What's so special about Reaper?

[glokraw]

Reaper doesn't get in my way for small projects,
I get a clean slate, and when I need 'more', there is
always a trove to explore, and plenty of excellent support
out in the wilds.

One of the best supporters is 'The Reaper Blog',
offering excellent content, commercial and free,
and monthly updates on the latest improvements,
which can be mined when one needs 'more'.

www.reaperblog.net
www.mixinginreaper.com

[Psuper]

Its infinitely customizable, constantly updated, streamlined, cheap, and to the point.

[fmr]

Cubase 9.5 £480.00
Reaper 5.9 £45.00

The price for starters !...

Actually ...

$60: discounted license
$225: commercial license

The "commercial" license is ONLY for those that make $20.000 OR MORE out of music business. Anyone who qualifies should not have any problems in spending $225, especially because it is deductible on tax reports.

I bet that around 95% of KVR users (me included) qualify for the "discounted" price

[Aleatoriac]

I don't know if there's anything special about it, but I do know it tends to be useful for stirring righteous rage in the cultist followers of other DAWs if it's offered as an alternative to upgrading another DAW.

Most of my work is done in Reaper. I use Ableton for remixing my work and "recomposing" and making alternate versions, or for some very specific things that Ableton gives me a better feeling about (it's not a rational process at that point).

I think Reaper has more routing abilities, and it costs so much less it's stupid...

[oneway]

Special? Well it seems to be one of the only DAWs I can think of that's designed by committee in the pre-release forum.

[woggle]

the OP nails it I think - tremendous flexibility and power at the cost of higher requirements placed on the user to organise and maintain workflow.
My additional comment is that Reaper is probably the only DAW where a great deal of the functionality is provided by external unpaid labor.

[Jonathan Shepherd]

I stuck with Podium for so long, as it handles automation well. But fairly recently Reaper got automation clips, so I dove in and now have it geared for midi perfectly. Just takes some time to customize properly. Half the features I may never use, but they're there if needed.
PS Version 5.93 is now out---

[enroe]

Don't think it was really a question. Rather free community advertising.

Is this an insult?

The first post in this thread IS a REAL question.

And also I gave one (of many potential) answer(s) using
a concrete example - without any adulation.

I'd get tarred, feathered and crucified for doing the same with Cubase, BTW. Just sayin'.

Haha, no you won't -- as long as you just talk about tangible features,
from which everybody can learn: For instance: Tell us about the
practical use of VariAudio in comparison to Melodyne (but in another
thread).

[JerGoertz]

I stuck with Podium for so long, as it handles automation well. But fairly recently Reaper got automation clips, so I dove in and now have it geared for midi perfectly. Just takes some time to customize properly. Half the features I may never use, but they're there if needed.
PS Version 5.93 is now out---

Would you say Reaper handles automation as well as Podium? Also, AFAIK, Podium has automation spline curves; are Reaper's curved or linear?

[Jonathan Shepherd]

I would say yes it does, though a bit different. It has bezier curves, but no splines with handles. I have a custom action to draw out complex curves then auto reduce points with a pop up slider. Good stuff.

[Distorted Horizon]

are Reaper's curved or linear?

Curves.jpg

[.jon]

Reaper is special because it has 10x more bloat than all the other past, current and future DAWs together, it's developed so unprofessionally it needs constant fixing, yet the fans think it's streamlined and rapidly developed.

Jokes aside, it's a very affordable yet full-featured piece of software rewarding those with evolved workflow requirements and the time and skill to customize it to their needs. Or those with less specific, but similar to the developer's workflow.

I had the skills and the time, but my needs were probably too far from the needs of the devs to make it work, which left me sorely disappointed due to the mental capital (I learnt it inside and out, scripting and theming etc) and time invested and in the end completely wasted, which caused me to be overly negative about Reaper here and elsewhere. Your needs might be different, so I do honestly recommend trying it out, it costs nothing (very generous trial period) and there's nothing quite like it out there.

[bungle]

I can't just right click on a sample and have it open in a sampler on a new track.
I can't right click a drum loop and have it automatically sliced and distributed across the keyboard.

It's a script, add it to your item right click context, done

I can't right click a drum loop and have it automatically sliced and distributed across the keyboard.

Terrible feature that should be shot in the face of any app that has it, automatic transient detection is hit n miss on its bets days, spend the extra minute and put the markers where they should be

I can't add a stereo width knob onto the mixer channels by global default, I have to go into the settings and manually change them in every new project (yes I could make a template).

Yes you can, track layout, change globally.

I can't just right click and insert a new midi item, I have to do it from a menu or hold down a key whilst using the mouse

Yes you can, just add the insert MIDI item command to your right click context menu.

I can't choose my own fx slot in the mixer, it just adds them automatically and then I have to drag it to my preferred slot.

Drag n drop to a slot and it loads the effect to that slot, right click a loaded effect and use replace

I can't bypass an fx in the mixer channel with a single mouse click, I have to hold down a key while pressing the mouse, or open the plugin, click bypass and then close it again.

Right click and bypass

I can't render individual midi items in place.

It is a very very simple macro to make, ask at the forum if you cant work it out.

What is so special about Reaper ?
The fact that nearly everything the people who dislike it say it can't do, it does easily.
possibility is that you do not want to actually set Reaper up, there are plenty of DAWs, go and pick another.

[metamorphosis]

It is robust, the included bridge seems to handle almost any 32-bit plugin well.

It is CPU-efficient.

This, pretty much. It is surprising how badly many daws handle older plugins (eg. Tracktion).

[Trancit]

I can't just right click on a sample and have it open in a sampler on a new track.
I can't right click a drum loop and have it automatically sliced and distributed across the keyboard.

It's a script, add it to your item right click context, done

I can't right click a drum loop and have it automatically sliced and distributed across the keyboard.

Terrible feature that should be shot in the face of any app that has it, automatic transient detection is hit n miss on its bets days, spend the extra minute and put the markers where they should be

Which isn´t necessary with i.e. rex loops and the script you mentioned is quite cumbersome...

Fact is, that Reaper definetely lacks of drag n drop support of audio from the timeline into a plugin...
Reaper lacks of many features, which are present in other DAW´s for electronic music production...

Instead of being improved for this type of producer we got a whacky video editor, which is at the most useable for the most nerdy nerds and now the with the new track wiring diagramm the 150th way to route tracks

I can't choose my own fx slot in the mixer, it just adds them automatically and then I have to drag it to my preferred slot.

Drag n drop to a slot and it loads the effect to that slot, right click a loaded effect and use replace

That´s by far not the same...
Fact is Reaper simply hasn´t got this feature... there are no slots in Reaper and you are forced to do reordering manually

I can't bypass an fx in the mixer channel with a single mouse click, I have to hold down a key while pressing the mouse, or open the plugin, click bypass and then close it again.

Right click and bypass

He asked for one click not 2 clicks...

Reaper is a really great DAW...
Nevertheless it´s far from being the holy grail and especially edm producers have to do their work with many cumbersome workarounds...
I would really like to see some improvements on this side, but I fear that Justin & CO are the wrong people for that...
Atm it seems to go more into an alternative Vegas Pro, which he has used before