reaper users, tell me what's great about it

[pylonbitch]

just got a win7 lappy and my old cubase/wavelab versions won't install.

 

how does reaper compare to cubase?

 

what's great about it?

 

also looking at audacity and wavosaur.

 

 

any input appreciated.

 

thank you.

[oscillik]

i've been giving it serious checking out lately, and i really like it. it's tiny as fuck (when installed, it's about 38MB on your hard drive), it's extremely quick, and it's dead cheap (equivalent of about £40). there are a couple of differences you gotta get used to, like different keyboard shortcuts and a few things that Reaper does differently to Cubase, but that's the same as with any other DAW.

 

you can run the demo completely uncrippled for as long as you like (just has a nag box that stays onscreen a bit longer upon startup), so there's no good reason not to try it out really.

 

edit: also make sure to install the ASIO4ALL drivers if you haven't already

[pylonbitch]

cheers for that. will probably just use my soundcard asio drivers.

 

any hints, tips or issues anyone has, post them here.

 

ta.

[MAXIMUS MISCHIEF]

if you hold the alt button you can time stretch audio files by draggin the edges

[Lucas]

I've been using Reaper for a little more than a year now and just want to say everybody using DAWs to try it. As it have been said, it's light / quick / cheap, and I'll add that it's way more intuitive as

for example

a software like Pro Tools.

 

I use Reaper with Renoise rewired (basically I make the rhythmic stuff with Renoise, and the midi and synths with Reaper). The setup is simply smooth and I use it from the scratch of a song to the end of its mixing.

 

I believe (hope) that soft is going to be seriously taken in consideration by the professionals because I have the feeling that sound engineers talk about it more and more since about a year.

 

Also, Cockos didn't hired me to write that

[hardcode]

its good and cheap but the GUI is rather crappy

 

then again i havent tried version 4 yet.

[Guest Blanket Fort Collapse]

LOLOLOL GUI is rather crappy LOL? WTF is the problem with GUI? DOES ANY OTHER DAW LET YOU CHANGE THE INTERFACE NEARLY EVEN CLOSE TO AS MUCH AS REAPER DOES? LOL. You can customize nearly every facet and how you interact with it.

 

REAPER does so many things right I don't even know where to start. When I am forced to go back finishing old projects in Cubase or Reason or Ableton the whole time I'm thinking REAPER I MISS YOU SO

 

In a world without Reaper I would cut my wrists while listening to Avril Lavigne or some shit dawg.

[oscillik]

well i think hardcode would know more than you, he is a DJ after all. i remember when he signed up and introduced himself. his username was dj hardcode.

 

he's a DJ, you know.

[pylonbitch]

cheers for all your advice guys.

 

i manged to get an older version of sx to install and soundforge seems to be holding up just fine.

 

have downloaded reaper though. it's small cpu footprint appeals.

 

ta.

[oscillik]

cheers for all your advice guys.

 

i manged to get an older version of sx to install and soundforge seems to be holding up just fine.

 

have downloaded reaper though. it's small cpu footprint appeals.

 

ta.

i forgot to mention about that! yeah, it eats up hardly any CPU cycles, it's great

[Tessier Ashpool]

Been on the Reaper tip for a few years now - like any DAW, there are benefits and deficits, though a lot of that is up to how much you want to invest in looking into the various ins and outs of the software.

 

V 4.x has some really excellent updates (to my liking anyway) such as the ability to select/draw different scales into the midi editor, arpeggiate midi notes, select only portions of audio files to import on the fly, etc. Very small footprint as above, open source, basically freeware (as the "demo mode" is just a splash screen you have to "endure" for 5 seconds at startup).

 

My impression after several years - you can do anything with Reaper you want, it just takes some time to learn how to do it. The system appears massively configurable (via shortcuts/hotkeys) particularly w/ v4.0 (which adds GUI customization), and only continues to get better. They seem to listen carefully to their userbase and try to implement useful tools, all while keeping the "price" ridiculously low (60 bucks for individual license but, again, you don't even have to do this to get full use).

 

Only two downsides I've found are: 1) Can't draw velocity and note in at the same time (although DP is the only place I've seen this, in truth) 2)Sometimes I think the final mix/algorithm to calculate master volume is low. Although that's because i know dick-all about mastering and need to just figure that shit out.

 

Really do love it - DAW of choice unless I win the lotto

 

edit: Also, as Osc said, install the ASIO4all drivers - will ensure no issues w/latency/buffering

[Guest Blanket Fort Collapse]

Only two downsides I've found are: 1) Can't draw velocity and note in at the same time (although DP is the only place I've seen this, in truth) 2)Sometimes I think the final mix/algorithm to calculate master volume is low. Although that's because i know dick-all about mastering and need to just figure that shit out

 

edit: Also, as Osc said, install the ASIO4all drivers - will ensure no issues w/latency/buffering

 

DAW choice unless you win the lotto? Money is no factor in my choice of using REAPER, I've tried everything, what would you use if you had infinite funds (besides paying a team to make a machine that gave you blow jobs and made your music for you)

 

I would have to say I also am not in love with how the velocity control works in Reaper, luckily I don't really do Midi programming anymore. I can confirm that bouncing out in Reaper seems similar to most of DAWs in that I put it in Sound Forge and my peaks are around 5 decibels quieter than the DAW told me they were.

 

ASIO4ALL?? PFFFTTT Nice integrated sound cards ya fuckin noobs. LawL

[oscillik]

Only two downsides I've found are: 1) Can't draw velocity and note in at the same time (although DP is the only place I've seen this, in truth) 2)Sometimes I think the final mix/algorithm to calculate master volume is low. Although that's because i know dick-all about mastering and need to just figure that shit out

 

edit: Also, as Osc said, install the ASIO4all drivers - will ensure no issues w/latency/buffering

 

DAW choice unless you win the lotto? Money is no factor in my choice of using REAPER, I've tried everything, what would you use if you had infinite funds (besides paying a team to make a machine that gave you blow jobs and made your music for you)

 

I would have to say I also am not in love with how the velocity control works in Reaper, luckily I don't really do Midi programming anymore. I can confirm that bouncing out in Reaper seems similar to most of DAWs in that I put it in Sound Forge and my peaks are around 5 decibels quieter than the DAW told me they were.

 

ASIO4ALL?? PFFFTTT Nice integrated sound cards ya fuckin noobs. LawL

hey, i've got my heart set on an E-MU 1616m PCIe card with breakout box.

 

i just need £400 to buy it, and i'm jobless.

[mcbpete]

Been using the bastard since about v0.9 - Bloody ace bit of software

 

(Mmm, probably could be a bit more verbose about why it's so good but I shan't !)

[pylonbitch]

all good. up and running now with sx2 and soundforge. all 32 bit plugs working fine, 64bit asio soundcard drivers from m-audio. 14ms latency.

 

cheers folks.

[Guest Blanket Fort Collapse]

Anything more than 5 milliseconds latency is fakkin noob status

[pylonbitch]

don't be a dick. i've been using cubase since it was steinberg pro24, 20 years ago.

[Guest Promo]

I think I'll download it tonight to see what the crack is. I like the idea of something that is nice and fast because the more I use Ableton the more slow it seems!!

[Tessier Ashpool]

Only two downsides I've found are: 1) Can't draw velocity and note in at the same time (although DP is the only place I've seen this, in truth) 2)Sometimes I think the final mix/algorithm to calculate master volume is low. Although that's because i know dick-all about mastering and need to just figure that shit out

 

edit: Also, as Osc said, install the ASIO4all drivers - will ensure no issues w/latency/buffering

 

DAW choice unless you win the lotto? Money is no factor in my choice of using REAPER, I've tried everything, what would you use if you had infinite funds (besides paying a team to make a machine that gave you blow jobs and made your music for you)

 

I would have to say I also am not in love with how the velocity control works in Reaper, luckily I don't really do Midi programming anymore. I can confirm that bouncing out in Reaper seems similar to most of DAWs in that I put it in Sound Forge and my peaks are around 5 decibels quieter than the DAW told me they were.

 

ASIO4ALL?? PFFFTTT Nice integrated sound cards ya fuckin noobs. LawL

 

Ahhh - well, I had to include that caveat. Ideally? At least one comp with Digital Performer, mainly because I cut my teeth on it and know the ins and outs pretty well, I feel like the "final mix" was more "robust" (though, again, that's my ignorance of mixing and sounds like it's probably just me being subjective) and I have yet to find a midi drum editor that works as well with my personal workflow as that. But I'd also have a comp w/Reaper because now I'm pretty familiar with that too.

 

Plus - I mean, FUCK, if I won the lottery I'd be getting myself an ass ton of vintage synths, 8-tracks, a couple of Les Paul's, Strats, the Monkey Drummer, build a full-on studio with pro-tools and a fucking Delorean in the middle to tie it all together. Oh, and I'd learn how to use the fucking P5 glove or whatever w/Max/MSP to do gesture based music.

 

But, yeah, the short answer is - Reaper is the bees knees and I'm thoroughly pleased with it. I think I was completely won over when I decided to put it on my shitty ass work laptop and ended up making a track that was easily as many layers/tracks as anything I'd done before and it didn't hitch at ALL. Single-core, bloatware infested piece of shit that it was.

[Tessier Ashpool]

all good. up and running now with sx2 and soundforge. all 32 bit plugs working fine, 64bit asio soundcard drivers from m-audio. 14ms latency.

 

cheers folks.

 

Oh, and congrats m8! Built in bridging for 32 bit plugs works surprisingly well - I can't speak for others, but if you have general questions, post 'em and maybe experienced users can help (there are a lot of "tricks" to the program that I'm still discovering, several years on).

[pylonbitch]

sorry mr ashpool, you misread me..

i'm up and running with CUBASE sx2.

 

rather use a daw that i've known since its inception than learn a whole new one... reaper was the alternative if i couldn't get cubase up and running.

 

as i said earl;ier, it's for a portable rig, so i don't need all the bells and whistles of later cubase releases. pissed off i can't get wavelab to work properly though.

 

i haven't used sounforge in a decade.

*digs out manual*

[kaen]

The bitch is back, awesome

[Tessier Ashpool]

sorry mr ashpool, you misread me..

i'm up and running with CUBASE sx2.

 

rather use a daw that i've known since its inception than learn a whole new one... reaper was the alternative if i couldn't get cubase up and running.

 

as i said earl;ier, it's for a portable rig, so i don't need all the bells and whistles of later cubase releases. pissed off i can't get wavelab to work properly though.

 

i haven't used sounforge in a decade.

*digs out manual*

 

Ahhhh word . . . yeah, moving too fast and didn't read carefully. Congrats! Always nice to get your DAW of choice up and moving on a new machine. :-)

 

Good luck and, yeah, why reinvent the wheel if ya don' t have to!

[Meadows and Labyrinths]

upon reading the first few posts of this thread, i downloaded Reaper and instantly understood it perfectly. this is really sweet, thanks for the recommendation.

[hardcode]

well i think hardcode would know more than you, he is a DJ after all. i remember when he signed up and introduced himself. his username was dj hardcode.

 

he's a DJ, you know.