I'd like to insert some silence at the beginning (and possibly the end) of a project....maybe a second or two. Right now it is to have it appear in the rendered file. Another future time, maybe a beat or two, or a measure or two if I decide late in the project to add some material at the beginning without sliding all tracks. I can't find an option to do this in Reaper (though surely one exists). Any Reaper-head help available?

Also, will this confuse the mastering plug-in?

I don't use Reaper, but look for a command to Generate Silence or some such.

No, adding leading or trailing silence will not affect any mastering software.

Closest I know of is to use 'Insert - Empty Item' .. but to be honest I am not sure where those settings/parameters are set.
Here, it seems to insert some arbitrary amount of time, but I would think you can define this somewhere.

I usually just resort to sliding or Cut/Paste .. like you, I'm sure there is a better way.

Edit:
Just noticed under Item in the menu is a 'Nudge/Set Items' feature that lets you nudge selected stuff in various time definitions (mS, measures, etc). Maybe that is better for what you want (?)

I should think in REAPER of you highlight all the parts you could simply move them all a few seconds to the right. The only problem might be if you had a load of tempo changes set up in particular bars.

The best thing is to ask the question on the REAPER forums. You will get an accurate response very quickly

Hi Tangmo,
Hope you are well
To make a silence at the start
1 Make a selection of empty space at the start even if its only a small selection
2 Go to insert on menu
3 Press "insert empty space at time selection"
4 If you do not have enough space because of lack of bars of empty space at the start just repeat the process again until you get the right amount of space you need.

To make space further into the project
1 Make a time selection of empty space where ever you have it at the start or end
2 Right click on the time selection
3 Press"Create Region from selection"
4 Drag regeion of empty space anywhere you want in the project .Im using a laptop so im pressing spacebar and the pad at the same time to drag not sure what it is on PC but its something simple

Its a tiny bit slow but works fine H

Hi Again
You could also make a region of empty space at the end of the project and drag that empty region to the start of the project to make the required silence H

See how Kenny does it https://www.google.com.au/search?q=add+extra+bar+in+audio+track+in+reaper&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-au&client=safari#kpvalbx=_zbLBXsXGCYDaz7sP-LKXmAw30

Don’t know how this affects automation. Usually the way I’ve been doing it the automation lanes get out of whack. But I just pull tracks across. Maybe using the insert command will overcome this.

Tony

If you install ReaTrak it has all these functions and lots of others like chord import to integrate Biab & BiabPlugin into Reaper.
To get space at the end, select the time selection from the start of song to the end including any empty extra bars/beats then in the Render dialog choose Bounds: "Time selection"

I guess I don't understand the problem or maybe I don't understand exactly what you are trying to to do.
I simply click on an item (or lasso all the items in a track or tracks) then drag it over to where I want it. Snap to Grid can be on or off.
I suppose if I ran into a problem where the program only renders from the beginning of the item I would insert a new track, move the vertical cursor line to the far left and record silence for a few bars. Then set my vertical cursor line to where I want to start rendering from. Could also record silence at the end of the silent track.
When rendering Reaper has options including Custom Time Range so having extra dead time at the beginning and/or end isn't a problem. My multi track projects always have more time than needed. After I render it down to stereo I open the stereo track in Reaper and edit beginning and end then render again.
Does this make sense or did I completely miss the point?

Say you have a song laid out complete with markers etc. if you just pull the tracks along the markers stay where they are so no longer make sense. It is a pain to restore them. Similarly automation can go out of whack. What Kenny’s video shows is an action “insert empty space”. (The action is a bit longer but “insert empty space” in the action list search will find it.) The markers and automation also move keeping everything in place.

That is the way I understand it. I seems to work based on a quick look.

Tony

Here's a Demo using insert/remove
Full Screen Pic

Oh, Okay. I guess I've never run into that problem. Before I export my BIAB tracks I always add 2 - 4 bars of drums only at the beginning. (I don't let BIAB create a count-in off screen in the preferences.) That serves as my count-in in Reaper and gives me the front space in case I need it even if I don't use all of it.

Thanks, gentlemen. I'll experiment with copy of a reaper project so I don't completely accidentally screw up an original.

I don’t worry too much playing around in Reaper. In my setup I can recover back even into previous sessions.

Tony