Reapers Awful Plugin Insert Windows

Recording, Mixing and Producing Recording Toys and Tricks
#1

I’m a new convert to Reaper. It was cheaper than upgrading Cubase and seems like it gives more features (The comping and editing features are way better than cubase artist).

However, there is one area that is just awful and that is adding a plugin. In cubase, I can click on an Fx slot and get a dropdown of all my plugins (grouped by how ever I configure it). Then a click on a plugin and up pops the plugins GUI. Great.

In reaper, I click on a slot and first I’m confronted by these godawful windows:

reaperpoo
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Then I select the plugin and not only do I get the plugin GUI, I got another awful little window at the side:

nastyplugin
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To make matters worse, if I click the ‘FX’ button on the track (to show/hide plugins), it only hides the nasty little extra window!

Basically the amount of clicks and windows I have to go through just to pull up a plugin is terrible, not to mention the terrible appearance of the windows…

Is there anything that can be done about this?

#2

I think that’s happening because you are using a 32bit version of the plugin in a 64bit DAW. (You can tell because it says “(x86)” after the plugin name). I think if you select the 64bit version of the plugin, you won’t get the extra window.

Usually I just left click once in the plugin insert area, then scroll down the list of plugins and double-left-click on the plugin I want - that gets me there.

#3

Ok, using the 64bit version does mean that the second set of separate windows are now 1 (pretty bad looking though - why cant it just show the plugin UI?)

Doesnt change the first pair of windows. I’d much prefer a dropdown…
Although, If I click on the slot via the mixer (and not the FX button on the track), I get just the 1 window, which is somewhat better…

#4

I only use the mixer for plugins.

#5

You can directly open a plugin in the track view by right-mouse clicking on it the FX button and choosing one from the drop down list - 2 mouse clicks total.

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#6

Also you can drag and drop the plugins you use often in the “favorites” category which makes it even faster.

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#7

Grrrrreat thanks. I figured there must be an alternative way.
:smiley:

Next question…I’ve watched the tutorial vids but I didnt see a way to do this (maybe I missed it):

In cubase, after selecting a region with the left and right ‘locators’, I could press ‘1’ on the keypad to move the playback to the left locator.
Its much easier to set the ‘locators’ in Reaper (I think reaper just calls it a time selection maybe), but how can I start playback from the start of the selection?

#8

Try shift-double-clicking on the clip/region. That should select the region and automatically start playback from the left of the time selection.

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#9

If you hit “m” you’ll get a marker. Then you can use the number keys to start playback from one of the markers. I use this all the time. Is that what you’re looking for?

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#10

For the plugin part, I always use the search field called “Filter”:

  • I need a goniometer, I just type “gon” and here it is
  • need a limiter, I wrote “lim” and…
  • and so on

I do prefer that way to select plugins than what Logic or PT could offer (specially when it needs to open many folders to get that tape-delay plugin).

For the windows, this is a behaviour you could configure and change:

  • you could open each plugins in different windows that stay on top of the DAW
  • you could keep plugins UI in the plugin list for that track
  • you could do the two things above
  • you could set each of these by default
  • you could hide the plugin selection window when you open the FX window…

It all takes place in Preferences/Plug-ins :slight_smile: