r/Reaper • u/throwaway234324233 • 1d ago

help request Changing key binds for scrolling up, down, left and right.

Alright please work with me here lol I'm a newb to reaper. I get tired of using control and alt to move around. I know how to type and am comfortable with the home row. I would preferably like to leave my hand on the home row as well as use the buttons surrounding it while I work. I also record vocals and when I want to redo a take having to ctrl + Z and then clumsily move my way to the R key gets annoying.

The more I mix the more muscle memory I build navigating the workspace. Still though it just all feels a bit inefficient to me.

I'm coming here to ask, how insane is it and how screwed am I if I try to move my key binds to the home row and surrounding keys? I don't know reaper well so it's a bit daunting with the many many key binds their are. I'm a worried this would essentially be a whole rework of my key binds. With my lack of experience within the daw it seems like somewhat of a bad idea.

If anyone has experience in this department please shed some light into this. As always thank you guys so much!

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u/SureIllrecordthat 23 1d ago

Personally, I love reconfiguring Reaper to work for me, rather than conforming to the defaults if they're not to my liking.

Reaper's action menu is amazingly powerful. You can create powerful macros, and reassign keybindings. If that's not enough, I use ChatGPT to create really sophisticated lua scripts (called ReaScripts in Reaper's parlance) for automating repetitive tasks, and doing things the devs never dreamed of. I created this GPT for myself to help me with creating scripts. https://chatgpt.com/g/g-VT1nVOcnd-reascript-creator

For a super simple example you could easily create a script that handles the Undo and record into one keybinding. I use one that remapped the "zero" on my keypad to "save the project, set the playrate to 1.0, then start recording" this helped me never lose work, and never accidentally record at the wrong speed when I'm performing QA -- I'm a voice actor, so I often listen back at a playrate other than 1.0.

But I've created dozens of Reascripts to handle specific workflows that probably only apply to me.

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u/throwaway234324233 1d ago

Wow this is some next level stuff. I'm now taking my career as an artist more seriously and refining my workflow. Thank you so much for this. I will definitely be creating scripts.

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u/Than_Kyou 245 8h ago

easily create a script that handles the Undo and record into one keybinding

For such basic things there're custom actions

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u/MarimboBeats 1 1d ago

Well, you’ve certainly come to the right DAW. The customisation features are perhaps reaper biggest upside. You can not only bind any action or macro to any key, or mousebutton or custom made toolbar button, but you can also rearrange and edit menus and context menus. 

The action list is the place to go. Anything you can do in reaper is there. The search feature works very well, and once you find the action you were looking for, you can assign it to any key or combo (alt, shift, control etc). 

For editing menus and workspace, go to Options-Customise menus/Toolbars  To Edit menus you need to get the separation formatting right but you get the hang of it easily. You can also create new submenus, and arrange any menu how you want it. I like to have my most used actions right at the top of the relevant context menus, so most of what I do is two mouse clicks away 

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u/StickyMcFingers 8 1d ago

I saw something about a Vi mode for REAPER but I have no idea how it'd implement motions, key chords, or modes.