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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[older questions]

Question: Any advice you want to give to a person who is just starting journey as an indie game developer for living?
Asked by Godot (182.69.50.x) on July 29 2024, 9:27am
Reply on July 29 2024, 3:47pm:

No idea about game development, but have fun, keep your build/release process fast, and embrace user feedback :) 1 Comment...

Question: How much of your day do you spend, on average, by yourself?
Asked by Will (23.125.224.x) on July 27 2024, 3:52pm
Reply on July 28 2024, 2:30am (edited at July 28 2024, 2:43am):

That would be interesting to measure, but I'd guess it would range from 1-(edit)6 hours depending on the day. (edit)also I think "by yourself" would be a bit ambiguous... does walking around in the city but not talking to anybody count? how long do you have to be by yourself before it counts? (e.g. does 20 minute alone, 20 minutes around people, repeated for 8 hours count as 4 hours of by yourself?) Comment...

Question: Hey JF, what Video Editing software do reckon complements REAPER the best? Ideally available on Linux :)
Asked by Jamie (51.9.61.x) on July 27 2024, 10:36am
Reply on July 28 2024, 2:31am:

I'd use REAPER of course! I admit I may be an outlier. Comment...

Question: Why there are no 128 General MIDI sounds in REAPER? I think all other musical software have this? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_MIDI
Asked by GMGM (207.244.71.x) on July 26 2024, 3:22pm
Reply on July 26 2024, 4:06pm:

We prefer to let other plug-ins implement this Comment...

Question: Hey, do you know there is a free & open source game engine named "Godot". It is full fledged software for making 3D and 2D games. Unlike the commercial softwares (Unity & Unreal), which are so heavy software, this Godot is so lightweight and so optimised that the developers ported the entire computer software into smartphones, which is also running so smoothly. Do you think somehow this type of thing is possible for REAPER to entirely ported into smartphones?
Asked by Dogot (182.64.183.x) on July 26 2024, 2:47pm
Reply on July 26 2024, 4:05pm:

The backend of REAPER would be very easy to port to a smartphone, but the UI would be a huge amount of work to make it decent. Too much work. And a distraction, IMO. Comment...

Question: Have you seen this? learn.adafruit.com/pyportal-winamp...
Asked by Chip (84.242.25.x) on July 25 2024, 8:56am
Reply on July 25 2024, 4:23pm (edited at July 25 2024, 4:24pm):

Hah cool, I hadn't, thanks! Comment...

Question: Is it possible to know the vertical cursor position through the API? As in the track you will paste from your clipboard etc... Thanks!
Asked by kriasb (84.52.206.x) on July 23 2024, 2:12pm
Reply on July 24 2024, 1:40am:

the last touched track is the term you're looking for -- reaper.GetLastTouchedTrack() Comment...

Question: hey jf- not so much super8 in the 2024?
Asked by 2024 (31.104.68.x) on July 21 2024, 1:46pm
Reply on July 22 2024, 2:04am:

I reorganized the studio and I haven't setup my super8 rig again yet, but it's so nice and tidy without it... and I need to get some new furniture for the laptop as the things I've used before have found new purposes. I do miss the looping sessions though, gotta get back to it! 1 Comment...

Question: I see a lot of different aliases under your music main feed, do you really write so much music every week? Do you publish it somewhere other than here? And if true, any advice to actually finish music ? Im the type of guy obsessing over perfection on a track and I end up never releasing it because I stop enjoying making it to the end and jump on the next no-to-be-finished project. Cheers!
Asked by Adrian (93.45.80.x) on July 21 2024, 11:39am
Reply on July 22 2024, 2:02am:

There's a lot of revisiting old tracks and stuff, and a lot of improvisation, alone and with different people. Some of the improvisation gets revisited... I never (or rarely) finish music so I'm probably the wrong person to ask, my strategy is to publish it all that way you get to see the latest evolution as it goes. Comment...

Question: If you had any of the DAWs available in 2024 with all the features they have now before you started making Reaper would you have still started?
Asked by MisterLevy (58.84.119.x) on July 21 2024, 9:21am
Reply on July 22 2024, 2:01am:

...and REAPER didn't exist, you mean? and am I in my 20s rather than 40s? not sure I have the same energy level for programming... but in this hypothetical scenario, if REAPER didn't exist and I was as I am now, I'd probably start working on Ardour to give it the things that REAPER is missing and make it (optionally) work the way I like. Whether they'd take my patches, I have no idea... 1 Comment...

Question: I want to explain someone difference between static and dynamic websites. Can you give me example of any two websites, where one is static and other one is dynamic?
Asked by Abhi (122.177.213.x) on July 20 2024, 3:42am
Reply on July 20 2024, 4:28am:

static static: I'm sure these exist but almost everything I do is at least server-generated static
server-generated static: cockos and reaper web sites - these have little or no javascript, but we have some scripts to generate the pages because it's easier to maintain that way
server-generated dynamic: this web site, or my blog. my blog has some javascript which pulls additional content, and some javascript to handle playing mp3 files automatically, so it's somewhat in between this and the last one
mostly dynamic: music.1014.org (the full archive link above) is pretty much all generated via client-side code (it fetches a list of songs, builds the ui, etc).

1 Comment...

Question: Have you ever considered living in another country? If so, where?
Asked by Will (23.125.224.x) on July 18 2024, 2:10pm
Reply on July 20 2024, 3:22am:

I would consider it, but I feel like I would need a purpose to make it feel appropriate. Probably Europe somewhere... Comment...

Question: How did you took that picture of REAPER window in reaper.fm homepage, at the top? Looks very neat and nice!
Asked by Abhi (122.176.5.x) on July 16 2024, 6:21pm
Reply on July 16 2024, 8:56pm (edited at July 16 2024, 8:57pm):

That was the work of White_Tie IIRC Comment...

Question: Have you got any future plans to support secure CRT functions, possibly in wdltypes.h? Also something unrelated, your answers' paragraphs in top level text browsers need some attention. Have a nice weekend
Asked by Gio (94.70.7.x) on July 13 2024, 1:19am
Reply on July 14 2024, 2:49am:

hmm, why? 3 Comments...

Question: Have you watched "If the Stars Had A Sound" (the Mogwai documentary) yet? If so, what do you think?
Asked by SpoiledHobo (77.181.101.x) on July 12 2024, 1:25pm
Reply on July 12 2024, 1:27pm:

ooh thanks for the reminder I need to watch that! Comment...

Question: Sometimes I want to do drastically different mixes and want to switch back and forth to compare easily. Do .RPP files work well with Git? If not, what workflow would you suggest to do something similar?
Asked by willitwork (89.187.187.x) on July 12 2024, 7:42am
Reply on July 12 2024, 1:27pm:

they should as long as you don't have conflicts, if you do have conflicts you'll have to make sure you resolve them correctly. Or you could save separate projects and use project tabs... Comment...

Question: Wow, I am seeing one of your code somewhere in github. You used a for loop like this "for (;;)". I never seen this thing and can't find anything on google about it. It basically looks like a loop without any arguments, I think. Then what is the use of this?
Asked by Abhi (106.201.176.x) on July 10 2024, 7:24am
Reply on July 10 2024, 2:38pm: