Reaping the Benefits! Using Reaper Audio Workstation, OSARA and JAWS for Windows.

Introduction.

REAPER is a complete digital audio production application offering a full multitrack audio recording, editing, processing, mixing and mastering toolset. REAPER's full, flexible feature set and renowned stability have found a home wherever digital audio is used: commercial and home studios, broadcasting, podcasting, location recording, education, science and research, sound design, or game development. Reaper can be installed on high-end desktop PC's down to a student's laptop.

When a screen-reader user wants to learn to record, edit, mix and process audio, the first questions are usually: are the programs accessible? Will I need script files to support the application? And how much is the entire package?

Fortunately due to some talented innovators, Reaper is extremely accessible. A freely available package to support various screen-readers exists, (OSARA), so you can gain the most from this truly awesome application. Some freely available JAWS scripts considerably heighten the functionality and flexibility further.

But how do you use it? Reaper contains hundreds of features and corresponding shortcut keys to allow you to work with it. But it is helpful not only to understand how these features work but also the concepts behind them and why you would use one function in preference to another. We've read many comments from people who simply do not know how to begin using the program or ways in which they can further their limited knowledge. It can be bewildering.

"Reaping the Benefits" from Hartgen Consultancy will show you how to get the most from Reaper within the context of audio. While Reaper is perfectly capable of handling midi and tasks relating to music composition, this course does not cover those aspects. The course is specific to the audio enthusiast or anyone needing to create sound as part of his or her education or employment. It is also useful for those people wishing to create podcasts for publication.

Over the years, a number of attempts have been successfully made to ensure visually impaired people can work with audio either for basic editing or to accomplish extremely complex projects. We think that Reaper, OSARA and the accompanying JAWS scripts offer the most accessible solution there has ever been!

What Will I Learn?

The course is divided into nine sessions containing the following topics:

• Introduction.
• Installing and Activating Reaper and Associated Tools.
• Configuring REAPER.
• Getting Help and some OSARA Preferences.
• An Introduction to Working with Audio and Reaper.
• JAWS Specific REAPER Functions.
• Working With Multiple Tracks.
• Recording Setup.
• Making Our First Recording.
• Bookmarking and Further Notes on Recording.
• Working With Items for the First Time.
• Creating a Podcast Introduction.
• Notes On Splitting.
• Nudging Audio.
• Fading In and Out.
• Project Templates.
• Dan Mcgrew Setting the Scene and Default Fades if Necessary.
• Fading Music Down to a Level of our Choosing.
• Markers.
• ReaConsole.
• Fading Music Up To a Specific Level.
• Deleting Markers and the Actions Dialog.
• Working With Takes.
• Using an External Editor.
• The Niceties of Editing. Inserting Silence and Crossfading Clips.
• Track Folders.
• Multiple Tracks and Eliminating Segments.
• Selecting Inputs, Recording on Multiple Tracks and Recording to a Stereo Pair.
• Side Chaining.
• Normalising Items.
• Normalisation a Complete Mix Through Rendering.
• Peak Watcher.
• Effects.
• Applying a Reverb PlugIn Unknown to Us.
• Working With Video.

In addition to the above, various project exercises will be worked through. These include preparing a complex project from many audio files, mixing voice over music perhaps for a podcast introduction or closing, etc.

Who is the Course For?

This course is suited to anyone who has an interest in creating or working with audio content. You should be familiar with how JAWS functions together with Windows concepts, such as how to navigate around applications.

What Happens If I Do Not Have the Reaper Software?

This is not a problem. A fully functional 60 day demonstration copy of Reaper can be downloaded and installed, details of which will be provided to you when you sign up for the training course.

Should you decide to purchase a copy of Reaper, a license for home or non-profit use is priced $60. So as well as being extremely powerful, it is one of the less expensive products in this field.

If I Purchase the Course, What Will I Receive?

The course will give to you:

• An audio recording of each of the nine lessons in MP3 format.
• A text transcript of the entire training course including questions from the audience members who took part during the webinars.
• A DAISY audio copy of the entire course.
• Sample files which you can use in your Projects and to work with at a later date.
• A list of keystrokes to reinforce topics covered in the lessons.
• Resources collected together during the training course to enhance the Reaper experience.

A Note on the JAWS Script Files.

The JAWS scripts provide a range of extremely useful features to assist with audio production, speech and Braille output of events and to monitor activity on screen. It is possible to use Reaper and OSARA without the scripts, but we suggest that you do to ensure Reaper is a pleasure to use and you obtain maximum accessibility. We will provide training course participants with a link to the scripts which are freely available to anyone.

Special Notes.

This section has been written to leave the reader in absolutely no doubt as to our intentions in terms of the provision of this training course.

This training course was originally produced as a series of webinars in 2021. It has been updated in June of 2023.
All exercises in this training course were verified as being accurate as of June 2023, tested against REAPER version 6.80, OSARA version 2023.1 and JAWS scripts build 65.

Finally, we should draw your attention to the Terms and Conditions you agree to when any archive of a training course is purchased, (which have always been located on our Training page), which include these statements:

• opportunities do not exist for students to ask questions of the tutor or to seek advice upon specific points. We hope however that the knowledge gained while listening should be more than sufficient.
• Please bare in mind that software functionality changes on a rapid basis, so there are bound to be situations where the occasional procedure outlined in the audio archive does not function. Remember, it is an archive of a training course which was previously conducted over a number of weeks.

This would be the case with a tutorial relating to any Microsoft product (such as Word or Teams), JAWS for Windows, or an application such as Sound Forge from Magix.
In short, it is delivered on the same basis as would be the case with many audio and EBooks purchased from mainstream retail outlets. However, individual tuition can be purchased separately if desired.

Costing.

The cost of the course is £80 which is currently 112 US dollars.

Alternatively, anyone can purchase the course by sending an Email to jaws@hartgen.org, whereupon a fully accessible electronic invoice will be sent to you which can be paid through PayPal or any major credit or debit card.

Course Prerequisites.

It is important that you have:

• Good keyboarding skills.
• JAWS for Windows.
• At the very least, a microphone so as to make recordings with Reaper, or alternatively a more sophisticated environment, such as an audio interface or mixing console. If you do not wish to make recordings, and are content with importing audio including our samples, a microphone may not be necessary.

Summary.

Reaper has proven itself to be a thoroughly usable, productive audio environment in which to work: a production powerhouse." Why not give it a try and learn how to use it from a blind person's perspective!