Audio monitoring with REAPER

Solo and listen to any monitored wireless channel from SoundBase by remote-controlling a REAPER session — with automatic track setup, live meters, and always-armed multitrack recording.

What it is

Audio Monitoring connects SoundBase to REAPER, the cross-platform DAW from Cockos, so your monitoring page becomes a listen station for the whole rig. Map each monitored channel to a REAPER track once, and from then on a single click on a channel card solos that performer in REAPER — you hear them instantly, while every other channel keeps recording silently in the background.

Requirements

• SoundBase Pro — the REAPER integration is a Pro feature. Without Pro, the REAPER tab shows a Pro badge and its controls are disabled.
• SoundBase Desktop on macOS or Windows. The integration is not available in the browser version of SoundBase (“Not available in web mode”).
• REAPER installed and running — on the same computer or another machine on your network. Download it from reaper.fm; REAPER is licensed separately by Cockos.
• An audio interface feeding REAPER — the analog, Dante, MADI, or other outputs of your wireless receivers must be patched into inputs that REAPER can see. SoundBase does not carry audio; REAPER does.
• The REAPER integration is being enabled progressively. If you don’t see the REAPER tab under Integrations, it isn’t switched on for your account yet — contact SoundBase support.

How it works

This is the most important thing to understand before setup: audio never flows through SoundBase.

REAPER handles all audio input and output on its machine, through whatever audio device you’ve configured in REAPER. SoundBase is the control surface: it sends commands to REAPER (solo, mute, record-arm, track creation, track naming, transport), and REAPER streams live feedback the other way (track names, solo states, play state, and per-track audio levels). SoundBase displays that feedback on your monitoring cards.

So when you click Solo on a channel card:

1. SoundBase tells REAPER to solo the mapped track.
2. REAPER plays that track’s live input through its own audio device — your headphones or monitor feed are connected to REAPER’s output, not to SoundBase.
3. REAPER reports the solo state and audio levels back, and SoundBase lights up the card in yellow with live meters.

The link is two-way: soloing a track inside REAPER lights up the matching channel in SoundBase too.

Because REAPER is a separate application, SoundBase does not launch it for you and does not configure its audio device. You open REAPER yourself, set up its audio hardware as usual, and SoundBase takes over from there. REAPER can run on the same computer as SoundBase (the default) or on a different machine on the network.

First-time setup: the guided wizard

The first time you open the REAPER integration in a project, SoundBase shows a three-step setup guide with annotated REAPER screenshots.

Open the wizard

1. Open your project’s Monitoring page.
2. In the monitoring toolbar, click Integrations. A modal titled Integrations for [your zone] opens.
3. Select the REAPER tab. On first visit, the Welcome to the REAPER OSC Setup Guide appears automatically.

You can leave the guide at any time with Skip tutorial in the modal footer, and bring it back later with Restart setup guide in the same footer.

Step 1 — Download the pattern file

The welcome step explains the concept (“you link your monitored channel in SoundBase to a track in REAPER — when you solo the channel in SoundBase, the track in REAPER will be soloed”) and offers a download link: Download SoundBase.ReaperOSC.

1. Click Download SoundBase.ReaperOSC and save the file — you’ll copy it into REAPER’s config folder in step 2.
2. Make sure REAPER is open before continuing. If you don’t have it yet, download it from reaper.fm.
3. Click Next.

Note

SoundBase.ReaperOSC is a control-surface pattern file that tells REAPER which messages to exchange with SoundBase, configured for up to 128 tracks. Without it, the SoundBase pattern won’t appear in REAPER.

Step 2 — Add an OSC control surface in REAPER

This step walks you through REAPER’s preferences, with an expandable screenshot for each sub-step:

1. In REAPER, open Options → Preferences → Plug-ins → Control/OSC/web, then click Add to create a new control surface. (If you already have an OSC control surface set up, select it and click Edit instead.)
2. Name the surface (for example “SoundBase Desktop”).
3. Click Open config directory and copy the SoundBase.ReaperOSC file you downloaded into the folder that opens.
4. Back in REAPER, click Refresh list so the new pattern file appears.
5. Under Pattern config, choose SoundBase from the list.
6. Set Control surface mode to OSC (Open Sound Control), then set Mode to Configure device IP+local port so the Device IP, Device port, Local listen port, and Local IP fields appear.

Step 3 — Match IPs and ports

The final step shows the target configuration. Click Finish to return to the main REAPER settings screen, then confirm the fields match on both sides.

In SoundBase (Integrations → REAPER):

Field	Default	What it means
Device Port	9000	The port SoundBase listens on for REAPER’s feedback
Device IP	127.0.0.1	The address SoundBase’s listener uses
REAPER Local listen port	8000	The port REAPER listens on — SoundBase sends commands here
REAPER Local IP	127.0.0.1	The IP address of the machine running REAPER

In REAPER’s control surface dialog, the same numbers appear mirrored: Device port must match SoundBase’s Device Port (9000), and Local listen port must match SoundBase’s REAPER Local listen port (8000).

With everything on one computer, the defaults just work: SoundBase sends commands to REAPER at 127.0.0.1 on port 8000, and receives feedback on port 9000.

Tip

An expandable REAPER settings example at the top of the REAPER tab shows a screenshot of a correct same-computer configuration for quick reference.

Running REAPER on a different computer

REAPER doesn’t have to live on the SoundBase machine — a dedicated recording rig on the same network works too:

1. In SoundBase, set REAPER Local IP to the REAPER machine’s IP address, and change Device IP from 127.0.0.1 to the SoundBase machine’s own network IP so SoundBase can receive REAPER’s feedback over the network (127.0.0.1 only accepts same-computer traffic). Click Restart server after saving.
2. In REAPER’s control surface dialog, set Device IP to the SoundBase machine’s IP address, and Local IP to the REAPER machine’s own IP.
3. Keep the two port pairs matched (8000 and 9000 by default), and make sure both machines’ firewalls allow UDP traffic on those ports.

Testing the connection

The REAPER tab includes live diagnostics so you can verify the link before the show.

The status indicator

Next to the Restart server button, a status dot and label show incoming traffic from REAPER:

• Receiving (green dot) — messages arrived within the last few seconds. You’re connected.
• Last message Xs ago — the link worked but has gone quiet.
• No messages (gray dot) — SoundBase has never heard from REAPER. See Troubleshooting below.

Click Restart server to restart SoundBase’s listener after changing ports or interfaces.

The Test connection panel

Expand Test connection to check both directions at once:

• To REAPER — Play/Pause and Stop buttons drive REAPER’s transport directly. Pressing Play in SoundBase should start playback in REAPER; Stop also returns the playhead to the project start. If REAPER reacts, outgoing commands work.
• From REAPER — while this section is open, the most recent raw OSC message from REAPER is displayed (and replaced as new ones arrive). If messages appear here, incoming feedback works.
• Master bus VU (L / R) — a live stereo meter of REAPER’s master bus with peak hold, i.e. what the soloed track sounds like. Play something in REAPER and watch it move.

Mapping channels to REAPER tracks

Before you can solo anything, each monitored channel needs a REAPER track. Click REAPER track configuration in the REAPER tab to open the mapping matrix.

The Track Configuration matrix

• Rows are REAPER track numbers (1–128). Use Track start and Track stop to choose which rows are visible — on first visit the range auto-fills to cover your channel count.
• Columns are your monitored channels, grouped by device. Use Expand All / Collapse All or click a device header to expand it; the layout is remembered per zone.
• Click a cell to map that channel to that track, or click it again to unmap. Each track holds exactly one channel — mapping a channel onto an occupied track displaces the previous occupant.

The moment you assign a channel, SoundBase pushes the setup to REAPER: the track is renamed from your show data, muted, and record-armed — automatically. You never need to name or arm tracks in REAPER by hand.

Note

Track names come from the best available source: the live channel name from the hardware, your custom channel name, or the device name plus channel number. Check Name tracks with long name to use the performer’s long name from the linked coordination frequency instead.

Bulk mapping with 1 to 1

For a whole rig in one click:

1. Set Track start and Track stop to cover enough tracks.
2. Click 1 to 1.

SoundBase expands all devices and maps every channel, left to right in visual order, to consecutive tracks in the range. Channels past the last visible row have their mappings cleared.

Creating tracks in REAPER remotely

If your REAPER project doesn’t have enough tracks yet, click Add Tracks:

1. In the Create New REAPER Tracks dialog, pick a count — 8, 16, 32, 64, or 128 — or click Match Grid to insert exactly as many tracks as your unmapped channels need.
2. Click Save. SoundBase inserts empty tracks at the end of REAPER’s track list. They stay empty until you assign a channel.

If a session has drifted, re-run 1 to 1 in the Track Configuration matrix to restore a clean mapping.

Warning

Track creation acts on the currently open REAPER project. Use a dedicated REAPER project for SoundBase monitoring rather than a session you care about.

Channels for third-party sources

Anything that isn’t a monitored wireless channel — a wired lectern mic, playback, crowd mics — can still get the full treatment:

1. On the Monitoring page toolbar, click Blank Channel.
2. In the Add Other Channel dialog, enter a Channel name and click Add.
3. Optionally open the card’s settings to add a Description and Color.

These cards are grouped under an “Other” section in the REAPER track configuration and behave exactly like wireless channels: mapping, solo, click-to-listen, meters, and mute safety all apply.

The track template workflow

Instead of building the REAPER session live, you can export it as a native REAPER track template:

1. In the Track Configuration matrix, map your channels.
2. Click Download .RTrackTemplate.
3. In REAPER, import it via Track → Insert tracks from template, or simply drag the file into REAPER’s track area.

The template contains one track per mapped slot, from track 1 through your highest mapped index, with:

• Track names taken from the matrix (gaps get a placeholder name)
• Track colors from each channel’s coordination-group color
• Hardware inputs assigned sequentially starting at input 1, in column order
• All tracks created muted and record-armed

Note

Because inputs are numbered sequentially from input 1, patch your interface (or Dante/MADI routing) so receiver outputs land on inputs in that same order — or adjust the input assignments in REAPER after importing. SoundBase can’t know your physical patch.

Listening to your channels

With mapping done, the monitoring page becomes your listen station.

Solo from a channel card

Every mapped channel card carries a Solo button (tooltip: “Solo this track in REAPER to monitor audio”). Click it to hear that performer through REAPER’s output; click again to stop (“Click to disable solo in REAPER”). While a channel is soloed, its name header turns yellow and the button pulses. Solo buttons appear on grid cards, list rows, expanded telemetry views, and “Other” cards alike. An unmapped channel’s button is disabled with the hint “Set REAPER track first”.

Click the whole card to listen

For faster switching, turn the entire card into a listen button:

1. Open Monitoring tab view settings (the gear icon in the monitoring toolbar) to open Monitoring View Settings.
2. On the Grid View or Card tab, check Click card to solo in REAPER.

Now a single click on any card solos it; click another card to switch performers.

Solo modes: one at a time, or stacked

Two behaviors are available under Solo mode in the REAPER tab (and as a Solo in place switch right in the monitoring toolbar):

• Solo in place (default) — soloing one channel automatically un-solos every other. You always hear exactly one performer. Ideal for click-through listening checks.
• Solo — solos stack, so you can listen to several channels at once.

Clearing all solos

The monitoring toolbar’s speaker icon pulses yellow whenever any REAPER track is soloed — even one soloed from inside REAPER. Click it (Clear all REAPER solos) to un-solo everything at once and return to silence.

Mute safety: record everything, hear only what you choose

SoundBase enforces a deliberate convention: every mapped REAPER track stays muted except the one you’re soloing, and it re-asserts those mutes after every action. This is not a bug — it’s what makes the workflow safe:

• Mute in REAPER only affects what you hear, never what is recorded. All channels keep recording silently the whole time.
• There are no accidental open mics in your monitor feed — you only ever hear the channel you chose.

Note

Don’t manually unmute mapped tracks in REAPER — SoundBase will mute them again the next time you solo or clear solos. If you want to hear a channel, solo it from SoundBase (or in REAPER).

Live meters on every card

REAPER streams per-track audio levels back to SoundBase, so mapped cards show activity even when you’re not listening. In Monitoring View Settings, the Audio display setting on the Card tab offers:

• Meter bar — a live green/yellow/red VU bar with peak hold.
• Timeline (audio over time) — a scrolling level history, handy for spotting which channels have been active.

Because the link is two-way, anything soloed directly in REAPER lights up in SoundBase as well, and SoundBase’s display resyncs automatically whenever you open the monitoring page.

Recording

Every mapped track is kept record-armed automatically. To make a multitrack recording of the show:

1. Confirm your tracks are mapped and inputs patched (meters moving on the cards is a good sign).
2. Switch to REAPER and press Record.

That’s it — REAPER records all armed tracks regardless of mute state, so your monitoring solos never affect the recording. SoundBase itself imposes no channel-count fees and no recording time limits; disk space and REAPER’s own capabilities are the only constraints.

Note

Transport and record controls inside SoundBase (start/stop recording without switching to REAPER) are planned for a future update. For now, start and stop recordings in REAPER itself.

Troubleshooting

The status never shows Receiving / shows No messages Work through the chain: Is REAPER actually running? Did you add the OSC control surface in Options → Preferences → Plug-ins → Control/OSC/web? Is the SoundBase.ReaperOSC file in the config directory and selected under Pattern config (click Refresh list if it doesn’t appear)? Do the ports match (SoundBase Device Port = REAPER Device port; SoundBase REAPER Local listen port = REAPER Local listen port)? Is your firewall allowing UDP on both ports? After changing anything, click Restart server in SoundBase.

The Solo button does nothing Check that the channel is actually mapped to a REAPER track — an unmapped channel shows “Set REAPER track first”. If it’s mapped, verify the connection with the Test connection panel: if Play doesn’t move REAPER’s transport, the OSC surface isn’t configured correctly on the REAPER side.

Track names are wrong or out of sync with REAPER Close and reopen the monitoring page — SoundBase asks REAPER to resend all track feedback when the page opens. Note that REAPER controls are briefly locked (a few seconds) after opening while that feedback burst settles; this is normal. If the session has genuinely drifted (tracks deleted or reordered in REAPER), re-run 1 to 1 to restore a clean mapping.

REAPER is on another machine and nothing gets through Double-check the cross-mapping: SoundBase’s REAPER Local IP must be the REAPER machine’s IP, SoundBase’s Device IP must be the SoundBase machine’s own network IP (not 127.0.0.1), and REAPER’s Device IP must be the SoundBase machine’s IP. Both machines must allow UDP on ports 8000 and 9000 (or your custom values), and both must be on the same network. After changing IPs in SoundBase, click Restart server.

I see “Not available in web mode” or “Incoming OSC is only available in SoundBase Desktop” The REAPER integration only works in SoundBase Desktop, not in the browser version. Switch to the desktop app.

The REAPER controls are grayed out with a Pro badge The integration requires an active SoundBase Pro plan. Without it, the REAPER tab is visible but locked.

I hear more than one channel at once Your Solo mode is set to Solo (stacking). Switch to Solo in place in the REAPER tab or with the toolbar switch, or click the pulsing speaker icon (Clear all REAPER solos) to reset.

FAQ

Do I hear audio through SoundBase? No. Audio always plays through REAPER and REAPER’s audio device — headphones or monitors connected to the REAPER machine’s output. SoundBase remote-controls REAPER and displays its meter feedback; no audio signal passes through SoundBase.

Does SoundBase launch REAPER for me? No. Open REAPER yourself (and load your monitoring project); SoundBase takes over from there. SoundBase also doesn’t detect whether REAPER is installed — the status indicator tells you whether the two are talking.

Can I use a different DAW, like Pro Tools or Logic? No. The integration is built specifically for REAPER and its control protocol, using the SoundBase.ReaperOSC pattern file. Other DAWs are not supported.

How many channels can I monitor? Up to 128 REAPER tracks, with one channel per track. That includes both wireless channels and “Other” channels for third-party sources.

What does it cost? The integration is included with SoundBase Pro — SoundBase adds no per-channel licensing fees and no recording time limits. REAPER itself is a separate product licensed by Cockos; the download at reaper.fm is free to evaluate, and a REAPER license is purchased from Cockos, not from SoundBase.

Does audio monitoring work over Remote View browser links? No. Remote View shares live data — meters, RF, battery — with browsers on your local network, but no audio. Browser viewers can watch levels; only the REAPER machine’s outputs carry sound.

Can I record without soloing anything? Yes. Mapped tracks are always record-armed, and mute only affects monitoring — press Record in REAPER and every mapped channel is captured whether or not you ever solo it.