Installation

AutoColor can be installed in two ways. The recommended way is through ReaPack, REAPER’s package manager, which also installs updates. Alternatively, you can copy the files into REAPER’s resource folder by hand.

Before installing, check the requirements.

Instalation installs:

• scripts
• toolbar icons

After installation, add scripts onto toolbar of choice, assigning provided icons.

Installing through ReaPack

AutoColor is published in the following ReaPack repository:

https://github.com/michal-bartak/ReaPack/raw/main/index.xml

In REAPER:

1. Open Extensions → ReaPack → Import repositories, paste the URL above, and confirm.
2. Open Extensions → ReaPack → Browse packages, find AutoColor, and install it.

ReaPack:

• installs scripts into <resource folder>/Scripts/MXM Scripts/MXM_AutoColor/
• installs toolbar icon into <resource folder>/Data/toolbar_icons/
• adds two actions to the Action List

Add scripts to toolbar of choice assigning provided icons:

• MXM_AutoColor_GUI.lua opens the configuration window.
• MXM_AutoColor_AutoToggle.lua switches auto-apply on and off.

Note

To find these actions in the Action List, search for autocolor or mxm. The toolbar icons can be found with the same search terms.

Manual installation steps

1. Open the REAPER resource folder.

2. Download MXM_AutoColor-<version>.zip from the GitHub releases page.

3. Unpack the zip file into the resource folder. The zip file contains a Scripts/ folder and a Data/ folder. Merge them with the folders that already exist in the resource folder; do not replace them:

   Scripts/MXM_AutoColor/  ->  <resource folder>/Scripts/MXM_AutoColor/
   Data/toolbar_icons/     ->  <resource folder>/Data/toolbar_icons/

4. In REAPER, open Actions → Show action list, click New action → Load ReaScript, and load MXM_AutoColor_GUI.lua and MXM_AutoColor_AutoToggle.lua from Scripts/MXM_AutoColor/.

5. Add scripts to toolbar of choice assigning provided icons:

• MXM_AutoColor_GUI.lua opens the configuration window.
• MXM_AutoColor_AutoToggle.lua switches auto-apply on and off.

The actions

While ReaPack adds only two scrips to Actions list (marked below with an icon) the AutoColor consists of more of them.

	Script	What it does
	MXM_AutoColor_GUI.lua	Opens the configuration window.
	MXM_AutoColor_AutoToggle.lua	Switches auto-apply on and off.
	MXM_AutoColor_ApplyAll.lua	Applies the rules of every tab to the whole project.
	MXM_AutoColor_ApplySelection.lua	Colours the selected tracks and items according to the rules.
	MXM_AutoColor_ClearColors.lua	Removes colours. See Clearing colours.
	MXM_AutoColor_WhyThisColour.lua	Explains the colour of the selected track or item: which rule decided it, or why no rule did. Changes nothing.
	MXM_AutoColor_Dump.lua	Lists every track, item, region and marker with its name and current colour. Changes nothing.
	MXM_AutoColor_RunTests.lua	Runs AutoColor’s self-test and prints the result to the ReaScript console.
	MXM_AutoColor_Startup.lua	Starts auto-apply when REAPER starts. Not meant to be run by hand. See Starting with REAPER.

The toolbar icons

AutoColor includes a toolbar icon for each of the two main actions.

	Icon name	Action
	mxm_toolbar_autocolor_gui	MXM_AutoColor_GUI.lua
	mxm_toolbar_autocolor	MXM_AutoColor_AutoToggle.lua

The icons are stored in <resource folder>/Data/toolbar_icons/, in three sizes for different interface scaling:

mxm_toolbar_autocolor.png            90x30
mxm_toolbar_autocolor_gui.png        90x30
150/mxm_toolbar_autocolor.png       135x45
150/mxm_toolbar_autocolor_gui.png   135x45
200/mxm_toolbar_autocolor.png       180x60
200/mxm_toolbar_autocolor_gui.png   180x60

First run

Run MXM_AutoColor_GUI.lua to open the configuration window. On the first run, the window opens with a set of example rules, so that you have a starting point. The example rules colour common track names such as kick, snare, bass, guitars and vocals, and include a few item, region and marker rules. You can change them, delete them, or replace them with your own.

AutoColor saves the rules automatically to its config file.