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.

[newer questions]

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[older questions]

Question: Can you buy bitwig for the modulation system?
Asked by MadMcMan (136.226.63.x) on August 21 2024, 2:21pm
Reply on August 22 2024, 11:13am:

no, but you can Comment...

Question: I'm looking for an alternative to PathSync. Do you have any recommendations?
Asked by Richie (149.88.19.x) on August 20 2024, 9:48pm
Reply on August 22 2024, 11:14am:

I pretty much use rsync at this point but that’s almost entirely on non-Windows Comment...

Question: Hey Justin, it seems a lot of music you've made is improvisational. Often it's live performance / jams / loop based journeys, rather than heavily produced compositonal projects. So I was wondering if over the years you've archived every Reaper project, or instead just save the end results eg. wavs/mp3s/.mp4s etc, and discard the rest. I also wonder if you do much in the way of compositional music in Reaper with sections/parts/midi/ various production techniques etc? Or is it more fun to jam out when you ge
Asked by Dom64 (82.132.214.x) on August 20 2024, 3:43am
Reply on August 22 2024, 11:17am:

Yes I love improvising, then developing songs derived from those. Production ends up being more work than I care to bother, I’m more interested in the live versions anyway Comment...

Question: hey jf- will you be reading Luis Elizondo book... "Imminent" ?
Asked by 2024 (165.120.114.x) on August 19 2024, 8:58am
Reply on August 19 2024, 3:34pm:

Unlikely Comment...

Question: why isnt autosave enabled by default?
Asked by balls (104.13.217.x) on August 19 2024, 6:24am
Reply on August 19 2024, 3:34pm:

Auto-backup-saving has been enabled by default for new installs of 7.x. For users who installed earlier versions and changed some backup-related prefs, the new default does not apply. Comment...

Question: what motivates you in developing reaper, as money is no longer an obligation for you? what makes you act for or against a new feature or bug report?
Asked by Robert8 (37.65.86.x) on August 17 2024, 1:57pm
Reply on August 17 2024, 6:52pm:

I'm the first user and a user first Comment...

Question: What was the (main) reason you froze the REAPER issue tracker?
Asked by wasereb4 (95.90.106.x) on August 17 2024, 2:16am
Reply on August 17 2024, 10:22am:

We were not using it efficiently Comment...

Question: hey jf- do you feel population ethnic diversity is working for most countries..or, not really..?
Asked by 2024 (165.120.114.x) on August 16 2024, 11:11am
Reply on August 16 2024, 9:31pm:

Wow there's a lot of load in that question and I don't think it's answerable as it is. I think diversity is a very positive thing! 5 Comments...

Question: I always wondered how would you manage memory in a DAW ? I would guess since latency is very important you cant be using new and delete, do you use custom allocators,arenas?
Asked by Malloc (196.159.83.x) on August 16 2024, 4:25am
Reply on August 16 2024, 9:32pm:

The key would be to allocate things before you need them, from a non-realtime thread, and dispose of them leisurely when you're done with them. Comment...

Question: In VST2 sdk, calling effSetSpeakerArrangement from 64bit host will pass 64bit input speaker arrangement pointer as a 32bit number. Is that correct? Will it crash someday?
Asked by Ruchira (123.231.120.x) on August 16 2024, 3:33am
Reply on August 16 2024, 9:33pm:

The 4th parameter to the VST dispatch function is VstIntPtr, which is the same as intpr_t or INT_PTR, which means you can map the pointer to it safely. Comment...

Question: If you haven't seen this, it's fun. jordaneldredge.com/notes/corrupted...Curious if you remember the dad's request for a skin...
Asked by shane (76.115.173.x) on August 14 2024, 9:32pm
Reply on August 15 2024, 12:20pm:

Yeah saw that (I follow Jordan via RSS heh), and no memory at all of that, but I've forgotten a lot from 25+ years ago. Comment...

Question: If you had to write new software that wasn't a DAW, audio player or P2P platform, what could it be? Is there something you once wanted to write but then discarded?
Asked by Stefan Ritter (79.219.84.x) on August 14 2024, 8:19am
Reply on August 14 2024, 2:09pm:

Maybe a site+app called "in space and time" where you upload geotagged pictures from your phone and can cross reference it with pictures where you've been and stuff (from strava/gpx/your own pictures/etc) Comment...

Question: Amateur coder here. I'd like to try making something like the searchable databases in the REAPER media explorer. What's the general idea to create a searchable database? Does it extract meta data from the files and build some kind of full text search database? I was checking out the files in the MediaDB folder, but I didn't quite understand the format and how that is searchable. Is this something you created yourself or some kind of standard format? If you could point me in the right direction on what to
Asked by helpme (89.187.187.x) on August 14 2024, 1:56am
Reply on August 14 2024, 2:00am:

2 Comments...

Question: What's your email? I'm at bruce@...
Asked by Bruce Brinick (174.82.43.x) on August 13 2024, 5:19pm
Reply on August 13 2024, 6:30pm:

first name at company dot com Comment...

Question: Wow, thunderbird works awsome. It does everything I want it to do. (Just like reaper :) ) You write that you use it too. What do you like most about it?
Asked by Trill (170.203.211.x) on August 13 2024, 12:57am
Reply on August 13 2024, 5:06pm:

It is reliable and works and I can copy its appdata folder to new machines rather than having to reinstall/reconfigure everywhere. Comment...

Question: Hey jf. What are your thoughts on DRM, the SKG (Stop Killing Games) campaign, digital media ownership, intellectual property, and copyright laws? And I do apologize for the loaded question. But researching about this stuff has really put alot of things into perspective as an aspiring software developer (Mainly C, C++, and some Lua). Especially when it comes to software ethics.
Asked by Matthew (76.37.54.x) on August 12 2024, 9:25pm
Reply on August 13 2024, 5:05pm (edited at August 13 2024, 5:06pm):

DRM - bad. SKG - no idea what that is. digital media ownership - I think if you buy a copy of something (e.g. a digital download) it should be yours and you should be able to resell it in the same way a physical copy would be. intellectual property - an abstract concept that can be implemented well or poorly. copyright - a concrete form of intellectual property that exists for good reason and is a good thing for society! Comment...

Question: How to know if vst2/vst3 plugin is supporting HiDPI? Can host check that?
Asked by Ruchira (123.231.104.x) on August 12 2024, 7:29pm
Reply on August 13 2024, 5:03pm: