Hmmm, jump ship on Sonar and take the plunge? Anyone out there that can make the comparison or cite some pros/cons? The enthusiasm towards Reaper is indeed infectious and has me wanting to look at it. I've used Sonar since I started, back in the '90's when it was just Cakewalk. I wonder if Reaper would be better as far as CPU usage goes on my system.

 

I'm certainly not the guy to make any Reaper vs Sonar comments, but with regards to switching DAWs I'll just quickly say this . . .

Though I was dreading the time it would take to familiarize myself with a new DAW, I'm actually finding, (today as I start importing audio and MIDI files from some of my Logic projects into Reaper), that I feel like everything is new again ... in a good way. I'm less encumbered with my habitual way of approaching things and the limitations such long-formed habits bring. I know that with time I'll develop new Reaper-habits, but it feels good that everything's fresh again. After 10 years with Logic maybe it was just time for me to switch to anything else ... That said, I'm very glad that anything is Reaper.

Then again, a few years ago I had to learn Adobe Premiere after years of editing on Final Cut Pro ... (This was shortly after Apple destroyed the most popular editing program on the planet at the time.) But perhaps that's because when I sit down to edit video I'm not doing it because I love the process, but rather because I just have to get it done.

 

I was sitting here thinking that if I make the move, am I going to miss Sonar this and Sonar that, but honestly I haven't used the Vocal Sync feature because I'm happy with the results I get with Revoice (even though I don't much care for that workflow, but that's another thing), Melodyne integration is lost on me as I simply learn the track and then work on it, and I don't use the "Pro" bus because I'm a big time Nebula user, as well as I recently switched all 2 bus processing to external hardware. So I guess what is special about Sonar, I don't even use. As long as I can do the audio routing, and load my VST2 and VST3 plugs, I believe I'd be happy. Probably have to find another gate as I do use the DX gate included in Sonar, but that's likely an easy thing to locate a replacement for. I'll take a look and post back here what I find on your thread @returnal if you don't mind. Or I can start another thread. Whichever you like.

 

Whatever you prefer. I certainly don't mind it living here – I feel this thread has become much more of a general "moving to Reaper" thread than a personal thread about my switchover. Maybe I should change the thread title ...

I'll be Interested to hear about your experience with Reaper if you indeed delve in.

... funny that you mentioned nebula - I think that'll be my next new experience.

 

Reaper devotee here, but I could probably use any DAW that I took the time to learn. I was attracted to Reaper because of their generous pricing policy, swift updates, and a great user community. Size is also a bonus, as it starts up so quickly. It's like having a virtual tape deck close at hand.

 

What I like about Reaper exclusively is that it is a workhorse. No shiny this and funky that. It gives you as the user the freedom to do whatever you like. In the earlier Reaper days I used sound editors a lot (like Audacity or wavosaur). Most of the work I've done with them I now do directly in the DAW. And since, as you mentioned, it starts up so quick, it is a valid tool for such quick tasks.

Regarding audio I have yet to find anything I couldn't realize with Reaper (opposed to Cubase, Mixcraft and FLS). But Midi, as much as it developed over the years, is still the trouble kid in my eyes. Many comfort functions I'm used to are simply missing. Or I'm too stupid to find them.

 

ditto @tulamide and @subGENRE

subscribed

 

I love the actions.
Like 'freeze mono/stereo track up to selected effect' assigned to KB shortcuts.

 

Daaaaaamn . . . can't do that in Logic!

 

FX on individual items? . . can't do that in Logic!

 

...and the v.5.40 (which is in Beta now) adds Automation Items and Spectral peaks view (plus some simple spectral editing)
For me Reaper is one of these rare cases where you feel that YOU own the software (another one being the file manager Directory Opus) simply because the amount of customization that can be done. The hardest part is to understand that there are almost no limits in what you can do in Reaper. What cant be done directly (out-of-the-box), there is a 99% chance it could be done with the help of some of the User Developed actions (of which i have close to 5000 installed).
There are gems like HeDa's Track Inspector, lb0's LBX Stripper, Lokasenna's Radial Menu and Theory Helper, kawa's Mod on TrackFX Rouiting Matrix and many many more..
Lets not forget the wonderful Playtime that brings Ableton's Session View to Reaper.

oh... did I mentioned that it can do Video/Subtitling and the audio engine can work entirely in FLAC format ?

 

Last edited: Feb 22, 2017

If I had found a script that made reaper as easy to navigate as S1 without having to study for an engineering degree to right click my way to work flow happiness, I would have bought it for $60.
Not denying the power of reaper, or what can be achieved with it, nor knocking the users who love it, but I ended up buying studio one pro.
I guess what ever clicks, tracks.

 

...except when S1 can't, like mixing in 7.1 surround natively (logic can). You could probably do it in FL with some incredible hackery, but >hacks. I started mixing in 16ch in 2016 in reaper, no sweat.

probably.

I've tried S X2 for a few hours, and based on my experiences,

R has *FIRST-GRADE FLAC SUPPORT. meaning, when you load a FLAC, it creates a small index file, then subsequent loads are quick.

SONAR has THRIRD-GRADE FLAC SUPPORT (as of X2, duno if they fixed this). meaning, it doesn't actually support FLAC. it converts to WAV, and stores it in a cache which doesn't get deleted when you exit the program.

(for comparison, Audition 4+ has 2nd-GRADE FLAC SUPPORT, meaning, when you load a FLAC, it converts to WAV, then deletes it when you exit the program.

R has very flexible (FX IO) routing. It's (im)famous for that.

VST3 supp as of V.5

Included is a basic ReaGate. It even has hysterisis and MIDI note out support.

 

That was the largest hurdle for me as well. The learning curve is high, and that's the price you pay for such open-ness. Just take the easiest example, the tracks. A track is just what you make it. It can be midi, audio, fx, folder, ..., and it even can be all of it at the same time. Not to mention unlimited takes per track, input fx vs post fx, unrestricted routing of tracks (incl multirouting of, say, midi and audio) ... The list just doesn't seem to end. Yes, if you don't have the time (or are not willing) to learn a lot, then better get a DAW that has it all set up for you. And that's totally fine. I know from my own experience that Reaper can be frustrating in the first weeks.

 

recently I switched from Windows to OSX (getting really sick of Windows 10, UWP, rolling unreliable updates, Microsoft subscription and cloud-oriented future; I set up custom hackintosh high-end X99 workstation) and so was forced to leave Sonar Platinum (been using Sonar since v.8) and figured out most reasonable DAW to get into is Reaper, and I can tell you why you should switch from Logic to Reaper, surprisingly Sonar and Logic has lot of incommon:

1) Reaper is rock solid on whatever platform you pick, be it any reasonable Windows (from XP till 10) or OSX version (from 10.5 till 10.12), ease of moving projects cannot be beaten by any other DAW, heck you can even "install" portable version of Reaper directly on your usb stick and have a DAW-on-the-go, on the other hand Sonar is Windows-only and Logic is OSX-only
2) Reaper grace period and pricing makes it much more favored among people who are tight on budget, let's say your client wants to listen separate tracks, you can send him bounced project they can listen themselves without paying anything for the DAW, Sonar subscription is annoying, OSX Aplha info practically gone, and Logic as an Apple-exclusive will most likely never launch for Windows
3) Reaper is relatively new DAW, means that core components are coded very efficiently making use of modern technologies (which cannot be said about Sonar or Logic, which will always be burdened by legacy tech and workflows), this also helps drastically lower the installer size, disk space usage, and lets significantly more audio processing to be done (be it unlimited amount of tracks, buses, effects - just your computer makes the limit)
4) Reaper may look ugly, lack functionality (buttons/menus) at first sight, but that is because it can actually do almost ANYTHING and so it's up to you to map features/actions/hotkeys you intend to use, especially when enhanced by the free Reaper Extensions pack
5) although it takes some time to learn Reaper, there are significantly more tutorials and community is helpful and friendly, more users really means bigger knowledge base

as of right now, the only CONS of Reaper are lack of Melodyne ARA integration, lack of native Linux version, and the evaluation 5-seconds timer :D

and if you're still considering Presonus Studio One, for the price of Pro version, better investment is some really fancy audio interface such as RME Babyface or RME HDSPe AIO, or decent studio monitors such as Presonus Eris E8 ;)

 

Last edited: Feb 22, 2017

My 2 cents...

Studio one - best gui on the market. Easy and fast learning curve. Worst CPU efficiency i ever had and have. But i use it a lot. I love it to "edit" audio tracks.

Reaper Rock solid. Best Cpu usage i ever expirienced by far!!!. Takes definiatly some time to get familiar with. I love it. I mainly use it for tracking. And really really big mixing projects were i have to run more than my normal vst(i)s.

Sonar - cpu usage in between both. Not as good as reaper but by far better than s1. By far the most complete package of the 3. Best midi implementation! Nice effects...
But totalay bloated. So many things are allways shown on the screen you dont need to see alll the time. No efficient gui. The damn faders are so huge (wide) and waste so much space,i really hate to work with it on my laptop. A lot of small things feel outdated. They work but feel and look old and strange. A lot of old code in sonar. The whole DAW needs a make over - and needs to get rid of a lot of unecessary junk. But all in all its a great daw.

Go for reaper. Reaper is a daw every Producer, musician, engineer etc should be familiar with. It is really a efficient and highly costumizable piece of Software.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Feb 22, 2017

"I want efficient CPU performance."
Ha, than Studio One might be a bad choice

 

Some fonts are a bit to tiny for my taste, especially the browser

 

Apple is too busy trying to synchronize your text messages smilies with the Finder, or posting some Logic's stuff on Facebook instead of trying to improve it ! (The "drummers" section speaks for itself...)
Apple lost the pro users and they just don't give a shit !

I was a huge fan, used Logic for years too, but we have to face it Apple don't want us anymore !

 

Yeah, that is why it was updated yesterday. lol