If you’ve got serious music work to do, you might want to check out the next article. This is the fun stuff today! I’m often talking about the impressive amount of tweakability that REAPER comes with, from functionality to visual appeal. This time, we’ll be switching out the default REAPER splash screen (the image that displays when you first initialize the program) with the picture of our choosing! If you do not already have an image in mind, check out THIS Cockos forum post; it links off to two zip files with some options. Either mock or pay homage to another DAW, with a similar splash screen with the type replaced with “REAPER/Cockos.”

(Free REAPER Splash Screen by RedJoy)

Once you have your image(s) downloaded, keep them saved somewhere they will not be moved. I recommend placing it somewhere within the REAPER directory. Launch REAPER, and choose Options>Preferences from the File menu.

From there, make sure that you are in the general tab of your preferences. At the bottom of the general options, is an “Advanced UI/system tweaks…” button. Give that a click!

Most of the options here are fairly deep into the nitty-gritty of CPU processing management, so be careful not to start tweaking them without a moderate knowledge of how computers work. The only option we are looking for today is first one, “Custom splash screen image:”

Click browse, and find where you have saved the image you want to use.

Close out your preferences and REAPER, and launch it again. This time, you’ll see your chosen splash screen.

This has been a quick one, but hopefully you learned something. Stay tuned for more REAPER tutorials, music, and personal news!