Windows - Connecting Reaper to JackTrip using ReaRoute

Why?

Reaper is an awesome Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) that handles recording, routing lots of instruments at once, and applying live effects to your input. By using a very handy plugin called ReaRoute we can route audio inputs from Reaper into JackTrip, and Outputs from JackTrip into Reaper.

Installing ReaRoute

ReaRoute is only available on Windows, and is one of the optional plugins when installing Reaper. If you have Reaper installed without ReaRoute, you should be able to just run the installer again and check the option for "ReaRoute" when prompted. Here's the official documentation for installing ReaRoute

Configuring JackTrip

This part is super easy. Once you've installed ReaRoute, you should see it in the devices list in JackTrip. Select it for both Input and Output.

Configuring Reaper

Now that JackTrip is all hooked up to ReaRoute, let's walk through the Reaper configuration. Also, the project template used for this example is attached to this article below.

Here's the whole Reaper Setup - we'll break it down below

Sending Audio To JackTrip Input

We need to have a parent track that doesn't send audio to Master, because we want to send it to ReaRoute 1/2 instead.

Once we set up this track, any child tracks that are armed for recording with monitor on will send audio to this parent. Those tracks should be used for your microphones/instruments. Any audio that plays on these tracks will also go out to JackTrip. Cool!

Track 1 with "Master send" unchecked and ReaRoute 1/2 added as Audio Hardware Outputs

Receiving JackTrip Output

We need to get the audio from JackTrip back to Reaper and output through our Master track so we can hear it. Remember to get both channels and pan them hard Left and Right so you can hear in Stereo!

Track 4 with "Master send" checked