Hi all,
Partly because Amadeus Pro seems to be going the way of the dodo, and partly because I want to be able to edit video files as well as audio, I decided to try Reaper on my Mac. But I could use some help getting started.
Now i have gone to the Reaper Accessibility Wiki and downloaded both Osara and SWS. I was, eventually, able to install Osara successfully.
First issue is that SWS though is giving me issues. I've attempted the same process as Osara, which ends up in the Terminal, but it doesn't seem to be working. After opening the SWS disk image I open "reaper_sws-arm64.dylib Unix Executable File". I then go to Privacy in System Settings etc to follow the same process as for Osara, but Terminal seems to experience an error and I don't believe it is installing. Within Reaper, if I go to Extensions in the menu bar, only Osara is listed there.
Second question is, with or without SWS, is there a good guide or resource on getting started with using Reaper? The wiki links to some keyboard shortcuts but not really a clear guide.
I know there is the Reapers Without Peepers group, but I don't really like mailing lists or want to join another one. So I'm hoping for an audio or written guide to get me started.
Cheers,
Dave
By Dave Nason, 25 June, 2025
Forum
macOS and Mac Apps
Comments
There is.
https://www.theglobalvoice.info/reaper/
I don't recall doing anything with Terminal to install, though it's been a while, so you might wanna take a listen to the Mac install guide. You're probably going to want to subscribe to RWP at some point though. They are a great bunch of helpful folks and those guides are only going to get you so far, e.g. I'm not sure if they cover editing video at all.
Please note though I'm not just talking about the Reaper Made Easy stuff, also see the stuff under Resources.
This would be very helpful…
This would be very helpful to me as well. I use reaper on windows primarily because it seems easier, especially for editing. But I would like to use it on my Mac more because I like the drivers on the Mac better. Any info on the differences or comparing windows and Mac with reaper would be awesome too. :-)
Sws extension not installed via terminal
To install the sws extension, copy the .dilib file into the reaper folder found in application's support found if you go to library, application's support, reaper, user plug-ins folder. Once that's done, the next time you open reaper, you should get a popup asking if you want to open the extension, give it permition via system settings and you should be good to go.
As far as getting started? I personally did it via the reaper accessibility wicky, then went my own way learning as I went, so I'm not sure how much i'll be of help here as, i taught myself reaper once I got the basics via reaper accessibility wicky.
Something that might help though, if your familiar with amadeus pro's, or another daw's shortcuts, you can remap keyboard shortcuts those you use most anyway; because reaper has thousands of shortcuts; to be like amadeus pro or whatever other daw your using.
Reapers Without Peepers archive
If you don't want to join the RWP mailing list, you can still search the massive archive. In some cases the keystrokes will be out of date, but if you get stuck on something, there's a pretty good chance someone else has put the same issue to the list. https://groups.io/g/rwp/search