I dunno what DAW you use but since I left cubase (that I used for the past 10 years)I've been trying almost every DAW available on PC (thank you audioz!)...without finding the right one!...I stuck to sonar X1 (x64) for a while, then fruity loops, samplitude and studio one...that one was 95% there (damn it!!)....and finally I reluctantly tried reaper..reluctantly because I hate the GUI and their layout of unreadable menus and options etc...but there is one thing that left me gob-smacked..yeah no less than that...this ridiculously light piece of DAW kicks the shit out of any of those behemoth companies making DAWs in the performance department...and I'm really being polite!

anyone has info on how reaper handles multi-threading in comparison to the other DAWs because the difference is quite amazing?

this is basically why I gave them all up (if S1 could solve that problem!)... as a test just run 8 midi tracks for omnisphere (multi) + 8 for trilian (multi) + 8 stylus RMX (multi) and no matter what you run ..chances are your current DAW is already on its knees and about to choke (w/ i7/8G DDR3)...while reaper is still scampering around unburdened!
I get about 70/80% of CPU charge Vs 16/20%! how come????

thanks for your input

 

Pop onto the reaper forums and ask there, Justin might even be around and answer the question properly.

My take on it is that its got no legacy code, hasn't got to be backwardsly compatible with anything and isn't full of code just devoted to stopping people using it for free(I'm looking at you Cubase). Has good coding practise and is very open, bugs get talked about and fixed really quickly.

 

thanks for your input, that may be the case indeed....but I reckon that isn't all, the difference is way too big
I prefer to ask over here as on any board devoted to a given product you always have die-hard devotees trying to push pointless arguments down your throat...here, as we all use different DAWs, I might at least get a proper answer!

 

I also think Reaper does not have all the "ballast" of:

1.) Old code

Cubase is based on SX, SX is based on Nuendo --> 2000/2001
Ableton is also 10 years old
Logic also has old code fragments (AFAIK) from the 90's
and so on...

and

2.) unecessary protection schemes. Do you know how cmoplicated and CPU/RAM consuming Syncrosoft is? Remember the old H2O NFO, where they explained it?

I quote:

Example:

Adding 2 numbers Normal machine-code would look something like :
Add eax, ebx

This will take 1 CPU cycle to execute.

Now comes MCFACT :

1) Transform the first number into a table
2) Transform the second number into a table
3) Do allot of manipulation of these tables
4) More manipulation
5) Transform the Tables back to the numbers
6) Add the 2 numbers

This entire piece takes up hundreds of machine code lines and a
lot of loops inside this code...estimated CPU-cycles <insert
number greater than 1 here>

No performance loss? We don't think so..........

And this code runs all the time!!......The dongle in fact is only
called 1 out of 10 times inside these scripts........."

3. ) And then again it is of course an elegant and intelligent programming style, that makes Reaper one of the most CPU efficient DAWs available.

I would like to have a Cubase, with the menus/window handling and workflow of Studio One and the CPU-efficiency of Reaper.

And hear me Steinborgs: Your window handling is so 90s. Please rework it, then I will upgrade my 5.5!

 

Lol, you have obviously never even been on the reaper forums, they are the exact opposite of what you think. Friendly, almost complete lack of fanbois and pointless arguements, with a remarkable lack of troll posters. As i said ask your questions there, Justin the main guy behind reaper is usally around or other reaper devs are also around and you can usually get any sensible tech question answered by the people who really do know the real answers and not just guesswork.

 

indeed, i have not lol...i'll do that then cuz i want to know *yes*

thanks oldor for your explanation

 

I agree, I use FL Studio and it runs at about 1/4th on my cpu meter. Then starts getting buggy on big projects. Reaper operates at 75% load on cpu with large projects very stable and still have cpu headroom for more plug-ins. I use an i5 multi core processor.

I also found out on their forum there is are alternate menus, More organized that follow the work flow better. From what the response is on the forum Everyone seems to like them a lot. I have not had the time to implement them yet, but will being that soon. Wow, they made it possible to create your own menus and replace theirs, who else does that.

The more I use Reaper, the more I like it! Especially for mixing. I also love the performance meter that tells you which plugins are taxing the cpu and the ability to freeze tracks so easily.

Good luck and happy music making,

 

Yeah im thinking cubase may have to get fizzled out in my studio after trying studio one! I think once they implement audio warp in v2 it'l be hard to beat!!! Unless of course i can join my cubase windows up on a similar way? Not had a proper play with reaper due to the look of it putting me off.may have to give it another go

 

yep I heard about that way of customizing reaper..like open source but you have to be able to use some sort of script language...so that's definitely not for me...I guess that the only hope is to find a theme or template and use it...but there is not any I really find that good!

 

that's exactly my problem, I honestly find reaper GUI ugly and it doesn't make me fell like getting into it! .... but performance-wise, it is probably the best DAW out there, period! and that's why even though it's sort of repulsive I still give it some serious credit...a flashy GUI isn't all, I'm not just looking at my DAW, I use it!..and it is not normal that an i7 CPU served with 8Gb of RAM is almost maxed out by only 24 midi tracks triggering 3 VSTi!

I do hope Presonus will improve the way Studio one handles multi threading cuz I would really like to buy that one as it's been beautifully designed in every respect.

 

lysergyk There is one guy That is developing the new menu system and he has gotten the input from the other reaper users. It has been refined and improved to help newbies and pros find what they need access to in an efficient and sensible manner.

From the Reaper forum:

There's been constant criticism against REAPER's default menu set and for good reason. They're too disorganized! The default set is off-putting to newcomers and makes the REAPER seem like it isn't the best DAW on the market.

To the rescue comes ReaMenus, my attempt to make REAPER easier for newcomers and at the same time, demonstrating the superb feature-set that we Reapers love so much. Hopefully, ReaMenus can act as a better platform on which to start developing your own set of menus which better suits your needs.

As ReaMenus is meant to be of use to the entire community, please feel free to make as many suggestions as you can to help improve the set.

Remember ReaMenus values are as follows:
Easy/Usable (clarity, most used features on top)
Organized (LABELS, context sensitivity)
Feature-rich (as much as can be easily found)
Small size (max-height: 600px, as narrow as possible)
Up-to-date (always updated with most recent REAPER and SWS features)

Features of ReaMenus 4.02:
Main window and MIDI editor menus now support alt-walk!
Added Clipboard submenus (copy, cut, paste) to all appropriate context menus.
No more deep 'More...' submenus on the [Media item context] menu.
Replaced REAPER split actions with SWS split actions (which only split selected items).
Reorganized [Main options] menu to support future Options options.
Complete options set available on the following context menus: [Transport context], [Arrange/ruler context], [Track control panel context]/[Empty TCP context], [Media item context], [Envelope point context]/[Envelope context].
[Empty TCP context] now identical to [Track control panel context].
[MIDI main menu context] now contains full set of MIDI main menus.
Actions for track locking, take locking, take colors, track record path, recording overlap modes, and more new REAPER and SWS features.
Numerous typos fixed.

Installation:
Unzip ReaMenus to REAPER\MenuSets directory. (Anywhere, really, but it's easier to keep your files organized.)
Inside REAPER, go to Options->Customize Menus/toolbars...
Click Export->Export ALL menus/toolbars to ReaperMenuSet... and save your default set.
Click Import. Open ReaMenus.ReaperMenuSet. (Don't worry if REAPER appears to freeze on older machines. Give it time, and your new menus will be imported properly!)
You're done!
If after using ReaMenus, you'd like to bring your own customized menus back, you can Import them, and only the menus that you previously customized will be restored. If you only wish to import certain of your old menus, you can edit your saved .ReaperMenuSet file and remove entirely each menu you want to discard before Importing.
If for any reason you want to revert to the default menu set, simply use the Reset button in the Menu/Toolbars... dialog.

 

Also there are many different and attractive skins available at: REAPER stash Find one you like, I found several.

 

most of these themes just change the colour really! they dont really make a difference as to how things are arranged ...but i'll have a look at your "menu organizer" and see what comes out, thanks a lot for that

what Reaper should implement is what S1 has done, LOTS and LOTS of drag and drop features...(and of course less and less menus, even though if you need they are also there!)

EDIT: I installed your custom menus and it's already much clearer and more logical! *yes*

any good interface (ie: theme) to recommend...all the ones i downloaded were quite disappointing.

 

I just put in the new menu set and it is a lot easier to get around in. Major improvement!

The theme I keep returning to is called Appolosubz. I come from many years of analogue mixing consoles, so I like themes that resemble them. I also like the API themes.

The themes look way different with VU meters running as they can be customized , also you can color code your mixer and tracks, and add Images of the instruments on their corresponding tracks.

There are different ways to configure the windows by docking and undocking them as well as moving them around.

I Like the big mixer in front, pull it down and there is your tracks view.

Pull it down a little to expose 1 track or 1 extra wide track, then whenever you select a channel on the mixer it focuses on the same track in the track view, ready to Edit

I think this way to work is very slick. I also like the way that it records MIDI along with the audio on the same track, No need to designate weather to record MIDI or Audio, It just records everything!

 

yep that is also the way I work =) so i'll check some themes out. thanks again!

EDIT:I only found one I like, it's called studio2....but I already feel better!

 

Try the reaction theme, It's getting lots of good reviews, and looks fantastic.

 

lysergyk, hi ! interesting thread,

has anyone else replicated your results with the 24 tracks of Spectrasonics plugins on different DAWs?

if not, maybe it's just you ?

 

what does it mean..."it's just me"???? we're talking about cpu charge and how DAWs handle multi threading...the human factor (from a user point of view) doesn't have much impact on that.

it is also quite common to happen on comments saying how other DAWs are CPU hungry compared to reaper...so I reckon I'm not the only one to have noticed a difference in performance.

i read you use cubase and S1...then fairy simple...on your machine stack up as many vsti as you can in each of them until you reach 80% or even 100%CPU usage with audio cracking and all the bells and whistle...then do the very same in Reaper...you'll see there is still plenty of room for more! that speaks for itself

 

I browsed throught all the themes yesterday...tat one didnt catch my attention....i'll check it out, but my opinion about reaper's aesthetic has improved already..though there is still a long way to go IMO

EDIT: yep not bad indeed, but still a beta version apparently, but nice one....there are lots of bits and pieces, like vu-meters, toolbars etc...i dont really get where to put all that as reaper seems to use only a themezip file (sometimes pointing to a folder as well) but it's the first theme I see like that! ...sort of a puzzle! lol