Getting Started: BBCSO Discover - Reaper

• Table of Contents

Overview:

While Reaper tends to be a little bit more of the tinkering musician’s DAW, often a little bit of tinkering yields some pretty hefty workflow enhancement. In this case, taking a little bit of time to configure a few extensions turns Reaper into an awesome DAW for creating orchestral music.

Installation & Configuration:

Reaper

First make sure that you have installed the latest version of Reaper.

SWS Extension

The SWS Extension is a set of user-created add-ons that extended and enhance the functionality of Reaper.

Installation

1. Quit Reaper.
2. Download the correct version of the SWS Extension for your operating system.
3. Open the downloaded content and follow the included installation instructions.
4. Restart Reaper.

ReaPack

ReaPack is a package manager for Reaper extension. It can be used to discover, install, and update Reaper resources including ReaScripts, JS effects, extensions, themes, language packs, templates, web interfaces, and more.

Installation

1. Quit Reaper.

2. Download the correct version of ReaPack for your operating system.

3. From the Menu Bar in Reaper click Options > Show REAPER resource path in explorer/finder

4. Then move the downloaded file into the User Plugins folder.

   📝 Note

You can approve the file by right-clicking on it and selecting “Open.” You then will see a pop-up notification asking if you would really like to open this file, click “Open” or “Yes.”

5. Restart Reaper.
6. After restarting Reaper, you should see a window confirming that you have successfully installed ReaPack.

JS_ReaScriptAPI Extension

With the ReaPack Package Manger freshly installed, it can now be used to install the js_ReaScriptAPI extension. This extension works as a facilitator/connector for some of the more advanced functionality of the Reaticulate Extension which will be installed next. More information about this Reaper Extension can be found on the project’s forum thread: https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=212174

Installation

1. From Reaper’s Menu Bar, navigate to Extension > ReaPack > Browse Packages.

   

2. Then Filter for “reascriptapi”

3. Right click on the js_ReaScriptAPI: API functions for ReaScripts and choose Install.

4. Then click the Apply button in the bottom right corner of the Browse Packages window.

5. You may now close, the Browse Packages window and restart Reaper

Reaticulate

Reaticulate provides a virtual instrument articulation management system for Reaper. More information about this Reaper Extension can be found on the project’s website: https://reaticulate.com/

Installation

1. In Reaper’s Menu Bar navigate to Extensions > ReaPack > Import Repository

2. In the Import Repositories window that appears, paste in this URL and click “OK”: https://reaticulate.com/release.xml

   

3. Back in Reaper’s Menu Bar, navigate to Extension > ReaPack > Browse Packages and filter for “Reaticulate”

   

4. Once found, right-click on the Reaticulate: an articulation management system for Reaper package and choose Install.

5. Then click the Apply button in the bottom right corner of the Browse Packages window.

6. You may now close, the Browse Packages window and restart Reaper

Reaticulate Setup

Before we can begin to use Reaticulate to control all the articulations included in each of the BBCSO Discover instruments, we’ll need to edit Reaticulates preferences file.

1. Begin by open the main Reaticulate window via Reaper’s Actions List found in Reaper’s Menubar > Actions > Show Actions List...

2. Filter the Actions List for “Reaticulate_Main”

   

3. Select the Script: Reaticulate_Main.lua action and click the Run/close button near the bottom right corner of the Actions Lists window.

   📝 Note

4. Open Reaticulate’s preference file by clicking pencil icon near the top right corner of the Reaticulate window and selecting “Edit in TextEdit”

   

5. Finally, paste the following text into the Reaticulate.reabank file. Then save and close it.

   // -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   // Spitfire BBCSO Discover Strings ---------------------------------------------------------------
   // -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   
   //! colors=default=#222222
   //! colors=legato=#F29559
   //! colors=legato-light=#F194B4
   //! colors=legato-dark=#F194B4
   //! colors=long=#467599
   //! colors=long-light=#F194B4
   //! colors=long-dark=#9381FF
   //! colors=short=#84DCC6
   //! colors=short-light=#F29559
   //! colors=short-dark=#84DCC6
   //! colors=textured=#9381FF
   //! colors=fx=#D81159
   
   //! g="Spitfire/BBCSO Discover Orchestra/Strings" n="BBCSO Discover - Violins 1"
   //! m="Keyswitches"
   Bank 65 1 - "BBCSO Discover Orchestra Violins 1"
   //! c=myColor i=legato o=note:0
   1 Legato
   //! c=long i=note-whole o=note:1
   2 Long
   //! c=short i=spiccato o=note:4
   3 Spiccato
   //! c=short-light i=pizz o=note:6
   4 Pizzicato
   //! c=textured i=tremolo o=note:8
   5 Tremolo
   
   //! g="Spitfire/BBCSO Discover Orchestra/Strings" n="BBCSO Discover - Violins 2"
   //! m="Keyswitches"
   Bank 65 2 - "BBCSO Discover Orchestra Violins 2"
   //! c=long i=note-whole o=note:0
   1 Long
   //! c=short i=spiccato o=note:1
   2 Spiccato
   //! c=short-light i=pizz o=note:2
   3 Pizzicato
   //! c=textured i=tremolo o=note:3
   4 Tremolo
   
   //! g="Spitfire/BBCSO Discover Orchestra/Strings" n="BBCSO Discover - Violas"
   //! m="Keyswitches"
   Bank 65 3 - "BBCSO Discover Orchestra Violas"
   //! c=long i=note-whole o=note:0
   1 Long
   //! c=short i=spiccato o=note:1
   2 Spiccato
   //! c=short-light i=pizz o=note:2
   3 Pizzicato
   //! c=textured i=tremolo o=note:3
   4 Tremolo
   
   //! g="Spitfire/BBCSO Discover Orchestra/Strings" n="BBCSO Discover - Celli"
   //! m="Keyswitches"
   Bank 65 4 - "BBCSO Discover Orchestra Celli"
   //! c=default i=note-whole o=note:0
   1 Long
   //! c= default i=spiccato o=note:1
   2 Spiccato
   //! c= default i=pizz o=note:2
   3 Pizzicato
   //! c= default i=tremolo o=note:3
   4 Tremolo
   
   //! g="Spitfire/BBCSO Discover Orchestra/Strings" n="BBCSO Discover - Basses"
   //! m="Keyswitches"
   Bank 65 4 - "BBCSO Discover Orchestra Basses"
   //! c=default i=note-whole o=note:0
   1 Long
   //! c= default i=spiccato o=note:1
   2 Spiccato
   //! c= default i=pizz o=note:2
   3 Pizzicato
   
   // -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   // Spitfire BBCSO Discover Winds -----------------------------------------------------------------
   // -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   
   //! g="Spitfire/BBCSO Discover Orchestra/Winds" n="BBCSO Discover - Piccolo"
   //! m="Keyswitches"
   Bank 65 5 - "BBCSO Discover Orchestra Piccolo"
   //! c=default i=note-whole o=note:0
   1 Long
   //! c= default i=staccato o=note:1
   2 Staccatissimo
   
   //! g="Spitfire/BBCSO Discover Orchestra/Winds" n="BBCSO Discover - Flutes a3"
   //! m="Keyswitches"
   Bank 65 6 - "BBCSO Discover Orchestra Flutes a3"
   //! c=default i=note-whole o=note:0
   1 Long
   //! c= default i=staccato o=note:1
   2 Staccatissimo
   
   //! g="Spitfire/BBCSO Discover Orchestra/Winds" n="BBCSO Discover - Oboes a3"
   //! m="Keyswitches"
   Bank 65 7 - "BBCSO Discover Orchestra Oboes a3"
   //! c=default i=note-whole o=note:0
   1 Long
   //! c= default i=staccato o=note:1
   2 Staccatissimo
   
   //! g="Spitfire/BBCSO Discover Orchestra/Winds" n="BBCSO Discover - Clarinets a3"
   //! m="Keyswitches"
   Bank 65 8 - "BBCSO Discover Orchestra Clarinets a3"
   //! c=default i=note-whole o=note:0
   1 Long
   //! c= default i=staccato o=note:1
   2 Staccatissimo
   
   //! g="Spitfire/BBCSO Discover Orchestra/Winds" n="BBCSO Discover - Bassoon a3"
   //! m="Keyswitches"
   Bank 65 9 - "BBCSO Discover Orchestra Bassoon a3"
   //! c=default i=note-whole o=note:0
   1 Long
   //! c= default i=staccato o=note:1
   2 Staccatissimo
   
   // -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   // Spitfire BBCSO Discover Brass -----------------------------------------------------------------
   // -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   
   //! g="Spitfire/BBCSO Discover Orchestra/Brass" n="BBCSO Discover - Horns a4"
   //! m="Keyswitches"
   Bank 65 10 - "BBCSO Discover Orchestra Horns a4"
   //! c=default i=note-whole o=note:0
   1 Long
   //! c= default i=staccato o=note:1
   2 Staccatissimo
   
   //! g="Spitfire/BBCSO Discover Orchestra/Brass" n="BBCSO Discover - Trumpets a3"
   //! m="Keyswitches"
   Bank 65 11 - "BBCSO Discover Orchestra Trumpets a3"
   //! c=default i=note-whole o=note:0
   1 Long
   //! c= default i=staccato o=note:1
   2 Staccatissimo
   
   //! g="Spitfire/BBCSO Discover Orchestra/Brass" n="BBCSO Discover - Tenor Trombones a3"
   //! m="Keyswitches"
   Bank 65 12 - "BBCSO Discover Orchestra Tenor Trombones a3"
   //! c=default i=note-whole o=note:0
   1 Long
   //! c= default i=staccato o=note:1
   2 Staccatissimo
   
   //! g="Spitfire/BBCSO Discover Orchestra/Brass" n="BBCSO Discover - Bass Trombones a3"
   //! m="Keyswitches"
   Bank 65 13 - "BBCSO Discover Orchestra Bass Trombones a3"
   //! c=default i=note-whole o=note:0
   1 Long
   //! c= default i=staccato o=note:1
   2 Staccatissimo
   
   //! g="Spitfire/BBCSO Discover Orchestra/Brass" n="BBCSO Discover - Tuba"
   //! m="Keyswitches"
   Bank 65 14 - "BBCSO Discover Orchestra Tuba"
   //! c=default i=note-whole o=note:0
   1 Long
   //! c= default i=staccato o=note:1
   2 Staccatissimo

Reaper Template

Breathe a sigh of relief, the hard work is over and we are nearly ready to start making some sweet sweet orchestral music. Last, but not least we need to download and open the Reaper Project Template which organizes all the BBCSO Discover instrument into easily manageable groups with two dedicated reverb tracks per group.

Here is the Reaper Project Template:

TEMPLATE - BBCSCO Discover-V002.RPP.zip