Sell me on Reaper

[Ermz]

Okay, so I'm officially ready to jump ship from the Steinberg bandwagon and adopt a new DAW, provided the circumstances are right. I was waiting on some major overhauls on this software with version 5, but it seems all they've done is decrease stability and throw in a bunch of useless (to me) extensions, mainly relating to beat sequencing and programming.

I've spent too long wanting Cubase to behave like ProTools. I'm at a point where I realize I'm never going to enjoy the workflow in it at all.

What I'm after in a DAW is basically everything that ProTools is, minus the lack of ADC and reliance on the silly hardware dongles. I'm an RME user, and plan to keep it that way (their drivers are absolutely amazing...).

Does Reaper have a logical workflow like PT? Have they fixed the god-awful looking interface? Does it have a BD equivalent for drum editing? Can you route everything everywhere? Are there any major limitations? Is it stable? How are the keyboard shortcuts?

Please Reaper users, spew your propaganda forth and I'll actually listen for once!

 

[jacare]

never been a PT user BUT, reaper is cheap, has amazing routing possibilities, flexible, HIGLY compatible, nice interface... cannot ask for more !

 

[J.DavisNJ]

Ermz,

Are you anti-Logic by chance? A lot here seem not to like it, BUT Logic 8.0 has been a great experience so far.

Let me say that I really disliked Logic 7 because of it's interface, workflow, and just overall clusterfucked nature. Logic 8 is totally different and very intuitive. It's worth checking out in my opinion.

-Joe

 

[Ermz]

I'm a fairly adamant PC user, J, so it's not an option for me. Thanks for the suggestion all the same.

@jacare: Do they have a trial or demo version or anything around? How is the editing, transport and general workflow? Does it compare to PT in efficiency?

 

[AdamWathan]

You can download the full uncrippled newest version of Reaper direct from their website to try out for as long as you want. Just give it a shot and see how you like it, doesn't cost you a cent and there are zero limitations on it.

http://www.reaper.fm

 

[jacare]

You can download the full uncrippled newest version of Reaper direct from their website to try out for as long as you want. Just give it a shot and see how you like it, doesn't cost you a cent and there are zero limitations on it.

http://www.reaper.fm

Yes: no demo, full working version.
About the editing: Reaper does not edit. You have to select an external editor, (wich is no problem for me) you double click the track you want to edit and reaper exports automatically to the external editor of your choice. When you're done editing, you save and reaper imports the new edited version back.
Hm... like I've said, I've never been a PT user, so I have no way to compare both pal. Workflow is great in reaper for me !

 

[J.DavisNJ]

I'm a fairly adamant PC user, J, so it's not an option for me. Thanks for the suggestion all the same.

@jacare: Do they have a trial or demo version or anything around? How is the editing, transport and general workflow? Does it compare to PT in efficiency?

ahhh, gotcha. Well good luck in the search!

-Joe

 

[SocialNumb]

Never used it before but I'll give it a shot. uhm . . . Reaper is a cool guy, eh, he records and stuff and doesn't afraid of anything. (I heard he is scared of midi tho)

 

[jauernis]

What are you guys using for an external editor? and what about midi programming in reaper..do you guys use cubase and then import..or is reaper almost up there in midi capabilties?

 

[Torniojaws]

If you use a lot of VST-instruments, be advised that Reaper has a tendency to randomly crash all the time if you have a bunch of them in a single project. Of course, if you don't use them, it's probably not an issue. As for general usage, I've personally found Cubase and Reaper to be fairly similar in many things. Of course, there are still some oddities in Reaper, compared to Cubase.

 

[korpse pop]

I've never used external wav editor with Reaper, I can do all I want without, cutting and moving the tracks etc, what are you guys using external editors for?

 

[Ermz]

I have to say this talk of external editing and crashing under certain circumstances is a bit worrying. Cost is not so much an issue, as finding a DAW that is stable and efficient is. I might give the free version a spin, but am afraid I might dismiss it out of hand due to the interface. If it behaves a lot like Cubase, is there any reason to actually get it over Cubase?

 

[Metaltastic]

Hahahaha, good contribution Jorge Ermz, you can use Reaper without paying for all time actually; just after 30 days it harangues you with purchasing requests when you open it. But yeah, I really like it; some highlights are being able to hold shift to temporarily suspend the grid and drag regions (or the edges of regions) in a free slip mode; then, when you've got it in the right place, you can move the mouse over the bottom left corner of the region to drag the snap point to the next bar line (so the beginning of the region won't be the snap point anymore, similar to "relative grid" mode in PT). Also, ALWAYS make sure in the upper right hand corner to right-click on the little magnet symbol, and adjust the "snapping" options to "Only snap at start/stop offset" and uncheck "snap media to nearby items" (or something like that, basically if you don't change those two things, dragging regions around is a fucking NIGHTMARE cuz there are snap points everywhere). Umm, what else...I always right click on the mixer in the bottom half to disconnect it and make it a full size window, then toggle between it using Ctrl + = like in PT (this isn't the default, of course, but you can change all the keyboard shortcuts).

The mix window I would say is just like PT, with all your inserts and sends viewable, and you can click and drag stuff from one track to another. Plus, you can save a whole FX chain for a track (for me I have my "scratch GTR" FX chain of TSS/Wagner/Boogex). And for midi, you draw in a region and double-click on it to edit the piano roll just like in Cubase; in fact, it behaves pretty much identically to Cubase except you draw the box to select multiple stuff with the right mouse button (took me awhile to figure that one out), and double click in a spot to insert a note. That's all I can think of right now for little nuances that might hang you up when you first start, otherwise I love it! AND, since I'm still relatively new, if anyone else has tricks like this, please poast 'em!

 

[Metaltastic]

And Tornio, you stopped using Reaper some time ago didn't you? Maybe they've fixed the stability issues with VSTi's since then...

 

[Metaltastic]

And I have no idea what Jacare is talking about with an external editor, btw!

 

[Splat88]

Moonlapse, I've used Reaper quite a bit, and I had an initial honeymoon period using it over Cubase. After actually trying to mix a project like I have before, I found myself getting incredibly frustrated with the audio editor in Reaper because it takes me 2x as long do do simple edits. On top of that, the midi editor for programming drums is a complete waste of time for me. No comparison to how I'm used to working in Cubase. That being said, Reaper has a lot of features that I wish Cubase would incorporate, but for now, Reaper is not quite where I need it to be.

 

[Torniojaws]

And Tornio, you stopped using Reaper some time ago didn't you? Maybe they've fixed the stability issues with VSTi's since then...

I still use it on my laptop when recording mobile stuff (vocals and rehearsals mostly).

And the version with which I last had stability issues was 2.54, which isn't very old. I think the problem has been around fairly consistently along the way ever since 0.999

 

[Ermz]

Thanks guys. I might give it a miss until it gets further along its life cycle. I can't really afford to be beta testing software on clients' dime, and need something a bit more tried and true.

As cumbersome and unintuitive as Cubase is, it can still get the job done for the most part.

 

[Erkan]

And I have no idea what Jacare is talking about with an external editor, btw!

I would guess he means doing destructive editing, as in gaining the audio file up and actually saving it within the file so that is not undoable next time you open it, and stuff like that. I've never needed to do things like that though when there is automation so...

I really hope Reaper doesn't crash with VSTi, I see no reason why it would, it's pretty stupid. I'm planning on using a mighty load of VSTi so.... well, I just hope it's not like that!

 

[Metaltastic]

FWIW, I've never had any crashes with Reaper in the 8-9 months of regular use! (and we're talking sessions with like 10 tracks that each have TSS/Wagner/Boogex, though only 2 or 3 VSTi's) - I would hardly consider using it as "beta testing!"