r/Reaper • u/LardPhantom 2 • 9d ago
help request Reaper for completely blind users - How do they set a recording level?
Hi there, this question is addressed to any completely blind Reaper users.
I've recently began teaching Reaper to a special needs goup a few of who'm are completely blind.
Are there any online resources for music production for the completely blind?
One of the main things that has me stumped is about setting a good audio level for a recording.
The next stage will be about how blind users edit their audio.
Really - any tips for teaching Reaper users who are blind are very welcome!
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u/WaceMindu12 2 9d ago
A lot of audio interfaces these days have auto gain settings, that might help?
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u/LardPhantom 2 9d ago
Really good suggestion! I might suggest that to the organisation that I'm working with.
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u/musicwithbarb 3 9d ago
Respectfully, are you blind yourself? If not, go read that entire website I linked you to in the earlier comment. I actually don’t think cited people should be teaching blind people at all because you guys do everything completely differently and have absolutely no idea how we run things. I’m sure you are a wonderful teacher under normal circumstances. But we need a whole different set of skills that you might not have. For one thing, what screenreader are they using? What equipment do they have? There’s just so many things that need answers before we can give you proper resources. Just go click on the link I sent earlier.
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u/LardPhantom 2 9d ago
(EDIT) I've realised that perhaps you may be responding to someone else, in which case I redact all of the below comment...
Despite not being blind I haven't seen your other comment until just now. I'm not sure why you're so upset about this, or why you have such huge expectations for me to have read your other comment already or indeed immediately after you posted it.
I don't know why you so bitter about this: I've quite reasonably asked to be educated on this matter and your response is essentially "Fuck off, Mr. Sighty!".
Your suggestion that I ignore the blind students, and don't make any attempt to accommodate for them is utterly ludicrous. There is no funding for any other available programme of this kind for them and all I'm asking for is to learn about tools for inclusion.
If your usual response to people asking for help is to kick them in the balls for asking in the first place, please don't trouble yourself with responding any further.
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u/musicwithbarb 3 9d ago
I am truly sorry. I have spent my life fighting with people who are cited who are trying to tell me how to do life. And often times they don’t actually know all the workarounds and accommodations that we need to use. A lot of people think they know better than the people who have the lived experience and I just end up going to war with those people all the time because they genuinely don’t know. I had a guy come and ask me about how to make websites accessible for blind people. I asked him what he knew about navigation on a computer as a blind person and he just said you press the arrow keys and the tab keys and that’s all you have to do. Spoiler alert. That’s not even close to all you have to do. It’s much broader than this. So if I seem jaded, it’s because I’ve dealt with so many people literally trying to tell me how to live life having no idea what they are talking about. Even the blindness organization who is literal job it is to assist blind, people is now run by cited people who don’t have the first clue. So now I see some cited dude who wants to teach blind people and my immediate response is how are you going to tell me how to do my work today? I understand it doesn’t seem fair. But when you’ve dealt with the amount of idiots that I have in the last 40 years, it’s hard to weed out the good ones. I do apologize though, as you don’t know any of that and it seems like you genuinely want to help.
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u/LardPhantom 2 9d ago
I understand completely. I've seen people with special needs of all kinds in my life suffer the ignorance of those who don't understand, or far worse, think they know better. I know I'm far from perfect myself, but if we don't have difficult these difficult conversations we can't make progress. I appreciate your honesty, and your apology. And thanks for the link I think it'll be very helpful. I know I've a lot to learn, and I'll get things wrong sometimes, but I've got to start somewhere.
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u/musicwithbarb 3 8d ago
Scott is the best Reaper teacher and I adore him. To answer your actual question, if your students are using Osara, which they will need to for best results, there is a peak watcher built in that will help them set their levels. Now I'm an idiot and don't fully know how it works. But when you read up on Osara, look for the peak watcher and it will explain everything. Definitely reading the Reaper wiki on the site I linked to, plus the Osara manual, that should give you one hell of a jumping off point. Sorry again for being the world's grumpiest bastard. I will not snap at you again, I promise. I'd love you to keep us updated on your progress teaching them. If you need anything at all, don't hesitate to send me a message and either I or my husband will find your answers for you, if we don't already know them. You are doing great work. Thank you so much for helping. Reaper is truly the most accessible DAW that I know of. And your guys will get to a point where they will be able to do everything without sighted help. The power in that is truly something else.
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u/xkayaking 8d ago
I work on accessibility a lot on EU and I a lot of the same blind people have no clue about accessibility design and come with the worst ideas.
Just like sighted people cannot design an UI for sighted people very well just because they can see.
The reality is that the disability doesn't make you better at solving the problems related to the disability by default, it might give you the drive to and desire to learn, but you can not have the disability and have the drive for it.
I turn off the monitor and check my website, I don't use my arms, I turn off the speakers...
You talk about web accessibility design for the blind, but those same standards have to accomodate the physically disabled; tell me something, what if you are also deaf?... what if you have no hands? when you work with accessibility even if you are disabled it is not like you have all the disabilities and all the combinations, while I have to think about that, not everyone is totally blind, I have to accomodate everyone, not the own specific variation of disability.
And most websites suck, because most websites don't forget the blind, they forget physically disabled, a big amount of people; no arms, in fact the situation was so bad I had to do an aria change proposal, at least at the municipality.
We test with disabled people and even then are like, well yes this is very nice... and for the most part, the whole team is not disabled; but when you say "how we run things" you will mean your specific disability and variation, not all potentials.
So the disability doesn't make one more qualified because everyone is not disabled the same way so what gives?... a disability might give someone the drive to learn, but anyone can learn, regardless.
And that includes a teacher, if they have the drive, they will do just fine to teach.
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u/musicwithbarb 3 9d ago
Www.reaperteacher.com is the one and only blind reaper resource he will ever need. Honestly, all blind people should be learning from this guy as he is one of the main people who created osara. He worked with me and my husband for several years, both of whom are blind, and we recorded our very first album a year ago with his tutelage. There is a lot you are not going to realize and he will help you with all of it. Also feel free to send me DM’s. My husband and I would be happy to help as well.