What is it?
Reapack is a package manager tool that installs ReaScripts, JS effects, extensions, themes and more.
This is project was started by cfilion and it’s simply one of the biggest achievements the REAPER community has ever had. If you want to support this project, check out the official project page to read more about it!
Why do I need it?
It’s mostly just convenience. The old way of installing and discovering scripts was time consuming and involved a lot of manual work to keep them up-to-date. This tool pretty much takes care of all of that for you!
You will be able to search, discover, install any REAPER script all in one place in just a few clicks. Plus it will let you know if there’s some that needs to be updated!
And don’t worry. It will be a seamless integration. Even though tons of scripts will be installed, they will mostly just be extra actions and tools available. Your REAPER will remain identical!
Here’s some more reasons I can think of:
- A lot of the tips on this website make use of one of the scripts from this pack.
- It’s a seamless and convenient integration that makes your REAPER more powerful.
- It’s a fantastic way to discover new scripts and tools.
- It will keep everything up-to-date for you.
How to install
- Go to Reapack.com and download the right version for your OS.
- Open REAPER and go to Options > Show REAPER resource path in explorer…
- Put the downloaded file in the UserPlugins folder. Restart REAPER after that.
Next time you open REAPER, you will be presented with the following screen:
These are the default repositories available. Each repository is its own set of packages. I recommend you leave them checked and install all of these!
A quick way to install them all is to click on Options… and enable Install new packages when synchronizing. Then just press OK to begin the installation.
Once the installation is completed, you will notice there’s now an Extension tab with Reapack in your top menu. In here you can synchronize, browse, import and manage your packages.
How to import repositories
Sometimes you will need to install some extra repositories. I will make sure to leave the link to it. Here’s all you need to do to import them:
- Go to Extensions > Reapack > Import Repositories.
- A window will pop up. Paste the repository URL in here. And press OK.
Here’s the full list of repositories available. I just always install all of them. It’s about 4000+ scripts. But don’t worry, it doesn’t make your REAPER any slower or change drastically. Like I said, it’s pretty seamless and lightweight anyways!
If you have any trouble or just want a more in-depth explanation, please check out the user-guide for more info.
📹 Installation Video
I made a video installing some popular scripts using ReaPack and I show you all of the process from scratch:
What’s next?
I always recommend people get these two things when starting to use REAPER: Reapack and the SWS extension.
I use both extensively as part of many of my workflows and most tips in this page involve one or both extensions. So I highly recommend installing the SWS extension. Click here for a tutorial on it.