Reaper, changing the speed "and" pitch of an item.

[Arpangel]

I can’t seem to figure out how to apply play rate changes, along with pitch changes in Reaper to a single item, I can do it to a whole project, but I’m wondering about individual items? I have a project with multiple items, and I’ve changed the play rate to suit two of them, but I now have the whole project at one play rate, which I don’t want.

[Martin Walker]

Just right-click on the desired item, select Item Properties, then you can alter its playback rate and pitch at will.

Martin

[James Perrett]

Another way to open the Item Properties window is to hit F2. I keep it open all the time by clicking apply instead of OK each time I change something because it is such a useful window.

[Martin Walker]

Aha, I knew about the F2 shortcut but hadn't cottoned on to the fact that if you leave the Properties window open ts contents will continue to change to reflect those of the currently selected item.

Cool tip James!

Martin

[Eddy Deegan]

I really need to read the manual at some point! I just use Reaper as a glorified tape machine with a bit of 'click/point at this to edit/drag it a bit' thrown in, along with a bit of basic automation. I only discovered named markers recently and that was by accident (though I knew they existed because I saw one of Martin's projects where he uses them a lot to great effect).

Great tip James, thank you

[James Perrett]

I've been using Reaper for over 10 years and I've only recently started looking at keyboard shortcuts - there is just so much to learn about this program and everybody has a different way of working.

[Arpangel]

Thanks folks, much appreciated, trouble with DAW's is that sometimes you can’t see the wood for the trees...

[claz]

I was about to ask a related question on this topic, and then I found the answer, as well as multiple useful tidbits, so I thought I'd share:

My goal was to change pitch via slowdown/speedup, but with the ability to see exactly how many cents you changed the pitch, rather than just how much you slowed down.

You can achieve this by holding alt/option and dragging the edge of an item -- you'll see two numbers at the top left of the item: e.g. "Rate: 1.014 (+0.25)".

The first number is the change in speed, but the second, in parentheses, is how many semitones the pitch of the item has been adjusted (in the example above, 25 cents, or 1/4 of a semitone).

This is a usefully alternative tuning method to plugins or pitch envelopes.

To have this behavior be the default:

Project settings > advanced > un-check "Enable 'preserve pitch when changing rate' for new items"

[Arpangel]

One thing I find annoying in Reaper is changing the main play rate slider affects all items, you can go into the item editor, but it’s fiddly, there should be a switch to affect things globally or just the item you’re working on, also, the item editor isn’t so intuitive like the play rate slider.
How dare they overlook such a thing, at the price they’re selling it for?

[claz]

you can go into the item editor, but it’s fiddly,

Ah, but that's what I'm commenting on -- you don't have to! You can just alt/opt-drag the edge of the item, and get the same result!

[Arpangel]

you can go into the item editor, but it’s fiddly,

Ah, but that's what I'm commenting on -- you don't have to! You can just alt/opt-drag the edge of the item, and get the same result!

Ah, OK!
That sounds cool, I just have to work out how to do it on a Mac, can’t remember what the keys are!

[claz]

Steps:

(0) Project settings > advanced > un-check "Enable 'preserve pitch when changing rate' for new items"

(1) hold alt/option and dragging the edge of an item -- you'll see two numbers at the top left of the item: e.g. "Rate: 1.014 (+0.25)".

The first number is the change in speed, but the second, in parentheses, is how many semitones the pitch of the item has been adjusted (in the example above, 25 cents, or 1/4 of a semitone.

[Arpangel]

Got it, thanks!