REAPER Audio Workflows
How to record vocals in REAPER step by step (for beginners)
Published August 3, 2026 · Updated August 3, 2026
To record a vocal in REAPER: pick your audio interface under Options → Preferences → Audio → Device, add a new track, set its input to your mic’s channel, and record-arm it. Set the recording level on your interface’s gain knob so the loudest singing peaks land around -12 to -6 dBFS. Turn on input monitoring if you need to hear yourself, then press the transport Record button and sing. It is all built into REAPER, so you do not need to buy anything to capture a clean take.
If you have just installed REAPER and you are staring at an empty project wondering how to actually get your voice into it, this is the guide. Recording a vocal is really only a handful of steps: tell REAPER which device to listen to, make a track, point that track at your microphone, set a safe level, and hit record. Everything else, the EQ and the polish, comes later.
This walkthrough assumes you have a microphone connected through an audio interface or a USB mic, and that REAPER is installed and open. The exact wording of a few menus can shift slightly between versions, but the flow below matches current REAPER (version 7.78 at the time of writing) and has not changed in years.
Before you record: what you need
You need three things working together: a mic, a way to get it into the computer, and REAPER set to listen to that input.
- A microphone and interface. Either an XLR mic plugged into an audio interface, or a USB mic that connects directly. Both show up to REAPER as an input device.
- Headphones, not speakers. Recording with speakers on lets the backing track bleed back into the mic. Use closed-back headphones while tracking.
- The right driver. On Windows, an ASIO driver gives you the lowest, most stable latency. Many interfaces install one. On a Mac, the built-in Core Audio driver is already low latency.
Step 1: point REAPER at your audio device
Open Options → Preferences → Audio → Device. Choose your audio interface or USB mic from the driver and device list. On Windows, select ASIO as the audio system and then pick your interface as the ASIO driver where possible. On a Mac, leave it on Core Audio and select your device.
While you are here, set the sample rate. Use 44.1 kHz for music or 48 kHz if the vocal is going to video. Either is fine, but pick one and keep every session on it so files stay in sync.
If REAPER cannot see your microphone at all, it is almost always because the wrong device is selected here. Nothing else works until this screen shows your interface and REAPER reports the device as open.
Step 2: add a track and choose the mic input
Insert a new track
Press Ctrl+T (Windows) or Cmd+T (Mac), or use Track → Insert new track. A blank track appears in the track panel on the left.
Open the input selector
On the new track, click the small record-monitoring button (the one next to the round record-arm button). This opens the input menu.
Pick a single mono input
Choose Input: Mono and then the channel your mic is plugged into, usually input 1. A single mic is a mono source, so record it in mono, not stereo. That keeps the file smaller and avoids a lopsided one-sided recording.
Step 3: record-arm the track
Click the round record-arm button on the track so it lights up red. Arming tells REAPER that this is the track you want to record onto. You should now see an input level meter moving on the track when you talk into the mic. If the meter is flat and silent, the input channel in Step 2 is wrong, or the mic needs phantom power (most condenser mics need +48V, switched on at the interface).
Step 4: set a safe recording level
This is the step beginners skip, and it is the one that decides whether your take is usable. You set the level on your interface’s gain knob, not with a fader in REAPER. Turning up a fader after the fact cannot undo a recording that was too loud going in.
Sing or speak the loudest part you plan to perform, and watch the track meter. Aim for the loudest peaks to land around -12 to -6 dBFS, which leaves comfortable headroom above them. Quieter than that is fine and safe; you can raise it later. What you are avoiding is the meter hitting the very top, which is clipping and cannot be fully repaired afterward.
Loud is not the same as good. A vocal recorded at a moderate level with headroom is far easier to work with than a hot one that clipped on the loud notes. When in doubt, back the gain off a little.
Step 5: decide how you will hear yourself
REAPER can play your live mic signal back to your headphones so you can hear yourself over the backing track. With the track armed, the record-monitoring button controls this. Turn monitoring on if you want to hear the processed or blended signal through REAPER.
There is a catch: monitoring through the computer adds a small delay, called latency. If your own voice sounds like it is echoing back a fraction of a second late, that is monitoring latency, and it is distracting to sing to. The quick fixes are a smaller audio block size and, if your interface has it, hardware direct monitoring, which routes the mic straight to your headphones with no delay. The full walkthrough is in how to fix recording latency in REAPER.
Step 6: record the take
Save the project first
Press Ctrl+S and save the .rpp project somewhere you will find it. REAPER writes your recorded audio into that project’s folder, so saving first keeps the take files organized.
Press Record
Click the Record button in the transport at the bottom, or press Ctrl+R. Recording starts from the edit cursor. Sing your part.
Stop and keep the take
Press Ctrl+R again, the spacebar, or the Stop button. A new audio item appears on the track. That is your recording, saved to disk.
To record another pass, move the cursor back to the start and record again. By default each new pass creates a new take. Recording several passes and then building one clean version from the best moments is called comping, covered in how to comp vocal takes in REAPER.
| Symptom | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| No input meter movement | Wrong input channel or no phantom power | Re-pick the mono input; switch on +48V for a condenser mic |
| Meter hits the top / crackly take | Interface gain too high (clipping) | Lower the gain so peaks sit near -12 to -6 dBFS |
| Your voice echoes back late | Monitoring latency | Smaller block size or hardware direct monitoring |
| REAPER does not see the mic | Wrong audio device selected | Re-select the interface in Preferences → Audio → Device |
What recording well will not fix
Getting a clean capture is the foundation, but it is not the whole job.
- It will not tune or time-align a shaky performance. Recording captures exactly what you sang. Pitch is a separate step.
- It will not remove room sound. If you record in a bare, echoey room, that echo is baked into the take. Recording close to soft furnishings helps far more than any plugin.
- It will not mix the vocal. A raw take usually needs a high-pass, some EQ, and a little compression before it sits in a song.
A careful recording at a sensible level in a reasonably quiet space gives you a take that is much easier to work with. That is the goal here: not a finished vocal, but a clean, unclipped starting point that the mixing steps can actually improve.
Select your interface in REAPER’s audio device preferences, add a track, set its input to your mono mic channel, and record-arm it. Set the level on the interface so peaks reach about -12 to -6 dBFS, sort out monitoring, save the project, and press Record. It is all stock REAPER, and a clean capture makes every step after it easier.
Recorded your take? Clean it up next.
The free StudioRescue vocal chain loads REAPER’s stock plugins in the right order, high-pass, EQ, compression, and reverb, so the vocal you just recorded sounds finished in seconds. Stock plugins only, nothing to buy.
Get the free vocal chainSources
- Cockos, REAPER User Guide (current version 7.78, July 2026) - audio device configuration, inserting and record-arming tracks, track record input and input monitoring, transport recording. reaper.fm/userguide
- Cockos, REAPER product and download pages - current version and supported audio systems (ASIO on Windows, Core Audio on macOS). reaper.fm
- Avid, “Gain staging” guide - recording with headroom below 0 dBFS to avoid clipping. avid.com/resource-center/gain-staging-guide