FX Chains Get it while the getting is good!

[Tallisman]

Greetings fellow Reaperites.

Today I learned about a killer feature involving FXChains (you know that
folder in your Reaper Directory?!)). It turns out that if you Organize your
FX into FXChain Presets, they will display as such when you right-click and
FXslot in the mixer and mouse over Add Fx Chain.

Some of the smarter reaper users have been doing this for a
while - I was turned on to it by Mercado_Negro.

Then I started thinking... It would be great if Reaper installed
some defaults, when users elect to install all of those many, many JS plugins. I
have heard that something like that may be in the works for the future,
but as impatient as I am... well I did it manually and now I'll share it
with you.

The link below is to a zipped version of the FXChains folder. Download it
and merge it with yours, or cut an paste from it into your current FXChains
folder. Ever default Cockos VST and JS Effect has been turned into an
FXChain, and organized in sensible folders (if you can think of more
sensible placements please let me know and I'll update it).

I find this comes in extremely handy when my reaper is arranged in a
pseudo-inspector way.

Here's the file: https://stash.reaper.fm/oldsb/150574/FXChains.zip



You can use this as a springboard to organizing your other FX and goto Chains.

enjoy!
.tallis

special thanks to Mercado_Negro and Xenakios for helping to proof read all
this, and the Rest of the chaps on the Reaper chat for the moral support...
reaper has a boatload of fx.

[Mercado_Negro]

I just came here to show my respect for that amazing work you were doing this afternoon Tallis... Ladies and Gentleman, enjoy another achievement from Tallisman, let's give him an HOOOORAY!

[junioreq]

Excellent work, I was wondering what you had been talking about for hours lol, btw, I tried flotting that fly off my screen!

Awesome.!

Rob.

[battla]

killer. superb.

[WorldofNoise]

This is brilliant, and you are pretty much the best person ever for putting it together.

THANK YOU!!!

[Wolffman]

Very Cool!!!!
Many thanks for sharing your work

Cheers

[Jed]

Great stuff Tallisman!

Cheers
Jed

[ed209]

Thank you very much! It's great to have the JS organized!

[MichaJo]

Never saw this before. Didn't even know that it could be organized that way!
Great! Thanks a lot!

Michael

[DarkStar]

.tallis,

Nice work

[Bevosss]

Thanks Tal for the effort, I've been doing it that way for a long time myself for my main fx to speed up the workflow, I never put the whole cockos structure in there though...must have been some work! I'll d/l and check it out, thanks again.

edit: yep, real useful...cheers!

[Silicon/Silicium]

Just a question, why not letting chains for what they are (I mean, chains), and instead having a second menu with plugin folders displayed? that, and the option to build a tree from the physical folder tree of your vst folder could be excellent, and keep chains for what they are: templates of multiple plugins chained together.
For those who know buzzmachines, just have a look on it's right click menu to insert a machine!

[NoiseMan]

Tallisman, my hero of the day!

I still hate you for that damn ant that tricks me at least once a week...

[airon]

Great work. We get just a boatload of plugins, don't we.

If that ain't gonna inspire Cockos to pull off something cooler, I don't know what will.

I've started adding my own effects and synths to this scheme, so I don't forget about them .

[Amberience]

Tres aw3s0m3

[Fabian]

Great, thanks for the job!

Now we need a "global" FXChains folder right in Reapers own dir, in addition to the one under (on Win) "Application Data" (that took me ages to find!)

[DarkStar]

Originally Posted by Fabian

Great, thanks for the job!

Now we need a "global" FXChains folder right in Reapers own dir, in addition to the one under (on Win) "Application Data" (that took me ages to find!)

-1, it's is the right place at the moment, alongside the other data used by Reaper.

But, I think I recall that you can move the complete contents of the Application Data folder into the folder where the Reaper program is (try at your own risk).
http://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=30796

[HoJo]

Hey Tallisman.

Thanks for the effort. I think this will speed up my work a lot.

Kind Regards,
HoJo

[Fabian]

Originally Posted by DarkStar

-1, it's is the right place at the moment, alongside the other data used by Reaper.

But if this was shipped with Reaper, how would it be installed if not in a "global" FXChains folder?

IIRC, Reaper does not install anything in any user dir, it only stores things there on the users demand, right? So to have FX-chains shipped with a Reaper installation, a global FXChains dir would seem to be required... not?

Remember, Talli said "It would be great if Reaper installed some defaults, when users elect to install all of those many, many JS plugins." Those JS plugins are not installed under "<user>\Application Data\Reaper", why should the shipped FX-chains be?

[larrygates]

Interesting thing here, this negates the need for Favorites (which are retarded) and also going into the FX list which is like reading the Bible with no punctuation.

This is much quicker, BUT it'll take forEVER to save and sort all of one's plugs. Is there a way to do it OUTside of Reaper?

Also, what happens when you change a VST folder, update a VST etc . . .

I think it'll act just like the favorites, and have no idea where the file is.

I suppose what I'm getting at is, Reaper should READ the VST .dll file, sort it according to what it gives back, and THIS should be standard, cause hunting for my fx is annoying and not very Work Flowey!

[Guido]

Another superb and generous contribution from THE MAN! Thank You Thank You Thank You!





Guido

[Tallisman]

thanks for the kind words folks...
and many thanks to those on the irc that helped with organization and morale
:P

greetings
.t

[Lokasenna]

Nice work, this will save me a lot of time.

What isn't nice work, however, is that it took me ten minutes to find my FXChain folder because Vista has Reaper data in three different places other than the Program Files folder. Grrr.....

[g8torcliff]

Thanks for a really nice addition to the Reaper setup. Your idea prompted me to go a step further. I created actual FX chains as part of the extended menu...not just the FX listing.

For example, I had recorded a song which had some sax VST which I thought I had tweaked just right ... so it actually sounded like a sax. I saved the fx on the track as an FX chain and put it in the Sax directory in my fx chain folder. Now it shows up under the extended menu. Whenever I put a sax VST into a song, I can just r-click over to 'sax' in the menu and all of the tweaked effects are put onto the track. I don't know if its any easier than just 'add an FX chain', but it looks a lot nicer.

Now I have done the same for different sounding vocals, other tweaked VST's, etc.

Thanks for the idea.

cliff

[Lawrence]

That is really, really cool. I downloaded it when Mercado Negro posted it in another thread. Big props.

This begs the question... why not have that as optional during the install for the default plugs. There are lots of plugs listed in Mercado's that I don't have and many that I do have that he doesn't have so his list on my system requires LOTS of editing.

I'd have to add my new ones (and delete his) anyway but if the default structure just had the Cockos and JS and nothing else... that might be cool as a general starting point.

Or is that what this new one from Tallis is? Just the Reaper plugs?

I was going to create a VB utility to automatically scan plugin directories and create those other directories, or custom directories and then the chain files inside them but the files are binary, not plain text so no go.

[Mercado_Negro]

Originally Posted by Lawrence

That is really, really cool. I downloaded it when Mercado Negro posted it in another thread. Big props.

This begs the question... why not have that as optional during the install for the default plugs. There are lots of plugs listed in Mercado's that I don't have and many that I do have that he doesn't have so his list on my system requires LOTS of editing.

I'd have to add my new ones (and delete his) anyway but if the default structure just had the Cockos and JS and nothing else... that might be cool as a general starting point.

Or is that what this new one from Tallis is? Just the Reaper plugs?

It's only ReaPlugs and JS Effects + some other goodies

This will be addressed soon Lawrence, for v3.x things are probably gonna change: user friendly... a little bird sang a song I'm full of patience, I'm sure y'all are too

[shogger]

Thanx for that. Really cool and useful.

Shogger

[sonicbreeze]

Thanks a lot Tallisman...for your great effort to share this.

You gave me another reason to use Reaper as my DAW of choice. Now you got me started to make folders/chains with non Reaper Plugs too. GREAT...

[livedead13]

this is extremely helpful. thanks for doing this tedious task and sharing with the rest of us.

[CoffeeMilkshake]

@Pete, Talis, Mercado and all the "FX Chain hackers": Thanks!

@Pete: not to hijack or derail, but are you using a UC??? How cool! What's your first impressions?

[carbon]

Originally Posted by Pete Standing Alone

I know this seems long winded but on a system that has 400 plugins this will be a lot faster than individually inserting plugins one by one and naming and saving single FXchains for them.

Hope this was useful!

Now that IS a workaround!
It's almost like you're a DAW developer yourself

Thanks!

PS: Thanks to Mercado_Negro and Tallisman also.

[Tallisman]

Pete that is killer.

now that I have wiped the tears of frustration from my eyes, and recovered from that first expedition, I can go on and with ease do the rest.
thanks.


very happy am I!

.t

[DarkStar]

Originally Posted by Pete Standing Alone

The filenames for the individual plugins are coming out with an extra DX or VST at the start, and if you look closely, a space at the end before the file extension.

Before you run the Splitter, I think you could open the .rfxchain in Notepad and remove the unwanted characters.

[jimhm]

Thanks again, T'man, for the fine resource. I'm just starting with REAPER (had it about a week) and continually amazed at the power and flexibility of the package (especially for the price!)

Your FXChains setup sounds great, but I haven't been able to map the file/folder layout to my Vista environment. I'm hoping one of the commentators in this thread can help me out.

In the REAPER folder under Program Files there's an Effects folder that has pretty much the same lineup of sub-folders as your FXChain folder: Amp-Sims, Analyzers, Bass, etc. However I don't find a folder called FXChains anywhere. I gathered from some of the postings that REAPER also sets up a folder tree in Application Data under one's user folder (in Documents and Settings) but there is no such tree in Vista.

If anyone reading this thread is running Vista and can point me to the Vista equivalent of the per-user REAPER folder's contents I'd sure appreciate hearing from you.

I'm certainly learning a lot very quickly from these forums.

[TeeBlack]

thanks homie

[StepOne]

Originally Posted by jimhm

Thanks again, T'man, for the fine resource. I'm just starting with REAPER (had it about a week) and continually amazed at the power and flexibility of the package (especially for the price!)

Your FXChains setup sounds great, but I haven't been able to map the file/folder layout to my Vista environment. I'm hoping one of the commentators in this thread can help me out.

In the REAPER folder under Program Files there's an Effects folder that has pretty much the same lineup of sub-folders as your FXChain folder: Amp-Sims, Analyzers, Bass, etc. However I don't find a folder called FXChains anywhere. I gathered from some of the postings that REAPER also sets up a folder tree in Application Data under one's user folder (in Documents and Settings) but there is no such tree in Vista.

If anyone reading this thread is running Vista and can point me to the Vista equivalent of the per-user REAPER folder's contents I'd sure appreciate hearing from you.

I'm certainly learning a lot very quickly from these forums.

Under Windows 7 (Vista too, probably?), its under User > AppData > Roaming

[sceyefeye]

@mercado
thanks for starting this and sending Tallisman on his adventure
@tallis
thanks for giving the basic start this is brillinat
@pete
excellent resource there (poor mac users ) has helped get things into place

now just gotta put in those other js plugs and stuff that i have downloaded and not used cause I can never be bothered to get organised

RESPECT to all of you

[Hector]

I'm the creator of that text file splitter that is mentioned above. If you look at the bottom of the program, you'll notice a request feature link. You could request features there.

I'd be more than happy to work with the good people on this forum to add features to help you split out the plug-in chains, and find ways to fix the file names.

Feel free to post on my forums over at http://www.systemwidgets.com

Hector Sosa, Jr
SystemWidgets

[Banned]

Thanks Tallis!

Hi Hector, thanks for your efforts too!

[Staccato]

Originally Posted by Tallisman

Greetings fellow Reaperites.

Today I learned about a killer feature involving FXChains (you know that
folder in your Reaper Directory?!)). It turns out that if you Organize your
FX into FXChain Presets, they will display as such when you right-click and
FXslot in the mixer and mouse over Add Fx Chain.

Some of the smarter reaper users have been doing this for a
while - I was turned on to it by Mercado_Negro.

Then I started thinking... It would be great if Reaper installed
some defaults, when users elect to install all of those many, many JS plugins. I
have heard that something like that may be in the works for the future,
but as impatient as I am... well I did it manually and now I'll share it
with you.

The link below is to a zipped version of the FXChains folder. Download it
and merge it with yours, or cut an paste from it into your current FXChains
folder. Ever default Cockos VST and JS Effect has been turned into an
FXChain, and organized in sensible folders (if you can think of more
sensible placements please let me know and I'll update it).

I find this comes in extremely handy when my reaper is arranged in a
pseudo-inspector way.

Here's the file: https://stash.reaper.fm/oldsb/150574/FXChains.zip



You can use this as a springboard to organizing your other FX and goto Chains.

enjoy!
.tallis

special thanks to Mercado_Negro and Xenakios for helping to proof read all
this, and the Rest of the chaps on the Reaper chat for the moral support...
reaper has a boatload of fx.

And here I thought you were a smarter Reaper user!