Reaper - What's the catch?

[sjm]

Reaper's default MIDI editing is/was clunky - that's the perfect word to describe it (it's the word I originally thought of to describe it before it was used later in this thread). The MIDI side of things is functional - you can program MIDI in reaper - it's just not particularly user-friendly OOTB. And while you can customise to your heart's content and probably get it working the way you want, you could also just use something that works more efficiently out of the box and use the time it'd take to customise reaper to make music instead.

I really liked reaper for audio last time I tried it but I didn't have the patience to set up the MIDI editing the way I wanted it to be.

[revo11]

I'm late to this party. I have a reaper license and I've been trying to "get into" reaper for about 2 years, so I'd like to learn more...

For one thing, why do people always cite routing in reaper as a big deal? As far as I can tell the routing consists of a matrix mixer. Sure there's a lot you can do with matrix routing, but it's not what I would consider mind-blowing (especially coming from other programs with modular routing interfaces).

One other thing that's always bothered me is that for all the options and flexibility, there doesn't seem to be something as simple as sound-on-sound loop overdubbing for audio (only midi), which is available on all sorts of more limited recording environments and hardware.

Routing is one aspect where Reaper shines, apart from rest of the amazing features. Most flexible routing that you can find in any DAW. It can either be a positive thing or negative, depends on you. I totally agree with Kx.001 on customization and MIDI. Be very very patient with the customization and once you are happy keep saving the configurations otherwise with ever frequent updates you never know when something gets broken. I would also recommend a good theme, v4 default is nice but still take a look at the REACTION or RADO theme, gorgeous looking. And finally be prepared to address everything with "Rea" prefix.. e.g. ReaDelay, ReaVerb, ReaThis, ReaThat and so on

[LawrenceF]

You CAN edit the MIDI of more than one clip if you have them as ghost copies (or MIDI file reference)..

Try opening two or more different clips or tracks directly and editing the notes on them at the same time. Not talking "clip properties" or ghost copies, but actual note editing on different unrelated clips. Unless I misseed something about what's probably the biggest midi FR for Reaper.

Anyway, carry on. See rule #2.

[trueparadox]

Ghost is like an everyday thing in MuLab or energyXT. I'm surprised it was not so popular with reaper users.
I got the Pianoroll as I like except the diselect notes which I need to use a keyboard modifier still.

I'm too new to this.

I have my side mousebutton for deselect. It works really well for me. Recommend it .

Need new mouse ASAP!

Hehe, yea, you really should. With a mouse with two side buttons, you get so much functionality it's crazy! I have deselect on one, and toggle zoom on the other. But then you have ctrl+mouse, shift+mouse, alt+mouse, ctrl+shift+mouse, and if you really need it, ctrl+alt+mouse (not as comfortable to press, ctrl+shift are easy to press if your keyboard aligns them). So, that's 8 "more" buttons to use in the midi editor. I have double/halve note length and increase/decrease grid size. Havent thought up useful things for the others yet, but that's a nice problem to have. And then of course you have all the mouse modifiers, but im using them for selection of notes, mostly.

[h2ogun99]

Ghost is like an everyday thing in MuLab or energyXT. I'm surprised it was not so popular with reaper users.
I got the Pianoroll as I like except the diselect notes which I need to use a keyboard modifier still.

I'm too new to this.

I have my side mousebutton for deselect. It works really well for me. Recommend it .

Need new mouse ASAP!

I'm going to see how this works with my wacom tablet. I should be able to assign these things to my buttons, and the "radial" menu. Sweet!

[Tricky-Loops]

I'm late to this party. I have a reaper license and I've been trying to "get into" reaper for about 2 years, so I'd like to learn more...

For one thing, why do people always cite routing in reaper as a big deal? As far as I can tell the routing consists of a matrix mixer. Sure there's a lot you can do with matrix routing, but it's not what I would consider mind-blowing (especially coming from other programs with modular routing interfaces).

One other thing that's always bothered me is that for all the options and flexibility, there doesn't seem to be something as simple as sound-on-sound loop overdubbing for audio (only midi), which is available on all sorts of more limited recording environments and hardware.

What do you mean by "sound-on-sound loop overdubbing"?? In REAPER you can put a loop on another loop on another loop and so on (if that's what you intend with overdubbing), and it works...

[revo11]

Yes continuous loop recording where you hear all your previous layers of recording. Pretty damn basic, but last I checked this was only implemented with midi data and was not possible for audio recording. Correct me if I'm wrong.

I'm late to this party. I have a reaper license and I've been trying to "get into" reaper for about 2 years, so I'd like to learn more...

For one thing, why do people always cite routing in reaper as a big deal? As far as I can tell the routing consists of a matrix mixer. Sure there's a lot you can do with matrix routing, but it's not what I would consider mind-blowing (especially coming from other programs with modular routing interfaces).

One other thing that's always bothered me is that for all the options and flexibility, there doesn't seem to be something as simple as sound-on-sound loop overdubbing for audio (only midi), which is available on all sorts of more limited recording environments and hardware.

What do you mean by "sound-on-sound loop overdubbing"?? In REAPER you can put a loop on another loop on another loop and so on (if that's what you intend with overdubbing), and it works...

[Tricky-Loops]

You CAN edit the MIDI of more than one clip if you have them as ghost copies (or MIDI file reference)..

Try opening two or more different clips or tracks directly and editing the notes on them at the same time. Not talking "clip properties" or ghost copies, but actual note editing on different unrelated clips. Unless I misseed something about what's probably the biggest midi FR for Reaper.

Anyway, carry on. See rule #2.

That's right, but I never have missed this feature. Do you really have so many different (unrelated) clips whereon you want to edit the notes simultaneously? For example, if you want to change the velocity CC or expression CC of some notes (of different clips) to the same value, did you mean that?

[sellyoursoul]

I'm late to this party. I have a reaper license and I've been trying to "get into" reaper for about 2 years, so I'd like to learn more...

For one thing, why do people always cite routing in reaper as a big deal? As far as I can tell the routing consists of a matrix mixer. Sure there's a lot you can do with matrix routing, but it's not what I would consider mind-blowing (especially coming from other programs with modular routing interfaces).

The matrix is an optional routing interface. I never use it. The routing isn't about the matrix, it's about how signal paths can be set up. Any track can send/receive to any other track, on any configuration of track channels that you choose. Multiple signal paths can be set up on a single track. MIDI and audio can exist on a single track. You can do feedback routing. What it boils down to is that you can route things in pretty much any way that you see fit without a bunch of bs, which wasn't the case at all when I left Cubase.

[liquidsound]

Ghost is like an everyday thing in MuLab or energyXT. I'm surprised it was not so popular with reaper users.
I got the Pianoroll as I like except the diselect notes which I need to use a keyboard modifier still.

I'm too new to this.

I have my side mousebutton for deselect. It works really well for me. Recommend it .

Need new mouse ASAP!

Hehe, yea, you really should. With a mouse with two side buttons, you get so much functionality it's crazy! I have deselect on one, and toggle zoom on the other. But then you have ctrl+mouse, shift+mouse, alt+mouse, ctrl+shift+mouse, and if you really need it, ctrl+alt+mouse (not as comfortable to press, ctrl+shift are easy to press if your keyboard aligns them). So, that's 8 "more" buttons to use in the midi editor. I have double/halve note length and increase/decrease grid size. Havent thought up useful things for the others yet, but that's a nice problem to have. And then of course you have all the mouse modifiers, but im using them for selection of notes, mostly.

As long is not a wireless mouse. I wonder if Space Ball would do as well....
I'll need to borrow one of those.

[Tricky-Loops]

Yes continuous loop recording where you hear all your previous layers of recording. Pretty damn basic, but last I checked this was only implemented with midi data and was not possible for audio recording. Correct me if I'm wrong.

I'm late to this party. I have a reaper license and I've been trying to "get into" reaper for about 2 years, so I'd like to learn more...

For one thing, why do people always cite routing in reaper as a big deal? As far as I can tell the routing consists of a matrix mixer. Sure there's a lot you can do with matrix routing, but it's not what I would consider mind-blowing (especially coming from other programs with modular routing interfaces).

One other thing that's always bothered me is that for all the options and flexibility, there doesn't seem to be something as simple as sound-on-sound loop overdubbing for audio (only midi), which is available on all sorts of more limited recording environments and hardware.

What do you mean by "sound-on-sound loop overdubbing"?? In REAPER you can put a loop on another loop on another loop and so on (if that's what you intend with overdubbing), and it works...

Right, (audio) TAKES overdubbing isn't possible in REAPER. But I've always explored the recorded (audio) takes in new tracks, so I didn't had any problem with it.

[liquidsound]

I just signed up to the Groove3 Reaper tutorials. Let's see if this thing can sink under my skin...

[hibidy]

It's like the reaper forum

Lawrence, you wanna field this? I can't really get into it. I guess my attitude is considering that others do it, I feel reaper should have advanced to the point where it can.

I will say that I don't feel like adding a 78% quantize to the couple of hundred midi clips I have (trilian, superior drummer, etc)

[h2ogun99]

I just signed up to the Groove3 Reaper tutorials. Let's see if this thing can sink under my skin...

I loved it. Worth the money. Please keep us posted on your thoughts. I was really impressed with what I learned, and will go through it again since there were so many goodies it was hard to keep up. I suggest you follow what he's doing in Reaper. Enjoy!

[LawrenceF]

Lawrence, you wanna field this?

Pass. I've had this discussion 1000 times and it always ends badly.

Anyway, Reaper is a really great product imo. Jusst remember rule #2.