What are your must have functions in a DAW or audio editor?

[futures_untold]

What built in functions and workarounds do you use every day that make your workflow simpler, faster and easier?

I'm about to switch from Reaper 3 to Reaper 4 and want to minimise the amount of time I spend customising everything.

[futures_untold]

Here's mine so far...

Clean interface
• Bright clear colours for main screen (light grey - dark grey - aqua blue - teal - black)
• Simplified interface to reduce visual clutter - no unused functions to be shown on screen
• Toolbar buttons for commonly utilised functions
○ Mixer
○ Sample browser
○ Routing matrix
○ Audio editing functions
○ Bouncing functions
○ Pitch functions
○ Zoom functions
○ Item colouring functions
○ Cue point functions

---------------------------------------

Audio editing functions
• Slice at play head
• Slice loop selection
• Dynamic slice (for drum loops)
• Auto silence/trim (for high noise floors)
• Reverse
• Invert
• Normalise
• Remove transient (create new zero crossing)
• Remove DC bias
• Glue items

---------------------------------------

Bouncing functions
• Bounce song to HD
• Bounce loop selection to HD
• Bounce FX to new take on new track
• Bounce/import audio slice from sequencer track to drum machine/sampler

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View controls / zooming / scrolling
• 1-click zoom selection to fit screen
• 1-click zoom waveform to fit screen
• 1-click view entire project on screen
• 1-click view/zoom reset
• Mouse wheel scroll centres on play head
• Reason 3 style scrolling using keyboard modifiers
• Keyboard shortcut to position play head at start of loop
• Keyboard shortcut to position play head at start of item
• Keyboard shortcut to position play head at start of song
• Sequencer channels
• Expand channel size to fit the screen
• Expand channel size to large
• Minimise channel size to small
• Reset channel size to default

---------------------------------------

Pitch
• Pitch up 1 semitone
• Pitch up 1 octave
• Pitch down 1 semi tone
• Pitch down 1 octave
• Preserve pitch when time-stretching
• Reset pitch

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Time-stretch
• Time-stretch to selection
• Time-stretch options

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Sequencer functions
• Toggle snap to grid
• Toggle quantise
• Snap & grid settings
• Quantise settings
• Loop item button
• Double click loop item
• Toggle group/ungroup of selected sequencer items
• Cue point toolbar
○ Add new cue point
○ Delete selected cue points
○ Cue point play order screen (to test alternative musical arrangements quickly)
• Phase position adjustment control (next to volume & pan controls)
• Phase invert
• Glue items

---------------------------------------

Automation
• 1-click midi learn
• 1-click create automation lane for last touched control
• Toggle expansion/collapse state of automation tracks
• Automation moves with sequencer item

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Buses
• FX send buses x5
○ Verb
○ Delay
○ Glitch
• Drums bus
○ Pre routed drum machine channels (into drum bus) x3
• Master channel FX
○ Verb
○ Glitch
○ Compressor

---------------------------------------

Metering
• Properly marked meters
• Green / yellow / red meter colour

[Eat Bass]

sorry i can't be of help but any chance you could post a screenshot of your customization? I'm curious to see what reaper looks like fully customized.

[futures_untold]

I've not done the customisation yet, but I'll do a quick wireframe in Photoshop so you get the general idea of where I'm headed

[Eat Bass]

I've not done the customisation yet, but I'll do a quick wireframe in Photoshop so you get the general idea of where I'm headed

alright you don't have to go crazy with it i was just curious. reaper always intrigued me how you can customize it to your liking but i couldn't figure out anything i was doing in the first bit so ended up getting logic...coming from reason 6.

[Sonika]

I know nothing of Reaper, but Im more than happy with logic, so it's all good.

You didn't add anything about Audio tempo editing - logic has two ways to edit audio
Classic - when the tempo goes up, so does the pitch
(the other one whose name has slipped my mind) tempo goes up, the pitch stays the same


Also, you didn't mention anything about the stock synths, or a sampler synth specifically (I use Logic and native instruments Massive, but I like to use logics native sampler the EXS24)

[Skrew]

Drum Sequencer like FL Studio
Drag and Drop
Piano Roll
Noob Friendly Layout
Automation
MIDI Learn
Volume knobs in mixer are read by db "-3db for example", not 0-100.
Simple copy & paste


-Favorite Software-
1. Pro Tools MP 9
2. Adobe Audition 3
3. FL Studio 9
4. Melodyne
5. FL Studio 10

[Electric_Head]

I can post up a screen shot of my setup but it is basic Rado v4 theme

http://radorec.com/-themes/16-reaper-4-theme

with color variations here and there

You seem to have your list fairly complete though futures.
You know Reaper well so you should have it sorted.

[Skrew]

Why is everyone switching to Reaper? It looks like a modern copy of Mixcraft.

[futures_untold]

@Sonika

Thanks for the heads up Sonika. I forgot about the tempo/pitching. Upon further investigation Reaper seems to have the function built into the playrate slider in the main transport bar. I think that also these can be set in a sequencer items individual properties as well. That said, it makes sense to have some toolbar buttons so I can avoid diving into menus and random screens as much as possible!

You're right about a stock synth & sampler. I could preload a stock synth onto three tracks as I'm sure to use them. (Vember Audio Surge)

I don't actually have a stock sampler as I've never found a sampler I like!!!!

---------------------------

@Skrew

I agree that FL's drum sequencer is a breeze to use. To that end, I use Poise with half-diamond shaped midi markers directly on the midi piano roll. But I neglected to list a button that switches between normal midi blocks and the other shapes, so thanks for reminding me!

Some people like Reaper but many more people use other apps. To be fair, no DAW is perfect which means it is purely a matter of personal taste. For me, I like Reaper for three main reasons.

1> Tracks can act as audio or midi tracks as well as being busses.
2> Everything is customisable meaning I get the software I want to use rather than software that annoys me because of design ******.
3> The sample browser is excellent and allows drag & drop directly into samplers and the sequencer.

---------------------------

@Electric_Head

Thanks for the link to the Rado theme, it looks simple enough. I'll edit the colours perhaps, but appart from that it looks good.

At the moment I had half settled for JanneUniverse v2_124.

I don't know Reaper that well tbh, and wish to avoid trailing through the custom actions list trying to figure out every last action available to see if I will use it or not. The list I've made above I know is useful to me as I've already had R3 running with those functions customised to be readily available. That said when it comes to customising the position of toolbars etc there are flaws in Reaper 3 which are slightly addressed in Reaper 4. This ought to make my final R4 customisation way better than the last one!

In my opinion, the default Reaper install is ugly as sin and far to complicated. That's why I want to streamline the interface to get rid of the excess clutter I simply don't use!

Thanks for the suggestions everyone, keep 'em coming!

Patrick

[syrup]

Save, Load, Export

[wub]

Short cut keys that don't require me to do a Vulcan death grip to use.

[Phase Down]

I like to have simple processes close to me like quick reversing and stretching.

[Undrig]

I like sequencers that allow me to customize based on how I prefer to work and not the other way around.

[Artie_Fufkin]

Short cut keys that don't require me to do a Vulcan death grip to use.

The shortcut to render a selection into a new sample/instrument in Renoise is ctrl+shift+alt+r.

[Electric_Head]

@Electric_Head

Thanks for the link to the Rado theme, it looks simple enough. I'll edit the colours perhaps, but appart from that it looks good.

At the moment I had half settled for JanneUniverse v2_124.

I don't know Reaper that well tbh, and wish to avoid trailing through the custom actions list trying to figure out every last action available to see if I will use it or not. The list I've made above I know is useful to me as I've already had R3 running with those functions customised to be readily available. That said when it comes to customising the position of toolbars etc there are flaws in Reaper 3 which are slightly addressed in Reaper 4. This ought to make my final R4 customisation way better than the last one!

In my opinion, the default Reaper install is ugly as sin and far to complicated. That's why I want to streamline the interface to get rid of the excess clutter I simply don't use!

Thanks for the suggestions everyone, keep 'em coming!

Patrick

Just thought I`d mention the Rado v4 theme has been setup to improve workflow in that he also includes very useful toolbars.
I have found most of the regularly used commands are included on the Main toolbar.
Plus when switching to midi editor it changes all the icons to suite midi.
Very handy.
Install the Color toolbar and you're set after that.
The new v4 doesn`t even need sws to get the actions you require.
Plus he adds shortcuts to change layouts.
Single click to change the entire layout to be setup for tracking, one click mixer setup, one click media, etc.
It alters the fader sizes, etc.

[escapes]

Started using reaper about 3months ago after being a bit bored with fl. I love the work flow of reaper I find it so much faster then fl how I've set up reaper.
Without looking at my reaper i think my toolbar pretty much the same as your minus a few custom macros, muitveiw toolbar, fx cpu media browser docked, full screen view , most used synth with track template docked , new track random colour and live rendering, of the top off my head.

I use a lot of track templates for sampled drums routed , midi drums routed, sub bass, bass split mid his lows , synths , sends etc

Screen sets and layouts come in handly as well. I've made quite a few custom ones.

I had an audio toolbar then I found out you could set up mouse modifiers I now use them to cut up audio.

If you aint install the sws some of the macros you can make are a god send for workflow. http://wiki.cockos.com/wiki/index.php/M ... he_Toolbar was a game changer for me.