Reaper: Open projects with effects offline and bring online sequentially

Reaper Try it →Watch full video →The REAPER Blog · Dec 2025

Demo summary

The narrator demonstrates the 'Choose projects to open' action, loading a project with effects offline and then using a new action to bring them online one by one.

Step-by-step

Search for the action 'Choose projects to open' in the Actions list
Assign a keyboard shortcut like Command+Shift+O to this action
Run the action to bring up the project selection window
Select a project and check the box for 'Open with effects offline (recovery mode)'
Once the project is open, run the action 'Set all effects online one at a time'

Options

Set Preferences > General to 'Prompt' to show the project window on startup
Use 'Bring effects online after load' within the project selection window

Watch out for

The 'Prompt' setting in preferences usually only appears on the first startup unless manually triggered via actions

Tips

Use this method for projects that frequently crash on startup to identify which specific plugin is causing the failure
Use this for large projects with thousands of effects to begin editing sooner while plugins load sequentially
Assign a dedicated shortcut to 'Choose projects to open' to access recent projects and templates anytime

Highlights

“it was pretty quick, but each of these effects were added one at a time rather than kind of loading everything and then being able to start editing”

All demos from “What's New in REAPER 7.49-56 Updates - hi res spectrogram, tcp infoblock, faster renders and more”

13:572:32Open projects with effects offline and bring online sequentiallyCurrentThe narrator demonstrates the 'Choose projects to open' action, loading a project with effects offline and then using a new action to bring them online one by one.Reaper· AI Video Editor
17:270:36Toggle track zoom ignoring pinned tracksA demonstration of the new zoom actions that resize tracks to minimum or default height while leaving pinned tracks unaffected.Reaper· AI Video Editor
18:161:02AB comparison of fixed lanesThe user demonstrates a new action to toggle playback between the two most recently used lanes for quick AB comparison.Reaper· AI Audio Editor
19:581:10Half-speed metronome and click sourceThe narrator demonstrates setting the metronome and click source items to 0.5 speed for halftime clicks.Reaper· AI Audio Editor
21:313:18Crossfade Editor enhancementsA walkthrough of new Crossfade Editor features including in-bounds/out-of-bounds previewing, independent pre/post-roll dragging, and ruler scrubbing.Reaper· AI Audio Editor
25:511:47Preserve FX pin mappings when loading presetsThe user demonstrates the new preference to keep existing pin connector mappings even when switching between different plugin presets.Reaper· AI Audio Editor
27:401:20Alias Wet/Dry and Bypass parametersThe narrator demonstrates renaming the native Wet/Dry and Bypass controls for a plugin so they appear with custom names in track controls and envelopes.Reaper· AI Audio Editor
30:143:40Recursive directory import and folder creationThe user demonstrates importing an entire directory of files, showing how REAPER can recursively scan subfolders and automatically create folder tracks.Reaper· AI Audio Editor
33:542:58Media Explorer preview fade settingsThe narrator demonstrates configuring and toggling fade-in/fade-out settings for audio previews within the Media Explorer.Reaper· AI Audio Editor
36:524:51High-resolution spectrogram and spectral editingA detailed demo of the new high-res spectrogram view and various spectral editing improvements, including gain adjustments and multi-selecting edits.Reaper· AI Audio Editor
41:431:02Spectral edit default preferencesThe user demonstrates the new preferences page for setting default fades, gain, and FFT size for all new spectral edits.Reaper· AI Audio Editor
50:144:12Parallel rendering and multi-mono exportThe user demonstrates the new parallel post-processing options and the ability to render multi-channel files into separate mono files directly from the render dialogue.Reaper· AI Audio Editor
Watch “What's New in REAPER 7.49-56 Updates - hi res spectrogram, tcp infoblock, faster renders and more” →

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12:421:42Ripple editing media item edgesA demonstration of enabling ripple editing for media item edges, allowing the user to trim or expand an item while automatically shifting all subsequent items in the timeline.Reapertips | Alejandro
13:572:32Open projects with effects offline and bring online sequentiallyCurrentThe narrator demonstrates the 'Choose projects to open' action, loading a project with effects offline and then using a new action to bring them online one by one.The REAPER Blog
17:270:36Toggle track zoom ignoring pinned tracksA demonstration of the new zoom actions that resize tracks to minimum or default height while leaving pinned tracks unaffected.The REAPER Blog
5:415:42Automatic track grouping for media and razor editsThe video shows how to enable automatic grouping for folder child and sibling tracks, demonstrating how edits like trimming and splitting propagate across grouped and even hidden tracks.The REAPER Blog