Okay, I just found a fix. I created a custom action for Shift+Spacebar that includes two actions. First "Go to start of Loop" and second "Play". So now when I make a loop selection and hit "Shift+Spacebar" the cursor jumps to the beginning of the loop and begins playing.
It's a four month old thread, but it's pretty fracking annoying when you're used to the way every other DAW in the world (!!!) does it and then have to program this one yourself in order to sort of get it to work the same. Similarly, the fact that W takes you back to the beginning of the file rather than the loop start. I set the loop points because that's the part of the project I want to listen to/work with! Why would you locate me someplace else? Heck, I'm still getting used to having to hold down control in order to start recording, but let's not go there...
I can't find the command to go to the beginning of the loop. What is it called??? Problem with 10000 commands that are not named according to any conventions ;)
yes, THANK YOU! I'm so happy, I have reaper behaving like Cubase and Logic finally after a dozen years! no more constantly changing the loop points when selecting and moving items, marquis selection with left drag (although there is a funny cursor bug with it) and now an easy way to move to the left locator! Custom buttons to turn pre-roll on and off, and change record modes... Everything is moving so smoothly! Thanks to everyone on this forum-- it is really the value-add of REAPER! cheers, -e