ReaperAccess is a Plug-In that provides some spoken feedback and other such functionality for blind users wanting to use Reaper on the mac. This was developed by Victor Tsaran, who is probably most notably known in the community as the main person behind JSonar. ReaperAccess uses the KeyboardNinja KeyMap so no need to install that separately. As such all those HotKeys work the same with some additional ones . The ReaperAccess Specific ones are documented below. This is still alpha/early days software, and I have found some confusions with track selection if trying to switch between using it to select tracks and ReaConsole. If you are a heavy ReaConsole user then you may want to forgo the spoken feedback and etc of the plug in and just use the Keyboard Ninja KeyMap on its own. As stated previously since ReaperAccess uses the Keyboard Ninja KeyMap, if you start out using it and become a heavy ReaConsole user, you can always remove the plug in without having to learn new keyboard shortcuts.
Installation instructions
- Download and then unzip the file and copy the reaper_access dylib file to the “user Plugins” folder on your Mac (where all the Reaper extensions go). This will be “~/Library/Application Support/Reaper/UserPlugins”. You can go to this folder by pressing COMMAND+SHIFT+G from the Finder window and typing that file path in.
- From within Reaper import the .ra_keyboardninja.ReaperKeyMap file included in the zip file. If you need specific instructions on how to import a KeyMap, see the Getting Started page. This KeyMap is largely based on the Keyboard Ninja keymap, so you should not have any degradation in your experience if you were already using the KeyboardNinja KeyMap.. Remember, you can always reset back to defaults.
- When you open Reaper next time, the extension should kick in and you should be ready to roll.
- Use CTRL+SHIFT+/ (slash) to toggle keyboard help mode. It is similar to the F12 functionality in ReaAccess.
What is working:
- Track navigation with up and down arrow keys.
- Measure and beat navigation (opt+cmd+arrows and shift+opt+cmd+arrows respectively).
- Mute, solo, arm and record monitor toggles are reported (either when navigating between tracks or when using shortcut keys).
- Peak meters for left and right channels are spoken, press CTRL+CMD+J and CTRL+CMD+K respectively (you should have at least one track).
- Item navigation works but currently reports only item numbers and lengths when you move between them (control+left/right arrows).
- CTRL+CMD+arrows allows virtual navigation between track parameters; use CTRL+CMD+Space to activate a particular parameter, for example, to provide a name for a track or enter an arbitrary value for a volume or pan field.
Please note:
– While the number of parameters are currently limited, it is being used to create a framework where more parameters can be added in the future. Let Victor know if you like the approach, and discuss all comments and feedback on the RWP Mailing list.
Enjoy!