Reaper.. selection tool? .. :facepalm: help?

[timx1386]

Okay. Recent reaper purchase... did alot of looking around and tried to get the keyboard shortcuts to match up to what I was used to in PT ...

... and now I seem to be unable to select portions of audio.. which is really annoying. I'd set it back if I could figure out what to call my problem / what the setting would be under / what combination of keys I pressed to mess it up in the first place.

basically when I try to highlight a section of audio on a track, It doesnt switch to the ' I ' cursor.. and it just automatically selects the entire track- and MOVES the whole track. I just want to be able to highlight a small part of the wave form and cut it out/ delete it.

[gravyface]

Originally Posted by timx1386

Okay. Recent reaper purchase... did alot of looking around and tried to get the keyboard shortcuts to match up to what I was used to in PT ...

... and now I seem to be unable to select portions of audio.. which is really annoying. I'd set it back if I could figure out what to call my problem / what the setting would be under / what combination of keys I pressed to mess it up in the first place.

basically when I try to highlight a section of audio on a track, It doesnt switch to the ' I ' cursor.. and it just automatically selects the entire track- and MOVES the whole track. I just want to be able to highlight a small part of the wave form and cut it out/ delete it.

Probably have better luck on the Reaper forums.

[SRR]

Originally Posted by timx1386

Okay. Recent reaper purchase... did alot of looking around and tried to get the keyboard shortcuts to match up to what I was used to in PT ...

... and now I seem to be unable to select portions of audio.. which is really annoying. I'd set it back if I could figure out what to call my problem / what the setting would be under / what combination of keys I pressed to mess it up in the first place.

basically when I try to highlight a section of audio on a track, It doesnt switch to the ' I ' cursor.. and it just automatically selects the entire track- and MOVES the whole track. I just want to be able to highlight a small part of the wave form and cut it out/ delete it.

Select the track, make sure the wave form is highlighted, put your cursor at the beginning of the split hit "s" then just drag to the right the part you want out (hit hides it, doesn't remove it this way nor copies it), OR once you hit "s" in the first way, go to the end of the section you want out of there/copied hit s again for another split. Then delete it, copy it, move it to another track etc.

I am not as well versed in reaper as most reaperians that float the reaper forums, so they may explain it in a more precise manor.

[ivebenrecording]

You mean selecting with the mouse? :P You select with the right click in Reaper. It's a little weird at first, but it's really useful, because you only use the right click to select, so you never move stuff by accident when you're trying to select. Once you get used to it. :P Or do you mean the shaded thing that plays? Control that above the tracks. Oh, and remember to turn off snapping if you don't want to select at the beats.

[Vince Welch]

1. Go to Preferences: Editing Behavior: Mouse Modifiers.

2. In the bar labeled context go to "Arrange View" and then go to "right drag" in the bar next to it.

3. Double click on Behavior for the default action, under "Marquee select items" click on "Set time selection." The behavior should now read "Marquee select items and time"

4. Hit apply.

This'll allow you to use right click and drag the same way you'd use the I beam in Pro Tools, for selecting pieces of regions. There's really no good way to do it with left click and drag in Reaper, at least that I'm aware of. Then use the action "cut items within time selection" to cut out the piece of the region you selected. That's the closest way I know to the I beam workflow in Reaper.

[tonemaker]

If all else fails, post up a question at reaper forums about how to restore default preferences for ALL of Reaper. I think this means deleting a few specific .INI files in a few obvious places and also in some NON-obvious places like hidden user application data folders and whatnot, but I'm not really sure. it also depends upon what type of installation you did. But I do know that the portable installation tends to be easier to manage in some ways.

The advantage to resetting to full defaults is that you wont have the possibility of needing to correct a mistake you forgot to correct. Everything will most likely work as it was intended, and THEN you can carefully go in and customize stuff one step at a time.

[timx1386]

gravyface: Thanks, took your advice and joined the reaper forum as well!

ivebenrecording: I guess part of my problem is I'm using my macbook's trackpad ... maybe its time to invest in a mouse! this snapping thing def was a problem (I kept trying to edit at any point but it kept making me edit from the beats- which was not a very precise way of editing)

I mean, with protools if there was a little wierd noise in a recording- I could just look at the wave form, highlight the part of the wave I didn't want in there, and then hit "delete" and either there would be a blank hole in the track where it was or it would shuffle it together.. those kind of tools I use alot in PT and I'm just trying to figure out how to do it in reaper..

Vince Welch: I think you seem to know what I'm trying to do. I'll definitely give those settings a try tonight. I know its going to take some time and messing around with -- I just want to learn the basics as quick as I can. once I get the ball rolling I'll be able to pick things up as I go. ((My new interface arrives in a few days and I'm planning to just dive right in!))

The thing I like about protools was it is similar to editing text. if you misspell a word, you can go back and highlight a word or part of a word and just hit "delete" or drag the highlighted letters somewhere else.. *Ive never used logic, but I think garage band is pretty much the same way

astroidmist : if worst comes to worst... I'll go that route.

I did also ask on the Reaper forum. They also mentioned the 'snapping' and adjusting my action settings.. but there's alot of 'actions settings' that can be changed-- - and not knowing the proper terminology makes it harder to figure out what I'm actually looking to change.

Reaper support suggested I look at 'Ripple Editing'
--

I wish I could just sit down and have a quick chat with my new DAW so we can explain some things to eachother.. theres definitely a language barrier. Its like I speak some kind of Protools-Slang and now I'm trying to learn Formal-Reaper

Going with that analogy, I'd just like to thank this forum for acting as an interpreter while Reaper and I get to know eachother. Thanks to everyone for your help!!!

[timx1386]

THANK YOU VINCE WELCH!

Now set up as you said, to select with marquee on top half of the track, when hovering over bottom half I can slip / move the selected audio. MUCH BETTER! Reaper is suddenly starting to feel like home!