I'm trying to move definitively from Live to Reaper. The only thing really tying me to the former is how it manages automation. Whilst in Live you press 'A' and have all the automation you need at your fingertips—just click on the parameter you want to automate and voilà!—in Reaper, I find the automation workflow complicated and clumsy as hell.

I was therefore wondering if there is a way to modify its behaviour to make it closer to Live's. I tried with some custom actions (the default ones, not SWS/S&M), asking on the official forum (apparently, many are willing to have something like that in Reaper), and even tried some ChatGPT-generated scripts that I later adapted—everything with no luck.

Besides keeping this as my greatest wish for the upcoming version of Reaper, is there anybody who can direct me towards a solution and help to abandon Live once and for all?

 

As long as you have already activated one, or more, envelopes for a track you can use the Envelope: Toggle show all active envelopes for tracks action to show or hide them. Make your A key a shortcut for it and it should do pretty much what you are asking for.

To activate new envelopes you can either click on the "TR" button for the track and scroll through the list until you find the parameter you want to automate, but it's probably easier to open the plugin window, touch/click on the parameter you want to automate, then click on the "Parameter" button above the plugin window and choose "Show in track envelope" from the list. There's also the native action FX: Activate/bypass track envelope for last touched FX parameter, as well as several different community scripts for activating parameter envelope in different ways. All of them can be bound to shortcuts or mouse-modifiers.

 

Last edited: Jul 25, 2023

thanks, just tried your solution but as long as I can understand it opens/closes quickly only envelopes which are already active, and additionally, it works on all of them. what I'm trying to achieve is kind of different

 

You mean like clicking on the env icon in the track

Spoiler: et voilà

?

 

That screen is exactly why I'm trying to achieve a behaviour similar to Live

 

Its been a while with Live now, so i clearly dont remember, but

U can add lane pretty to much any thing, if the screen is messy, u can just use touch mode, when u touch any parameter it creates a new lane.
U can toggle visibility of these lanes using action. I use "Envelope: Toggle show all envelopes for all tracks" i have this action in tool bar icon. So I have more real estate when not using.

 

to be honest, automation lanes in DAWs are soo outdated,
you can very quickly show volume envelope by "v" hotkey, pan by "p",

what's more useful way to do automation are automation items in Reaper - just hold Alt and left drag mouse over automation envelope, and boom you get an item you can work with, copy, move etc...

anyway, here's few videos you must watch to understand automation in Reaper:

 

I can't do anything but agree with you

That's right, but only for these two parameters. I do a lot of experimental composition and sound design, and trying different behaviours of the effects in time (and combinations) is part of the process. If I can access and tweak the different parameters on the fly, then it becomes almost pleasant. Otherwise, a nightmare

 

Ah, ok. How does it look in Live, I couldn't find any pics online?

EDIT:

You mean in Live you can align specific key commands to specific parameters of specific plugins so you don't have to scroll through that large list?

 

Alright, let's see if I can explain how it works. Take this image as an example. So in Live, you press 'A' and it opens something which we can call the 'automation editing mode'. And an envelope appears on your track (the red-ish one). You then can:

1) Use the drop-down menus to choose an effect and its parameter for which you want to create/modify an envelope (the 'Mixer' menu in the pic is for the effect, the 'Song Tempo' for the parameters of that effect)—not really useful, as you have to navigate through a menu;

2) touch any parameter you want, either on the TCP or the GUI of a VST, to open the envelope for that parameter—the kind of behaviour I'm trying to obtain in Reaper.

Both 1) and 2) replace the current visualised envelope with the one of the last parameter you interacted with. If you need more envelopes at once, just press on the little '+' button which stacks an empty automation lane, ready to be assigned to any parameter, on top of the existing one.

Once you're done, just press 'A' again and all the envelopes disappear

 

Let's see if I understood how it works.
- key command creates a (any) automation track
- by either using drop-down menue or touching any parameter, the automation track is set to it.

That sounds clever.

In Reaper it's more the other way around. Open the plugin, touch any parameter

Spoiler: and select

You can also choose a key command to

Spoiler: show/hide the envelopes

 

Indeed, that's it. And yes, is clever

There's an action to toggle the last touched FX parameter, but you have to continuously press the shortcut for that action as well as continuously changing the focus from the FX GUI to the main window. Which is frustrating

These actions might offer a kind of workaround, which is however still far away from the behaviour Live has

 

Not trying to sell the idea of "Reaper is better than Live", but can u explain.

 

maybe this can help you.

I added a shortcut for me to open the envelope lane for the last touched parameter.

If your plugin or vst is open you move a parameter and press the short cut.
That opens the envelope and you can automate...

 

No worries, and given that it doesn't exist such a thing as a perfect DAW, IMHO Reaper is way more flexible and overall better than Live, especially when it comes to editing, working with video, and of course multichannel. But I have to choose my tools not only for what I can achieve with them but also for how they simplify my workflow/ease the processes. Reaper is flexible, but the way it deals with envelopes, in my opinion, strikes against its flexibility.

Thanks a lot, but unfortunately using this method means continuously switching between (i.e. clicking on) the VST interface and the main window in Reaper. Additionally, it does not substitute any existing envelope lane with the newly opened one but stacks them one after another

 

U r right Reaper does not have a drop down on a single lane and opt to choose for parameter on that single lane.

 

I'm not a Live user so can't make direct comparisons, but I think I can suggest a Reaper workflow that will work for you.

On the 'Automation' page of Reaper preferences, check these boxes:
1) Automatically add envelopes when tweaking parameters in automation write modes
2) Hidden envelopes: Allow writing automation

Then all you need to do to start writing automation is switch a track (or globally) to one of the automation write modes (touch/latch/preview/write). The first time you write to a new parameter, the lane will pop up. After that, you can still write to that envelope even when it is not visible. The only time you will need to open individual envelopes if if you want to draw in manual changes.

Given the way you describe working with multiple parameters to test out settings, I suggest you look into Latch Preview mode. Enabling Latch Preview will allow you to test out a combination of different parameter changes, then either write those settings (to a time selection, to the whole track, etc.) or just go back to the original settings simply by switching back to Read mode without writing.

 

Very smart! I haven't thought of that, and I've barely used the latch preview mode ever in Reaper (maybe once or twice by mistake).

 

Nice to see some Reaper junkies on here, is anybody using a Stream Deck to handle all the key commands visually?

 

not at all, I use Reaper WRB (web remote builder) to custom configure touch screen control with custom actions: