Like in Live => erasing part of audio clip without having to split first: possible?

I'd like very much to at times erase just a small part of the audio but I seem to always need to create splits first then delete the unwanted clip parts to be able to achieve this. In Ableton Live you just select the part you want to erase and it just works. In Reaper the entire audio clip over its full length is always selected, grr. Is this possible via a changed setting of some kind?

Yes it is possible. I'm just new but this is one way: Select the area of the item by making a time selection, then dragging within the item within the time selected (using the appropriate mouse modifiers if necessary - I don't know the defaults as I have customized mine). Then use the action "Cut selected area of items" (by defult, Cmd-Backspace or Cmd-Delete, I think). It has taken me a while to get used to having separate Loop and Time selection - I eventually realized that the time selection is an integral part of editing in Reaper, and by having time selection unlinked to loop points, you can listen using your loop, while editing using the time selection. Edit: When you make the cut, later items in the track (or all tracks) will move or not, depending on whether Ripple editing is enabled.

I did the 4 adjustments and it still does not work?

Something must be wrong in preferences then. It should work

Sorry, I missed Viente's posted link above. But now I've seen it I look forward to trying to set that up.

Thanks for addition! I forgot about it :)