for buggy plug-ins
• fx: special case code for simulanalog VST plugins (aggressive denormal prevention)
• fx: fixed alt+drag fx moving bugs
• fx: fixed plug-in config window close order on quit (good for EmuX)
• fx: better denormalization prevention methods used throughout
• fx: faster offlining of plug-ins with large state data
• fx: startup project loading now initializes audio device before loading plug-ins
• fx: modifiers when drag and drop adding fx (shift=dont bring up config, ctrl=toggle floating of config)
• fx: floating fx windows remember their positions when closed
• fx: less showing of fx chain when "auto-float new fx" is on
• FX: added JS: utility/bufsave, which lets you route feedback in fx chains easily
• FX: added JS: utility/time_adjustment which allows delay/predelaying signal
• FX: added JS: autopeakfilter for fun autowah type effects
• FX: added some new loser JS fx
• FX: JS PDC support for effects (pdc_bot_ch, pdc_top_ch, pdc_midi and pdc_delay to specify sample delay)
• FX: JS shared memory (gmem[]) is now shared across all JS instances in reaper
• FX: added JS play_state, play_position, and beat_position variables
• FX: safer window class registration/unregistration in many Rea* fx
• FX: reacomp/reaxcomp performance improvements
• FX: better offscreen window checking for ReaNINJAM
• FX: ReaTune now uses REAPERs pitch shift algorithms (elastique soloist is great for this)
• FX: ReaTune added "click reduction" mode for SoundTouch and possibly other modes
• FX: ReaTune manual mode ruler, mousewheel support
• FX: ReaTune subdivision mode (to update at higher frequencies with larger window sizes)
• FX: ReaPitch, new multi voice pitch shifter
• FX: ReaEQ and ReaXComp now update undo states on add/remove of bands
• installer: now allows selection of pitch shifters to install
• keyboard: better handling of keystrokes when mouse captured
• master track: can now have more than 2 channels
• master track: can now control source channels/phase/volume/pan/etc of each hardware output independently
• master track: better RMS metering, lots of RMS display options
• master track: better pdc with anticipative rendering
• master track: master fx chain no longer defaults to bypassed
• master track: made solo/mute click modifiers not affect master mute/solo
• master track: right click marquee works in master track (for envelopes etc)
• master track: fixed undo with no master hardware outs sometimes adding in a default output
• media explorer: added "Insert as takes in selected items"
• media item properties: "choose new file" automatically updates take names
• meters: better event light for record output (midi) mode
• meters: updated track metering rounding to better pass synthetic tests
• meters: better track meter clip indicator hit testing
• meters: better metering for record output (midi) mode
• metronome: better metronome countin for tempo changes
• midi: MID file import can now import tempo maps
• midi: better looking and faster midi peak drawing
• midi: midi items are now treated as ticks/Quarter Note, except for items in old projects (which are still ticks/beat)
• midi: fixed open copy of items sometimes dropping notes
• midi: better sorting of noteoffs and allnoteoff messages
• midi: reduced excess sending off allnoteoff loop markers
• midi: fixed splitting items on notes producing 0 length notes
• midi: fixed bug in fadein for midi items
• midi: fixed extraneous notes at end of some items
• midi editor: can now reflect project time signature changes
• midi editor: grid/quantize are now fractions of whole notes, not of beats
• midi editor: separate colortheme settings in prefs (including for piano keys etc)
• midi editor: fixed bugs with play cursor and looped midi items
• midi editor: better vertical scrollbar
• midi editor: better focusing when opening/activating and switching modes
• midi editor: internal cleanups, improved ctrl+select behavior
• midi editor: pass through to main window keyboard action
• midi editor: updates to list editor play cursor, better list editor sorting
• midi editor: list editor note properties sets focus depending on which column the mouse was on
• midi editor: better focusing when opening/activating and switching modes
• midi editor: moving notes now uses both absolute and relative snapping
• mixer: optional FX and Send views (configurable via the mixer menu)
• mixer: more settings are now stored in the project
• mixer: options are now assignable actions
• mixer: new FX/send views are themeable (mcp_fxlist_norm/byp/off/empty, mcp_master_fxlist_ too)
• mixer: (theme images): mcp_sendlist_knob.png, mcp_sendlist_meter.png, mcp_*list_arrows.png
• mixer: fixed incorrect minimum height on nonstandard display DPIs
• Monkeys Audio: fix for Unicode files, fixes for offline support
• Monkeys Audio: fixed mem leak, fixed 24 bit stereo mode, optimizations
• Monkeys Audio: now uses asynchronous disk reads if set
• option: options to not show peaks for muted tracks/items, or non-selected tracks
• option: added working set configuration in prefs/general/advanced
• performance: portions of REAPER are now compiled with the Intel C++ compiler
• performance: faster zoomed-in peaks display
• performance: fixed muted folder tracks still running fx
• performance: updated on-stop behavior to keep audio thread locked for less time
• performance: UAD synchronous fx multiprocessing support
• performance: improved anticipative fx processing on looped playback
• performance: renamed fx renderahead "anticipative FX processing"
• performance: added new "Synchronous multiprocessing" option, which allows multiprocessing on input monitoring, better UAD multiprocessing, etc
• performance: per-item pitch shifters are now freed when they are no longer needed or media set offline
• performance: fixed silence-at-end-of-rendering issue with asynchronous writes enabled
• performance: more robust asynchronous disk writes
• performance: fixed SMP rendering glitches
• performance: fixed cpu munch when stopping at end of project
• performance: mono items pitch shifted are now processed in mono (big speedup)
• performance: reduced cpu use of empty tracks
• perf meter: graph shows cur/avg, range, action to reset graph
• project directory cleanup: now defaults to sending items to recycle bin rather than deleting
• reamote: possible fix for Nebula plugins
• reamote: fixed crash when invalid data received on certain message types
• reamote: fixed support for larger config packets
• routing: fixed labelling on hardware outs after adding routing
• routing: renamed send type "Post-FX" to "Post-FX (V1 deprecated)", added a new, better "Post-FX" mode
• routing: fixed i/o windows open when adjusting/removing routing bugs
• routing: better rearoute labelling all around when audio device closed
• screensets: added keyboard shortcut column and button to edit shortcuts
• screensets: autosave wont save anymore when switching to same screenset
• screensets: added auto saving option
• screensets: fixed docker issues
• screensets: added mixer flags saving
• screensets: added last focused window state saving
• tempo map: overhaul: simple tempo changes no longer force a new measure
• tempo map: improved tempo editing behavior when editing tempo changes and time sig changes
• tempo map: lengths calculated across timesig markers now use the time signature at the start to determine measure length
• tempo map: more accurate tempo envelope saving/restoring
• tempo map: small fades are no longer adjusted by tempo changes
• theming: faster drawing, faster mouseover updating
• theming: background for faders, window backgrounds, name backgrounds, etc support pink line for unstretch areas
• theming: docker is now independently colorthemeable
• theming: new default colortheme (by WhiteTie!)
• theming: support for when path to theme dir changes on diff systems
• theming: advanced faders can have zero line set
• theming: configurable fonts for track panels / volpan labels etc
• theming: track_fxempty_h and track_fxempty_v
• theming: window drawing improvements (less screen corruption issues)
• theming: fixed stopped resize of transport drawing issues
• theming: fixed some playspeed automation refresh issues
• theming: fixed some dark custom color issues with advanced themes
• theming: better background image edge scaling when compressed to small spaces
• theming: classic theme color tweaks (for mcp send/fx list)
• theming: bg tinting for track labels in advanced themes
• ui: most modal dialog boxes now restore window focus on close
• ui: added option for gap between items on adjacent tracks (defaults to 4px)
• ui: fixed non-fancy peaks display on muted items/inactive takes
• ui: better envelope spacing (small gap between envelopes)
• ui: better item loop indicator drawing
• ui: fixed edge loop indicators on some items
• ui: fixed zero line drawing issue on items
• ui: fixed peaks display at end of heavily looped items at certain zoom levels
• ui: better record mode display for midi overdub modes
• ui: fader ctrl+precision modes hide mouse cursor
• ui: better spacing for transport status state
• ui: better volume fader ganging at extremes
• ui: grid/snap boxes will now correctly display smaller fractions
• fixed some tiny PCM-floating point import/export precision issues
• better external midi editor support (fixes, open copy in external editor creates .mid file)
• faster dB unit conversion throughout
• demo song: updated mix
• new about screen

6 Comments

Two tasty things:

this little mention of REAPER was nice to read.

And, also, I just got a dual quad core xeon machine.. 8 2.33ghz cores. Wow. Insanely powerful. Quieter than I expected, too. Mmmm. Thank you, Dell (can I have my next one for free for that plug?).

REAPER hauls complete ass on this box. Amazingly fast, and it can use nearly all of the processing power available. I did some testing on my Athlon64x2, and it could do like 12 tracks of FX (reagate+reacomp+reafir+reaverb), and this thing can do over 50. Having flawless audio playback with 8 cores humming away at 95% of each used is a beautiful beautiful thing. Here's a screenshot.

Now when you can get one of these for $1500, then it will be insane. I'm guessing late 2008.

13 Comments

I guess I let a month go by without updating. I've just been having a good time, what with all of the typing.. I'm still excited about REAPER, so shit's good.

I've been writing FX plug-ins for REAPER lately, too.. ReaGate is nearly done, ReaComp is almost working, ReaFir (FFT EQ) is nearly done, and ReaVerb is underway. ReaVerb will be a convolution based reverb, and will offer support for loading of impulses from files, as well as generating impulses from parameters, and combining and modifying any of those impulses.. I'm thinking of it like an AVS for convolution..

We (Christophe and I) decided that our goal for 1.0 release is sometime in August, which shouldn't be too hard to hit-- lots of work, but relatively straightforward. There are a few things that need to be done that I'm not quite sure how they will get done, but I'm confident enough that we'll figure it out...

14 Comments