REAPER main feature is its flexibility. It isn’t meant for one worfklow in particular, and can be customized for music production, post-production, sound effects, game audio, podcasts… so flexible that it can be a bit overwhelming for some user to have to explore and customize lots settings on their own because the default one aren’t optimum for their use case. Indeed, when you first open REAPER, it is just an empty project, nothing to guide you.
That is why some users prepare ready-to-use Config pack. It can go from simple starter config with just extra toolbars, buttons, and keyboard shortcuts, like my own X-Raym Config Zip (I’ll showcase it on ReaLinks at some point), meant for beginners and students, so that everyone in the group starts with the same settings, to full featured and oriented toward one particular workflow, with custom extensions, theme, plugins, scripts… This is the case of Ultraschall, a for Podcast related config (live or editing), for which the v5 just came out!
Ultraschall has been around for a while for German community. It is developed for free by a collective of user lead by rstockm, collective including Meo-Ada Mespotine, who is especially devoted to REAPER documentation stuffs and scripting, and who is a very active Cockos Forum Member. V5 brings lots of documentation for English speakers, so it is a good time to promote the project!
Apart from the default settings and theme, there are fancy modules (effects or scripts) that you can find on Ultraschall (the whole list is on the website main page).
Other modules could deserve to be mentioned, like the integration with StudioLink to make remote interviews. But one very nice thing about Ultraschall is that it has a lot of documentation! So I don’t have to present every feature here myself 😉You can access the video tutorials and the written doc as well. You can also discuss all this on Cockos Forum dedicated thread.
Ultraschall is definitely one of the most advanced REAPER config pack. Its maintainers have chosen to have a slower release rate than official REAPER versions to avoid any compatibility issues (it is meant for REAPER v6.27 currently, last REAPER version is v6.78). IMHO you can still try to update REAPER on your own cause backwards compatibility issues are rare and fixes are commons, but this is not what it is advised by Ultraschall maintainers.
If you already have REAPER, be careful if you want to give it a try: there is an installer but it currently works only on main REAPER install. Consider using a REAPER Portable install and installed via Zip to preserve you main installation, rather than using the installer, or at least making a backup of your config.
REAPER Config aren’t for everyone and you might prefer to either stay with a with minimal customizations, or with your own advanced config, built little by little according to your needs. But if you want to explore how advanced users can push REAPER and that you are looking for fancy ways to solve complex workflows, it can be a great place to start. So if you are into podcasting, take a look at Ultraschall website, it can give you a lot of ideas… and maybe even change how you thought about podcast creation in REAPER!
Happy podcasting! 🎙
Image Credits: Ultraschall
