Reaper crashing on start-up

[FrankF]

I installed a driver for my Zoom R24 to use it as an A/I into Reaper and W11. Now Reaper just opens and closes within about 2 seconds - no error message, nowt.
I've uninstalled the R24 driver, I've reinstalled Reaper, still no luck.

I then tried connecting an old Casio synth to my W10 laptop to record MIDI into reaper. Reaper sees the Casio, but I get "device closed" and I can't play projects and I can't record anything. I believe there is an option to record with no A/I attached: does anyone know what it is?

Every time I try recording in Reaper, something goes wrong! I'm starting to hate it, really hate it. This is why I always go back to my multitracker.

Any help appreciated.

[Drew Stephenson]

That's weird as Reaper is normally pretty solid unless an external VST is messing with it (to be fair, a lot aren't listed as being Reaper compatible, we just assume they are).
If you go to preferences > devices and select 'dummy audio' as your audio system that is the no-interface option.

[James Perrett]

Have you tried installing a portable version of Reaper in a separate folder?

[FrankF]

Do you mean installing it on an external USB drive?

[shurikt]

I've had that happen with a grumpy plugin. Try opening Reaper without a project loading by holding Ctrl+Shift when you double-click reaper.exe.

You can also use Windows Tools > Event Viewer and set a custom view filtered to just application errors. That can frequently ID the culprit.

[James Perrett]

Do you mean installing it on an external USB drive?

You can just install it to a different folder on your main drive or to a USB drive (or anywhere else for that matter). I have a couple of different portable installations on this computer for test purposes.

[FrankF]

Shurikt - it asked my permission to allow Reaper to access the registry or whatever that Windows permission msg is, and, once granted same, it crashed on startup as before.

James - I removed and reinstalled it on t'desktop: it Ballarded same as before.

Drew - thanks for that, at least it seems to record MIDi on my laptop now.

From the rapidfire msgs on startup it seems to check plugins etc., then the last msg it shows for a few nanoseconds is "initialising main window" or sth like that.

[Philbo King]

For years now I've used only portable installs, as it seems to be more stable that way. A side benefit is that you can back up the entire installation by simply copying the entire Reaper folder to another drive or folder. I dislike using the registry; one bad entry can hose any application and it's difficult to edit/repair.

FWIW, I run on Win7.

[shurikt]

Ok. My next step would be to see what the event viewer in Windows has to say about it. This is taken from the Reaper Forum here: https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=36653

+++
If REAPER quits to the desktop unexpectedly, then you will need to run the event viewer to see why.

To run the event viewer, go to the start menu, choose "Run", and type "eventvwr" followed by enter.

Alternatively (depending on the Windows version you are using) you can search the start menu for "event viewer", or go to Control Panel / Administrative Tools / Event Viewer.Once you are running the Event Viewer, you will need to navigate to Windows Logs->Application.

This will likely be a very large list of events, so you can search this list using Ctrl+F and enter "REAPER". The source of the event that is most helpful is "Application Error", and the level is "Error". In this there should be text such as:

Faulting application name: reaper.exe, version X.X.X.x
Faulting module name: XYZ
Fault offset: 123456

Take a screenshot or copy all of the text available in that window to include with your post.

If this doesn't work, you can also configure Windows to create a dump file if reaper.exe crashes. To do this, run the REAPER installer, go to "optional functionality", and enable "Configure Windows to save REAPER crash dumps." Reboot your computer, then run REAPER and duplicate the crash. Once the crash occurs, a dump file should be created in %LOCALAPPDATA%\CrashDumps (Start->Run, paste that path in there). If you create a dump file this way, see the next section:

[ajay_m]

In my experience over many years and several computers, Reaper has to be just about the most rock solid piece of software I have ever used.
So if it is crashing there are three potential causes
1. A plugin or possibly an audio or midi driver with problems
2. A problem with your hardware
3. A corrupt install, though this should be extremely unlikely

The amazing 'procmon' utility from sysinternals (free) can be very useful in tracking down weird problems though it can produce a lot of output.

Also a good idea to run chkdsk and possibly sfc /scannow to see if Windows is all healthy.

[FrankF]

Thanks for the suggs. i did suspect h/w issues as the PC's been playing up and slowing down in various ways.
I've just run a full scan via defender and downloaded "hard disk sentinel" for the ssd - no problems indicated in either case.

Audacity works, however! If only it handled MIDI!

Re corrupt install - i doubt it, as I'm uninstalling and downloading it fresh each time.

Is there a free DAW I could try with good MIDI handling? I just want sth that WORKS.

[adrian_k]

Sonar by Cakewalk and has decent midi, is free, you just need to create a bandlab account.

Edit: Sonar can be started in “safe” mode, just the bare minimum running, which helps fault tracing. I don’t know if Reaper does this, but can be very useful.

[Martin Walker]

Edit: Sonar can be started in “safe” mode, just the bare minimum running, which helps fault tracing. I don’t know if Reaper does this, but can be very useful.

Yes, it does, and a few years ago I wrote a Reaper feature in SOS describing the various options:

https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques ... t-recovery

Hope it helps!

Martin

[OneWorld]

Sonar by Cakewalk and has decent midi, is free, you just need to create a bandlab account.

Edit: Sonar can be started in “safe” mode, just the bare minimum running, which helps fault tracing. I don’t know if Reaper does this, but can be very useful.

Do you still have to have a Bandlab account? On the Cakewalk website it says this.....

"We’re thrilled to (re)introduce the all-new Cakewalk Sonar, an upgrade from Cakewalk by BandLab"

[adrian_k]

Sonar by Cakewalk and has decent midi, is free, you just need to create a bandlab account.

Edit: Sonar can be started in “safe” mode, just the bare minimum running, which helps fault tracing. I don’t know if Reaper does this, but can be very useful.

Do you still have to have a Bandlab account? On the Cakewalk website it says this.....

"We’re thrilled to (re)introduce the all-new Cakewalk Sonar, an upgrade from Cakewalk by BandLab"

Actually I made an assumption there, my bad. I thought you needed a Bandlab account to authenticate the installation but reading the FAQ it appears that’s only needed for the paid version.

[James Perrett]

Actually I made an assumption there, my bad. I thought you needed a Bandlab account to authenticate the installation but reading the FAQ it appears that’s only needed for the paid version.

I'm not sure. My free version of Cakewalk by Bandlab seemed to want to go online whenever I tried to use it.

[adrian_k]

Actually I made an assumption there, my bad. I thought you needed a Bandlab account to authenticate the installation but reading the FAQ it appears that’s only needed for the paid version.

I'm not sure. My free version of Cakewalk by Bandlab seemed to want to go online whenever I tried to use it.

Yea, that was true of Cakewalk by Bandlab, but Cakewalk Sonar appears to allow offline activation and use:

Internet: An active internet connection is encouraged to install, authorize, and update Cakewalk Sonar. After the program is authorized, it can be used offline. Cakewalk Sonar can also utilize offline activation if needed.

From https://help.cakewalk.com/hc/en-us/arti ... walk-Sonar

Edit: Bandlab membership (paid) is required for the full version of Sonar.

Edit2: Reading around the Cakewalk forums, a free Bandlab account is required to download and activate the software. Paid membership unlocks the full version, other wise you run the free version with the nag screen.

[OneWorld]

I think I'll stick to Quantum Physics, it seems less perplexing