Changing the default way Reaper handles punching in/takes

SCREENSHOTS TO THE RESCUE ok, forget about the punching-in thing, that's not the important part WHAT I NEED REAPER TO DO IS NOT TURN THINGS INTO TAKES This "takes" system does not gel with my working methods. I don't want any automatic behavior from REAPER changing how things behave. Consider the following screenshots: Here's the first .wav (everything look ok so far) Here's the second .wav i recorded right on top (there it is, already you can see it has created splits in the bottom .wav I DONT WANT IT TO DO THIS) NOW I MOVED THE TOP .WAV AND I HAVE A TRAINWRECK! This is so annoying! I just want to be able to move .wav's on top of each other, record on top of each other, whatever I want! Without messing with anything below and making a complication!

Right-click + drag to select the whole thing? Glue them together? Free Item Positioning might help, I dunno.

thats not really the functionality i'm looking for. when you do that it automatically breaks the track into lanes and that doesn't jive with me. i just want reaper to draw the 2nd wav right on top of the old one. no lanes. no takes. impossible?

I dont think I have ever seen reaper "destructively" record over anything. When you move the punch in the old take should definitely be there. There is an option somewhere to be changed. There are a couple of options for how you want reaper to handle the punch-in. Play with those maybe? Either way Reaper will create the splits (you can just heal those from the right click menu later), but it shouldn't overwrite the underlying audio.

Turn ripple editing off (toolbar button). It can often make a train wreck of item position edits ;) AFAIK you don't need FIP mode; reaper won't show stuff in lanes if you right click track and uncheck that option. Items will then overlap each-other. You can then just move thins about and trim the splits, and glue everything together when you're done. z. :)