reaplugs for mac

Thurgood · 11-17-2014, 09:27 PM

I work with a large law firm that uses Apple /mac video Mac platform video as prime system. I am an PC based system. I want to use the REAPLUGS to do basic functions. Comp, eq etc.. How do do I do this? Where do I load/install the the Mac compat versions? ??? They are worried. I am long time Reaper PC user and very happy PC version guy. What do I do to put Reaper plug suite on a Mac?? I am sure it is easy but my AV guy is worried. Our data is invaluable and we cannot risk corruption. Help please. PS he speaks Russian so easy instructions will b helpful (I would like help in English). Be well all. Very tired forgive grammar.

ws

serr · 11-18-2014, 09:40 AM

You will need to install and use Reaper. Reaplugs are proprietary to Reaper. They will not run in other DAWs. This is not a Mac vs. Windows thing.

willowhaus · 11-18-2014, 11:10 AM

Actually, you can download the VST ReaPlugs for Windows. They haven't ported them to Mac, though.

http://www.reaper.fm/reaplugs/

imagine · 05-19-2015, 04:20 PM

Would be great to have these for mac, especially ReaPitch and ReaDelay

Aymara · 05-19-2015, 10:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by serr

Reaplugs are proprietary to Reaper. They will not run in other DAWs.

If that would be the case, there wouldn't be an extra ReaPlugs download for other Windows DAWs like Cubase

http://www.reaper.fm/reaplugs/

I guess it will also work on Mac, where we have no dedicated ReaPlugs download, if we install Reaper in a OSX VM, e.g. virtualbox, and just copy the free plugins to the Mac target system.

From a licencing point of view, I guess this would be ok, because ReaPlugs are free on Windows too.

I think ReaPlugs are that good, that it would be worth the hassle. But it also wouldn't hurt to just install Reaper in parallel to another DAW, but that causes a licence issue after 60 days.

Aymara · 05-19-2015, 10:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aymara

... if we install Reaper in a OSX VM, e.g. virtualbox, and just copy the free plugins to the Mac target system.

I had a look, where the plugins are installed on OSX ... they are implemeted into the reaper.app

That means, they are Reaper exclusive on Mac and only compatible with other DAWs on Windows.

Xenakios · 05-20-2015, 04:00 AM

The ReaPlugs installed with Reaper on Windows are also exclusive to Reaper, you can't just copy the dll files from the Reaper folder to somewhere else to be used by other DAW programs. The plugins check that the host program is Reaper and some of them also depend on Reaper providing some functions. The standalone ReaPlugs package has plugins that have been built differently so that they work in other DAWs. (And some of the plugins available for Reaper are also missing from that package.)

Aymara · 05-20-2015, 06:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xenakios

The standalone ReaPlugs package has plugins that have been built differently so that they work in other DAWs.

Thanks for the clarification ... didn't knew that.

Conclusion: Cockos should release ReaPlugs for Mac!

serr · 05-20-2015, 07:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aymara

I had a look, where the plugins are installed on OSX ... they are implemeted into the reaper.app

That means, they are Reaper exclusive on Mac and only compatible with other DAWs on Windows.

Reaper plugins are a proprietary format. This isn't a Mac vs. Windows thing. They are written for Reaper in a way that lets them get away with more efficient processing like working with anticipative fx processing. They must be similar to VST format ('vst' is included in the name but is not the extension) but they are not VST plugins. They are .dylib files (dynamic link libraries - resource files for Reaper).

They are located in the app bundle in Contents/Plugins/FX. (Right-click on the Reaper.app file and select 'show package contents' to see.)

Xenakios · 05-20-2015, 07:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by serr

Reaper plugins are a proprietary format. This isn't a Mac vs. Windows thing. They are written for Reaper in a way that lets them get away with more efficient processing like working with anticipative fx processing.

Wrong. They are plain old VST2 plugins with things in them that disable them from being used in other hosts than Reaper. So they are not strictly "standard" VST plugins, but very close.

It doesn't matter anything what the file extension is, .dylib or something else. (.dylib is just the standard file extension for code library files, like .dll is on Windows.)

The anticipative fx processing doesn't need special support from the plugins involved, it works just the same for the plugins that are included in Reaper or 3rd party VST plugins.

Run the "nm" program in OS-X on the Reaper fx plugins and you will see they export the VSTPluginMain function like other VST2 plugins do.

serr · 05-20-2015, 07:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xenakios

Wrong. They are plain old VST2 plugins with things in them that disable them from being used in other hosts than Reaper. So they are not strictly "standard" VST plugins, but very close.

Reaper went to extra trouble (vs. standard VST implementation with .vst extension and file system locations) just to restrict them from other DAWs? Hmmm... Well, I guess if they're selling that plugin bundle stand-alone that kinda seems obvious in hindsight.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xenakios

The anticipative fx processing doesn't need special support from the plugins involved, it works just the same for the plugins that are included in Reaper or 3rd party VST plugins.

Anticipative fx processing must be disabled for any track with a 3rd party plugin inserted or you can get system crippling performance. I've seen the claim before that AfxP was intended to work with 3rd party plugins. I can tell you it doesn't work for any of mine (Waves, Soundtoys, Universal Audio). Reaper is insanely powerful with very low CPU use in large projects (200+ tracks and just as many or more plugins with HD audio). Forget to disable AfxP on just one track with a 3rd party plug in a larger project and it crashes to its knees. (It's black and white like an on/off switch.)

I am curious what the disconnect is on this subject. I'm still listening. But the above is 100% reproducible and when I operate under that assumption Reaper is insanely powerful and solid.

What gets confusing for troubleshooting is the fact that smaller projects will let you get away with wildly incorrect preferences settings sometimes.

I'll just throw this out there as a possible explanation:

Waves plugins are completely proprietary and run natively on nothing. They install (as SOP) with wrappers to adapt them to standard plugin formats.

UA plugins use their PCI hardware. No surprise on these and in fact the manual specifically tells you to disable AfxP for UA plugin tracks.

Soundtoys plugins report their internal latency incorrectly to PDC. Perhaps the root cause?

Xenakios · 05-20-2015, 08:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by serr

Reaper went to extra trouble (vs. standard VST implementation with .vst extension and file system locations) just to restrict them from other DAWs? Really? Hmmm... Well, I guess if they're selling that plugin bundle stand-alone that kinda seems obvious.

The plugin file names and locations have nothing to do with it. The plugins inside the Reaper .app bundle wouldn't work in other hosts anyway, so why bother following any convention with them? They still are essentially VST2 plugins. A 3rd party developer with spare time on their hands probably could make them work in other hosts than Reaper, but that would likely be a license violation, so not really worth bothering with.

Cockos isn't selling that plugin bundle. Not for Windows and not for OS-X.

Quote:

Originally Posted by serr

I've seen the claim before that AfxP was intended to work with 3rd party plugins. I can tell you it doesn't work for any of mine (Waves, Soundtoys, Universal Audio).

I suppose you have simply been out of luck with your plugins. 3rd party plugins work with Reaper's anticipative processing just fine for me. Isn't Universal Audio hardware DSP based plugins anyway? Reaper through the years has had all sorts of problems with those.

serr · 05-20-2015, 09:04 AM

It wouldn't surprise me that the 3rd party plugins I ended up with are all ringers every one of them. My life talent has always been to stumble into the ONE scenario with "issues" in just about any situation.

Aren't those plugins supposed to be some of the "big guns"? Hmmm...

I'd actually go the other direction with the Reaper plugin request.
I'd like to see an official Reaper format for plugins and for that format to become a thing.

My other 'conspiracy theory' is that the alleged standard plugin formats are a joke and that every individual DAW app writes their own workarounds. (eg. Protools writes a workaround for a Waves bug. Now Logic has the choice of trying to blame Waves - even though they "work fine" in Protools - or writing their own workaround.)

cyrano · 05-24-2015, 09:38 AM

maybe you should read that page:

Quote:

Want to use some of the comprehensive FX plug-ins that REAPER provides, but stuck in another host? Haven't made the switch yet? Fear not -- you can download ReaPlugs, a package of FX that includes many of the plug-ins that come with REAPER, for free!

They work in Audacity, f.i.

There's no proprietary format, no protection...

They are Windows only, sadly.

Banned · 05-24-2015, 10:29 AM

As long as you use REAPER both on your PC and their OS X systems, you both have all the ReaPlugs available in REAPER. So, what's the problem here? If you're simply looking for free effects that work on OS X systems, OS X already includes basic effect plug-ins for compression, EQ etc. by default. I definitely would be very worried too, if my firm would exclusively use OS X systems, and some external guy who only uses Windows would come in and insist on using ReaPlugs, yet isn't even aware that they don't exist for OS X.