[RWP] ReaAccess Question.

Tue Feb 12 15:49:22 EST 2013

I don't use reaper exclusively, but the accessibiility we have is quite 
comprehensive.  I wish we could have a little more user configurability when 
it comes to speech verbosity, especially getting rid of the "play" and 
"stop" messages when we operate the transport.  And keep one thing in mind, 
the future is in Sonar x not sonar 8.5.  Sonar x2a has implemented the ui 
automation that potentially can give us every bit of information that sonar 
spits out, we just need to get a better understanding on how programming ui 
automation access on the client side so that we can work with specific 
elements in the huge tree that has all the elements.
Gord

-----Original Message----- 
From: Scott Chesworth
Sent: Tuesday, February 12, 2013 9:16 AM
To: Reapers Without Peepers
Subject: Re: [RWP] ReaAccess Question.

Hey folks,

Just wanted to chime in briefly here in a semi-official capacity, as
much as anything has ever been "official" with ReaAccess lol. There's
no new news here as such for any of the old hands, but for newcomers
like Steve or anybody else who's hopped on the bandwagon of this
unfortunately dormant project, here's an overview of the situation.

ReaAccess in its current form was developed by a Russian chap by the
name of Ivan. His primary tester/Reaper guru was another Russian guy
called Jinseng, who still gives good advice here on RWP as often as
his time permits him to help. I was involved at the latter stages,
mainly helping Ivan refine translation into English and suggesting a
few usability tweaks. That's how things started out. At this point,
it's important for you to understand that although Jinseng and I put
many happy hours into testing ReaAccess and feeding back our findings,
we never got a glimpse of actual source code. There was also a time
when Serotek lent some weight in order to fast-track communications
with Reaper's developers, but even their lead developer never managed
to get a glimpse of source. I'm not 100% sure of Ivan's motivations
for guarding the project so closely when there were a number of
convincing arguments put to him about how it would benefit from being
made open source, but there you have it. We tried repeatedly to change
his mind, we failed.

Inexplicably, and with no warning, Ivan disappeared. He briefly popped
back from the dead to announce a promising set of features and an
estimated release date for version 2.0, but since then, nothing. A
number of people (users from all over the world) have attempted to
contact him. To my knowledge, nobody has ever gotten a response. There
has been the occasional rumour about ReaAccess 2.0 still being in the
works as a paid product, but to my knowledge, there hasn't been any
solid evidence. I keep dropping that "to my knowledge" phrase because
I essentially gave up the chase some time ago, but I'd love to read
more current info if anyone here has it.

So here's where we currently stand. The Reaper developers themselves
are aware that some blind people use their product. They've fixed a
few bugs that Ivan encountered in their API and also gone a little way
toward exposing the Windows/Mac GUIs to native accessibility APIs
after some prodding from Serotek. They're dimly aware of the existance
of ReaAccess, which at one time when development was alive and well I
considered to be a victory, but will actually turn out to be a
hindrance for us if development remains dormant. Realistically, I
think that if the future accessibility of Reaper is going to be
dependent on a bolt-on accessibility bridge like ReaAccess, someone is
going to need to start from scratch. I love Reaper enough as a DAW to
put in the hours, but I ain't no code monkey. I might be able to
answer some questions about the architecture of the current system by
looking back through conversations with Ivan, and perhaps Jinseng
could do the same, but due to Ivan's guardedness, my guess is that we
really don't know much between us.

For what it's worth, I'm still attached to Reaper more than any other
DAW, and would be behind any future development like a shot, helping
in any way I can.

Flame on, but not really...

Scott

On 2/12/13, Steve Spamer <steve at vipaudioaccess.com> wrote:
> Hi trahern, unfortunately none. The only none screenreader dependent
> solution at the moment is AHK.  Until someone out there puts out an AHK 
> set
> that does anything close to what HSC can do, I think it's just the way it
> is.  I'd like to think I could apply myself to AHK, but learning a program
> to the level needed is very time consuming and difficult.  Current AHK
> available sets are basically sets to click in a certain location, which is
> fantastic for aplications where that's all that's needed, but that 
> wouldn't
> get you very far with Omnisphere for example. 90% of a sets content is not
> clicking at all, it's varifying, managing, organising the environment and
> dealing with sliders and virtual knobs etc.   AHK is very powerful and I'm
> sure it can do things to a very high level, but there's nothing at that
> level out there just yet.  I'm no programmer, but I'd be interested to 
> know
> if existing HSC sets could be converted/parced to AHK sets?  Bet it could
> be
> done, but again it would cost...and who's going to pay for this to be
> created?  A lot of people talk about none screenreader specific solutions
> simply based upon NVDA which is free.  I applaud and value NVDA a great
> deal, but it does not get the job done and deliver just yet.
> Unfortunately,
> I have to use Jaws...I say unfortunately, because it costs me a lot, but
> without it where would I be musically?  I'd be in a position of little
> accessibility for the plug/programs I want and need.  So, I have to 
> swallow
> the bitter pill of buying Jaws...but let me tell you something, that pill
> soon tastes pretty sweet when you're interacting with professional plugs
> and
> getting to where you want to be creatively.  So, in conclusion, Jaws is a
> good investment if you're serious about your music.  Make Jaws your first
> investment, rather than a range of plugs you can use that cost more, HTH,
> cheers Steve.
>
>
> Visit:
> www.vipaudioaccess.com
> for audio access solutions, articles, demos, to showcase your music and 
> to
> basically get involved!
> -----Original Message-----
> From: RWP [mailto:rwp-bounces at reaaccess.com] On Behalf Of trahern culver
> Sent: 12 February 2013 12:29
> To: Reapers Without Peepers
> Subject: Re: [RWP] ReaAccess Question.
>
> Ok cool there avaible thru hsc but what provision will there be for non
> jaws
> users? Kind regards trahern
>
> On 12/02/2013, at 12:11 PM, "Steve Spamer" <steve at vipaudioaccess.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Jim, I'd also be interested to know exactly what the situation is.  On
>> a side point, plug access is ongoing regards to 3rd party plugs and
>> Reaper with HSC. Currently available are Omnisphere, Trilian and
>> Stylus RMX.  SFZ and a Kontakt load/reset set are done and will be
> available in a day or so.
>> I also have 3 other professional plugs finished and currently being
> tested.
>> Comprehensive access to Kontakt 5 is in the pipeline, along with a
>> range of plugs in the Complete 8 suite of products....like Absynth5,
>> Massivve, Abbey Road Drums etc etc etc.  Not exactly sure at what
>> level these will be just yet, but by previous experiences, I'm hoping
>> pretty high, if not, then at least  a big step forward  to what we
>> currently have, which is virtually nothing.  All of this will be on
>> the Sonar and Reaper platforms with HSC and available from the
>> www.vipaudioaccess.com Website.  HTH, cheers Steve.
>>
>>
>> Visit:
>> www.vipaudioaccess.com
>> for audio access solutions, articles, demos, to showcase your music
>> and  to basically get involved!
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: RWP [mailto:rwp-bounces at reaaccess.com] On Behalf Of Jim
>> Noseworthy
>> Sent: 12 February 2013 11:57
>> To: 'Reapers Without Peepers'
>> Subject: Re: [RWP] ReaAccess Question.
>>
>> Kerry:
>>
>> Is there any more work being done by anyone on providing better
>> accessibility to Reaper?
>>
>> Thanks all over the place.
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: RWP [mailto:rwp-bounces at reaaccess.com] On Behalf Of Kerry Hoath
>> Sent: Tuesday, February 12, 2013 7:50 AM
>> To: Reapers Without Peepers
>> Subject: Re: [RWP] ReaAccess Question.
>>
>>
>> In a word: no.
>>
>> Regards, Kerry.
>>
>> On 12/02/2013 7:47 PM, Jim Noseworthy wrote:
>>> Hi folks:
>>>
>>> Beeing out of the loop for a while: are we still expecting V2 of
>> ReaAccess?
>>>
>>> Thanks.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>> RWP at reaaccess.com
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>>
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