Skip to content
AutoColor AutoColor — REAPER script

Track colours

The Tracks tab of the configuration window colours tracks according to their names. For example, a rule can colour every track whose name contains vox green. You write the rules once, and AutoColor colours every matching track in the project.

Three track rules

Three rules on the Tracks tab

Track rules

Each row on the Tracks tab is one rule. A rule says which tracks it matches and what colour they get:

ColumnWhat it does
MatchHow the pattern is compared with the track name: contains (default), glob or regex. See Match modes.
PatternThe text to look for in the track name. An empty pattern matches every name.
AaOn by default: upper and lower case are ignored, so vox matches Vox and VOX.
FilterAn optional condition that does not depend on the name, such as is a folder track or has an instrument. See Filters.
ColourThe colour the matching tracks get. Click + to add a second colour, which spreads a gradient across the tracks.
ChildrenWhether the tracks inside a folder track that this rule colours also get its colour. See Folders.
FIForce item colour. Off by default - items that have default color set, inherit the track colour. When on, the track’s colour is written into the items on the matching tracks as their own colour. See Items in their track’s colour.
HitsHow many tracks this rule colours in the current project. See The Hits column.

To add a rule, click + track rule on the action bar. Common controls describes how to reorder, duplicate and delete rules.

Which rule colours a track

AutoColor compares each track name with the rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches colours the track. Rules further down the list do not affect that track.

For example, with these two rules in this order:

  1. kick gives red.
  2. drum gives orange.

A track named Drum Kick is red, because the kick rule comes first. A track named Drum Room is orange. To give a rule priority over another, move it higher in the list.

A track that no rule matches keeps the colour it already has, unless it takes the colour of its folder track, as described in the next section.

Folders

By default, a track inside a folder that no rule matches gets the colour of its folder track. For example, if a rule colours the folder track Drums red, a track Room inside that folder is red too, even though no rule matches Room.

The Children setting of the rule that colours the folder track decides this.

  • — (the default), inherits value of Options → Folders → Tracks global setting
  • fill spreads the color of matched track into its children that have no any color set yet
  • force gives every track inside the folder the folder’s colour,
  • off does nothing to children

Folders explains applying colors and color ranges with details.

Items in their track’s colour

REAPER draws an item in its track’s colour when the item has no colour of its own. This depends on REAPER’s item tinting preferences; see REAPER preferences. In that case the items on a coloured track show the track’s colour without any setting in AutoColor.

Two settings change the items’ own colour:

  • The option Reset to the default colour when no rule matches, ticked for Items, removes the colour from items that no rule colours, so REAPER draws them in their track’s colour.
  • The FI (force item colour) switch on a track rule writes the track’s colour into every item on the matching tracks, as the item’s own colour.

The two differ when an item is later moved to another track. Items and their track’s colour compares them.

When tracks are coloured

Editing a rule does not change the project. AutoColor writes the colours into the project when the rules are applied:

  • Apply now on the Tracks tab colours every track in the project. One undo reverts the whole change.
  • Selection on the Tracks tab colours only the selected tracks.
  • Apply now also colours the items on tracks whose rule has FI switched on. Selection does not. See The buttons act on the open tab.
  • While auto-apply is running, a track is coloured as soon as it is added or renamed.

AutoColor does not remove colours unless you ask it to. To remove colours, use Clear, or the option Reset to the default colour when no rule matches.

While auto-apply is running, a colour that you set by hand stays until you rename the track or click Apply now. See Colours and icons set by hand.

Applying colours and icons describes the apply buttons and actions in full.

Limitations