Introduction

In this arti­cle we will see how to export an audio file in Reaper, how to export in MP3 and WAV for­mat, which are two of the most pop­u­lar for­mats, but you will see that it is very sim­ple to choose the for­mat you need. For this it is impor­tant to be clear about the export for­mat you need and also its sam­ple rate or bit depth.

How to make a RENDER of the project in Reaper

With our Reaper project ready to export the first step is to go to File > Ren­der or use the short­cut CTRL+ALT+R, as shown in Fig­ure 1.

The "Ren­der to file" win­dow will be dis­played where we will be able to con­fig­ure all the export para­me­ters. In this win­dow there is every­thing we need so let's see in detail each sec­tion of the Reaper export window.

Render entire project, separate tracks or selected time in Reaper

In the first part of the Reaper Ren­der win­dow we can start con­fig­ur­ing from where we want to export our audio, inside "Source" the default option is "Mas­ter mix" and it refers to the out­put from the Mas­ter track in the DAW, that is, all the tracks that are not mut­ed at that moment and are send­ing their sig­nal as a last instance to the Mas­ter.

We can export the audio tracks sep­a­rate­ly with the option "Select­ed tracks (stems)", see the options list­ed in fig­ure 4.

In "Bounds" we can con­fig­ure which part of the time­line we want to export, whether it is just the first two bars, two min­utes, the whole project, regions, etc.

Output section of the Reaper export window

EnIn the "Out­put" sec­tion we write the name of the file(s) and choose the direc­to­ry where they will be export­ed. The "Direc­to­ry" sec­tion con­tains the fold­er where our audios will be sent, we can change it by click­ing on "Browse". In "File name" we write the name for the files. Final­ly the "Ren­der to" field shows the final result of the con­fig­ured parameters.

Audio export options in Reaper

With­in "Options" we can con­fig­ure the "Sam­ple rate", how many chan­nels we want and oth­er more advanced set­tings such as "Resam­ple mode" or "Normalize/Limit". In image 7 you can see that the "Sam­ple rate" is set to 44100, which is the stan­dard qual­i­ty used in CDs. Depend­ing on the project to be export­ed, these options must be con­fig­ured cor­rect­ly since they could have incon­ve­niences that could dam­age our export or lead us to unde­sired results.

En el aparta­do “Pri­ma­ry out­put for­mat” (POF) y “Sec­ondary out­put for­mat” (SOF) podemos ele­gir dos for­matos para expor­tar nue­stro proyec­to en Reaper, en este caso nue­stro for­ma­to pri­mario será WAV con una pro­fun­di­dad de bits (WAV bit depth) de 24 bits PCM.

In the "Pri­ma­ry out­put for­mat" (POF) and "Sec­ondary out­put for­mat" (SOF) sec­tion we can choose two for­mats to export our project in Reaper, in this case our pri­ma­ry for­mat will be WAV with a bit depth of 24 bits PCM.

Hace­mos click en “Sec­ondary out­put for­mat” (SOF), esta opción nos per­mite gener­ar un segun­do archi­vo con un for­ma­to dis­tin­to en el mis­mo pro­ce­so de Ren­der de un proyec­to de Reaper. Para el for­ma­to secun­dario ele­gire­mos MP3 (encoder by LAME project), como se obser­va en la figu­ra 10.

We click on "Sec­ondary out­put for­mat" (SOF), this option allows us to gen­er­ate a sec­ond file with a dif­fer­ent for­mat in the same Ren­der process of a Reaper project. For the sec­ondary for­mat we will choose MP3 (encoder by LAME project), as shown in fig­ure 10.

Start project export process in Reaper

Once all the Ren­der para­me­ters of the project are con­fig­ured, we click on the "Ren­der 2 files" but­ton, in this case since we have cho­sen to export two dif­fer­ent files in the same process. Click­ing on this but­ton will start the ren­der­ing process.

The win­dow shown in Fig­ure 12 appears, show­ing the ren­der­ing process of the project in Reaper. Once the process is fin­ished, we will be able to find our two files in the fold­er we chose. The final win­dow will show the draw­ing of the audio wave­form where we will be able to see the clips, besides Reaper pro­vides us with this same infor­ma­tion in the low­er text box: Peak, Clip, RMS, LUFS, etc. If we click on "Show in brows­er" it will take us direct­ly to the direc­to­ry where the files are located.