I hope you can help me with a couple of noob questions - sorry if I have missed this in the manual and tutorials, but Reaper's wealth of features is really overwhelming...
1. What is the best way to do the following: I have recorded a MIDI item that is two bars long that I want to loop. After recording I decide that I only want to keep a 1 bar section of that item that starts at the third quarter. I would normally drag the left and the right edge so that the item becomes 1 bar long. But when I check "loop item source" in the item properties and drag the right corner to loop the item, the part on the right that I just removed appears again. How can I tell Reaper to only loop the item as I have trimmed it by moving the left and right edge? There does not seem to be an equivalent of "Loop section of audio item source" for Midi items. "Glue" consolidates the item which would be a solution, but glueing also extends the item to the length of the time selection, which I don't want.
2. When recording in a loop, notes that are held at the end of the loop (i.e., when the cycle jumps back to the start) are cut off and Reaper creates the same note again at the start of the item. But that is not what I played. Example: I set a 1 bar loop in the timeline and at the fourth beat I play a note that I hold for two beats. Reaper cuts this into two notes of 1 beat. In the Midi editor, it is not possible to draw, extend or move a note beyond the end of the item (after some playing around in the Midi editor this was suddenly possible - not sure what I did - but in playback Reaper still cut off the note). You may ask: Why should a note be longer than the item? One answer is: Because that is how I played the note. The other is: This is needed for creating loops where the last note works as an upbeat for the next repetition of the loop. How can I get Reaper to record these notes the way I played them?
3. I created a drum pattern based on individual samples like this:
Is there a way to loop this whole pattern without glueing all items on all tracks? Ideal would be to have a representation of all child tracks in the parent folder track and loop that representation.
4. I added a "loop item source" button to my toolbar, but it does not show if looping for the selected item is on or off. So when I drag the right edge of an item, I don't know if this will loop the item or just make it longer. Is there no way to see the loop status without having to open the item properties?
5. The item properties show all sorts of exotic parameters, but one obvious thing seems to be missing: length of item source. It only shows the overall length of the original item together with the loops. The Take media source properties show the source length, but it cannot be edited. It looks like the only way to change the source length of a looped item is to move the grey bar in the Midi editor or in the inline editor. This is quite ok, but it requires an additional step to open the Midi or the inline editor. Is there a way to change the item source length independently from the loops directly in the arrange view?
6. I cannot find a way to switch on record monitoring or input quantize as a default for new tracks?
7. How is the song position in the timeline to be read? From other DAWs I am used to a format like 1.2.4 which means: Bar one, quarter two, fourth 16th. Depending on the zoom level, Reaper shows things like "2.2.50" or "2.1.8125". What does the rightmost value mean - is it "percent of a quarter note" (which would be a bit unmusical imho)? Is there a way to show 16th (and optionally ticks) instead of the Percentages (or whatever that is)? Btw, what is the internal time resolution of Reaper?
8. When using the mouse wheel to zoom in and out in the arrange view, I have not yet figured out how to the focus on one particular position/item in the arrange. It seems like Reaper zooms in to the position of the edit cursor and at the same time moves the edit cursor to the middle of the screen while scrolling, and that makes it difficult to keep track of where the zoom is moving.
9. In Logic, there is a global solo which allows to only hear the selected items. The global solo stays active when other items are selected, which is a quick way to listen to individual items. In Reaper, it seems like solo is an item property that has to be switched on and off each time, so it does not seem possible to quickly listen to individual items simply by selecting them?
10. Is there no way to change numeric parameters by dragging the mouse, e.g. the tempo? Do you really have to type in the value?
11. Reaper allows to switch the metronome on and off independently for playback and record, which makes much sense. However, the metronome button and toggle metronome key command switch the metronome on and off globally and override the playback/record settings. E.g., if Reaper is in playback and I switch the metronome off, it will remain off also in record mode even though "run metronome during recording" is enabled. Is there a way to toggle the metronome on/off independently for playback and record?
Thanks!