Reaper Tip: How to Set Up Custom Navigation

I’ve been using Avid’s Pro Tools to edit and master field recordings and sound effects for over 20 years. Recently, I’ve begun to use Cockos’ Reaper more. As many have come to know, Reaper is a popular editing app that packs in a professional editing workflow, powerful scripts, actions, macros, and extensive customization at a very attractive price.

I’ve used Reaper from time to time, but it wasn’t until recently that I began to invest serious effort into the app. Initially, I was overwhelmed by the alternative style and method of working. That’s normal for any editing app, of course. They’re complex programs that have features buried away in sub menus and right-click pop-ups. Few editing apps display all their possibilities in a simple, immediate user interface. The learning curve with any editing app takes time.

However, one thing in particular about Reaper was jarring: navigation. When I first used it, I found it arduous to move around the edit window, zoom into media, and jump from clip to clip. Why? Well, it was completely different from how I had worked for decades. It felt unintuitive. It didn’t seem to match the zooming and scrolling behaviour of other apps on my computer, either.

This isn’t to knock Reaper, however. One of the biggest benefits to Reaper is that it can be customized to taste. So, I decided to do the unthinkable: customize Reaper’s navigation, zooming, and selection settings to match Pro Tools.

Are you a Pro Tools user thinking about switching to Reaper? Just getting started editing with Reaper? This post shares quick beginner’s tips for creating custom actions and simplified keystrokes for zooming, navigating, and selecting in Reaper.

Getting Started Customizing Reaper Navigation

Understanding navigation is vital to any app. Without it, users won’t know how to move around the workspace or access features. Primarily they involve:

• Navigating left and right and up and down across tracks.
• Zooming into and out from sounds, and clip magnification.

Each of these is significantly different from Pro Tools, both in the keystrokes and mouse actions, and the philosophy behind the workflow. Why not modify Reaper’s actions to match those of Pro Tools?

Of course, not everyone uses Pro Tools. You may prefer the zooming style in Nuendo, or the navigation in Logic. This article will focus on imitating Pro Tools zooming, navigation, and keystrokes. You can substitute your favourite app’s keystrokes in the methods below.

How to Modify Keystrokes and Mouse Actions in Reaper

How do you modify zooming and navigation in Reaper?

Reaper has a powerful way to customize mouse actions and keystrokes: the Action List.

The Action List window assigns keystrokes or mouse actions to settings, menu items, views and display preferences, plug-ins, file handling, and many more options. If you can do something in Reaper, the Action List will let you assign a shortcut to it. You can even create your own, new actions.

We’ll use the Action List to modify your settings. To invoke the action list, choose menu item Actions/Show Action List… or type “?”. This will display a new window with a long list of actions.

To modify an action, we need to find it first. To do this, type its name in the Filter text entry box, click the action, then assign a shortcut.

The list of possible actions is enormous. Often it’s not obvious how to filter them to select what you action you’d like to change. So, I’ll share the exact text needed to find the matching action, then the equivalent Pro Tools keystroke or mouse action.

Now that we know how to assign shortcuts to actions, let’s look at the ones we’d like to change.

Modifying Navigation Settings in Reaper

In Pro Tools, navigation can be accomplished in many ways. These tips are for people that prefer to move around using a mouse scroll wheel. We’ll focus on mouse actions that use a vertical scrolling method.

Note: If you prefer to navigate and zoom with keystrokes, you can substitute those with the shortcuts of each action.

Moving Left and Right/Horizontal Scrolling

1. Type “View: Scroll horizontally reversed (MIDI CC relative/mousewheel)” from the Actions List filter.
2. Select the action.
3. Click the “Add…” button at the bottom left. A small “Keyboard/MIDI/OSC Input” window will appear.
4. Hold shift and move the mouse scroll wheel up and down. It will display “Shift+HorizWheel”.
5. Click OK.

This will assign the scrolling shortcut.

NOTE: Reaper may warn you that you are overwriting an exiting keystroke. Confirm this. (Do this as well for later shortcuts, too.)

Are you using a Magic Mouse or other touch sensitive side-scrolling trackpad? For step 4, substitute holding shift and moving the scroll wheel up and down for swiping left and right. This will display “HorizWheel”.

Your horizontal scrolling now matches Pro Tools.

Moving Up and Down/Vertical Scrolling

When first installed, scrolling the mouse wheel up and down in Reaper zooms in and out of the timeline. Let’s change that to match Pro Tools vertical scrolling (which is the same as OS window scrolling).

1. Type “View: Scroll vertically reversed (MIDI CC relative/mousewheel)” from the Actions List filter.
2. Select the action.
3. Click the “Add…” button at the bottom left. A small “Keyboard/MIDI/OSC Input” window will appear.
4. Move the mouse scroll wheel up and down. It will display “Mousewheel”.
5. Click OK.

Tab to Clip/Media Item

One shortcut I use often in Pro Tools is “tab to next edit”. This moves the cursor to the next clip or fade beginning or end. It’s far more precise than scrolling and zooming to a specific spot. Here’s how you set this in Reaper:

1. Type “Item navigation: Move cursor right to edge of item” from the Actions List filter.
2. Select the action.
3. Click the “Add…” button at the bottom left. A small “Keyboard/MIDI/OSC Input” window will appear.
4. Click the “Special key (Enter, Tab, etc…)” button.
5. Press the “tab” key.
6. Click OK.

That moves the cursor to the next item to the right. Of course, you’ll need to move the other way, too. Here’s how:

1. Type “Item navigation: Move cursor left to edge of item” from the Actions List filter.
2. Select the action.
3. Click the “Add…” button at the bottom left. A small “Keyboard/MIDI/OSC Input” window will appear.
4. Click the “Special key (Enter, Tab, etc…)” button.
5. Press the shift and “tab” keys.
6. Click OK.

Both of these actions will now match the tabbing behaviour in Pro Tools.

Tab to and Select Clip/Media Item

Similar to the previous shortcut, but this one selects the next clip/media item as well as moving to it:

1. Type “Item navigation: Select and move to next item” from the Actions List filter.
2. Select the action.
3. Click the “Add…” button at the bottom left. A small “Keyboard/MIDI/OSC Input” window will appear.
4. Click the “Special key (Enter, Tab, etc…)” button.
5. Press the control and “tab” keys.
6. Click OK.

And the other direction:

1. Type “Item navigation: Select and move to previous item” from the Actions List filter.
2. Select the action.
3. Click the “Add…” button at the bottom left. A small “Keyboard/MIDI/OSC Input” window will appear.
4. Click the “Special key (Enter, Tab, etc…)” button.
5. Press the shift, control, and “tab” keys.
6. Click OK.

Modifying Zooming Settings in Reaper

Next, let’s tackle zooming and magnification.

Zooming Location

First, let’s touch up a system preference. When first opened, Reaper zooms in and out around the playhead. This is a bit different from Pro Tools, so let’s set it to approximate Pro Tools’ behaviour.

Select menu item REAPER/Preferences… or command and “,” (control and “,” for Windows users). This will bring up the preferences window.

Choose Editing Behavior from the left list. Then, beside the “Vertical zoom center” menu item select “Track under mouse cursor”. Now, you’ll zoom in and out wherever the mouse cursor happens to be, just like Pro Tools.

Zooming In and Out

Let’s set things to match how Pro Tools zooms in and out of the timeline with a mouse wheel:

1. Type “View: Zoom horizontally reversed (MIDI CC relative/mousewheel)” from the Actions List filter.
2. Select the action.
3. Click the “Add…” button at the bottom left. A small “Keyboard/MIDI/OSC Input” window will appear.
4. Move the mouse scroll wheel up and down while holding the option key. It will display “Opt+Mousewheel”.
5. Click OK.

Now, together with the preferences set above, Reaper will zoom in and out like Pro Tools.

Zoom to Clip

A very helpful Pro Tools shortcut allows zooming instantly to a selected clip by typing option and “f” (alt and “f” for Windows users). Let’s recreate this in Reaper:

1. Type “View: Toggle zoom to selected items” from the Actions List filter.
2. Select the action.
3. Click the “Add…” button at the bottom left. A small “Keyboard/MIDI/OSC Input” window will appear.
4. Type option and “f”.
5. Click OK.

This will zoom to precisely the clips you select. A slight difference: it fills the view of the edit window both horizontally and vertically, but it’s pretty close to the Pro Tools feature.

Zoom to Project

Want to zoom to the entire Reaper timeline? Here’s the Action item and keystroke we need to match Pro Tools:

1. Type “View: Zoom out project” from the Actions List filter.
2. Select the action.
3. Click the “Add…” button at the bottom left. A small “Keyboard/MIDI/OSC Input” window will appear.
4. Click in the Shortcut field.
5. Type option and “a”.
6. Click OK.

Adapting to Reaper

It’s not easy to adapt workflows, keystrokes, and editing muscle memory from years of Pro Tools habits – or from any other app for that matter. Reaper’s powerful Action List can help ease the transition.

In particular, navigation settings help one to get an easier grip on moving amongst the media items, clips, and tracks to get the work you need done quickly and accurately.

Do you have a Reaper navigation, selection, or zooming tip? Share it via Twitter or on our Facebook page.

Read More

Want to know more about Reaper?

• The Reaper Blog. My favourite site to learn about Reaper. Includes free videos, as well as valuable paid courses. Always dependable and easy to understand.
• Reaper Mania. Extensive n00b-friendly YouTube video series about getting started with Reaper. Older videos are slowly being updated to reflect recent software updates.
• Pro Tools Keyboard Shortcuts. Need to find a Pro Tools shortcut? This website lists shortcuts for multiple versions of the software.

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