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


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Question: Does Steinberg open-sourcing VST3 interest you at all? Does it open any kind of doors for future plans?
Asked by Aaron (71.150.210.x) on October 31 2025, 7:30pm
Reply on November 1 2025, 1:51pm:
    not really, but it simplifies development of open source plug-ins. they should do the same for VST2.
Comment...
Question: Could you explain the rationale behind making every output and input channel a dedicated variable within JSFX/EEL2, instead of using a single output/input variable? Wouldn’t an array-based make the handling of arbitrary channel counts more convenient, or is there a performance penalty associated with this approach?
Asked by capitalg (92.117.17.x) on October 31 2025, 11:03am
Reply on November 1 2025, 1:50pm:
    you can use spl(x) for this purpose, but it is a little slower
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Question: I've heard the "reaper sounds bad" thing a looot in many places, FB, Reddit, Instagram.. maybe this has something to do with the default playback and render lower resample modes? why not make r8 default?
Asked by alex (187.213.143.x) on October 29 2025, 9:23pm
Reply on October 30 2025, 1:48am:
    the default modes sound totally fine, I wouldn't read into it too much.
4 Comments...
Question: Hello, in our area, some people think Reaper has poor sound quality and is not as good as other mainstream DAWs. Should I argue fiercely with them? Because they have not conducted any objective tests and are only basing their opinions on theory, which can also be understood as being in the realm of metaphysics or vague speculation. Do you think it makes sense to argue fiercely with them about this topic?
Asked by cats (221.215.214.x) on October 28 2025, 5:05am
Reply on October 28 2025, 12:34pm:
    It's rarely worth arguing with people on the internet. Maybe just state the facts with instructions on how to test, but don't try to convince anybody beyond that? Otherwise it's a waste of time :/
4 Comments...
Question: Hi, in the twenty years since Reaper was founded, has there been a commercial company that has tried to buy Reaper from you, and if so, what price they would offer
Asked by nicola (167.234.251.x) on October 27 2025, 12:55pm
Reply on October 27 2025, 2:01pm (edited at October 27 2025, 2:02pm):
    Not really! Random emails from private equity but not sure that counts. We've made our lack of desire for such things pretty well known.
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Question: hey, what's your biggest regret in life / or work?
Asked by not jf (2.147.52.x) on October 27 2025, 7:17am
Reply on October 27 2025, 2:01pm:
    Hah I wish I had spent my 20s trail running and flossing my teeth, but I guess those are pretty minor regrets ;) There are other things (which I wouldn't want to talk about here) I wish I had been more aware of to deal with/help with, but that's life and who can say whether it would've mattered.
2 Comments...
Question: Hi Justin, I wonder how you keep all the project/solution files in sync when working with multiple versions of Visual Studio. Do you use a tool to generate them or is it done manually?
Asked by juni (89.182.202.x) on October 26 2025, 10:08pm
Reply on October 27 2025, 1:59pm (edited at October 28 2025, 11:14pm):
    This is something I've been putting off dealing with for years. We do it all manually now; we have 2 VC versions (2005 .vcproj, and 2013/2022 vcxproj for armEC), 2 Xcode versions (intel vs universal builds), and a makefile (linux/macOS dev). So adding new files is a bit of a pain, as a result some of our .cpp files are way too long. I suppose I could write a script to automate a lot of it, since most of it (other than Xcode) is done via text editors most of the time anyway.

    Update Oct 28: ok I made such a script (in php), phew, about 3 or 4 hours of work. Will have to add a ton of files to make it pay off.
1 Comment...
Question: I've been told that Reaper can import non-audio files like .txt.exe.doc to show waveforms. Is this true?
Asked by toby (167.234.251.x) on October 26 2025, 11:43am
Reply on October 26 2025, 2:12pm:
    it can support raw formats, but there wouldn't be any meaningful waveforms in .txt/.exe/.doc
1 Comment...
Question: How does what we don't know make us stronger? Doesn't ignorance makes the human race limited and weak?
Asked by Human (102.176.65.x) on October 25 2025, 2:14pm
Reply on October 25 2025, 2:53pm:
    It's being facetious
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Question: Hi, do you still run plain alsa ? Do you manage to configure it so that other apps can use it at the same time as reaper or do you not care about that?
Asked by kond (31.37.8.x) on October 25 2025, 1:39pm
Reply on October 25 2025, 2:53pm:
    Yes, and usually I don't want other apps using my device.
Comment...
Question: Just curious... How many lines of code does REAPER currently have?
Asked by Javier (195.235.163.x) on October 25 2025, 1:09pm
Reply on October 25 2025, 2:54pm:
    Somewhere around a million, including various libraries, give or take.
Comment...
Question: What do you think about this. gamingonlinux.com/2025/10/many-dev...
Asked by nicici (167.234.251.x) on October 25 2025, 12:46pm
Reply on October 25 2025, 2:56pm:
    Not sure why, but whatever, can't say I really care? Open source forking is a good thing yeah?
Comment...
Question: Just courious...
Asked by Javier (195.235.163.x) on October 24 2025, 11:18am
Reply on October 24 2025, 5:32pm:
    need a question
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Question: Have you ever improved the sound quality of Reaper, especially for versions 5.0, 6.0, and 7.0? Is the sound quality getting better and better? Or during the software updates, have there been any optimizations made to the sound quality? A considerable number of people here believe that the newer the version, the better the sound quality. Do you think this is a psychological effect?
Asked by nico (221.215.214.x) on October 23 2025, 5:00am
Reply on October 23 2025, 11:41am:
    yes and no -- in general the underlying quality when mixing unresampled, non-timestretched files hasn't changed. BUT, we have fixed various quality-related bugs that could occur in (generally rare) instances, improved the quality of the resampling support, added/updated timestretch engines, improved pan law curves, fixed bugs in ReaPlugs, etc. So in some instances, yes, but in most cases, if you load a project in 7.0 and 4.0, and it doesn't use features that don't exist in 4.0, then they should render to the same thing (or nearly so).
Comment...
Question: Hi, this formula creates a sine wave in JSFX, lfo = sin(phase * 2 * PI), where PI = 3.14159265359. Can you tell me what formula would create the "Parametric" waveform in REAPER's automation item? I'm trying to create that waveform in a modulation plugin. Thanks.
Asked by parametric (102.176.65.x) on October 22 2025, 6:55am
Reply on October 22 2025, 12:16pm:
    It would be a pain to do in JSFX, each section is a 'fast start'/'fast end' curve, which is a cubic curve... so you'd need to do something like (untested):
    
    function lfo(phase) (
      phase = (phase - floor(phase)) * 4; // phase is 0..4
      phase < 1 ?  1 - (1 - phase)*(1 - phase)*(1 - phase) : // 0..1
      phase < 2 ?  1 - (phase - 1)*(phase - 1)*(phase - 1) : // 1..0
      phase < 3 ? -1 + (3 - phase)*(3 - phase)*(3 - phase) : // 0..-1
                  -1 + (phase - 3)*(phase - 3)*(phase - 3) ; // -1..0
    );
    
    
    (hope it works!)
5 Comments...
Question: Ever considered writing an esoteric language for a laugh? I created this one years ago, has a working interpreter and is Turing complete. esolangs.org/wiki/WARP
Asked by Tony (206.83.98.x) on October 20 2025, 10:41pm
Reply on October 21 2025, 5:19pm:
    hah seems like a lot of work for a laugh
Comment...
Question: What's your favourite video game?
Asked by artiliano (123.136.31.x) on October 19 2025, 8:46am
Reply on October 20 2025, 7:35pm:
    Probably the Mercenaries mini-game of Resident Evil 5
Comment...
Question: Do you have any JSFX plugin out there that supports sidechain signal? I wanted to take a look. Does it involve using more than 4 "pins" plus any special built-in JSFX feature for the sidechain signal?
Asked by Sidechain (102.176.65.x) on October 19 2025, 8:27am
Reply on October 20 2025, 7:37pm:
    Plenty do (stillwell compressors, Liteon/np1136peaklimiter, etc), there aren't any specific features other than adding more pins and using them.
Comment...
Question: When I read the question about local variables, I wonder: why is global variables the default in many(all?) languages, despite its problems? Why not having programming languages specify, that a variable shall be purposely global instead? (probably a philosophical question)..
Asked by Mespotine (37.4.251.x) on October 17 2025, 2:22pm
Reply on October 17 2025, 2:54pm (edited at October 17 2025, 2:56pm):
    Many languages require you to declare variables, those typically don't have this issue. While I can't answer why it happens in general, in EEL2, it was the path of least resistance when adding function support... but in hindsight, stupid laziness. I suppose a mode in EEL2 which would be local_default() could be useful, so that you only have to declare globals, and not locals. but that would be more error prone. I guess local() and global() it is!
1 Comment...
Question: If variables of a function are private to the function, then what's the use of local() when I cam put countless variables in the function that will still work without using local() to make them private since they are already private?
Asked by local() (102.176.65.x) on October 16 2025, 7:18pm
Reply on October 16 2025, 7:54pm:
    assuming you're talking about eel2/jsfx -- variables are global by default _unless_ you specify local()
7 Comments...
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