Once you’re done, you should end up with a mixer strip that looks something like the second image.
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You can (at the expense of sends or inserts, or even by reducing the fader length) click and drag on the dividers between mixer sections to free up more display space. The right channel has more meaningful user-defined labels.As you add more controllers, you may find that they exceed the space available in the mixer strip, in which case some little up/down scroll buttons will appear. The left channel’s knobs have default labels, taken from the plug-in parameters to which they’re assigned.
Work your way through, adding all the parameters you want to be able to control from the mixer.įor this exercise, I’d suggest including the following parameters in addition to the two that we’ve already assigned: Select ‘VST:ReaComp (Cockos) -> Thresh’ to create a knob that’s assigned to the compressor’s threshold control. This should populate the top slot with a knob marked ‘Thresh’, which is linked to the ReaGate plug-in on that channel. Right-click in one of the mixer strip’s empty knob slots and, from the pop-up menu, select ‘VST:ReaGate (Cockos) -> Thresh’. Several greyed-out knob controls will appear on your mixer strip - this is where your channel-strip controls will reside. Then select ‘show FX parameters when size permits’. From the Mixer menu untick ‘Dock mixer in docker’, and maximise the mixer so it fills the screen. If the mixer window is not already visible, hit Cmd-M (Mac) or Ctrl-M (PC) to bring it up. The track effects window with our chosen four effects plug-ins loaded. You’ll end up with something similar to what’s show opposite. Repeat the process to bring in VST:ReaComp, VST:ReaEQ and, finally, JS:Saturation. Click on ‘Add’ to bring up the ‘Add FX’ window, choose VST:ReaGate from the list, and hit OK.
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Starting with a blank project, hit Cmd-T (for Mac it’s Ctrl-T in Windows) to instantiate a new track, then hit the ‘FX’ button on the track’s control panel to bring up its effects window. Let’s create a new track and set up the plug-ins we’d like. For this exercise, and to allow people to play along at home, I’ll stick to Reaper’s bundled plug-ins, but you can use third-party ones too. We’ll also throw in a single-knob saturation control to top it off. To illustrate this, let’s go through the process of building a classic channel strip layout, comprising a gate, basic compression controls, and a three-band semi-parametric EQ. In fact, Reaper allows you to show your choice of effects parameter knobs from any combination of plug-ins in each mixer channel.
Unlike some other DAWs, Reaper doesn’t feature a default console-style view for your plug-ins, but it’s actually quite easy to roll your own.
Getting ‘granular’ with your plug-in parameters is great for really detailed work, but sometimes you want the opposite: to see your whole (virtual) mixing desk laid out in front of you. Effects controls duplicated across every channel to provide a mixing console-style view of a project.Ĭreate a custom channel strip, complete with controls, in Reaper’s Mixer.