REAPER Keyboard Shortcuts
REAPER's defining trait among DAWs is that virtually nothing about its keyboard shortcuts is fixed — the Actions List exposes thousands of individually bindable commands, and most serious REAPER users end up with a heavily customized keymap within their first few weeks rather than sticking with defaults the way users of more opinionated DAWs typically do. That said, REAPER ships with sensible defaults that a large share of its community leaves mostly intact, particularly around transport control and basic editing, which is what's documented here. Because REAPER treats nearly every action — from moving the edit cursor to toggling a specific plugin parameter — as an assignable command in the same unified Actions List, power users frequently build up custom macros that chain several actions into a single keystroke, something that's structurally awkward or impossible in most competing DAWs. Item envelopes, which let you draw automation curves for volume, pan, or pitch directly onto an individual audio or MIDI item rather than only at the track level, extend REAPER's already granular editing philosophy down to per-clip automation that some competing DAWs only support at the whole-track level. REAPER's render/export dialog is similarly exposed to deep customization through its own action-list-driven presets, letting studios that render frequently to a specific format and folder structure automate that entire export step into a single assignable shortcut rather than clicking through the same dialog options every time. Sends and track freezing both matter specifically for larger sessions with many tracks and CPU-intensive plugins, where routing a shared reverb bus efficiently or temporarily freezing a synth-heavy track's live processing becomes necessary in a way that simply doesn't come up in a smaller two-track editing session.
Transport Playback
| Action | Windows | Mac | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Play / pause | Space | Space | Toggles playback from the current edit cursor position, the standard DAW-wide convention REAPER follows by default. |
| Start recording | Ctrl+R | Cmd+R | Begins recording on all record-armed tracks from the current cursor position, standard across most DAWs though the exact modifier varies by platform default. |
| Toggle repeat/loop | R | — | Toggles looped playback of the current time selection, letting you cycle a section repeatedly while mixing or tracking overdubs without manually rewinding each pass. |
Editing
| Action | Windows | Mac | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Split items at edit cursor | S | Cmd+Y (varies by keymap) | Splits all selected items at the current cursor position, one of the most fundamental editing actions in REAPER's item-based (rather than clip-based) editing model. |
| Undo | Ctrl+Z | Cmd+Z | Reverts the last action, with REAPER's undo history tracking a notably long and configurable number of steps compared to many other DAWs by default. |
| Zoom to time selection | Ctrl+Shift+F (varies) | Cmd+Shift+F | Zooms the timeline horizontally to fit the current time selection, common when zeroing in on a small section for detailed edit work. |
| Show/edit item volume envelope | Right-click item > Item volume envelope | — | Reveals a per-item automation envelope for volume drawn directly on the selected audio or MIDI item, letting you shape dynamics on that one clip independently of the track's own volume automation. |
| Render project to file | Ctrl+Alt+R | Cmd+Option+R | Opens the Render dialog for exporting the project (or a selection) to an audio file, with presets savable for repeated export configurations like a standard mixdown format and destination folder. |
| Set time selection to selected items | Ctrl+Shift+U (varies by keymap) | — | Sets the timeline's time selection to exactly match the bounds of whatever items are currently selected, a common precursor to zooming, looping, or rendering just that specific range. |
| Normalize selected item(s) | Item properties or Actions List search "normalize" (no default key) | — | Adjusts the selected audio item's gain so its peak level reaches a target value, a common cleanup step for recordings that came in too quiet or too hot before further processing. |
Tracks Routing
| Action | Windows | Mac | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Insert new track | Ctrl+T | Cmd+T | Adds a new empty track below the currently selected one, ready for recording input or routing from another track's output. |
| Open track FX chain (with track selected) | F | F | Opens the effects chain window for the selected track, where plugins can be added, reordered, and bypassed. |
| Add FX to selected track | F X (varies by keymap, or click FX button) | F | Opens the FX browser for adding a plugin to the selected track's chain, sharing the same underlying FX window used elsewhere in REAPER for consistent plugin management across tracks and items. |
| Freeze track (render FX to audio) | Right-click track > Freeze (varies by keymap) | — | Renders a track's live effects processing down to a static audio file temporarily, freeing CPU load from computationally heavy plugins while keeping the option to unfreeze and return to live processing later. |
| Add send from one track to another | Track routing matrix or Shift+click destination track (varies) | — | Routes a copy of the selected track's signal to another track or bus, commonly used for shared reverb buses or parallel compression setups where the original dry signal and the processed send both need to reach the final mix independently. |
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does REAPER's default keymap sometimes differ from what online guides describe?
Because virtually every command is rebindable through the Actions List, many long-time users share customized keymaps or install alternative default keymap files (for instance ones mimicking Pro Tools or Cubase bindings for easier switching), so a guide or forum post written by someone using a non-default keymap can describe shortcuts that don't match a fresh install.
What exactly is the Actions List, and how does it compare to a normal menu command?
The Actions List is REAPER's searchable master list of every command the application can execute, including obscure ones with no default shortcut assigned at all. Beyond simple rebinding, it lets you chain multiple actions into a custom macro and assign that combined macro to a single key — a level of scriptable flexibility well beyond a typical shortcut-remapping panel.
Can I import keymaps built for other DAWs like Pro Tools?
REAPER doesn't natively read another DAW's keymap file format, but the community has built and shared ReaperKeyMap files that approximate other DAWs' default bindings closely enough for muscle-memory continuity, which you import through REAPER's keyboard/MIDI preferences rather than a literal cross-DAW import feature.
What's the difference between a track envelope and an item envelope in REAPER?
A track envelope automates a parameter (like volume) across the entire track's timeline regardless of how many separate items sit on it, while an item envelope is scoped to just one specific audio or MIDI item, letting you shape that one clip's dynamics independently without affecting anything else on the same track.
Can I save my render settings as a reusable preset?
Yes, the Render dialog supports saving a full configuration (format, sample rate, destination folder, filename pattern) as a named preset, which is commonly assigned its own action so a team can trigger an identical export configuration repeatedly without reconfiguring the dialog each time.
Does adding FX to a track affect items already recorded on it?
Track-level FX process the combined signal of everything on that track non-destructively in real time, so it doesn't alter the underlying recorded item data at all — you can freely add, remove, or reorder track FX at any point without changing what's actually stored in the original recorded files.
Can REAPER run on Linux, unlike most other major DAWs?
Yes, REAPER offers a native Linux build in addition to Windows and Mac, which is unusual among full-featured commercial DAWs and part of why it has a dedicated following among Linux-based audio production users who otherwise have fewer polished commercial DAW options available.
What does freezing a track actually do, and can it be undone?
Freezing renders a track's current live plugin processing into a static audio file, temporarily replacing the live signal chain with that rendered file to reduce CPU load, and REAPER retains the ability to unfreeze a track back to its original live plugin chain afterward, making it a reversible way to manage CPU load on plugin-heavy sessions rather than a permanent commitment.