REAPER Audio Workflows

How to export audio from REAPER (render settings for WAV and MP3)

By StudioRescue Editorial

Published August 21, 2026

You have mixed a track in REAPER, it sounds good, and now you need an actual audio file you can email, upload, or play on your phone. This is where a lot of beginners get stuck, because saving the project and exporting the audio are two different things, and the export window has more buttons than it needs. The good news is that only a handful of those settings matter for most jobs, and the defaults are close to right.

This guide walks through the Render dialog in plain English: what to pick for a high-quality file, what to pick for a small shareable file, and the few settings that are worth understanding. Starting points here are safe defaults, not universal rules, so adjust them to the job in front of you.

Saving is not exporting

When you press Ctrl+S, REAPER saves a project file (a .RPP). That file remembers your tracks, edits, and plugins, but it is not audio and will not play in a music app or upload anywhere. To get a WAV or MP3 you have to render (some DAWs call it “export” or “bounce”, they all mean the same thing): REAPER plays the mix and writes it out as one new audio file. Keep saving your project as normal, and render whenever you need a file to share.

Open the Render dialog

Go to File › Render, or press Ctrl+Alt+R (Windows) or Cmd+Option+R (Mac). A window titled “Render to File” opens. Nothing here touches your project, so you can open it, look around, and close it again without changing a thing. When you are ready, the button at the bottom writes the file.

WAV or MP3? Pick by what the file is for

Almost every export decision comes down to this one choice.

WAV, for quality and further work

WAV is uncompressed and lossless, so it is the right choice when quality matters or the file will be worked on again: a master, an archive copy, a file for a mastering or mixing engineer, or a stem someone else will import. Set the format to WAV, bit depth to 24 bit PCM, and leave the sample rate matching your project (usually 44100 Hz for music or 48000 Hz for video and podcast work). The trade-off is size: WAV files are large, often ten times bigger than an MP3.

MP3, for sharing and uploading

MP3 is compressed and much smaller, which makes it the practical choice for emailing a rough mix, sending a demo, or uploading somewhere that expects a compact file. Choose MP3 (encoder by LAME project) in the format list and set the mode to a high quality, roughly 320 kbps constant bitrate for the best-sounding MP3, or a smaller number if file size matters more than fidelity. Current REAPER includes the MP3 encoder, so this just works. If you are on a very old build and see a “LAME unavailable” message, updating REAPER to the current version is the simplest fix.

Loudness and the Normalize option (only for final delivery)

REAPER can normalize the render to a target loudness. Tick Normalize in the dialog and you can normalize to peak, true peak, RMS, or LUFS-I (integrated loudness), with an optional brickwall limit to catch peaks. This is a final-delivery tool, not something to use on rough exports.

If you are publishing music, the streaming services normalize playback loudness for you. As of 2026 Spotify, YouTube, Tidal, and Amazon aim for about -14 LUFS integrated, and Apple Music sits around -16 LUFS. A master near -14 LUFS with true peaks below -1 dBTP plays back sensibly on all of them. The important part to understand: these platforms turn loud masters down, so rendering louder does not make you louder on streaming, it usually just costs you dynamics. For most people the right move is to get the mix sounding good with the master peaking below 0 dBFS, render, and let the platform handle level.

Render, then actually listen

Click Render (or “Render 1 file”). REAPER writes the file to the folder you chose. Do not skip the last step: open the exported file in a normal player and listen to the start, a loud section, and the end. This is the fastest way to catch a wrong folder, a cut-off tail, a section that clips, or an accidentally muted track before you send it anywhere.

Exporting separate tracks (stems)

Sometimes you need each track as its own file, for example to hand a song to a mixing engineer. In the Render dialog set Source to Stems (selected tracks), select the tracks you want first, and REAPER writes one file per selected track with that track’s effects included. Match the lengths by keeping Bounds on Entire project so every stem lines up from the same zero point. That is the short version; a full stems workflow (naming, grouping, whether to print effects) is its own topic.

What rendering will not fix

Exporting is the last step, not a repair tool. It writes down whatever the mix already sounds like.

• It will not fix a mix that is clipping or distorted. If your master is peaking over 0 dBFS, pull the master fader down until the peaks are under it and render again. Rendering a clipped mix just bakes the distortion into the file. See how to fix clipped and distorted audio in REAPER.
• It will not make an unbalanced or unfinished mix sound done. Get the balance right first; the render only captures it.
• A quiet or weak export is usually a levels problem in the project, not a render setting. Setting sensible record and mix levels up front avoids it, covered in how to gain stage vocals in REAPER.
• Choosing the wrong file for the job causes avoidable rejections: do not send a small MP3 to a mastering engineer, and do not upload a giant WAV where an MP3 is expected.