I came to use Reaper in my monitor controller setup almost accidentally. I turned to it to troubleshoot an audio glitch, but in the process of learning my way around it I found an outstanding piece of software that has become the missing piece of versatility and reliability I’ve been longing for in my setup. In this article I talk about my considerations around monitor controllers, room/speaker calibration software, and how that led me to Reaper. I also present a crash course in some Reaper basics for anyone looking to try this themselves.

DADman & Metric Halo

Having been spoiled working at dub stages with DADman/MOM systems, I’ve long sought to find a monitor controlling solution for my home studio with the same versatility and rock solid dependability. I’ve considered investing in a DAD interface, but that has always felt a bit out of reach on an independent budget. Cost aside, I’ve built a workflow around my beloved Metric Halo interface with its stellar, fully hardware controllable low latency mixing. The Metric Halo rounds out my native Pro Tools setup, aiding me daily in creative and logistical tasks that wouldn’t be possible with a DAD interface alone. It does have some interesting multichannel monitor controlling abilities, though nowhere near the level of DADman.

Speaker Calibration

I’m a recent arrival to the room/speaker calibration software party. Sonarworks SoundID has essentially eliminated mix translation issues I was having between my studio and the dub stage. Nathaniel Reichman and Mike Crehore’s article Using Metric Halo Interfaces To Create A Low Cost Dolby Atmos Monitor Controller inspired me to follow suit with a similar setup, adding speaker EQ and a few other features.

Sadly, trying to implement speaker EQ on the Metric Halo proved to be a dead end. For one thing, SoundID has no official integration with Metric Halo like it does with DADman, so I had to go a bit rogue and copy EQ settings intended for DADman. Also, there ended up not being enough DSP on the interface to carry out full speaker correction for 12 channels. I did run it for a time with LCR & LFE, and a switch for toggling bass management. There was a LOT involved to get calibration settings accurately loaded into this, a process that I was happy to leave behind.

GroundControl Sphere

Opting to host SoundID as a 7.1.4 plugin natively on my computer, I came upon GroundControl Sphere.  Sphere is an excellent software monitor controller that is capable of hosting VST plugins in the monitoring chain.  Sphere is built with single-computer immersive audio scenarios in mind.  Implementing SoundID as a plugin in Sphere was a breeze.  However, Sphere’s impact on the CPU is not negligible, at least while hosting SoundID.  That combined with my very large sessions for Atmos/post production was resulting in a minor but noticeable drain on Pro Tools’ responsiveness on my Mac Studio M1 Ultra.  

Looking for a more bombproof and less CPU-invasive solution (ala DADMan) I pulled out my old 2013 Mac Pro that had been collecting dust and hooked it up as a second computer to host Sphere.  I was able to do this because of the Metric Halo interface’s ability to connect to two computers simultaneously and pass up to 48 channels of audio between them.  This worked out great.  I was getting the best of all worlds - the low latency mixing on the Metric Halo, full speaker calibration in SoundID, and monitor controller features in Sphere with performance impact on my big Pro Tools sessions.  There was just one major issue - after an indeterminate number of minutes or hours, the second computer would randomly start outputting full-scale digital noise to my monitors - the opposite of bombproof!  I was later able to attribute that this glitch wasn’t so much Sphere’s fault but rather the way I was using the Metric Halo interface in my setup, and it was Reaper that had the solution to fix it. 

Reaper

Several friends have told me about Reaper over the years and its cool abilities.  I’d briefly considered it when I was looking for a host for SoundID, but dismissed it when I saw the learning curve involved compared to GroundControl Sphere.  Now I had a reason to give it a shot - if it could solve my audio glitch issue, it might be worth the effort.  Initially the same burst of noise was happening in Reaper just as it was in Sphere, but I found that unchecking a curious preference to “release” the audio interface after a period of inactivity fixed the problem for good.

By the time I’d got Reaper up and running and solved this glitch, I’d discovered so much cool potential in this underdog DAW that it quickly became my preferred way to host SoundID.  Granted it doesn’t have the suite of ready-made multichannel monitor controller features offered by Sphere, it has a lot of cool functionality and enormous reliability.

Pros

• Rock solid stable. I’ve tested it running for days on end. Passes endless “button mashing” tests with the controller and it hasn’t tripped up once.

• Can be configured to automatically follow your interface’s sample rate.

• Plugins can be run with oversampling (though I’m not sure this provides any benefit to SoundID)

• Inexpensive.

• Multi-platform - possible to run it on a spare Mac or PC (or even Linux!) provided you have a way to get the audio over to that computer.

• Customization options all around such as fine-tuning CPU usage, metering, appearance, themes, fun colors.

• Can be set to quit immediately without saving or bugging you if you want to save

Cons

• Monitor controlling is not Reaper’s primary purpose.

• Initial setup up can be a bit complex and tedious.

• Steep learning curve (hopefully made a little less steep with this article)

• Running it on the same computer as your primary DAW requires jumping through a few additional hoops with Aggregate I/O or 3rd party software like Rogue Amoeba Loopback.

It’s worth pointing out that Ginger Audio Sphere has the hands down advantage on all three of these cons. If you’re intrigued with the advantages offered by Reaper and willing to give it a shot, read on. I’ve done my best to compile a crash course below on the essentials needed to get going on a similar setup.

Basic Concepts

One Track Type Fits All

Reaper has one universal track type that can be configured as audio, aux, midi, instrument, folder, or any combination thereof. The only exception is the single master track, which new tracks are routed to by default.

Point-to-Point Routing

There are no labelled busses/subpaths such as in Pro Tools. Routing happens directly from source track to destination track. Reaper is fully multichannel capable, but as you will see later, this point-to-point paradigm can get a bit tedious.

Actions Are Awesome

Key Commands, Midi controller mappings, and advanced macros/scripts are all handled in a very simple “Actions” window. This is also a great reference to search for Reaper’s various functions and find their associated shortcuts. Note the “Options” button where there are a few additional nifty search features.

Mixer Window

Reaper starts up with the mixer docked to the bottom of the edit window. Since the timeline is not needed here, I chose to pop the mixer out to its own window. I pointed out a few other key preferences in this right-click menu:

For this setup, I made 26 tracks (command-T), and labeled them according to how they will each be configured. I designated the lower left tracks as inputs. They will flow to the top row of individual speaker tracks. From there the audio will pass to the Master Track being used as the main output, and 2 additional alt speaker outputs, switchable by muting/unmuting between the 3.

The 12 individual speaker tracks are there for speaker soloing, bass management, and a big wide meter strip across the top row. If you don’t need any of those things, you could omit this whole section and route the inputs tracks directly to the outputs.

Track Routing Window

A track’s routing window is where you set up all the track-to-track routing. You can send audio directly to any track present in the session. If you like to live on the wild side, you can conversely “grab” audio from another track via the Receives list. Whatever sends/receives you make in one track will be reflected in the respective tracks’ sends/receives.

Reaper has alternate ways to carry out the same routing with its routing matrix and wiring diagram views, but I’ve yet to fully wrap my head around those views.

Multichannel Routing

Example Routing: Input Track

You choose a track’s channel width via its track routing window, the lowest width being 2 channels, and the highest approaching the likes of the Las Vegas Sphere. I’m not sure why there isn’t a 1-channel option for mono. A mono track is achieved by setting it to 2-channels but ensuring that audio is only routed to channel 1. Once that happens, it will drop the right channel meter and function as a mono track.

Above is the routing window for the 7.1.4 input track. By first designating the channel width to 12, you can then choose your 12 external input channels on the channel strip. Next we want to route each of its channels to the individual mono tracks above. Here comes the tedious part - doing this requires routing each of its 12 channels as a separate item in the sends list.

Example Routing: Individual Speaker Tracks

Above is an example of the routing window for one of the top-row mono speaker tracks. Note that all receives are coming in to channel 1, effectively making this track mono. All sends are going to track 2 of the master and alt speaker output tracks because this is the right channel. This must be painstakingly carried out on all 12 speaker tracks.

Example Routing: Master & Alt Outputs

In the master track’s routing window, the 7.1.4 audio must be sent to the outputs channel by channel. In this case, we can do the routing in stereo pairs, making the process slightly less tedious. The process is the same for additional alt speaker outputs.

Bass Management

I set up bass management by creating additional sends on all the applicable speaker tracks needing bass extension to a mono “BASS MAN” track, and inserted high pass filters on them. The BASS MAN track has a low pass filter set to the same frequency/slope. 80hz/24dB/oct is a good starting point. The BASS MAN track is then routed to the Master channel where it is mixed with the LFE signal. Note that it needs to be set to approximately -10dB to compensate for the subwoofer’s +10dB boost.

Control

Using the Actions Menu, you can set up the necessary commands to map, say, a midi controller to the basic functions like selecting inputs, outputs, soloing individual speakers, even toggling bass management. Keep in mind that the track number at the bottom of each track is relevant here. If you rearrange tracks, a track’s number will change unless you uncheck the option “auto-arrange tracks in mixer” in the mix window’s right-click menu.

Speaker Solo

Toggling Bass Management

Toggling bass management on/off can be achieved by creating a custom action such as this.

Switch Inputs/Outputs With ReaScript

Switching inputs/outputs requires simultaneously unmuting one specific track while muting other specific tracks. Reaper’s custom actions aren’t quite able to do this. Instead, creating a ReaScript (Reaper’s built-in scripting language) can get the job done surprisingly easily. I’m not much of a code person, but this was an instance where ChatGPT gave me working code on the first try. For this script that switches to the main output, I simply asked ChatGPT to “create a ReaScript that unmutes the master track, and mutes tracks 25 and 26”. It even included comments explaining what each line is doing:

ReaScripts can be utilised to carry out other monitor controller functions like change output volume in increments or to calibrated levels, and speaker dim. 

Settings

UI Colours

Open the menu “Options / Themes / Theme Adjuster” to tweak the mixer’s colors to your heart’s content. There doesn’t seem to be much control over individual track meter strip colours, but you can get an alternate color by record-arming tracks.

Physical Controllers

This is how I have my physical controllers mapped to various functions. The button device is an old X-Keys programmed to hit key commands for each of these functions. I gave up on key labels, opting for a layout that I intuitively know what each button does. Some of the keys are swapped with rubberized tactile gaming keycaps. The volume control is done via the upside-down nanoKontrol.

How Reaper looks On The Monitor Controller Monitoring Monitor

What About Those Of Us Who Don’t Have A Metric Halo Interface?

The solution detailed here exploits the capability of Metric Halo Interfaces to be connected to two computers at the same time. Most people reading this won’t have such an interface but there are other ways of achieveing similar results. I’ve diagramed a few possible ways to route to/from Reaper:

It is possible to run it on the same computer as your DAW, but being that Reaper recommends only connecting itself to a single Core Audio device, it can get a little tricky to route audio internally. For this article, I tested it using an Aggregate I/O (upper right diagram) that combined my audio interface and Pro Tools Audio Bridge into a single device for Reaper. This worked out reliably. There are other ways to achieve similar inter-app routing using software like Rogue Amoeba Loopback.

Though not necessary, running Reaper on a second computer using my Metric Halo interface (lower left) makes it feel like a piece of dedicated hardware that keeps my main Pro Tools computer simple and running smoothly. A similar setup (lower right) is possible with a Dante capable interface and the use of Dante Virtual Soundcard.

Of course, if you happen to have two computers, two audio interfaces and ideally a way to connect the two digitally, this would be about as straightforward as it gets (upper left).

Conclusion

Reaper has enabled me to create a multichannel monitor controller for my studio that has the outstanding reliability, simplicity, and function that I’ve been longing for. Getting it initially set up, though quite involved, was worth it for me in the long run. I’ve been putting it through its paces and have yet to experience any hiccups, which has been huge to bolster my trust. In day to day use, it feels on par with a DADman system.

The fact that Reaper isn’t necessarily geared toward this specific use is a bit of a plus. I haven’t found myself hoping for updates that fix this or that idiosyncrasy, or for specific new features so it can meet my needs. Instead, I can dive right in and customize it to meet my evolving needs. That’s a cool feeling. Go forth and reap the benefits of this under appreciated DAW!

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