There’s a plethora of amazing Reaper Scripts out there. Reaper offers Python and Lua script capabilites along with a C-based API and its own super-fast EEL language.
There’s 100s of scripts out there that offer the user an efficiency or quality-of-life boost, but here I aim to showcase the scripts that quickly demonstrate what Reaper’s scripting environment is capable of. There’s some scripts out there that surpass anything listed, but they require a bit more time to fully appreciate their power.
All of these scripts are cross-platform and work equally well on macOS and Windows. Most of them work on Linux-based operating systems too.
Note - These videos are shot at 15fps to save bandwidth. The GUIs very often perform much better live.
Last Updated - 2021 March 14
Contents
- Highlights
- Accessibility
- CC, Automation and parameter control
- Audio Tools
- Midi tools
- Composition tools
- Synths & Effects
- Analysis
- Mixing and Sound Design
- General Tools
- Project to HTML or CSV - Homepage
- Import Session Data - Thread
- Advanced Tempo Tool - Thread
- ReaNoir - Thread
- Track-Item Manipulation - Thread
- Track Tags - Thread
- Track lists - Thread
- FX List for TCP - Thread
- Quick Adder - Thread
- Fast FX Finder - Thread
- Interactive Toolbar - Thread
- Super 8
- ReaLauncher
- Show only specified tracks
- Donate!!
Highlights
ReaPack - Homepage
ReaPack is a package manager for Reaper. It allows you to easily find, download and keep your scripts up to date. If you find that an update breaks something, then it’s easy to roll-back.
Most importantly: it’s easy to get your owns contributions listed
ExtremRaym - Homepage
ExtremRaym has not only a number of awesome scripts, but also has a website and video series documenting how to begin with ReaScript features yourself.
Highly Recommended
HeDa Scripts - Homepage
Hector Corcin has made a number of amazing scripts, along with their own download manager.
Personally I’m a huge fan of Track Inspector and Loudness Graph.
Heda also has a VIP selection of scripts for donators with extended functionality and support.
Kawa - Homepage
Kawa has a ridiculous number of scripts and jsfx. I don’t even know what to showcase here. There’s so much. Just go to the homepage and check it out.
Not only do the many of the jsfx have really cool GUIs, but they also sound fantastic. Many of the scripts do things that you may not even have thought was imaginable in a DAW. Go check it out!
MPL - Homepage
MPL’s scripts are scattered throughout here, but he deserves special mention in this section for production of many high-quality scripts.
Check out the video above from REAPERBlog.net for a demo of some!
Accessibility
OSARA accessibility scripts - Homepage
Open Source Accessibility for the REAPER Application.
The world of audio is particularly intriguing for those with limited or no sight. Fortunately OSARA is here to provide a comprehensive set of scripts that make using Reaper with a Screen Reader much easier.
OSARA isn’t just for those with impaired sight. It can make the process of operating Reaper while you’re not looking at your screen a breez.
Every Reaper user should give OSARA a try, and if you know any sight-impaired musicians then they need to know about it.
Radial Menu - Thread
Browsing menus is tedious. Radial Menus makes browsing menus easy. Your own custom selection of actions can be laid out for quick access.
Radial menus has a number of options for how the mouse interacts with the menus and an awesome keyboard shortcut feature. The keyboard shortcuts allow you to have an almost vim-like set of tiered and contextual shortcuts.
LBX Stripper - Thread
LBX Stripper is a system that allows you to create your own custom interfaces for FX chains. If you’re familiar with Logic’s Smart Controls then you have an idea of 1% of what LBX is capable of.
Build your own beautiful GUIs for your FX chains, and more, with LBX Stripper.
CC, Automation and parameter control
Envelope based Compressor v2 - Thread
Envelope-based compressor is a compressor that applies the amplitude changes to the track’s envelope. This allows you to have a compressor that’s freely editable on a timeline.
If you’ve ever struggled trying to get vocal compression just right by fooling with a series of compressors and automation, then Envelope-based compressor is a godsend.
Envelope based De-Esser - Thread
Envelope-based DeEsser applies frequency-sensitive compression on the track’s envelope. It’s just like Envelope-Based Compressor except the signal is routed through a filter first.
Another amazing script for vocal editing.
LFO Tool - Thread
LFOs. Shaped, mangled, varied and wherever you want them! LFO Tools gives you extreme control over LFO-based automation.
There’s even a selection of LFO tools for various MIDI-based functions.
Mapping Panel - Thread
Mapping Panel allows you to link together parameters across effects and tracks with optionally complex scaling..
Macro controls on steroids.
Audio Tools
Align Takes - Thread
Have you ever tried to record a bunch of takes of vocals to create a chorus part, done dialog replacement or tried to layer some lead guitars, but the end result sounds like a total mess?
Maybe you’d have used Vocalign in the past, but in Reaper you can freely download and use Align Takes!
Align Takes analyzes nearly an unlimited number of audio items, finds the near-similarities between them then intelligently warps the dub track to the reference track. The result: perfectly timed overdubs.
AB Level Matching - Thread
When trying to A/B things it’s important to manage volume levels so that you’re not tricked by the ‘louder is better’ phenomenon.
This can be difficult to manage with complex sessions, tracks and having to setup various routing for realtime A/B. The A/B Level Matching tool makes it easy and offers a number of advanced options for really getting a hold of your A/B sessions.
Stretch Marker Guard - Thread
When using stretch markers naively, the transient is stretched as much as the rest of the sound. For things like percussion it’s important that the impact of the sound be retained, and stretch marker guard allows you to do this will still warping your hits in to place.
Stretch marker guard easily allows you to place new stretch markers around the existing markers, either before, after or both. This makes it so that when stretching, the transient is guarded from an extreme stretch. Since stretch markers only affect the area between markers, the transient is given its own small area where minimum stretch occurs, and then the rest of the movement ideally happens during the sustain of the sound.
This is an exceptionally useful tool and can make a huge difference in the impact and fidelity of your drum sounds.
MK Slicer - Thread
REAPER’s missing slicing tool. Fast, effective and easy to use.
It puts other DAWs’ integrated audio slicing to shame despite being a user-made script.
Midi tools
Articulation Manager - Thread
Articulations are a concept that allows you to trigger specific performance-related attributes in a synth or sampler. They can be very complex to manage, especially for large projects.
Articulation Manager may not make working with articulations easy (nothing can), but it makes it as pain-free as possible.
Midi Editor Tools - Thread
juliansader’s huge selection of midi tools is indispensible. I can not even begin to describe them. Click the title above to browse the thread and see all the amazing things you can do to manipulate MIDI with this selection of Scripts.
Quantize Tool - Thread
Have you ever wanted to quantize your stretch markers to midi? Midi to envelope points? Item starts to midi? How about any combination of those and much more
You can quantize Items, Stretch Markers, Envelope points and Midi Notes to: Items, Stretch Markers, Envelope points, Notes, Grooves, Grid, and swing grid. All of these with a wide range of options and a %-based-amount to tweak the result to perfection.
Oh yeah, and it all happens live as you change parameters!
This isn’t just a MIDI tool. It’s an ‘everything in its right place’ tool.
ReaTab Hero - Homepage
How many DAWs do you know that have proper tablature built in? What about with wonderful graphics and a ‘guitar hero’ style display.
Watch the video. ReaTab Hero is amazing.
Super Arpeggiator - Thread
Take your midi and arpeggiate or sequence it however you want. Super Arpeggiator lives up to its name.
Arp!0 Arpeggiator - Thread
Yet another fantastic argeggiator. Highly variable sequenceable steps, a smooth easy to operate GUI with a lot of information and loads of fun.
Arp!0 sets the bar for what an arpeggiator can be. Free, in Reaper.
Reaticulate - Website
Articulations are ways of varying performance attributes when using large and complex multi-sample libraries, often Orchestral libraries. Articulations are usually triggered via keyswitches (and the terms are often used interchangeably). Keyswitches are usually specific midi notes, that exist outside the range of the instrument, that are used to change the current performance characteristics of the instrument. Keyswitches can also be CC or program change as well.
As you can imagine, managing this data can be problematic, and very few DAWs have solutions to this problem. Enter Reaticulate.
Reaticulate gives you a simple GUI for managing articulation data in your MIDI based performances. I suggest watching the video above to get a better idea of what Reaticulate offers. If you are someone that often uses large orchestral libraries then I think you will be very pleased.
MIDI CC Mapper X - Thread
Fantastic MIDI information mapping tool. Note splits, transpost and a wide variety of CC mapping/morphing tools.
Just the CC mapping alone should make other DAW companies shudder in their boots.
Composition tools
Playtime - Thread
Ableton Live and Bitwig are hugely popular products because of their session view.
Reaper users can have it too with Playtime, but with all the features and capabilities that Reaper offers along-side it.
Midi Guitar Chord Tool - Thread
Guitars are peculiar instruments in that the chord forms differ greatly from the piano that most of us use to input MIDI. A big part of creating authentic sounding guitar parts is getting the chord shapes correct.
Enter MIDI Guitar Chord Tool. It allows you to quickly enter common guitar chord voicings, inversions and add strumming.
It’s not just for guitar either. It works fantastic for creating thick synth chords or a beginning for various forms of composition.
Theory helper - Thread
Explore scales and chords with Lokasenna’s Theory Helper. Strongly suggested to supplement with ZappaDave’s Ultimate ReaScale
Orchestral Template - Homepage
Orchestral composition can be tedious. Hundreds of tracks, thousands upon hundreds of thousands of events. Nearly unmanagable amounts of automation and MIDI CC.
Except, it can be easy. OTR brings together a comprehensive set of workflows for the monumental task of modern orchestral composition. Check out the video series. There’s features here that no other DAW can compare with.
Shuffle Items - Thread
Layering items for creating sound effects or more powerful musical samples is a common task these days. Often a designer will want to create a variance of items to create interest and have an arsenal of sounds to use later.
ExtremRaym’s shuffle items scrips let you do this. You set your snap offsets for the layers, laid across tracks, then you can shuffle the layers around to create new variations. Very useful.
Not only that, but you can simply shift around each column. This allows you to move around layers, but maintain the same layer composition.
That’s not all. Check out the thread for even more great layering and item organization scripts!
RS5K Manager - Thread
RS5K Manager is an integrated browser and step sequencer for using Reaper’s SamplOmatic5000. It allows you to store directories for quick recall, quickly map samples to new instances of SamplOmatic5000 on the selected track while set to the assigned note.
From there it includes a simple step sequencer for writing midi to the currently selected item, or optionally the ability to drop in references to the current sample as an audio item on a child track.
RS5K manager isn’t exactly a powerhouse, but it is a great shortcut to getting started on a track. It’s also another awesome example of what can be done with ReaScripts.
Hackey Tracker - Thread
A Tracker?!? in Reaper?!
Yep. That’s right. You get the familiarity of a tracker (if you use them, like I enjoy to do), but all the power of Reaper.
It’s an amazing effort and a high quality product. If you’ve wanted a purely keyboard based workflow, then you may be interested in this.
Synths & Effects
ReaRack Modular - Thread
A modular synth in Reaper that’s fully extendable in via JSFX. ReaRack offers a selection of modules that can be linked together in creative ways to create a monster digital modular synth.
Since it can get quite complex, it includes some example projects to show how things can be done.
Sonic Anomaly - Homepage
Sonic Anomaly has made a selection of fantastic and unique plug-ins with great GUIs for Reaper. Many of the plug-ins offer functions and quality-of-sound that are only available elsewhere for a large cash layout.
A must-have for every Reaper user.
Geraint’s JSFX - Homepage
Yes another selection of fantastic jsfx plugins. Even more plugins that you’d pay big money for elsewhere like a spectrum mapper, pad synth, harmonizer and more.
Be sure to check out the homepage for more information on the effects/synths.
Another must-have for every Reaper user.
Ambisonic Toolkit - Homepage
Encoding Stereo using ATK for Reaper from Trond Lossius on Vimeo.
Ambisonics may not be for everyone, but if you’re in to it then you’re ready to work natively in Reaper with the Ambisonic Toolkit.
Saike’s Workshop - Homepage
There’s so much here, and it’s some of the most advanced JSFX you can find. “Tight Compressor” sounds pretty cool on drums, ReflectoSaurus is extremely fun. Filther is nuts.
Same hardworking hands that brought you Hackey Tracker.
Wayback - Thread
One of the coolest delay plugins and live looping plugins out there. I can’t think of anything which has similar functionality anywhere.
If you’re into complex delay-based sound design or looping of any sort - this is it. THIS IS IT.
LiveBeatRepeater - Thread
Fun effect plugin in the style of Stutter Edit or Artillery.
As indicated in The Thread, it’s much more fun when you attach some knobs to it.
Analysis
gfxanalyzer - Thread
Veto_gfxanalyzer is a multi-channel analyzer. You can route multiple tracks to it and the spectrum of the tracks are overlaid.
Use is simple after installation. You insert Veto_gfxanalyzer.jsfx on a track. Route the tracks you want to that track with the routings of 1/2->1/2, 1/2->3/4, 1/2->5/6 etc… incrementing the destination channel each time. This means you’re sending audio to a different channel on the same track, and gfxanalyzer reads those channels.
You can also assign the track colours to the analyzer output by selecting the Veto_gfxanalyzer window and running the Script: Set colors of focused Veto_gfxanalyzer to tracks sending on channels 1-16.eel script.
Very cool and free script!
LBX Chaos Engine - Thread
LBX Chaos Engine is an amazing script that allows you to morph between settings, sequence changes, randomize parameters and more. Ever wanted to slowly morph between 2 reverb sounds? Have a lead morph to a bass? Control a vast variety of parameters as a vocal crescendos in to a bridge? LBX Chaos Engine makes it easy!
It’s fairly simple to setup if you follow the Readme.md included.
In the video above you can see me effortlessly morphing between 2 presets and a randomized preset in Repro-5.
Mixing and Sound Design
Wired Chain - Thread
Another amazing script by MPL.
WiredChain gives you a modular like interface to FX channel routing. It has its own undo and redo stack, FX selection, you can select curvy style wires, I/O pin management, graphical organization of plug-ins and more features.
If you have ever wanted a modular FX system and reaper then here you go, it is a beautiful example of what scripting in Reaper is capable of.
FXRack - Thread
eugen2777’s FXRack is awesome. It serves similar functionality to TrackFX Routing, but with a much more simple interface.
The bottom graphic above is FXRack. The top is the exact same setup in TrackFX Routing. There is a pre-fx section that is split in to rows of effects chains. There’s 8 parallel effects changes that are then summed to the post-fx stage.
Instruments and effects can be used, and mixed as desired. Each parallel effects chain has pre-gain, post-gain, post-pain, solo and polarity inversion.
This is really an awesome script that exposes Reaper’s built-in functionality that provides you essentially a free Bluecat Patchwork.
TrackFX Routing - Thread
Download the best version here
Routing in Reaper is very powerful. It can also be very confusing at times, but with this script you can easily manage your routing and track FX.
Once you find out what you can do with Reaper’s Routing then this script will brighten your day.
Sort focused ReaEQ bands by frequency - Thread
When using ReaEQ, you can often end up with your numbered bands and all sorts of a crazy order.
This script sorts your ReaEQ bands so that from left to right they are numerically in order.
It may not seem like a big deal, but this puts your bands graphically in line with the tabs on the bottom of the interface. This script is actually surprisingly complex under the hood, so it earns its place here due to its usability and due to the resourcefulness that was required to create it.
ReEQ - Thread
Wow. Amazing Pro-Q like EQ.
Not only that, but it uses the fantastic SVF Filters as described by Andy Simper.
This is seriously one of the best displays of what users can do with scripting capabilities in Reaper.
General Tools
Project to HTML or CSV - Homepage
Sound designers, foley artists, dialog recorders, sampling maniacs, composers and more often need a way to export metadata of their project to other formats for logging and other tasks.
This script allows you to easily export things like item names, position, length, colour, status, FX metadata and much more… to HTML or CSV for easy viewing and logging.
The HTML export outputs a beautiful table of data for easy browsing. A really amazing tool for a number of workflows.
Import Session Data - Thread
Have some data in another project that you want in your current one? Markers? Tempo? Items? Tracks? WHATEVER?
This is it. This is how you do it, and it helps make sure you don’t make a mess of your current project by trying to match tracks/folders or duplicate other data unnecessarily.
Advanced Tempo Tool - Thread
Advanced Tempo Tool allows you to create complex tempo maps with ease. Often the process of changing tempos/time signatures can be a tedious hair-pulling experience, but ATT lets you keep that hair.
Creating complex time signature changes and tempo changes (which Reaper optionally will stretch item times or stretch the items themselves to) becomes a fun task.
ReaNoir - Thread
Colours. Colours everywhere! Organize your projects in style using a variety of stylized palletes of your own design or choosing.
ReaNoire makes the colour-coding of your projects easy.
Track-Item Manipulation - Thread
Renaming tracks is time consuming. Renaming items is a horrifying experience. What if you could easily manipulate the names of tracks and items without sacrificing your lifespan?
Track/Item Manipulation let’s you do that. Select your tracks or items and easily batch adjust the naming to what you need.
Track Tags - Thread
Tag tracks and hide/show tracks based on tags. Fairly obvious use and workflow. Quite a time saver if you have many tracks.
Track lists - Thread
Reaper does offer Takes and Comps, but sometimes you want to have alternate edits or compositions or even recordings.
Sexan’s Track List script allows you to easily create, modify and save various edits of a track for easy recall.
FX List for TCP - Thread
Have you wanted a visible FX list in REAPER along side your tracks?
Done. Amazing. I love it!
Quick Adder - Thread
Fast FX finder. Configurable, decent looking, fast.
Fast FX Finder - Thread
Reaper’s FX list is pretty ok, and you can launch it with a shortcut, but Fast FX Finder is faster with a better search and it sorts by most used.
Interactive Toolbar - Thread
Former Cubase user? Then you are already familiar with Cubase’s info bar. This is basically it, but better.
If you don’t know what the information bar is then you’re in for a treat. It displays information about whatever is selected or active. Selections, tracks, items, project settings and other data is displayed in an easy to access bar wherever you wish to put it.
It’s a fantastic tool, I now use it instead of a transport. It’s that awesome.
Super 8
Super 8 is included in Reaper. It’s an 8-track looping tool similar to you may find in a guitar looping pedal.
Super 8 is one of my favorite parts of Reaper. You can use it to build a phrase of a track, a whole track or just have fun layering things. Watch the video above to get a feel for what is possible.
Super 8 is so much fun.
ReaLauncher
Reaper’s basic project launcher leaves some to be desired, in fact I think all DAWs have this issue.
ReaLauncher aims to improve this by giving you a better frontend for finding projects, project templates and track templates.
Combined with SWS startup actions and you have a nice launcher to get going with what you need quickly
Show only specified tracks
Awesome script. It allows you to show the tracks you search for, optionally in real time, and show their parent/sibling/children via the folder track mechanism.
You can hide/show in the arrange view (TCP) or mixer (MCP). Once you’re happy with it you can export an action that you can assign to a button, toolbar or Radial Menu button.
Awesome script. Setup your own quick show/hide of tracks and get on with being awesome in REAPER.
Donate!!
This post took hundreds of hours to research, screencap, testing, write and edit, but If you appreciate the information presented then please donate to the script authors!
These scripts can take hundreds of hours of a person’s free time. Many of them are written simply because someone had a problem on the forum, or mentioned some lacking functionality.
If you have the spare money and you find a script enjoyable then please look to see if the author accepts donations.
If not, then just send them a thanks. They’d love to know that their effort is appreciated.