Reaninjam doesn’t offer any method to sync to Reaper in a sample accurate way, but I often want to have Reaper match the tempo of the Reaninjam plugin, so that my VST delays, loops and drum patterns are in time/sync with the Ninjam server.  Here’s a quick rundown of how to get the tempo to match as closely as possible.

I’ll assume that you are already familiar with Reaper and know how to insert the Reaninjam plugin into a track, as well as connect to a Ninjam server. 

Once you’ve connected to the server with Reaninjam, make note of the tempo and the number of beats in the interval.  In this example, we see that the tempo is 120bpm and there are 16 beats per Ninjam interval, which in most cases means 4 bars (4 beats per bar x 4 bars = 16 beats).  You’ll notice the green meter at the bottom of the plugin advances with every beat, and shows the current beat number of the current interval (beat 9 of 16 in this example). If you can’t hear the Reaninjam metronome, unmute it by pressing the ‘M’ button in the Metronome area of the plugin.

Going back to Reaper, set the tempo to match the Ninjam server tempo, in this case 120, and rewind the transport so that it is set to bar 1, beat 1 in reaper (the furthest to the left)

Activate the Reaper click/metronome button.

Now the tricky part:

While listening to the Reaninjam click and following the visual cue of the meter in the plugin, wait until beat 1of the interval is reached and press play on the Reaper transport (or press the associated hot key – by default it is the spacebar).

You should now hear both the Reaper and Reaninjam metronomes playing.  If you timed it properly, they will both be playing at the exact same time, and they are in sync as much as is possible.  If the clicks are slightly apart, then press stop on the Reaper transport, rewind it to 1/1 and try again.  I usually get it after a couple of attempts.

Now you should be able to jam, and anything that is synced to Reaper’s tempo will be in-time on the server as well.

Another optional thing that you can do is set a loop in reaper that matches the ninjam interval.  I’ve done this in the above example, with a four bar (16 beat) cycle set in the main window.  When the ninjam server starts back at beat 1, so does my loop.  This is great if you have midi patterns or short loops that you want to place on a track and cycle.