Reaper has a version for working from a memory card. nothing prevents you from purchasing a flash drive and putting reaper there with all the scripts, plugins and other things. Well, have this copy in reserve

 

Bumpin after a year. Been using a combo of Reaper and Ableton for composing the past year, but with the release of Cubase 14 the thought of migrating to Cubase popped up in my head again. Currently testing out a trial version of Cubase 14 and I like it. I like the fact that it's a "complete" product, wherever you install it, it's always the same, the tools are there, waiting for you, no need for SWS/ReaPack or anything... Of course it's way more limited than Reaper in that regard, but it feels like a good limitation...

 

there is nothing wrong about having 2 different DAWs, if your mind is still boggling, then get a new Cubase and keep Reaper too,
I pretty much figured doing same when it comes to PC vs Mac debate, I got both and use both for certain things, it gives me peace of mind and mitigates the urge of choice burden

 

@bigbing
Have you heard about Playtime for Reaper? It is "Ableton Live inside Reaper".
https://www.helgoboss.org/projects/playtime

 

For sheer sound-based inspiration, I totally agree that it doesn't matter what you choose. Pick one that suits your workflow.

Before Reaper, Ableton, Fruity Loops, Bitwig, Studio One and every other neglected to mention, there were two pieces of music creation software in MIDI, pre digital DAW recording - Notator and Cubase. They were designed for musicians and many people who weren't real musicians had issues using them then. Notator became Logic and Apple purchased it from Emagic, and Cubase also evolved and all the others came afterwards. ProTools is a different beast, it rode more on the back of SAW as they both were designed purely for computer-based recording. This probably also explains why ProTools MIDI functionality is so limited.

Logic and Cubase still have the identical comprehensive MIDI, composing and arranging functionality with major improvements and Steinberg invented the vst and MIDI expression mapping.
Every other DAW rode on the backs of those two pieces of software. Doesn't matter what anyone thinks is a better DAW now, anyone who was around when the ATARI 1024ST and MAC were the only music computers worth touching knows that every other DAW copied.

Nowadays, they're all pretty equal, you pick the one that has the most features that you want.

 

Last edited: Jan 21, 2025

Consider, since it seems you fear the future (like most of us who have watch it erode a lot of working systems) that you can "freeze" your working system, and continue to use it for the rest of your life.

make a backup of your favorite working system, write up some notes on what you've customized etc, include them in a box with your backed up hdd/ssd. Look around for a used copy of your current working computer, when you can find it at a economically viable price point, buy a back set of at least your computer setup, and if you can afford it backups of any outboard gear, midi controllers etc, that you love, use and want to be sure to always have available.

The guy that wrote Game of Thrones, George Martin, still keeps an old computer loaded with WordStar word processor from the 1980s/1990s, he still uses it, as it is his working environment. he doesn't upgrade it. and I'm sure he has a backup of it.