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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. Name: Ask: Human (enter yes): [unreplied] | [replied] | [recent comments] | [all] [older questions]

Question: I wonder if your political views have changed in recent years? If I remember correctly, you were a supporter of Bernie Sanders long time ago. Asked by dopp (64.176.64.x) on May 26 2026, 3:31pm Question: I noticed, that loading a png with with transparency with the gfx-functions, that the transparency is obeyed when blitting it. Is there a way to draw transparent pixels in gfx as well? I only found that I could use normal colors but I might have missed some way to draw transparency... Asked by Mespotine (212.122.61.x) on May 26 2026, 1:00pm Reply on May 26 2026, 1:48pm: yes! gfx_a2 controls what is written to the alpha channel. and of course you can also control whether the alpha channel is used when blitting by setting a bit of gfx_mode Comment... Question: 1. In JSFX, does a non-slider dependent math like makeup_gain = 10^(8 / 20); gets recalculated any time a slider value changes simply because this math is in @slider, or non-slider dependent math in @slider doesnt get recalculated any time a slider moves? 2. What's the difference putting it in @init vs @slider, and which is best? Asked by init vs slider (154.161.251.x) on May 24 2026, 11:35pm Reply on May 25 2026, 1:15pm: FYI, makeup_gain = 10^(8 / 20) is optimized to makeup_gain = 2.5118864315 or whatever (it will precalculate constants). but yeah that will get executed on every time any slider changes if it is in @slider. having said that, that only takes a few cycles so you can put it wherever. If you put it in @init that's also fine, but if other code ever modifies it then it will behave differently... 1 Comment... Question: There's a format you might not know about: .LRC It's a format that can display lyrics, but in Winamp, it requires a plugin to display... What's your opinion on this format? Asked by ILove Lyrics (188.26.214.x) on May 24 2026, 2:13am Reply on May 24 2026, 3:16am: never really saw the appeal of reading lyrics heh, unless you're doing karaoke 2 Comments... Question: What was the last thing that frustrated you? Asked by Will (99.100.219.x) on May 24 2026, 2:11am Reply on May 24 2026, 3:05am: I have an old arm chromebook. At some point I was annoyed that google stopped updating chromeOS for it, so a couple of years ago I opened it up to enable firmware writing, put libreboot on it. then getting a working mainline linux kernel working on it was a pain, ended up using postmarketOS for a bit. but it sucked. and it was a lot slower (to build a debug build of reaper was like 6 minutes, vs 3 minutes on chromeos/crouton). the other day I decided I would put chromeos back, so I rewrote the firmware with the default depthcharge one I had saved. (turns out, side note, that the hardware switch to enable firmware writing actually enables toggling of write-protect... so even though I put the hardware switch back on, my firmware was left not write protected. but anyway). I went to go restore the chromeos with the default boot loader, but it failed "unexpected error" every time. I tried all of the troubleshooting steps the web could give me. no worky. I figured it might be due to my firmware not being write protected. but I couldn't change the write protection without booting, even if I opened the laptop up. so I kept playing with it again today, and realized while it was restoring the system, you could switch virtual terminals and see what was happening. anyway, at some point, it detects that it can write firmware, and then tries to update the firmware. and then fails, and restores the system back to the state it found it (even thought it had successfully written all of the partitions). so, I finally got it it work by turning the system off right as it was about to update the firmware. Was pretty frustrating for a while, but I avoided having to toss this thing, which is still useful (small light laptop that I can toss around without having to worry about, etc). 1 Comment... Question: Hello, someone wants to develop a DAW. He claims audio is fundamentally a 1D floating-point array in memory—all editing (cut, paste, merge) is array operations, and all effects (delay, reverb, EQ) are mathematical transformations of this array. He thinks audio processing is just math, so building a DAW isn't difficult. Do you think this basic understanding is enough to create a functional DAW? His core point: Audio is a sequence of amplitude samples (44100 per second for 44.1kHz 32-bit float), and all audio Asked by uadad (112.225.225.x) on May 23 2026, 3:19pm Reply on May 24 2026, 12:34am: You can represent it that way, sure, but the difficulty is less about representing and playing back audio and more about making a tool that humans will find useful to use, lol. Comment... Question: made a test with Javier Cordero on NinjamZap on my Iphone 12pro max , it recognizes the Behringer Flow 8 in streaming mode as a 8x2 interface phone and mixer are powered by a powerbank... Will you try NInjamZap for IOS with us Someday ? ... it ´s good to see the players when you hear them ... Asked by Bernd Keul (84.31.170.x) on May 22 2026, 9:05am Reply on May 24 2026, 12:34am: nice, one of these days sure Comment... Question: been seeing a lot of people in socials and forums complain about reaper "not sounding as good as other daws" or "sounds bad when I play it outside" and it comes to the user not even thinking about resample modes, why not make it default to be at the highest quality (r8) on everything? seems like an obscure thing to understand when first starting and it's not that obvious to even know how it may change your desired experience, like juts another "hurdle" to understand reapers "heavy learning curve" etc etc Asked by diego (187.213.97.x) on May 21 2026, 7:23am Reply on May 21 2026, 8:54pm: changing the default resample mode is not going to affect that. IMO pan laws and other things come in to play more. r8brain may be highest quality but for most things it's unnecessary and it's not without some downsides especially in varispeed modes etc. Comment... Question: Hey Justin, hope you're having a good week. I'm curious how feasible is it to have a video frame accessor function in the ReaScript C++ api? Similar to GetAudioAccessorSamples() but for video frames. Like is it a "total re-write of the video processing engine, no chance" or "hmm bit tricky but doable"? Also, have you tried the latest craze in coffee ... making americanos with steamed water? youtube.com/watch?v=0HdzJz_evNw Asked by atmo (93.89.128.x) on May 20 2026, 12:12pm Reply on May 20 2026, 12:45pm: Hmm will look into this, would you imagine it be via the mediaitem API (so you'd want all of the item timing transformations in place?) or just a PCM_source (so you could make a copy of the source and pull video frames directly from it)? Separately -- steamed water - I've seen some coffee shops do this for 20 years heh, never really thought too much about it, nor did I correlate it with the flavor. 3 Comments... Question: Watching an interview with you. Dude, you rock. I admire your self-awareness and rebelliousness. I don’t really have a question, just that I find you inspiring, thanks Asked by Mike (102.208.12.x) on May 17 2026, 12:22pm Reply on May 17 2026, 4:09pm: thanks! in case anybody is wondering it was probably this one. Comment... Question: Did you see all the love you're getting on hackernews this week? news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48060077 Asked by Will (99.100.219.x) on May 13 2026, 6:59pm Reply on May 13 2026, 10:36pm: ah nice thx Comment... Question: Hi Justin, need career advice. 8-year C++ dev here, stuck on legacy code, stagnant, underpaid and ready for change. I want remote work but most C++ roles are in-office so I’ve been looking into webdev for better pay and flexibility. I also dream of starting my own venture someday and webdev feels relevant there. I keep getting rejected for senior webdev roles due to no webdev experience and can’t afford a junior pay cut. Should I grind LeetCode for FAANG, keep pushing webdev or pivot? Based in India. Asked by megaman (223.237.183.x) on May 13 2026, 5:13pm Reply on May 13 2026, 6:25pm: Hell if I know, sorry I've been incredibly lucky to always get to work on things I enjoyed, so my advice would be a ridiculous "find something you enjoy and make it work" but I realize that is probably unrealistic. It would seem to be a big waste to try to throw away your C++ experience. Maybe try to find ways to expand it, and rather than being a webdev or C++ dev, but a "full stack" sort of dev? Lots of C++ experience plus ability to integrate other stuff might be a good path? 2 Comments... Question: How come that some of the EEL-functions are not available in Lua/Python? For instance gmem in Python or network-functions in Lua. Asked by Mespotine (212.122.61.x) on May 13 2026, 3:03pm Reply on May 13 2026, 6:23pm: Python is deprecated, we haven't updated it in ages. Some of the eel functions would need to get ported to Lua... Comment... Question: Am I the only person who uses Reaper for bass music/EDM? In the 16 years I’ve been doing it I’ve encountered only one other dubstep reaper guy. I recently made this in Reaper: youtu.be/8AWFVKDrVrI?si=X_-feorZLSRomRlAand every track on my SoundCloud going back to 2011 is Reaper. It wouldn’t have been possible without you bro, thank you so much. I owe you and Steve Duda my life Asked by STLFLX (98.17.162.x) on May 13 2026, 12:03am Reply on May 13 2026, 2:11am: thanks! probably not, lots of people use it but don't advertise that, I think? :) Comment... Question: What do you think about Neural Amp Modelling (NAM) and similar machine learning amp/fx capture tech? Asked by Chris (203.206.107.x) on May 12 2026, 6:48am Reply on May 12 2026, 7:15pm: actually need to play with it more, haven't done enough to have an opinion Comment... Question: What is your favorite vintage/outdated/no-longer-frequency-used/etc. hardware component + why? (Vaccum tubes, VFDs, dot matrix printers, etc.) What about software? Asked by Vega (162.210.5.x) on May 11 2026, 9:04pm Reply on May 11 2026, 9:49pm: They still make them and they are commonly used, but I really love a tube guitar amp. Vox AC30, mmmm, it gets so toasty warm. Comment... Question: Where are the Snowdens of yesteryear? PS. You must believe me when I tell you that I had decided to ask you this question specifically (smart guy answering all questions? Here am I with the question that has no answer) shortly BEFORE you brought up my favourite book in an answer to the previous question. I just cannot believe the odds of that. Asked by Igrom (20.203.177.x) on May 11 2026, 6:41pm Reply on May 11 2026, 9:48pm: I guess between him and Reality Winner, scary proposition of getting fucked over by the government. These days anything you would release people would probably go "so what" or think it was AI-generated. I mean the awfulness and corruption that is in plain sight every day makes any Snowden revelations look like no big deal. Comment... Question: Do you read fiction? If so, do you have any favourites? Asked by jrgc (145.40.189.x) on May 11 2026, 6:10pm Reply on May 11 2026, 6:17pm (edited at May 11 2026, 9:47pm): Yes! Hard to pick favorites, but off the top of my head, things I've enjoyed: Catch 22, A Fire Upon the Deep, everything by Philip K Dick and Vonnegut (though I'll admit the later Vonnegut gets a little self-indulgent and out there, so maybe earlier Vonnegut), also Neal Stephenson, Nick Harkaway (and his alter-ego Aidan Truhen), Iain M Banks Culture series, Douglas Adams, Ray Bradbury, All the Pretty Horses, Blood Meridian. Edit: oops actually not Blood Meridian, I brainfarted because I was thinking about how brutal that one is, I'd say skip that one and do No Country for Old Men instead. Comment... Question: How do I set up JS: MIDI Choke so that 4 samples choke each other? As the Mute Group does in Akai MPC. Asked by Andrey (109.106.143.x) on May 11 2026, 5:25pm Reply on May 11 2026, 6:09pm: hmm try this jsfx... that might work? 3 Comments... Question: Many of us pine for the days of iCQ/mIRC/Mumble/Forums and view the modern replacements in Discord/X/Reddit/Insta as lacking at best or harmful at worst. While all the old tech still exists the critical mass behind those tools isn't there so the experience is no longer the same. My questions are: 1. Was it the tools or the time/culture that made that era special. 2. If we were to reclaim that experience are there existing projects you think have a shot at doing or what would be needed? Asked by Kevin (142.188.209.x) on May 11 2026, 5:23pm Reply on May 11 2026, 6:10pm: I've been wanting to make a peer to peer Slack alternative (WASTE but modernized and with more persistent storage of chat and such), but haven't gotten around to it yet. Perhaps one of the biggest reasons I've procrastinated is the need for mobile device support and that generally being a pain to target/distribute/etc. 1 Comment... [unreplied] | [replied] | [recent comments] | [all] [older questions]

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