Optimising Reapers for Bitwig Users - Deep Dive #15

Purpose

The host livestreamed a session to tweak Reaper preferences so the DAW behaves more like Bitwig. The goal was to make switching between the two DAWs easier and to keep a consistent workflow for someone who uses both and makes tutorials. The presenter will export and share the Reaper configuration so others can use it.

High-level observations and philosophy

• Reaper exposes extremely granular, low-level options; Bitwig has a simpler, more streamlined preferences UI.
• The host prefers a hybrid approach: keep Bitwig shortcuts mostly unchanged (for tutorials) but tweak Reaper so common workflows feel familiar.
• Suggestion: a “simple” vs “advanced” preferences UI would help Reaper beginners.

Aim: make everyday actions feel like Bitwig while retaining Reaper’s configurability for deeper customization.

Key settings and features reviewed or changed (actionable)

Project / ruler

• Set the ruler to minutes:seconds and saved this as the default project.
• Enabled dotted grid lines and configured grid to display over/under items to approximate Bitwig’s grid look.

Editing behavior

• Enabled “move edit cursor when changing time selection” so time selection edits move the cursor like Bitwig.
• Configured horizontal zoom center to follow the mouse cursor.
• Limited horizontal zoom to sensible bounds to avoid extreme zooming.

Item splitting, fades and crossfades

• Set imported media split behavior to “overlap and crossfade.”
• Enabled auto-crossfade on split (useful when splitting with Ctrl+E).
• Adjusted item fade defaults and crossfade shapes to preferred styles.

Mouse modifiers / item dragging

• Re-mapped mouse modifiers for media item bottom-half:
  • Set Ctrl + Alt + drag = move item contents ignoring snap (to match Bitwig muscle memory).
• Mapped track height / vertical zone mouse actions for quick track resizing similar to Bitwig.

Automation / envelopes

• Enabled easier envelope/automation drawing and improved tooltips.
• Experimented with a “control P automation” (automation clip–like behavior).
• Configured envelope display and editing to be more interactive (drawable envelopes, visible ranges).

Bounce / freeze / render workflow

• Created a compound action to emulate “bounce in place” / freeze-and-flatten:
  1. Render item to a new take.
  2. Crop to the active take. - Mapped this compound action to Ctrl+B.
• Kept single-key B for creating new takes/tracks.
• Verified the resulting take is flattened (effects removed from the original clip, similar to freeze).

Audio device and performance

• Reviewed audio device settings: block/request size, buffering priority and input naming (renamed input to SM57).
• Left buffering/priority mostly unchanged but noted the importance of choosing the correct block size.

UI / appearance

• Enabled helpful tooltips and reduced UI animations.
• Hid or adjusted peaks/waveform display options and turned off the spectrogram for visual clarity.
• Set track meter display to stereo and adjusted meter update frequency.

Miscellaneous

• Reviewed many granular options (solo behavior/front-dimming, scrubbing/seek playback, comp lanes, plugin window auto-resize, external editor settings), but did not change all of them.
• Emphasized not changing too many shortcuts to keep tutorial compatibility for viewers.

Export and sharing

• Exported the Reaper configuration including:
  • actions & key bindings
  • menus/toolbars
  • color themes
  • channel mappings
  • templates and key maps
  • other miscellaneous settings
• Plans to post the exported Reaper config and key mappings to the Discord for viewers.

Type of content / tutorial note

• The stream was exploratory — “figuring things out” rather than a step-by-step polished tutorial.
• The host intends to continue tweaking and will provide a downloadable Reaper preset/config that approximates Bitwig behavior.

Main speaker / source

• The livestream host / Reaper user (unnamed presenter) — the video’s creator and operator of the stream.