Cockos have been leading up to some exciting new features, including ARA support which is now announced as an upcoming implementation. This has caused waves on Reaper and Cakewalk forums (Cakewalk recently has been discontinued and many users are switching over to Reaper for it’s similarities, cost effectiveness, and now ARA implementation). This might seem like a small implementation to some, and others might not even know what ARA is, but it is a long sought after feature that users have been requesting for years.

ARA, or Audio Random Access, is a feature that was created for Melodyne users to integrate Melodyne with Presonus’s Studio One. Melodyne is a plugin which is similar to Autotune, it allows the producer to control and lock the pitch of a track as well as edit timings and have complete control. It is a high end plugin that has been used on countless tracks due to its power and ability to perfect a bad take.

ARA allows Melodyne to work more efficiently for the user. It is the exchange of tempo, pitch, rhythm, and full audio files between the DAW and the plugin. Previously, Melodyne would load up, and the producer would have to play the track through it in real time, so that it could record the audio and make edits. This could be comparable to recording into a different DAW then exporting back in. What ARA brings is the ability to send the audio into it instantly, allowing it to load the entire track, without having to record it in.

Credit: www.gearnews.com

As seen in the gif above, ARA allows edits on Reaper’s media items, which are immediately reflected in Melodyne. This massively speeds up the workflow for the user, saving them making necessary edits the re-recording it into Melodyne to reflect the changes.

While ARA isn’t widely implemented beyond use in Melodyne, it is available to other plugins, and the wide spread adoptance of it in DAWs means that more plugin developers are likely to take it on board. Currently, according to Celemony , “ARA is currently supported by Presonus Studio One, Cakewalk Sonar, Magix Samplitude Pro, Acoustica Mixcraft and Tracktion Waveform”.

No fixed date has been given, but we can surely expect this in one of Reaper’s many regular updates in the near future!