As a mac user, having used Logic Pro, Cubase and LIve for years, i have a feeling that i have finally landed, using Reaper.
This is just an amazing piece of DAW !!

I can't believe this is not World's number 1 used DAW.
The whole functionality, stability, customizng abilities and CPU performance is just an insane experience for me.

Hope there are many mac Reaper users on this forum that share these feelings with me.
Hope we can learn from eachother on this forum, to become a total Master Of Reaper

Robbie

 

I'm a pc user, and I love it too!!

 

Yeah Reaper is great and cheap but why is it crashing when scanning my VSTs like FL Studio sometimes likes to do? Don't have this problem with Cubase or Studio One.

 

If only they did something about the GUI..

 

There's a lot of customize GUI..

This is probably one of the few Daw that can be highly customize on looks.


I still prefer other daws over reaper. Maybe i just haven't give it a nice try.

 

This is true. There is this website where you can get TONS of interfaces... check it out:

Reaper Stash

Have fun.

That's weird, man... Reaper has never crashed on me. Not once...

 

Ever try Digital Performer? Unfortunately, 7.24 is the last version I installed, before they went cross-platform with 8, but it's amazing for MIDI and VI work. So far, I've been a lot less thrilled with the audio editing and mix automation capabilities, and have been going back and forth on the idea of using something like Harrison Mixbus to either stream audio to or just load all my recorded audio tracks into, or maybe even ProTools. I've also thought about trying Reaper.

 

Yeah, I went thru the phase too.. rolls eyes**

The UI ruins it.

The non-customizable parts. I know this as I made one of those UI's.

useless to me until everything can be skinned uniformly.

 

Battle of the DAWs, Part 66

Every DAW has limitations and will fuck you over if you use it long enough.
Almost every DAW possesses beauty of its own.
All musicians have a love affair with making art.
Tools, they are important, but the magic of the music is created by the heart.

 

It needs the default configs to be closer to industry standards. Things are hard to find and configure in it, basic features are buried in obscure places and the average person is put off by that. Most people don't even want that much customization, they want something that is intuitive and ready to go from the start. Performance-wise Reaper blows everything else away. Or if you're really going to deal with all that customization it's also the most customizable DAW by far. ... at least until Bitwig 2.0 perhaps.

 

Reaper is a GREAT DAW , but for me is beaten in stability , by Studio One .
I can still load Hypersonik 2 in JBridge in Studio one and use it with one crash , and this is just one example .
Where Reaper fail to load an VST , Studio One do .

 

Reaper is the Linux of DAWs.
You can do (almost) anything...but you need to do it YOURSELF
That's why, even as computer tech for 20 years, i never liked Linux. And i don't like Reaper, too.
Don't want to spend hours with GUI tweaking, shortcuts, buried menus...

I prefer Studio One, even if it is more limited features wise.

Some time ago, i looked at DAWs like tools with "features".
With experience, i see DAWs only on inspiration and workflow side. I need to love a DAW...and i don't love Reaper even if it is a good DAW

 

It hasn't crashed on me when loading vstis (or simply not loading them) since like late V2 or early V3; can't remember exactly. But it must have been at least 2-2,5 years.

I had a good number of crashes with S1 around that time, too. I actually had more loading problems with S1 in early V2 (or 1.5 or something) than in V1... Since V2 it has improved quite a bit in that department. I also had issues with video playback in S1 where it got laggy as hell (dunno if it's been fixed or if it was me). In Reaper it has always been a breeze. Load and go... (I think it uses VLC for playback...?) Not saying that one is necessarily better than the other, just my experience... Bits and bytes I like/dislike in both of them. And, of course, some different tools/features. S1 was love at first sight.

Lately I'm more into Reaper though for some obscure reason. Maybe it's because it feels like a good all-rounder for what I do. Probably 'cause it just feels faster and I use it more for mixing/mastering where I don't really need to do anything major, other than maybe drop in a few fx.

 

Who wouldn't LOVE REAPER?

 

Fookin REAPER is the easiest!!!

Anyone that can't figure out Reaper should be shot! It is by far the easiest to use DAW. I don't know what these people are talking about all the sub-menus and theme changing difficulty. I can do everything in Reaper without opening a single menu. Then if you absolutely do need to open a menu, you can program keyboard shortcuts. Then on top of that, you can program actions. The actions alone are fucking titties and beer to me. You can link any action to anything, keyboard buttons, midi, OSC.

Then theme changing? How hard is that? Double-click a theme file from the thousands to choose from for free online? That sounds hard. Personally I like the White Tie theme if you have two monitor screens. You can even customize how Reaper saves projects and media. Then when you are done customizing, you can back up your entire configuration to a tiny little file. Amazing!

Regardless of customizability, Reaper is number one in features to me. ReaMote processing, Ripple Editing, THE FUCKING ROUTING MATRIX! One fucking track add function, don't have to pick from all these types of tracks, just double-click to add a track, then pick a midi or audio input. Fucking genius! The fucking media and vst browsers!!! Drag and Drop samples, midi, vsts into it!!! Time stretch anything, pitch shift anything with a click and drag!

And Reaper has never crashed on me ever! Once in a great blue moon it won't recognize a vst, I've only had it not recognize like two or three ever!

Seriously, Reaper is the simplest DAW I have ever used and its audio engine is so fucking solid to me!
Reaper is number 1 for me. Thanks for giving me a space to brag how much I love this DAW!!!

 

Spot on mate... ! I couldn't agree more - Reaper is the Bomb dot com

 

+1000!

But why is this not World's Number One DAW ?!

Cause people don't like to get out of there Comfort Zone. #Shame on you all.

 

I used to use cubase, switched to reaper, after a year or so-using cubase now seems clunky and limited.

Reapers customizing is amazing, as far as skins, I use v3 modded with some font size and color tweaks. The ability to create personalized functions from the action list (or combine a bunch for a macro)and then give it a key command, add it to a drop down or context menu, make a toolbar button out of it, or all four if you want, is a treat. Sure, the action list is a freakin monster (plus sws extensions too!). Learning to use the list filter feature is a must. It will save a lot of hair pulling. The menu's can be changed to whatever you want, same with the toolbars. You can even choose your own startup splash screen. These are just some of the customizing features I had not seen mentioned.

I think a feature that really set it apart from other DAW's (at least those I have tried), is the routing. Traction is the only prog I've used that even try's to change up routing a bit. Reaper buries it. I suggest two books (from same site as the manual)that have the info and tutorials to really unlock the programs potential. 'Reaper 4 Unleashed' and 'ReaMIX-Breaking The Barriers with REAPER' they both go well beyond the manual with some of Reaper's most powerful features. These helped me wrap my head around the whole routing thing as well as other cool (sometimes oddball) features. Parameter modulation is another thing I've never seen in a DAW, it can be some crazy fun. Those books let you in on the JS effects too, many may think they are useless. They are actually very useful once you know how to use some of them. Easy modding too, even one as dum as I can figure some of that out!

It take a little while to learn the deeper stuff, but I started using Reaper for multi-track recording without cracking the manual. Try that in Live, DP, or (the old) Logic Pro. It's well worth the effort.

In cubase I tried for a long time to figure out how to render a midi track, outputting to an SBLive's built in sound font synth, to a audio file, either into the project or to disk. Never found a way that worked. In Reaper it's a single click or two. In fact there are several ways, with options to boot. Rendering just plain audio tracks to stems was a pain in cubase too. Now I have a couple buttons I made, one outputs selected tracks to stems-placing in project, muting originals, the other outputs to disk only. This is just one example of how the prog has made things easier on me.

Those who reject it because they deem it ugly are just a bunch of twats copping out. They want to use one of the 'cool' DAW's. Like Live and ProTools aint ugly? Jeez. At least you can change Reaper a bit to taste.

The reason Reaper is not more popular? Simple, it costs either 60 or 225 bucks. Doesn't have the 'prestige' of 500-1000 buck apps. The FLStudio people raised the price of a synth from 79 to over 200 so it would be taken as a 'serious' piece of software. Sequoia is still 3k so mastering engineers (used to paying wicked high prices) would keep using it (mainly because it outputs the code required by cd making outfits, I think).

I have recorded 14 tracks (my hardware limit) at once into Reaper recording several hours at a time over 10-12 hour sessions without a hiccup. On an old single core 1.5Gig ram PC. Once, a stumble-bum trip on the power cord, killing the computers power mid song, and the soundfiles were right there on the harddrive, just like if I had hit the stop button mid song. I have lost recordings because of crashes in other programs.

I use both PC (desktop) and mac (laptop). And don't have trouble with either.

 

I also find Reaper easy, very "natural/intuitive"... I've landed on Reaper's World and I think that I'm installed in there for a while!

But I'm not a DAW pro user! So, I've just found the tool I needed and expected for easy audio/MIDI composition/registration... Don't need to spend more money in expensive DAWs...