A quick reference guide to Reaper by Vitor Ferreira

Note for readers in English:

This manual is a translation of a personal guide I compiled from various tutorials, podcast audios and videos, phone calls, Whatsapp messages and personal investigation, in order to use Reaper more easyly, and have as much information at my finger tips. This knowledge is available in many different places, but I find that having a quick written reference text file is just so handy, that it's worth the efort.
Some information may not be as exact as it probably should. However, regarding Reaper, I try to be as acurat and specific as I can.
If you are blind or visually impaired, please feel free to use and share this manual,  and, as English is not my native language, to correct any misspelling words or incorrect sentences.

Vitor Ferreira

Contents of this manual:

01: First steps, instalation and initial configuration:

01.1: Initial setup:

01.2: Osara configurations:

02: Project, track, item, take and respective hierarchy:

02.1: New track:

02.2: Creating track folders:

03: Navigating audio, selecting and editing tracks:

03.1: Selecting:

03.2: Ripple mode:

04: Effects:

05: Autopunch:

06: Basic track manipulation:

07: Routing:

08: Project properties:

09: Side Chain:

10: Rendering and consolidating:

10.1: Tip:

11: Reaconsole:

12: Reading and managing volume levels:

12.1: Peak Watcher:

12.2: Notify automaticly:

12.3: Using peak watcher:

12.4: Monitoring level before recording:

12.5: During mixing and playback:

12.6: Real time monitoring:

12.7: Reading the level of the rendered project:

12.8: Using peak watcher after rendering:

12.9: Normalizing:

13: Costum actions:

13.1: Managing shortcut keys:

13.2: Creating action macros:

14: Basic automation:

14.1: Example:

15: Snapshots:

16: Miscelanious useful commands:

17: Some interesting operations:

17.1: Check the sise of a selected chunk in the desired format:

17.2: Clear time selection information:

17.3: Adding markers during recording or playback:

17.4: Saving a preset within an effect:

17.5: Adding an effect to an item:

17.6: Add a pre reverb to an item:

17.7: Stretch markers:

17.8: Make a loop to sing upon:

17.9: Silence a chunk on a track:

17.10: 0 crossing:

17.11: Creating samples associated to items to be mapped and played using a midi keyboard:

17.12: Using a vocoder:

17.13: Use TapeStop effect on an item:

17.14: Mapping items to your keyboard changing only pitch, not time duration, all based in 1 item:

18: Markers, regions and transients:

18.1: Transients:

19: Items: aditional information:

20: Contiguous versus non contiguous selection:

21: Midi synchronization and inserting virtual instruments:

21.1: Connecting a midi keyboard to Reaper:

21.2: Inserting a virtual instrument:

21.3: Notes:

22: Midi composing and sequencing:

22.1: Quantizing:

22.2: Quantizing a selected portion:

22.3: Sequencing:

22.4: Midi editor:

22.5: Piano rol:

22.6: Numeric pad keys and their atributions:

22.7: Selecting and moving bars in the midi editor:

22.8: What can be done in the list of events:

22.9: Humanization:

22.10: Step recording:

22.11: Note:

23: Sampler functionality:

23.1: Separating drumkits with ReaSamplOmatic:

24: Creating and working with sfz files:

25: Quick note on keyboard shortcuts:


Reaper: Version for Windows:

01: First steps, instalation and initial configuration:

Advantages:
1: Reaper is a non destructive audio editor. That means that the final audio is afected only after the project or any individual audio files are rendered.
These topics will be covered later in this guide.
2: Reaper is multiplatform. It offers stabbility and speed to audio production. For what it does, Reaper is reasonably costefective, about 50 dollars. Licencing a version can give you the chance of staying updated for free for the period of 2 full versions, which can last for about 2 years with all intermediate releases.
Download Reaper at
www.reaper.fm.
In order to make Reaper more accessible and usable, there are 2 aditional peaces of software that should be installed.
First is SWS. Grab it from:
http://sws-extension.org/
Then, pick up Osara and install it on top of Reaper and SWS.
Download link to Osara is
https://osara.reaperaccessibility.com/snapshots/.
When you launch Reaper for the very first time, you will be asked to configure your audio input and output devices.
If your sound card has an ASIO driver, or is ASIO compatible, this will be the best option. ASIO will bypass windows sound settings, and function as a totally independent device.
If that is not the case,  you will need to install a generic ASIO driver which may or may not be compatible with your sound card. Another option is to install a program like Synchronous Audio Router, that will create virtual devices whith their specific ASIO settings.
Please note that Synchronous Audio Router will not solve latency issues. It will only create virtual audio inputs and outputs, so it will be more appropriate for things like podcasting.
For music production, there is also ASIO4All. If that does not work, you may choose between the Wasapi or Direct Sound driver.
If after setting up Reaper with ASIO you encounter error messages or conflicts with your screen reader, you may have to point it to an external sound card. This way, your screen reader will be agregated to its own sound card, as Reaper will use the other sound card.
You may also need to go to Windows sound settings, and uncheck the box that says something like allow exclusive control.
In whatever case, when multitracking, individual track monitoring should be disabled to prevent latency.

01.1: Initial setup:
Just like other softwares, Reaper has a Preferences menu you can rich by pressing control+p.
There are some default settings you may consider changing right from the start.
In the Paths group, there is a setting to specify a folder where VST plugins and instruments will reside.
Also, in Project properties, pressing alt+enter, you can specify a folder where projects and all their related files will be stored, as well as Reapick files.
Reapick files are not too relevant. They only store peak level information, but they stay allover the system if their destination folder is not properly specified.

01.2: Osara configurations:
Press control+alt+shift+p to go to the Osara preferences menu. First and last check boxes are probably the only 2 things to worry about.
First box anounces scrubbing position in seconds, and the third anounces transport commands like play, pause and stop.
By scrubbing, we mean going through the audio as if we were using old reel to reel tapes. Scrubbing function depends on the zoom settings.
F12 toggles keyboard help on and off.
F4 opens the actions and keyboard shortcuts list.

02: Project, track, item, take and respective hierarchy:

The project is the main element of our workflow in Reaper.
Basicly, the project is a kind of playlist file which gathers all informations regarding what will happen. Everything like, for example, if there is only one track, or if it is a multitrack project, the way all tracks sync, changes in audio editing, effects, and so on, get compiled in what is called the project.
Thus, every time you start a session in Reaper, a new project is created. When you save the current project, Reaper will create a file with the .rpp extension. All audio files and other elements within our project will be saved by default in the same folder.
Whenever the .rpp file is loaded, every audio as well as every other relevant information is brought to our session.
A project contains one or more tracks, a track contains one or more items, an item contains one or more takes. This is the hierarchical order of elements we work with in Reaper.
For better organizing our workflow, tracks can be grouped together in folders.
For instance, percusion tracks can be grouped in their own folder. The same can be made with keyboard or vocal tracks.

02.1: New track:
When Reaper is launched, its desktop shows no tracks.
To create a new track, press control+t.
Tracks are usually created for recording or inserting audio, but that is not always the case.
Tracks can contain midi items, or simply be used to receive signal from other tracks in their individual channels. That's what is called routing.
Pressing the applications key, will show up a menu with various options such as if it will be mono or stereo, input and output settings, recording source, etc.
In order to record on a track, you will need to arm it. To do so, press f7.
To monitor your track, press f8.
You will probably notice a slight delay. That is not a problem. Just press f8 again to set monitoring to off when you don't need it.
Before recording, you can know which channel is being used, either pressing control+up arrow, or using the applications key.
To begin recording, arm your track and press r.
To stop recording, press r again, or the space bar.
If you use the space bar, Reaper will ask if you want to delete or save your audio.
This happens no matter how many tracks you create.
It's also possible to grab an existing audio file to a track. Just set focus to that track and choose the insert menu.
That can be done to a single track, or individual automaticly created tracks.

02.2: Creating track folders:
Let's suppose you have 2 percusion tracks, 2 keyboard tracks and 4 vocal tracks.
You want to group them in folders to keep things organized. So, proceed as folows:
Step 1: Name your tracks so they are easy to recognize and sort properly.
Then create 2 new empty tracks, one at the beginning and the other at the end of each track category.
Step 2: Make shure that every track is within its specific category.
Step 3: Name the up empty track of each category and press shift+enter until you hear your screen reader say folder.
Step 4: Set focus to the down empty track of each category and press shift+enter until you hear your screen reader say end of folder.
There you have your tracks grouped inside folders!
To close a folder, press enter until you hear your screen reader say closed.
This way, you will easyly locate a given track inside its folder. To open a folder, press enter until you hear your screen reader say open.
Subfolders and sub-subfolders can also be created. For example, you may have 2 main vocals and 4 back vocals. Within the vocals folder you can create a subfolder to put the main vocals and another subfolder to put the back vocals.
Then you may wish to add a reverb to the main vocals and a chorus to the back vocals.
It may sound like trying to find the way out of a maze, but it works!
If folders are nolonger needed, just delete the folder and end of folder track.
The way folders are shown up can be toggled with the enter key.
Normal: folder is highlighted.
Small: there's a thumbnail view of the folder.
Closed: the folder is viewed as closed.
The same happens with individual tracks, but it's not relevant for a blind user, it just afects the way tracks and folders are viewed.

03: Navigating audio, selecting and editing tracks:

To navigate audio, Reaper has 2 cursors: the cursor that folows up playback and the editing cursor.
To play or stop playback, press the space bar.
Using space bar, the cursor comes back to the beginning of the audio.
So, to pause playback at a given point, press control+space bar.
Pressing only space bar again, will stop and start playback right at the point where it was paused before.
To move by bars, press page up and page down.
To move by beats, press control+page up or page down.
To scrub through the audio, just press right or left arrows.
To know where you are in terms of bars, press control+shift+j.
To know where you are in terms of time in the audio: control+shift+j+j.
By default, when an audio file is inserted into a track, cursor goes to the end of the audio.
This is adjustable in the Preferences menu, but not mandatory.

03.1: Selecting:
When we use the up and down arrows, we are navigating through the list of tracks. When the screen reader anounces the name or number of a certain track, it means that this particular track has gained focus, and is now selected.
When focused on one or various tracks, you can perform a number of actions, such as deleting, copying, and so on, just like managing files in Windows Explorer.
Along with the applications key that brings the context menu, To open another  menu with basic parameters for your track, press control+shift+p.
There are various ways of doing things.
Keep in mind that To select audio, you need to folow the hierarchy that was previously mentioned.
When you record or insert one audio into a track, this track gains an item.
To make any selection, you will always need to depart from that one first item.
So, to select it, press control+right or left arrow.
To make a time selection, the procedure is similar as in GoldWave or Audacity.
press the left bracket key at the starting point of the selection, and the right bracket key at the ending point of the selection.
To clear a time selection, press escape.
You can also split that one first audio item into as many items as you wish.
To do so, press the letter a or the letter s either at the beginning or at the end of the item you want to define.
Navigate through items using control and right or left arrows.
When focused on a given item, you can perform whatever actions such as delete, copy, paste, etc. So you may select using either of these 2 methods. Just choose the one  that will suit your needs.
To select from a given point to the beginning of the project, press shift home.
To select from a given point to the end of the project, press shift+end.
By default, both actions will afect all tracks.
To preview the result of an edit without the selected chunk:
Step 1: Define time selection.
Step 2: Move the cursor to shortly before your start marker.
Step 3: Press alt+space bar to hear the result.
If you need to move the markers:
Pressing control+left or right bracket will move the start marker left or right.
Pressing alt+left or right bracket will move the finish marker left or right.
This also depends on the zoom settings. Use plus sign to increase zoom level, and less sign to decrease zoom level.
Plus sign and less sign on the numeric pad also work.
To expand or shrink an item, do the folowing:
Press control+period or control+comma to expand or to shrink the left edge of the item.
Press alt+period or alt+comma to expande or to shrink the right edge of the item.

03.2: Ripple mode:
This is a very important concept.
To edit, you have to pay atention to 2 factors:
One is the time selection, or the duration of an audio  file. The other is the time line.
To manage these 2 factors, there is something called Ripple mode.
There are 3 ripple modes:
Off: Audio content is changed, not the time line.
Ripple per track: Changes will only afect the current track.
Ripple all tracks: Changes afect all tracks in the project.
To change ripple mode, press alt+p.
To check current ripple mode, press alt+shift+p.

04: Effects:

Using the f key, you land on the list of the effects that are bundled with Reaper, and also the list of plugins you may wish to install.
With tabb and down arrow, you explore the window and select the desired effect.
According to specific effects, the way we search for parameters and apply the effect will varie.
Usually, after choosing the desired effect, the best way to acheeve its parameters is to press p.
This will be specially useful if a given effect or plugin does not show real world values.
There seem to be some JAWS scripts that help reading those parameters, 
Rather than applying the effect to the audio, Reaper will apply the effect to the track. This means that even if only monitoring a track, you can listen to the effect and make the necessary changes if you wish.
Some plugins don't offer much usability or accessibility.
Buttons and check boxes must be activated with the left mouse button of your screen reader, because most of the times, the space bar will play the audio.
The effect will only be applyed to the audio after rendering that project or individual track.
To apply the effect to the master track, press shift+p.

05: Autopunch:

Suppose you are performing something and recording. Suddenly, you sing out of key, or play the wrong note.
Your entire performance is brilliant, but there's just that little irritating mistake. You can correct that small part and leave the rest as it is. That is what in Reaper is called Autopunch. Here is how to do it.
Step 1: Select the bad part with start and finish markers.
Step 2: Press alt+o to go to the options menu, and choose time selection autopunch as recording mode.
Step 3: Uncheck the box that says "show all takes in lanes when room".
Step 4: Place your cursor 1 or 2 bars prior to your previous time selection to prepare punching.
Step 5: Press r to record the new take, or as many takes you need to do.
All takes stay recorded, so, to navigate fourth and back in the list of takes, press t or shift+t. 
Press enter on the desired take, and if you wish, press alt+shift+t to delete all other takes you will not use.
Step 6: After punching in, press again alt+o to reach the options menu, and set recording mode back to normal, otherwise you may damage your recording.
To listen to the final result, press escape to clear your time selection and play it back.


06: Basic track manipulation:

To increase the volume of a track, press alt+up arrow.
To decrease the volume of a track, press alt+down arrow.
To increase or decrease the volume of a track in one db increments, press control+shift+ up or down arrow.
To pan a track to the left, press alt+left arrow.
To pan a track to the right, press alt+right arrow.
To mute a track, press f5.
To solo a track, press f6.
You can also set solo in front, pressing control+alt+f6. It's a toggle.
When you choose Solo in front, the selected track is soloed, but the volume level of all other tracks goes down 18 db by default.
You can adjust this level in Preferences/Mute and solo.
To invert the fase of a track, press f9.
To toggle mono and stereo, press shift+f9.

07: Routing:

With your cursor on a given track, to enter its routing options, press i.
This is another sort of contextual menu, that will offer specific options.
When using a mixer, for example, you can use physical buttons and knobs to route signal from different sources to different destinations.
Routing in Reaper will make possible to send and receive audio signal between tracks.
That is very handy, specially when you need to monitor effects, and use things like compressors, vocoders or equalizers, for instance.
Routing availability will depend on your sound card, but there's normally at least 16 channels per track to choose from, which is usually mor than enough.

08: Project properties:

As already mentioned before, to enter project properties, press alt+enter.
There you will find a number of tabbbs, where you may set project rate, number of beats per minut, time signature, saving path, and a bunch of other properties that can be assigned to the current project, or can be set as default properties for future projects.
One of the most interesting tabbbs is the notes tabbb. There you can write notes with tips and instructions that will be relevant specially if you are working in the same project with other Reaper users.

09: Side Chain:

By Side Chain, we mean basicly routing one track to be listened on another track.
This can be useful in situations such as adding effects, and then listening to the over all result in the mix. It's achieved really by picking signal from the output of a track, then, sending that signal to one channel of the destination track.
In this case, we will take the example of a compressor called Reacomp.
We will have 2 tracks, one for music, one for voice. The idea is that when the voice starts, the music ducks down so we can better hear what the voice is saying.
Then, when the voice ends, the music will get back to its original volume. Here is how to proceed:
Step 1: Set focus to the music track, and press i to enter its routing options.
The music track must have 4 channels. 2 channels for the audio itself, and another 2 channels for the compressor; so, tabbb across to Channels and choose 4 using up or down arrow.
Step 2: Set focus to the voice track and press i to enter its routing options.
Tabb across until you hear send combo box add new send. Press alt+down arrow.
There, use your up and down arrows again to choose the destination track. In this case, it will be the music track. Press enter. Send is created.
Step 3: Keep focus on the voice track. Tabbing across, you will hear send to, the number of the track, and delete button. However, don't press that button.
Step 4: Press the applications key, and use down arrow to find destination audio channel. There, press enter. Use your down arrow to choose channels 3 and 4. Again, press enter.
Now, get out of the routing options using escape.
Step 5: Once more, set focus to the music track, and press enter to bring the effects menu. Search for Reacomp.
Step 6: Adjust its parameters and preview with the space bar.
Tabbing around, you will  hear Reacomp detecter input. Use up or down arrow to select auxiliary input.

10: Rendering and consolidating:

After finishing your project, it's time to export the final mix out to an audio file. That is called rendering.
The render dialogue is under the file menu, and has the convenient shortcut key control+alt+r.
This process will take a lot of your machine's resources, and can be performed off line, which is quicker, and on line, that means in real time.
Although it is quite intuitive, there are a fiew interesting details to consider:
The final product with all changes and mix, is exported to an audio file, but along with that, each audio or midi track can be exported individually as a single raw file.
There is also the render cue, where various projects are listed to be rendered, mainly bigger projects.
By default, Reaper will render the main mix from the master track.
Alternatively, you can render from one individual track.
If you want to showcase your project, you may set a time selection and render from there.
In bounce options, choose time selection, and only that portion will be rendered.
Another way is to consolidate the project. It will offer a couple more options, but will basicly do the same.
The difference is that, when only rendering, you will export the master track with all echoes, reverbs, and all other changes that make the final mix.
If you choose to consolidate, you are as well saving each individual track or a section of it in a separate file.
Finally, we can render stems. By stem, we mean one individual track, but with all processing, including equalization, compression or reverb.

10.1: Tip:
When rendering:
Let's imagine you have a very long reverb in the end of your final mix. You don't want it to end abruptly, but as it is a reverb, it's important to leave enough time for its tail.

11: Reaconsole:

The Reaconsole is a command line that exists due to the SWS extension. 
With this powerful tool, you can select tracks, name them, change their input channel, insert effects, etc.
Reaconsole cannot be used with items, only with tracks.
Reading levels or states of things is also not possible.
What matters however, is what you really can do with this convenient resource that will be a great time saver in your production.
To activate the Reaconsole, press alt+c.
If SWS is correctly installed, you will be prompted to enter a command.
Each command will have to be one line.
Press enter as you finish one individual command.
To discard the console, press alt+enter.
When pressing enter after typing a command, escape will also dismiss the Reaconsole.
Let's take a fiew examples:
Let's say you have a project with 3 tracks.
Track 1 is the drums, track 2 is the bass, and track 3 is the keyboard.
You want to name these tracks.
All you have to do is open the Rea Console and type as folows:
n1 drums, enter.
n2bass, enter.
n3keyboard, control+enter.
Also, you can add prefixes and suffixes to track names.
For example, from track 10 to track 20, you have vocal tracks, but you only have names. So, open the console and type as folows:
b10-20 vocal, control+enter.
This will ad vocal as a prefix to all selected previously named tracks.
To add a suffix, use the same command, only replace b by z.
To change the input channel of a track, just select it, open the console and type the letter i folowed by the number of the desired channel.
Example: Track 4 should record from channel 3. Press alt+c to open the console and type as folows:
i3, control+enter.
What if you want to select more than 1 track? Yes, you can do that using contiguous or non contiguous selection.
Then, open the console and type the letter i folowed by the number of the desired channel.
Faster yet! Set focus to the first track in the project, open the console and type the letter i folowed by dash, and finally the number of the desired channel.
Regarding contiguous versus non contiguous selection, we will cover it later in this guide.
Now, let's imagine you want track 6 to be stereo. All you have to do is set focus to track 6, open Reaconsole and type:
i6s, control+enter.
Iqually,  if tracks from 6 to 10 are keyboard tracks and you want them to be stereo, just type:
i6-10s, control+enter.
There you have your stereo tracks without having to change their settings manually.
If you wish to set these tracks as midi tracks, use m for midi as a suffix. Like this:
i6-10m, control enter.
The letter i represents the word input.
If you type, for instance:
i4 4, control+enter, in this case, the letter i folowed by the number and space, represents the track, not the channel.
If you type
i4 5, control enter
you'll make track 4 receive signal on channel 5.
To solo, the command is o, to mute, the command is u, to arm, the command is a.
As all of them are toggle commands, each time you need to undo one or various of those commands, before the letter, type the less sign.
If you want to solo track 5, type:
o5, control+enter.
To unsolo, type:
-o5, control+enter.
Now let's suppose you have 30 tracks, and you want to solo all guitar tracks. If all of them have the word guitar in the name, just type:
og*control,enter.
All tracks which name begins with the letter g will be soloed.
The same will apply to the mute command. The asterisc represents all characters after the first.
If you want to be even more specific, type:
ogui*, control+enter.
You just need to know exactly the names of your tracks, and you will save lots of time!
If you want to select, the command is s.
To change the volume, the command is v folowed by the number of negative or positive decibels, as you wish to decrease or increase the volume of one or more tracks.
The same applys to pan. Center is represented by 0, left and right are represented by 1 to 100 positive or negative.
Capital v represents absolute volume.
v represents relative volume. The same will happen with pan.
To add effects, the command is x.
For instance:
x10 gate, control+enter 
This will add a gate to track 10.
This does not always work, specially if you don't know exactly the name of the effect you want to use.
Also feel fre to use commands s or dash to select.
And we're basicly done with the Reaconsole.

12: Reading and managing volume levels:

12.1: Peak Watcher:
When properly configured, it makes possible to monitor audio volume levels.
To turn on the peak watcher, press control+shift+w.
In the first 2 options, you are prompted to choose 2 tracks to be monitored. 
You can choose the selected track as first, and the master track as a second track to be monitored.

12.2: Notify automaticly:
This option alerts when the audio goes over a given level. You may choose the level at which you want to be alerted, checking respective boxes.
The idea is to prevent audio from going over 0 db, or any set value.
Folowing option says hold peaks until, makes the peak watcher register the highest level for individual tracks.

12.3: Using peak watcher:

This tool reads the level of the audio, at different times: before and during your recording session, and it also reads the over all mix level.

12.4: Monitoring level before recording:
After arming your track and setting your monitor with f8, just perform as if you were really recording. When you finish, press alt+f9 or alt+f10 to read the volume level of the selected track.
To reset the peak watcher, press alt+f8.

12.5: During mixing and playback:
During playback, it's more convenient to check volume levels of the master track pressing alt+shift+f9 and alt+shift+f10.
This is the level that was defined in the second option of the peak watcher, and as it is the volume of the master track, it reflects the over all volume level of the audio in the project.
If ever the peak watcher indicates a level higher than recommended, then the necessary corrections need to be made, either checking level track by track, or decreasing the volume of the master track.

12.6: Real time monitoring:
As the sound gets in, press j or k to read the level of the audio in either channel.
Pressing shift+j and shift+k, you will read the master track's volume in real time.

12.7: Reading the level of the rendered project:
To do so, you have 2 methods:
Using the render dialogue, uncheck the box that says something like "automatically close when finished",and read the levels using commands according to your screen reader.
The values that show up represent the peak along the entire audio, and show levels per channel.

12.8: Using peak watcher after rendering:
Keep in mind that the level of the final mix by default corresponds to the volume of the master track.
With peak watcher set to register the highest peak of the master track, before rendering, press alt+shift+f8 to reset it.
After rendering, check the volume level with alt+shift+f9. That's the only way.

12.9: Normalizing:
There are 3 ways to normalize audio.
Normalizing related to true peak: Means that everything below a certain value, 0 db, for instance, comes to as near 0 db possible.
Obviously, there should not be any audio above 0 db, even if it doesn't seem distorted, because it will sound bad when normalized.
Normalizing relative to RMS, meaning the average level through the entire audio.
As sound is dinamic over time, rms will show the average of the highest value during that given time, and adjust it.
Normalizing relative to LUFS is similar to RMS, but more in the perspective of the human hearing, not what the graphick shows itself.

To normalize a track or an item, press shift+u.
To annalise the audio, press control+shift+u.
To go to the highest peak and have value reported, press control+k.

13: Costum actions:

Each action in Reaper can be assigned to a shortcut key. That's good news for blind users!
Better yet! Reaper has thousands of actions already bundled. On top of that, Osara and SWS will extend this features even more.
What if it was possible to create actions and assign them to a single shortcut key?
In summary, can Reaper create macros with automatic operations bound to one single key command? Shure it can!
To enter the long list of actions that are already bundled, press f4.
You will land on an edit box to make a search.
A couple tabbbs across, you will find the list of actions. If one action has a shortcut key, it will be anounced.
If the action you land on is the desired, simply press enter and it will be executed. You will then come back to your project.
If you're on the list of actions, to get out of it, press escape.

13.1: Managing shortcut keys:
To assign a shortcut key to an action that has noone assigned, just locate that action on the list, and tabbb twice until the add button.
Click the add button and press the key combination you wish, then tabbb to ok and press enter.
In this dialogue you will also find a delete button to delete any key combination.
If a certain key combination already exists, you will be asked if you want to keep or overwrite it.
If you don't, then everything is dismissed. If you want to overwrite, latest assignment will erase the previous.
Here you also have 2 buttons called new. One is to create a new macro or group of actions. The other is to create a file where you can save your key assignments.
You can use these key assignments by importing them to a Reaper instalation on another machine, which is very convenient!

13.2: Creating action macros:

If a certain operation or group of operations is very repetitive and tedious, or even if it takes many steps, you can bind those to one only shortcut key.
For example, you can create an action to set a volume envelope. This will take:
Making the volume envelope visible,
Arm volume envelope,
Open volume envelope's editor to set the values,
These actions are defined individually on the list. You can group them in one only macro, and press, rather then 3 or 4 key combinations, you will just need to press one only!
In the first new button, type the name of the macro or action.
Tabbing once, you will find a box that makes this action not to be added to the undo history.
Tabbing once more, you will land on another edit box where you will type the exact or approximate name of the action that is already on the list.
When you find it, just left click it and it will be added to the macro.
Pressing tabbb again, you will land on the very list of actions you have added to your macro.
There is no limit of actions you can add to one macro. All you have to do is assign a shortcut key, save the macro, and off you go!
Please note: Sometimes, there may be keyboard shortcuts that will not work. One solution is to install a different keyboard language, or, alternatively, always use the English keyboard.
To switch keyboards, press alt+shift.

14: Basic automation:

Automation in Reaper is made based in envelopes. An envelope is a kind of automatic command that relates to volume, compression, effects, etc.
In this guide we will cover the obviest, the volume envelope.
Here is what to do after recording or inserting audio into a track:
Press alt+control+v to make the volume envelope visible.
Press control+l to arm the volume envelope and select the envelope on the track or item.
Press control+shift+l to move to the prior envelope item.
To insert an envelope point at the current position, press shift+e.
To edit envelope values under cursor, press alt+shift+e.
If there is no envelope point set, pressing alt+shift+e will create one.
To move between envelope points, press alt+k or alt+j to the left or to the right.
To move back and fourth to a certain point leaving others selected, press shift+control+j, or shift+control+k.
Volume and pan envelopes are already set up. They get visible respectively pressing alt+control+v for volume, and alt+control+p for pan.
To make other effects envelopes visible, do the folowing:
Step 1: Create a track.
Step 2: Insert an effect to your track.
Step 3: Explore the effect's window with tabb, until the param button. Press enter or the left click of your screen reader.
Step 4: Arrow down until Effect Parameters submenu. There, press enter.
Step 5: In the list of options, choose show track envelopes, and press enter.
Step 6: All parameters of that effect will show up. Select the parameter or parameters you want to add to the envelope. That's the way it works with all effects except volume and pan. 

14.1: Example:
For better understanding, let's take a voice over music.
Voice and music are part of the same project, and you want music to duck down when the voice starts, and when it ends, music will come back to its original volume, as it happened in side chain.
So:
Step 1: Set focus to the music track and press control+alt+v to make volume envelope visible.
Step 2: Press control+l to arm the envelope.
Step 3: If necessary, move the cursor to the point where volume ducking will start. If not, press alt+shift+e to insert the first envelope point. That's where the fade out will start.
Step 4: Move the cursor to the very point where the voice will start, and press again alt+shift+e to define the end to your fade out. That's where you will type in the number of decibels you want the music to duck down. Let's try 15 db.
Now voice comes up.
Step 5: Move the cursor to the point where the voice will end, and, again,  press alt+shift+e to insert the envelope point where the volume will start fading in to its original level.
Step 6: Move the cursor a tad more, and one last time, press alt+shift+e to insert a final envelope point. Tabb to the edit box and type down 15 db.
Music will fade in to the original volume level.

15: Snapshots:

Here is another very powerful and interesting feature.
Snapshots are sort of mix templates. Reaper will save these templates, so you can have different mixes to the same project.
This will prevent unnecessary renderings.
You can create as many snapshots as you wish, and choose the one that sounds better to you. Then, just render it! Snapshots is a resource of the SWS extension, and it will increase productivity in Reaper very significantly.
You can find this feature under the Extensions submenu, snapshots.
Entering there, you will see how to manage your snapshots, create, remove and edit them at your leasure.
Even better! As you are navigating the snapshots list with up and down arrows, they will be previewed in real time! Pressing enter on the desired snapshot,will imediatly apply its parameters to your project.

16: Miscelanious useful commands:

Additional command to define start and end markers: alt+sift+left bracket, alt+shift+right bracket.
Contract or expand time selection by markers: control+left or right bracket for start marker, 
Alt+shift+left and right bracket for finish marker.
Move time selection back and fourth: control+alt+left or right bracket, being left or right.
Again, all this depends on the zoom settings.
It is also possible to move between markers using the numbers row.
To fade out from one point to the end of the project, press control+alt+o.
To fade in from the start to a given point in the project, press control+alt+i.
To show/hide the master track, press control+alt+m.
To activate&deactivate the metronome, press control+shift+m.
To access metronome settings press alt+shift+m.
To unmute all tracks, press control+f5.
To unsolo all tracks, press control+f6.
To know which tracks are muted, press control+shift+f5.
To know which tracks are unsoloed, press control+shift+f6.
To know which tracks are armed, press control+shift+f7.
To lock or unlock a track, press l with that track selected.
To open a menu with basic track parameters, press control+shift+p.
Use tabbb and up and down arrows to explore this menu.
Parameters that appear in this dialogue can be activated in Preferences/Appearance/Track control pannels, volume/pan fader range.
This way you will have more control of your track.
This command control+shift+p also works with items.
This can be handy if you want to temporaryly change the pan of an instrument during a song. Just split that part into an item, select it and proceed.
To define the beginning of a loop, press alt+shift+left bracket.
To define the end of a loop, press alt+shift+right bracket.
To name an item, just select it and press shift+f2.
To increase or decrease the volume of an item, press shift+page up or shift+page down.
To add an item according to the time selection, press shift+s.
To glue all your items on a track, press alt+control+a to select them, and control+u to glue them.
To add an effect to an item, press control+f.
To insert an automation item, press control+shift+i.
To unselect everything, press shift+escape.
To normalize the audio on a track or item, press control+shift+n.
To go to the beginning of a bar, press alt+home.
To access undo history, press control+alt+z.
Press enter on the desired undo.
To make shure you are at the beginning of the project, press control+shift+j.
To jump to a certain bar, press control j, folowed by the number of the desired bar.

17: Some interesting operations:

In this section of the guide, we describe a list of  operations that Reaper does not do natively, but are a result of specific features or plugins that may be used, and reflect some creativity as well.

17.1: Check the sise of a selected chunk in the desired format:
When pressing control+shift+space you hear information in musical terms such bars or beats, and rather than that you want to know the time duration, you will have to go to time ruler's settings.
Enter the view menu, and arrow up until time unit for ruler submenu. There you will define how Reaper will give you that information.

17.2: Clear time selection information:
When you select a portion of your audio, for example, and press the delete key, that particular bit is removed. However, time selection information will remain. To clear it, just press escape.
Reaper will give you the correspondent indication.

17.3: Adding markers during recording or playback:
You can simply do it by pressing the letter m, while recording or playback is underway.

17.4: Saving a preset within an effect:
After having set parameters as desired, in the effect's window:
Step 1: Look for a button labeled with the plus sign.
Step 2: Press it using the left click simulator of your screen reader.
You will land on an edit box where you can type the name for your preset.
Step 3: Use tabbb to find the save preset button and click.
To find the preset you have saved,in the effects list, before adding it to your track, hit the applications key and arrow down to the preset's name you chose. Just press enter there.

17.5: Adding an effect to an item:
Go to the item properties an hit the take fx button.
Also, with your item selected, you can press alt+e.

17.6: Add a pre reverb to an item:
Step 1: Split the desired item and paste it into a new track.
Move to the nearest 0 crossing.
Trim there with s.
(0 crossing will be described later.)
Step 2: Add the reverb.
Step 3: Hit applications key and down arrow until reverse item. Hit enter.
Step 4: Again, hit the applications key, and arrow down until apply track fx to items as new take.
Step 5: Remove reverb from the item.
Step 6: Go a fiew bars further to the end. Press shift+windows+period to extend the item and alow more tail to the reverb.
Step 7: Repeat step 3.
If the reverb is too long, just chop a usable selection and apply a fade in.
Step 8: Paste the result into the original track.
If items don't seem to overlap or play correctly, move each of them to the right pressing full stop or to the left pressing comma, until you get the desired result.

17.7: Stretch markers:
Stretch markers work as an elastic bend. They will stretch or shrink the audio where they are set.
So, you can use stretch markers to make beat matching.
To insert a stretch marker at the cursor position, press control+m.
To go to previous stretch marker, press shift+colon.
To go to next stretch marker, press shift+apostrophy.
To move last focused stretch marker to cursor position, press alt+m.
To edit the focused stretch marker, press control+shift+enter.

17.8: Make a loop to sing upon:
Step 1: Record or insert the audio that will serve as a loop source.
Step 2: If you need, make all edits and cuts.
Step 3: Press the applications key. In the menu that pops up, go to item settings and check loop item source, As well, check loop section of item source.
Step 4: Press shift+f2 to item properties, look for the edit box that shows the time duration of your item, and type the duration you wish your loop to have.
Step 5: Arm a new track for recording and sing along!
By the way, if you want Reaper to only play back a looped selection, regardless of repeat being on or off, just go to the preferences menu, playback group, and check the box that says stop playback at end of loop if repeat is disabled.
If you scrub using the shift key, you will be selecting. This is cool!

17.9: Silence a chunk on a track:

The easyest way is:
Step 1: Split the part you want to silence into a separate item.
Step 2: Make shure that ripple mode is off, and just delete the item.
This way, the time line is respected and you don't need to change volumes or have unwanted noises.

Another interesting setting in the tracks menu, is to set one track to arm automaticly when gaining focus.

17.10: 0 crossing:
Sound is made of waves or vibrations. So called 0 crossing is the very point where 2 of those waves get together in terms of amplitude. This is the point of amplitude 0, meaning silence.
To make edits right at those points will prevent clicks in your sound project.
To move to next 0 crossing, press the letter z, and shift+z to the previous 0 crossing. Cursor will go there, no matter if it's prior or next to its current position.
To use this feature, it will be more convenient to deactivate fades in the preferences menu, under the project category.

17.11: Creating samples associated to items to be mapped and played using a midi keyboard:
Reaper has an internal sampler called ReaSamplOmatic, that we will describe in a further section. For the moment, let's just see how to take advantage of this creative idea.
Step 1: Insert as many instances of ReaSamplOmatic as you want into one track.
Step 2: Import each of your audio items, one per each instance.
Step 3: On your midi keyboard, define the note range start and end.
You might as well treat each item separatly.
Now we'll describe the same process using a reascript. A reascript is a peace of code that Reaper understands. With these reascripts it is possible to extend Reaper's features.
This particular reascript is part of Reapack, a set of reascripts that can be installed as an extension to the software, and will automate certain processes which require many steps.
Reapack can be very handy for us blind users.
Let's take the example of a costumized drum kit.
All samples will sound at the same velocity and the same note along the project.
First, you need to download and install Reapack from:
https://reapack.com/
Then, folow the next steps:
Step 1: Load all audio samples in one track, and make shure they are splitted into separate items.
Step 2: Press alt+control+a to select all audio samples of your track.
Step 3: Press f4 to open the actions list. In the edit box, type rs5k drum. The filtered results will popup. Choose the action that says MPL export selected item to rs5K instances of selected track drum mode.
Hit enter, and each sample is going to be associated to its individual instance of ReaSamplOmatic, and mapped to a key on your midi keyboard.
By default, the first sample will be mapped to the central c, and the mapping will go on through the correspondent octave in a cromatic scale.
Now you can use these samples in a totally costumized drum kit.

17.12: Using a vocoder:
A vocoder is a peace of hardware or software which will catch and modulate sound with the aid of an external or even an internal synthesiser.
Here, it will receive the signal from a microphone, and a midi synthesiser to give a robotic effect to the voice.
2 vocoders will be applyed, ReaVocode that comes with Reaper, and MDATalkBox.
The synthesiser will be ReaSynth.
These are the steps:
ReaVocode:
Step 1: Create 3 tracks, one for the voice, another forReaSynth and the third for ReaVocode.
Step 2: Set focus to the vocoder track, and open its routing options with the letter i. Tabb down to Channels and choose 4. This track must have 4 channels, 2 for the voice and the other 2 for the synthesiser.
Step 3: Insert ReaSynth and create a 100% saw wave, leaving the triangular parameter at about 30%.
Set the volume parameter in order to avoid saturation.
You may consider as well using a velocity scaler to keep iqual velocity on all your notes.
Leave minimum and maximum velocity values at 127.
Don't worry about this if you are using your computer's virtual keyboard.
Step 4: In the routing options of the synthesiser and the voice track, uncheck the box that says master send, to avoid feedback to the master track.
Step 5: Set focus to the vocoder track, and insert ReaVocode.
Step 6: in that same track's routing options, create 2 receives, one for the voice and the other for ReaSynth.
Voice can be pointed to channels 1 and 2, ReaSynth can go to channels 3 and 4.
Step 7: Still in the vocoder's track's routing options, go to the Reasynth's receive's settings, and and hit the applications key right on the delete button. Then, arrow down to destination. Press enter and choose channels 3 and 4.
Arming and monitoring your voice track and talking while you press keys on your keyboard, the vocoder will work.

MDATalkBox:
Step 1: Create the same 3 tracks, one to the voice, one to ReaSynth and one for the vocoder.
Step 2: Create a folder with all these 3 tracks.
Step 3: Set focus to the track where you have ReaSynth, and create a similar wave with saw parameter to 100%, and triangular to 30%.
Also you can insert the midi velocity scaler before ReaSynth, with both velocity values to 127 to keep the same dinamics allover the sound.
Step 4: Pan the voice track to the left, and ReaSynth's track to the right.
Step 5: Arme both ReaSynth and the voice tracks. It works!

17.13: Use TapeStop effect on an item:
Step1: Split your item.
Step 2: Insert vst Tape Stop effect to your track.
Step 3: At the parameter stop slash play, choose stop with the home key.
Step 4: At the parameter Process mode RT slash ol, tabbb and choose of line with the arrows or the home and end key.
Step 5: At the off line button state button, choose stop with the arrows or the home and end keys.
Step 6: In the slider called Down Speed, choose your percentage. The lowest percentage, the longest the pitch bend.
So this is TapeStop pitch down. To bend it up, in the button called off line state, choose play.

17.14: Mapping items to your keyboard changing only pitch, not time duration, all based in 1 item:
Step 1: Select your item and copy it to the clipboard.
Step 2: Press control+period to go to the end of the item and paste it there. You will end up with 2 similar items.
Step 3: Press control+left arrow to select this second item.
Step 4: To increase pitch one semitone, press shift+0, to decrease pitch one semitone, press shift+9.
Other numbers on the up numbers row will give you additional pitch changes.
To reset to normal pitch, press shift+backspace.
Step 5: Select last item on the track and repeat the process, copying it to the clipboard and so on, until you have the desired number of items.
Step 6: Press alt+control+a to select all items on that track.
Step 7: Press f4 to execute rs5k drum mode action already described.

18: Markers, regions and transients:

When you insert markers, you are basicly defining places where you want the cursor to go.
Markers are also very useful when, at the very end of your work, you want to render your project to a bunch of different files according to those markers.
Regions are a different thing, although some how related to markers.
When you define regions, only the material within those regions will be part of the final rendering.
The material outside those regions will not be rendered.
To define a region, set a marker at the beginning and another at the end of the desired area, and press alt+r.
Do this according to the number of regions you want to define.
First region will be from the first marker to the beginning of next region.
Last region will be from the missing remaining content to the end of the project.
To edit a region, press alt+shift+r.
To move between regions, use the same commands as to move between markers, The only difference is that regions will emconpass spaces between 2 markers, defined with shift+r.
To render a project based on specific regions and create a cd, your cd tracks will be those specific regions. Everything in the middle is ignored.
If you only want to split into individual files, just choose the desired format from the available list, being mp3, wav, flac, or any other.
Keep in mind that, in Bounce Options, you have to select project regions rather than master mix. This way, each region will be rendered to its individual audio file.
In the actions list you reach pressing f4, there is an action to turn regions into markers, and another action to turn markers into regions.

18.1: Transients:
A transient is a high amplitude short duration point that marks the beginning of a wave form. Normally, volume is higher at a transient.
To move to the next transient, press the tabbb key.
There is a transient controler JS plugin that helps dealing with transients sensitivity.

19: Items: aditional information:

When ripple mode is off, the time line is respected. However, you can stretch and shrink items.
To move items along the time line, press comma to move the item to the left, and period to move the item to the right.
As usually, the amount that the item is moved depends on zoom settings.
Items can also be cut, copyed and pasted, provided they're selected.
To stretch and shrink items:
To stretch and shrink to the left, press control+4 or control+6 on the numeric pad.
To stretch and shrink to the right, press alt+4 or alt+6 on the numeric pad.
Selecting an item and hitting the applications key will bring a menu with tens of other settings which are sort of pointless to describe in this guide, , but are very practical when it comes to dealing with items.
One of the most used is change of pitch and time. As already mentioned, shift and the numbers on the up row are shortcut keys for those changes.

20: Contiguous versus non contiguous selection:

As you can work with individual tracks, you can also deal with groups of tracks and groups of items to perform several operations.
Contiguous selection is the selection of contiguous tracks or items.
Non contiguous selection is the selection of tracks and items that are not contiguous.
For instance, if you select tracks 1, 2 and 3, you are performing a contiguous selection.
If you select tracks 2, 4 and 7, you are performing a non contiguous selection.
The shift key indicates you are selecting. To toggle selected or unselected, press the space bar.
Reaper also indicates if we are in contiguous or non contiguous selection mode.
To select items within tracks, press control with left and right arrows, and toggle selection with the space bar, without letting go the shift key.
As escape clears the time selection, to clear track and item selection, press shift+escape.

21: Midi synchronization and inserting virtual instruments:

21.1: Connecting a midi keyboard to Reaper:
After connecting the keyboard to your pc via USB or din, go to Preferences, midi devices, and Reaper should detect it. Explore the window with tabb, and select the options according to the instrument you will be using. From that moment on, you can synchronize your keyboard with your pc through Reaper, inserting virtual instruments, also known as VSTIs.

21.2: Inserting a virtual instrument:
Step 1: After purchasing or downloading your virtual instrument, stick it into the folder where you have your VST plugins.
Step 2: Go to Preferences, VST, and click rescan, so Reaper will detect the new installed VST instrument.
Step 3: In the Tracks menu, choose virtual instrument on new track, and the list of plugins and instruments will pop up.
Step 4: Press enter when you find the desired instrument. It will be inserted on your track and you can start playing, either using your midi keyboard, or using the qwerty keyboard in your pc.
Of corse, using the qwerty keyboard will not have the best result, because it's not touch sensitive, and the mapping of the keys will be sort of random. Also, using the qwerty keyboard, you will have to do constant adjustments to the octaves, pressing the right and left arrows.
To switch between midi and pc virtual keyboard, press alt+b.

21.3: Notes:
Note 1: Scanning and rescanning of plugins does not always work at one first time. You may have to do it several times until Reaper detects new VST stuff.
Note 2: When a 32 bit plugin is used within a 64 bit version of Reaper, the plugin's interface window will show up bridged, Some plugins cannot be detected, however, those that can, may be executed without that bridged window.
Before inserting it on your track, just hit the applications key, and arrow down to the corresponding self explanatory option.
Note 3: Reaper has basic synthesiser capabilitys built in as virtual instruments. You can use them right from the vst list.

22: Midi composing and sequencing:

It is important to remember that midi is not the same as audio.
Midi is the acronim for Musical Instrument Digital Interface. It is basicly a protocol of instructions received and decoded by the instrument, and thereafter, converted into audio samples.
When you want to record a midi instrument, it is always better to have a metronome, and a bpm (beats per minut) reference, so things get easyer if quantizing is necessary.

22.1: Quantizing:
Quantizing means matching our performance exactly with the tempo reference given by the metronome.
To represent those tempo measurements, as any other daw, Reaper has a time line. or grid which divisions can be adjusted according to the musical peace.
To define the kind of grid you wish, just press control+shift and numbers on the top row.
Reaper will anounce the various grid divisions.
Afterwords, just perform quantizing by pressing control+shift+q. Music will then correspond to those tempo measurements, and be alined with the metronome.
If your musical skills and notions are more based on your hearing, you might as well try different grid divisions and see wich one sounds best for you.
Quantizing usually applys to the rithmical part, as bass line and percusion. After inserting a virtual instrument, you can imediatly start recording as if you were picking up sound from an audio source. Let's say you already have your project opened and metronome configurations defined. You want to quantize the drums that are a vst instrument. Here is how to proceed:
Step 1: Press r to record, and the metronome starts counting.
Step 2: Perform your peace and try to play in time with the metronome.
Playing exactly in time isn't always possible, so:
Step 3:  Select your recorded item or items.. If there are several items, press alt+control+a to select all.
Step 5: Press control+shift+one of the numbers of the top row to choose grid division.
Step 6: Press control+shift+q to quantize.
If your musical knowledge regarding tempo measurements does not help you much, try different grid divisions and hear the results to see if the quantization sounds good to you.
It is possible to record a quantized track, to quantize at the same time, or to quantize a selected portion.

22.2: Quantizing a selected portion:
Step 1: Move the cursor to the beginning of the chunk you want to quantize.
Step 2: Press alt+shift left bracket and alt+shift+right bracket to define start and ending of selection.
Step 3: Set the grid using control+shift and the suitable number on the numbers row.
Step 4: Press control+shift+q to quantize and hear the final result.

22.3: Sequencing:
You may not be the best player in the world, but you can sequence or compose your music, building the rythmes, melodies and harmonies of your peace.
Pressing the applications key, on the midi track, you have a number of choices.
Midi overdub: Even playing at different times, the various parts of the music overlap each other.
Midi replace: As the name implys, is used when you want to replace a wront note or part for the correct performance.
You can always change these settings according to your needs along the project.

22.4: Midi editor:
Now, this is where the fun begins! Having made track and item selection, press control+e or alt+control+e to open the midi editor.
This tool is divided into 4 sections:
a: Piano roll, shortcut alt+1:
The piano rol shows all notes in your peace.
To navigate between notes use left and right arrows.
b: Musical notation, shortcut alt+2: Where notes are represented  as they are written in the score.
(Apparently not accessible to blind users, because it does not translate into braille music.)
C: Quantize, shortcut alt+4: This is another quantizing tool.
D: Filter events or events list, shortcut alt+3: where you can see all parameters regarding midi notes, or events, like channel, duration, velocity, etc.
Most important of these 4 sections is the piano rol.

22.5: Piano rol:
As mentioned, this is where you view and edit all your notes.
To navigate between notes, use left and right arrow.
When you land the cursor on a note, it plays, and is selected.
In case of a chord, to navigate between the notes of the chord, use up and down arrow.
With the cursor sitting on a note, you can do various things, or perform various operations.
These operations are performed using the numeric pad to the right edge of your computer keyboard, so, first of all,  remember to turn it on! 

22.6: Numeric pad keys and their atributions:
To move a note 1 step back or forth in the grid, press 4 or 6 in the numeric pad.
To decrease or increase the duration of a note 1 point according to the grid, press 1 or 3 in the numeric pad.
To decrease or increase the velocity of a note in 1 dot increments, press 7 or 9 in the numeric pad.
To go down or up one semitone, press 2 or 8 in the numeric pad.
Now, let's learn other functions, this time, in conjunction with the alt key:
To move a note one pixel back or forth,, press alt+4 or alt+6 in the numeric pad.
To decrease or increase duration of a note 1 pixel, press alt+1 or alt+3 in the numeric pad.
To increase or decrease velocity of a note in 10 dot increments, press alt+7 or alt+9 in the numeric pad.
To go down or up one octave, press alt+2 or alt+8 in the numeric pad.
Just for your convenience, as you are making these changes, the result comes up imediatly, so you know how it will sound like.
Contiguous and non contiguous selection mode also work in the midi editor. Just keep your shift key held down, navigate through the notes, and use the space bar to select or unselect a note or group of notes.
To be shure of what is selected, just press control+shift+space bar.
If you define a time selection in the midi editor, pressing control+shift+space bar, will imediatly tel you about the start and ending of the selection, as well as the number of bars selected.
Selecting by items is technically possible, but doesn't work very well.
An interesting thing may be to pick a note and split it as if it was an item, pressing s, and according to the grid, then one note will turn into 2 notes in the same tone.
If for some reason you see that a note got a bit shorter or longer than it should be, sit your cursor there and press control+shift+l. Yes, legati and stacati are possible as well!
If you press q in the midi view, you will find another quantize dialogue. This sounds redundant, but it's there for our convenience. Besides, it turns out that additional quantizing parameters are available.

22.7: Selecting and moving bars in the midi editor:
This operation is specially useful when you want to pick a number of bars and repeat them through your project, because they are repetitive or looped.
Rather than what happens with audio, it's not enough to define a time selection. So, here is the step by step procedure:
Step 1: Select the desired track or tracks, A better way is to select down up.
Step 2: Define your time selection.
Step 3: Press alt+shift+a to select the time selection and every item within it.
Step 4: Press shift+s to split these items according to time selection boundarys.
If you hear your screen reader say 0 items added, there's nothing wrong.
If you hear a number higher than 0, it means that Reaper had to adjust the time selection. Press alt+shift+a again to correct.
This will happen specially when there are several tracks involved, either in contiguous or non contiguous selection.
Step 5: Copy and paste wherever you wish, with the advantage of your cursor being at the top track of the selection. 
Alternatively:
Step 1: Select the desired track or tracks down up.
Step 2:  Set time selection.
Step 3: Press control+shift+c to smart copy your selection, then paste wherever you want, being already at the top track in the selection.
This works most of the times.

22.8: What can be done in the list of events:
Some parameters may be ajusted, such as poly after touch to add more expressivity to your notes.
CC events can also be inserted, like sustain and volume changes, pan, portamento, etc.
If the instrument permits, you can also insert font bank changes and pitch bend events.

22.9: Humanization:
It's the opposit to quantization, so that music doesn't get too perfect. It's rather intuitive, and the shortcut key is the letter h.

22.10: Step recording:
As the name indicates, it makes possible to record one note at a time.
Heer is how to do it:
Step 1: Insert your midi instrument.
Step 2: Insert a midi item.
By default, one item has the sise of one bar, so 
Step 3: Create a time selection with a reasonable duration.
Step 4: Press control+e or alt+control+e to open the item in the midi editor.
Step 5: Set the desired grid.
Step 5: Perform your peace.
If you use a midi keyboard, every midi message will be recorded, including velocity, duration of notes, and so on.
To add notes, you have to know exactly which kind of grid suits you best, and adjust as necessary.
According to the desired note duration, select it and press control+shift+l to make the necessary adjustments in the grid. More tedious? Yep, no doubt, but if you're not in a rush, sometime you will have the job done.
Step recording can also be performed using the pitch cursor. Pressing 2 or 8 in the numeric pad, and the letter i to insert the desired note.
If there are repeated notes like in a bass line, for instance, those notes can be copyed to the desired bar, no need to play the bloody thing again.
To select all notes that have the same pitch, press control+shift+a.

22.11: Note:
The midi editor is the main composition/sequencing tool in Reaper. Never forget to select the tracks and items you will edit before opening the editor, otherwise it just won't work. Control+e or control+allt+e will call the midi editor.

23: Sampler functionality:

Reaper has a very interesting resource called ReaSamplOmatic. This is a sampler.
With this plugin, you can take any audio file and play it using your midi keyboard.
For example, if you blow into an empty bottle and record the sound, you can import this recording to ReaSamplOmatic, . Folowing its instructions, you can play this empty bottle sound in your keyboard and record the sound via midi.
This will open a dor to great creativity.
Just insert ReaSamplOmatic into a track as a virtual instrument.
We won't get into how to use ReaSamplOmatic in great detail. Just do it for yourself. It's very intuitive.

23.1: Separating drumkits with ReaSamplOmatic:
This can be usefull, although not mandatory.
Imagine you have all your drum sounds on the same track, like the kik, the snare and the hi-hat.
How to split the snare, for instance?
Step 1: Create a second track for that snare.
Step 2: Open the drum item in the midi editor.
Step 3: Press control+shift+a to select all the notes with the same pitch, in this case, the snare.
Step 4: Cut these notes from the first track and paste them into the second track without moving the cursor.
Besides, you may take this sample and use another plugin called Sforzando to improove its sound, based on creating and manipulating an sfz file. This will be covered in the next section.

24: Creating and working with sfz files:

To talk about sfz files, we have to first of all understand what a sample is in this context, and what can be done with it.
A sample can be divided into 2 parts or layers: 
A: sample layer: the recording of the sound itself, that will be mapped through the keyboard.
B: Synthesis layer: All the parameters that can be edited such as velocity, sustain, atack, release, decay, portamento, etc, etc.
An sfz file is a text file with the sfz extension. It can be created and edited in any simple text editor. The simpler, the better. Note pad is perfect.
There are several sfz editors but they're not very accessible, and we have Note Pad after all.
The sfz format is Open Source. The structure of an sfz file is to some extent, similar to html or xml, and editing the sfz file, you will twik all parameters of the synthesis layer.
The lines of code that make the sfz file have the name of OpCodes, operation codes.
You can also include your personal comments, provided they are written between 4 forward slashes, 2 at the beginning, and another 2 after the comment.
These files are made of 4 parts.
1: Control section, 2: Global section, 3: group, 4: region.
Control section has the file location information regarding all associated audio files, about poliphony or number of keys that samples can be played at the same time, to give you a chord based on those samples.
The global section incompasses all parameters related to all samples, and all necessary references.
In summary, the global section will cover subsections group and region.
The difference is that, if you change a certain parameter in the subsection group, this change will afect all samples in that group.
If he parameter is changed in the subsection Region, it will only afect an individual sample.
These sfz files can be opened in Sforzando. May be that's the origin of the sfz extension.
By default, Sforzando will assume that each key on your keyboard plays each sound at its own rate and speed.
If the sample comes from a glass or an empty bottle, Sforzando will make shure that the sound mapped to the central C in your keyboard is really a C.
If you want to be a little more sophisticated, you can define the note that you want to be played. But if you wish to be even more specific, you can compare that note with some other real C, from the keyboard or from another track.
It is recommended that you make a backup of the latest full version. However, interaction with the sfz format is imediat. Having an instance of Sforzando and an instance of Note Pad opened in your computer, each time you make a change to the sfz file, and save it, Sforzando will imediatly reload and update the information.

25: Quick note on keyboard shortcuts:

Almost all keyboard shortcut keys in this guide work. If for some reason you find that a given command reports an error or simply does not perform the operation, you may have to switch your computer keyboard to another language, preferably USAEnglish, simply pressing alt+shift.
If you don't have this language in your system, just grabb it from Microsoft.
Alternatively, you can assign your own shortcut keys in the actions menu, pressing f4.
Each computer brand has its own models and specific details, so, in this guide, keyboard shortcuts for laptop computers are not described.