Ask Justin Frankel

justin = { main feed , music , code , askjf , pubkey };

Ask Justin Frankel
No reasonable question unanswered since 2009!

Suggested topics: programming, music, sleep, coffee, etc.

Note: please do not ask questions about REAPER features, bugs or scheduling, use the forums instead.

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Question: what's your favorite artist?
Asked by yago (80.174.163.x) on June 4 2024, 12:54pm
Reply on June 4 2024, 12:58pm:

nice try, password recovery exploiting bot! just kidding. Not sure I have one, but I must say I do appreciate the painting Starry Night. 1 Comment...

Question: What will happen if Windows become open source?
Asked by Abhi (122.177.210.x) on June 4 2024, 6:31am
Reply on June 4 2024, 12:58pm:

I doubt it will! Comment...

Question: did you ever imagine you could basically run your rig and personal stuff with an M1 mac book air? like in the small format kind of thing, not that at that time there would be any equivalent. Say, when you started coding reaper, or even before with winamp. I feel these computers are really snappy (M2 max here) and that changes things hahah so yeah, would you have pogrammed reaper to be so power efficient still? Knowing this was ahead a few years after? altho I guess that snappiness is also thanks to you guys
Asked by alex (187.213.115.x) on June 4 2024, 5:50am
Reply on June 4 2024, 12:59pm:

Hah most of my recording is done on a i7 from like 2010 so not surprising at all! The more amazing thing is you could do most of it on a Raspberry Pi these days... Comment...

Question: After running do you feel different like that good physical sensation after making sports? Does it take you a lot of time/distance running to get there?
Asked by heya (189.112.245.x) on June 2 2024, 10:27pm
Reply on June 3 2024, 2:57am:

Sometimes it takes maybe 20 minutes to feel good, though if you go too fast then you don't really feel good until you stop (e.g. if you properly race a 5k, it sucks the whole time). Comment...

Question: Without Googling, do you know who Karlheinz Brandenburg is?
Asked by Will (23.125.224.x) on June 1 2024, 1:32pm
Reply on June 1 2024, 3:28pm:

I didn't remember at first but the moment I googled it I was like oh yeah the suzanne vega fan hah Comment...

Question: This wave of AI is be shaping up to be an aggressive bubble, surely?
Asked by Cobol (193.32.126.x) on May 31 2024, 9:06am
Reply on May 31 2024, 4:21pm (edited at May 31 2024, 4:22pm):

It's certainly interesting, however whether it becomes sufficiently useful to justify the cost in contexts where the risks are tolerable is another question. What I will say is that I don't find it appealing, personally. 4 Comments...

Question: Hey jf - I have a very interesting question for you. How does a DAW keep track of time? Ticks, OS clock, or something completely else? Especially when it comes to calculating BPM, time signature, song length, and etc.
Asked by Matthew (76.37.54.x) on May 30 2024, 2:22pm
Reply on May 30 2024, 2:52pm:

Depends on the DAW! In general though the samples-processed is the most important, the OS time isn't as relevant. REAPER tracks project position in seconds as a double, which has its own set of problems. I remember Paul the Ardour dev saying at some point they switched to some other unit like 100-nanosecond intervals or something, but I forget what it was exactly. 1 Comment...

Question: hey jf- you much of a suit/shirt/tie guy? + do you think suits are a must have for any business or social occasions? ta.
Asked by 2024 (86.138.246.x) on May 29 2024, 4:51pm
Reply on May 29 2024, 6:25pm:

Not so much, but I guess it's a good thing to have around to go with the flow 1 Comment...

Question: Can we see Reaper update to use as mixer with vca spills (separate mixes to busses) i mean visible mixer layout for busses apart from master mixer
Asked by Sam Joseph (103.216.198.x) on May 28 2024, 7:12am
Reply on May 28 2024, 3:55pm:

hmm see note above 2 Comments...

Question: Are there some branches in the "in house" REAPER repo that were stashed for good? What did they contain? Curious about the parts the end user never get to see :)
Asked by smandrap (188.12.128.x) on May 27 2024, 1:13pm
Reply on May 27 2024, 7:25pm:

we have some "hold" branches which are there for future use. Sometimes they were in a +dev build but then deemed not ready. Other things that could be useful someday but have no real point now (like using a slightly newer CoreAudio API on macOS - no point in switching now, but if at some point we have to update to a newer dev tools and they remove the old API, we'll need it). Or something to use the new Win10+ thread name API, which would be useful for debuggers. Except- no debuggers currently support it, lol. Comment...

Question: What do you think of the new Snapdragon X elite chips laptops? Do you think you'll give them a try since they are looking pretty good for the price and battery life and the performance is pretty much comparable to M3/M4 as well. Also, will Reaper be supported Windows arm as well in the future?
Asked by Rano (103.211.133.x) on May 26 2024, 10:54am
Reply on May 26 2024, 7:18pm:

I have too many laptops, and my M1 MBA can run Win11 in UTM at full speed so that'll leave me inclined to do that. We have REAPER ready to run in ARM64EC on Windows 11 (a build is posted on our prerelease site), once there's enough demand we'll probably release it in beta. But at the moment there is roughly no demand. 9 Comments...

Question: Hey, Justin. Sometimes I want to automate volume from plugin. Which of native Reaper plugins would you recommend for lowest zipper noise? Usually I use volume slider in ReaEQ. Is that a good choice?
Asked by Gregor (89.212.235.x) on May 26 2024, 6:55am
Reply on May 26 2024, 7:15pm:

ReaEQ is fine and won't zipper IIRC, but it won't be sample-accurate. I'd use JS: Volume/Pan Smoother v5 for that. Comment...

Question: Why do you consider it terrible code?
Asked by Will (23.125.224.x) on May 26 2024, 3:17am
Reply on May 26 2024, 7:14pm:

When I started writing it, documentation was not what it was today, and I was still learning to program Windows applications. And then it's evolved since then, but not entirely for the best reasons. Comment...

Question: So, the company that owns Winamp has plans for open sourcing it. (youtube.com/watch?v=2Sy90K9CB8w What are your thoughts?
Asked by Matthew (76.37.54.x) on May 26 2024, 2:12am
Reply on May 26 2024, 3:00am:

It's ancient terrible code anyway ;) Comment...

Question: Have you seen the experimental DAW Blockhead (youtube.com/watch?v=P5fWPBOdrY8? What do you think of it?
Asked by Jim12 (176.254.199.x) on May 25 2024, 7:16pm
Reply on May 26 2024, 12:38am:

I watched some of a video of it a while back, was kinda cute but nothing I'd want to use Comment...

Question: Do you think Reaper will ever get vector support instead of raster for the ui, icons etc in the future?
Asked by Rano (103.211.132.x) on May 25 2024, 4:24pm
Reply on May 26 2024, 12:38am:

No plans, but we'll see 1 Comment...

Question: hey jf- (a double whammy!) If space is a vacuum,how can it be cold? (considering equilibrium) + if space IS a vacuum, what IS the "container"? ta
Asked by 2024 (86.138.246.x) on May 25 2024, 1:35pm
Reply on May 26 2024, 12:39am:

Is space cold? also I don't think it's a vacuum, just has areas with less matter than others 1 Comment...

Question: Do you prefer act on press or release for UI design?
Asked by ui-ur (45.89.173.x) on May 25 2024, 9:12am
Reply on May 25 2024, 12:41pm:

release feels better most of the time Comment...

Question: What was the most painful injury you've ever had?
Asked by Will (23.125.224.x) on May 23 2024, 2:22am
Reply on May 23 2024, 3:20am (edited at May 23 2024, 3:26am):

When I was 17 I did some really stupid stuff on rollerblades and sprained (?) or overextended my hip. Hurt like hell at the time, and for days. Probably fucked up my biomechanics, too, I should've done a lot of PT but didn't. So now a lot of my strength training is compensating for that, in order to make things work right for running. 3 Comments...

Question: hey jf- we love using spectrograms & sonograms..are you aware of the slightly more advanced "spectrum reassignment method" ? ta
Asked by 2024 (86.138.246.x) on May 22 2024, 6:38pm
Reply on May 23 2024, 3:21am:

You mean where you increase the resolution of a spectrogram without reducing the time sensitivity, by doing twice the analysis but at a slight offset? 1 Comment...

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