TBH I doubt anyone who uses Reaper actually ever works, or at least finishes any music. It has indeed become a cult, a tweakers cult, a weird inverted badge of honour "but look at the CPU performance" they cry, "look at the skin ability"... yet very few seem to use it for actual pro or semi pro work. It's just a left field curiosity full of quirks, bad design, bad workflow, and we are told 'dig deep to discover'.. well sorry but I'll do my deep digging with my MIX and my MUSIC not my DAW. I've used ProTools, Cubase and now Studio One (which is hands down the best overall and NOT just for workflow but for the combination of workflow to features/balance). Reaper doesn't even factor on my radar in terms of actually mixing/recording music, it's far too idiosyncratic and makes even protools look streamlined and potent by comparison.

As someone above says, take away the weird ability to bring it up the BASIC level of other DAWS as they are already, what exactly does it do that Studio One does't from a feature/workflow perspective? All it has is a bit better CPU perf, but everything else is worse. I've tried it a few times and it's glaringly backwards in everything it does vs Studio One. That doesn't mean studio one is 'for the lazy' as some guy says above (SMH) it means we have music to create, mixes to finish and we want good plug-in handling, amazing tools like ARA Melodyne (already IN S1 not still waiting), great bouncing/transform and tons of other things we now take for granted in S1 that is not in Protools or Reaper, and yet remains effortlessly nice to work with in Studio One. Nothing is complex, everything is bang on intuative, nothing is an ugly right menu click hell, no ugly/stupid windows around plug-ins. we also want CONSOLE SHAPER/MixFX which Studio One alone has, which belive it or not actually will bring your mixes to the next level and is unlike any other type of console emu (yeah mixbus 32 acts similar but is quite crappy overall and nowhere near as stunning and well thought out as S1 nor does it sound as good anyway vs console shaper)

I swear Reaper guys have never tried any other DAW and got it cos it was customisable and grew to love it, while everyone else just used DAWS that work straight out the gate without needing to be essentially re-written by the user. I'd rather go back to ProTools than use Reaper which shows you had bad I think Reaper is!. ;)

 

I'd take cubase over Reaper in an instant. But never over Studio One (and I was a heavy cubase user for years).

 

You are totally incorrect. I have finished many songs on reaper. I have used Cakewalk first, then switched to cubase.
Reaper guys are not a cult they have all come from different DAW's, and we realized that you can have your cake and eat it too.
Reaper is in no way perfect, but it sure is way more cpu friendly than another DAW on the market and to add more customizable.
Stop telling people Reaper is bad and let other decided if it works for them.

Try them all TBH and use which ever one you like.

 

@Slapdash
There is really no need you insult people (Reaper users). Please, accept the fact that many people use Reaper, with great results. (Also, many people use S1, of course.)
We got it - Reaper doesn't work for you. Stay with S1 if you like it so much.
Neither Reaper nor Studio One is perfect - they just have their weak points in different areas.

 

As a Studio One user myself as stated in my comment a page or two back what you wrote here is embarrassing and frankly LAZY on your part. Why attack the Reaper community? My guess because it's actually more of a community than Studio One's.

 

I admit the stock REAPER skin is a bit lame, but once you customize it, the workflow is excellent with so many tools under the hood.
Yes, customization takes time, but it's worth it in the end

 

Yup, indeed - Reaper's biggest problem is its stock GUI and configuration. I think someone should one day publish something like "Reaper config starter pack". There are litetally hundreds of skins avalible, but beginners usually don't know where to find them, how to choose one that is most functional for them, how actions work, how to compose own toolbars, set preferences etc. etc.

Maybe I will do this one day...

 

This is a good example of absurd. You're started to shit the community and then finished with shitting the software. So who is bad? I didn't get the point. Btw I've spent about 36 hours for tweaking and now i have some weird mix of protools and ableton live. This is fun, sort of..

 

I am sure you have your reasons as does everyone else for their choice(s) of DAW.

I choose to use Reaper because it is a serious DAW with excellent flow that is more tweakable if you wish
making it easier for your personal work flow.

I tend to use a slightly modified 'Default' theme for tracking and switch to the full mixer for doing just that,
mixing.

MIDI functionality is out in front of S1. Still wish Logic was available for PC natively.

First software was Digital Performer, Cubase & Cakewalk. Back then audio to a back seat to MIDI.

Reaper & Logic are used by some of the top audio software developers. Oh yeah, and a little fella named Andrew Scheps

 

Last edited: Dec 5, 2017

Reaper users reminds of linux users. They like to work at the daw not with the daw. I use reaper for tracking only, until cockos finally decides to hire some serious Gui designers. And change a bit the attitude from "hey you can make everything how you want it. It will only take a few weeks XD to make reaper to what you want from a DAW"! To "here is a complete configured reaper with a nice gui, contextual toolbars & cursers + sws and a proper Track/object inspector. And here read this paper how all works it will only take a few hours."

But to be honest reaper is a grown daw compared to s1. S1 is such a cpu hog that i dont get how people can make any real serious project with it. And no the last engine update made it even worse. And no it is not my pc - i7 8700 32 gig ram- rme converter and interface. Musik production no internet PC.

Cubase. And reaper for tracking. Studio one is still the daw for hobby musicians (i am one myself) that dont need serious power. Dont get me wrong I love the gui and that s1 is super user friendly, but it is far away from a grown daw. Maybe S1 4 or 5 will change that.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Dec 5, 2017

Actually, I was a long term Cubase user and migrated to Studio One circa 5 years ago. After 20 minutes with S1 I felt like home. That's true - it's easy and fast to use. It was love from the first sight.
This, however, changed with S1 v3. Prior to it, S1's GUI was very clean and ergonomic. With v3 they made it cluttered and the mechanism of color customization is a pure fail (certain elements' colours are hard-linked, and in effect when I made somenthing more readable. some other elements got invisble - same color as the background). They fixed it a bit in v3.2, but it's still far from perfect. In terms of pure ergonomics (not esthetics - which is subjective), v3 GUI is much worse than v2.5/2.6.
Many other details also got worse: the time stretch step via mouse scroll - in v2.5 it was about 4% with every wheel move - nice for fine tuning length in sound design. In v3 the step is 25%. What's even worse: if you move from 100% it reaches 1% in just four moves, but when you want to go back, ot goes to 101, not 100%. That's an example of BAD workflow. (It was great in v2.5.)
I have a few i7 laptops with standard 1366x768 screens. In v3 many plugin editors don't fit on screen, because of the S1's inflated plugin editor toobar. They fitted in v2.5. And there is no way to scroll down to see what's at the bottom.
Etc. etc. etc. Plus bug after bug since v3 - notes don't play, clips are cut not at the selected point etc. etc.
I wanted to love S1 so badly, but I got tired.
Then, desperated, I gave Reaper one more chance (I tried it before a few times and never liked it). This time I learned that I can heavily customize it. So i did. My very own Reaper GUI looks kinda like a Studio One v2.5/3.2 crossover.
When they improved the colour scheme with v3.2, I was thinking about going back. But then I realized how inefficent is S1's engine. I did many test with my own projects recreated in detail in both DAWs. It would be no problem if I used it only with Kontakt or only audio. But I use analog synth emulations and the difference is HUGE. VERY, VERY HUGE. I didn't even know about it until I switched to Repaer.

So... please, stop writing BS. I did try many other DAWs, and I know S1 very well. And THAT is just the reason I switched to Reaper.

Nevertheless, I wish Studio One all the best. I hope that maybe one day they sort/improve/upgrade/change the engine.

 

Yes, I also think that Reaper could gain a much wider base of users if they hired a decent GUI designer or at least let someone include his "skin/configuration" in Reaper's official releases. The default look is hideous.

 

I'm disagree about CPU in S1. I'm using it as my main DAW with huge projects. Yes, you need to make bouncing time to time, but it's so fast in S1 that I even don't noticing it.
As I mentioned here earlier, there are some problems with S1, like it still doesn't have something like track template feature[and actually it's not just problem, it's BIG problem], but it's not that hard for PC powers (even for 3570, which I'm using).

But I totally agreed about Reaper

 

This is not a fn of DAW. Rather, this is a personal proprtty. I have many finished mixes, and also many unfinished mixes. This is down to my OWN procrastination.

In a way, it sort of is, since many R users r very satisfied with their DAW.

It is important, IRREGARDLESS OF DAW, to make sure your setup is ABSOLUTELY RIGHT before starting on any big projects to make most effective use of time. I'm sure you've tweaked a few settings here & there.

It is important, if you've got many tracks &/ FX. quick exporting on very long, or very big projects isa good thing. On a 23min proj:

Audition: ~17min
RPR: ~10min.

I actually use the stock V4 skin.

ONE feature many have forgotten in recent times is R's very flexible routing system. Which I use a lot.

A lot of the work I do is not paid for, so it is non-professionial. R is apparently used quite a bit in AU & BR for its low cost, yet feature-rich ability.

There's no need. It' absolutely fine if you do simple stuff like arranging audio clips & exporting. That's how I inducted myself into R - it can load 3h long, 5GB clips make simple edits, without a sweat. Unlike audacity.

It's deep power makes you think, if $OTHER_DAW has $FEATURE, does R have it, too? Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't, but it's hidden power is a psychological thing which makes you think you have evrything (even though it doesn't).

https://audiosex.pro/threads/the-complete-falacy-of-vintage-gear.32671/

I actually started off with audacity, garageband, audition, and logic. GB&L are mac only. After a few years, My mac broke. Life goes on. FInd another DAW. After another few years of audition, I ran into troubles with audition too. Meanwhile, I had reaper sitting on my HD. ANd i started using it more & more. Life changes. YOur needs change. Your DAW changes. Live & Learn.

Yes, that's you. Altho PT has a few things R doesn't.

Your workflow is not the same as mine. You don't know what I do. I've actually used Cubendo & S1. If you used PT & CUbendo, you'd appreciate that both can do surround & video work also, while S1 has stuck very much to its core - stereo music only. Which is a very large niche in itself. It's fine for you, but not for me.



And Could you please make your next reply a little less "slap-dash" put together. Thank you.

 

Last edited: Dec 6, 2017

I tried almost all DAWs on market, about one year S1, but when I tried REAPER I was so excited! Very new approach, actions, cycles and scripts! But spend a month to make my setup. REAPER has ugly interface, almost all themes too, that bad, but if You can handle it, youll see REAPER is massive. Another problem that there is no straight workflow, and one thing can be done in many ways, sometime it took time to find yours. What I miss, is Max4Live, because I like to make some simple devices for my need, but it integration will never happen. So have to use Live too.
I think REAPER now is full of features and all efforts to be guided for changing GUI to vector graph from ancient pngs, like S1 did. This will bring new cool themes and some new users. Want or not but best looking host even sounds better, all about perception.

 

And guys, not Reaper but REAPER!
Give some respect

 

Dude, I've been using Cubase since Atari days, until EnergyXT 1 got released. Then came Reaper and I used both of them combined, still do at times. Both are more flexible to use in many ways than Cubase 5 and even the newer Cubase, too. Cubase used to annoy me so much with its inflexibility, especially with the insert FX which weren't movable [rectified in v7, I think] and routing that sucked incredibly. I simply couldn't mix a song the way I wanted with the thing. EXT with its modular approach that was really inspiring and especially Reaper were a revelation for me. I'm not praising it for nothing. Reaper also offers incredible and unique connectivity with other DAWs through ReaStream and using other computers as CPU farm through ReaMote! Show me another DAW that can do that? Connectivity can be achieved with some special plugins [that cost money, or you can use ReaStream which is free], but CPU farming... not really.

There are always things that can be done better in every DAW, though and I don't think Reaper is perfect, but it's up there with the best IMO. I really hate that it doesn't have true mono tracks, for instance and the cluttered GUI that can be confusing until you get used to it, but mixing/additional functionality and progressive thinking of Reaper's developers is more important for me anyway. Reaper gets everything first and then I see other DAWs [maybe] implementing the same thing, usually years after Reaper got it.

 

Last edited: Dec 6, 2017

The Keyword is "mixing".

And tbh the workflow is far from prefect. Endless drop-down senseless menus, zero d'n'd functionality, you always need toolbars/menus/missing unbinded actions for the trivial tasks. In SO3 i can drag reverb from browser to the send area of the channel (or channels) and it will create fx with inserted plugin and in the end you will only need to adjust the send level. In reaper this procedure is a dropdown menu nightmare. And ofc don't forget about global question: "send every channel vs receive from all tracks"... Want to configure sends? - menu; Want to manually set the volume level? - menu; Want to set specific velocity level? - menu + sub menu. Menus and submenus does not increases the speed of mixing/composing.

What the point of linking time and loop selection? How to unlink? Did you see the grid in pianoroll? Wtf is that? I didn't find any instructions how to reskin it. Work with pianoroll in reaper is a torture. Literally.

Maybe reaper is good for recording/tracking but not for producing using vst synths. Sampling ability? - Zero. The more time i'm spending with reaper, the more i'm in love with ableton live. Live after reaper looks like a quintessence of logic, simplicity and efficiency. 0 menus, nothing is hidden, just plug and play. Less is more. Peace.

 

Last edited: Dec 6, 2017

Actually, I'm using stock skin and it's OK to me. Any other skin I tried always has some issues or some things I don't like so I always revert back to default skin

About customization...

I have no idea why people always talk about Reaper and lot of customization !?? Like any other sequencer software on market, after you install you just need to setup Audio interface, Midi devices and plugins folder location.
Only thing I like to turn off is looping of items by default, but it's common behavior like in Logic. Even in Logic you should go to setup to turn off that.
Even in Cubase you have to go to preferences to turn off cross-hair cursor on right click or so.

About epic Midi editing...

Epic stories about Cubase and epic Midi editing features. Ok, lets be real, Cubase is first serious midi editing software on market for a while, of course it will have some midi functionality plus over any other younger software today.
But, lets be honest, how many of that epic functionality is in use in everyday studio work? Or common workflow is always, save some midi, quantize notes, delete some of them, add variety for velocity in CC line and that's all.
I made a video series for one seminar about theme developing and it's made completely with Reaper. I had no issues with midi editing at all.

What Cubase have and Reaper not?

Articulation manager.
So, not true anymore. Check out: http://reaticulate.com/. Works very good.

Conclusion...

I have zero problems with any software today. Give me FL, Live, Cubase, Reaper, Samplitude, Pro Tools and I will finish any job.
It's like driving a car. I can drive VW Golf II or BMW or Lancia, whatever. Some of those cars are comfortable some not, but hey there is a price difference.

If you like to masturbate on VU meters, mixers, dongle or even to be in trend, like your work will be more professional if you're using Cubase etc... then you should buy Cubase. (You know HZ is using Cubase).
Maybe you want to masturbate on Mac world - then you should buy Logic.
Otherwise, you can buy whatever you want, there are many nice software here to choose. Main key point is to make and produce some music. There is so many beautiful music today produced with Renoise, FL studio, ... Who cares !???

It's almost funny how people understand things.
HZ is using Cubase, and they said "he can feel the difference between software when listening mixdown", hell yeah ... !
You know, HZ making cues in cubase and then he send his work to Alan Meyerson but he will make final product with Pro Tools And then when you're listening super beautiful Superman, Gladiator soundtrack... yes, it's produced cutted and polished on Pro Tools + hardware console

 

Last edited: Dec 6, 2017

Just I don't understand... If I don't like FL studio I have to spit on it !??