A trick to quickly loop items in REAPER

By default, REAPER makes all items loopable. That means that when you drag the right or left edge of the item in order to extend it, REAPER will actually just loop it infinitely like this 👇

This can be a great tool sometimes, especially if you are making loop-based music. But most times, you’d wanna just extend the item instead of the looping behavior.

In this quick tutorial I will show you how to disable the default looping.

🔥 PLUS, I will show you a cool trick that allows you to toggle the looping behavior in a simple double click like this 👇

How to disable looping by default

1. Go to Preferences > Media Item Defaults
2. Disable all these boxes that start with “Loop source for…”

Done ✅

Hit OK, and now you can extend MIDI and audio items without worrying about loops.

How to quickly toggle loop items

This method involves setting up a mouse modifier so when you double click the left or right edge of the item it will toggle their loop state.

1. Go to Preferences > Mouse Modifiers > Context: Media Item Edge | Double Click
2. Double click Default action, click on “Action list…” and find “Item properties: Loop item source”

Done! ✅

Now you should be able to double click the items edges and toggle their loop state like this: