Greetings wise KVRians,


I'll admit, and I never thought I would, that I'm grinning this morning after spending yesterday watching Groove3's (Kenny's) Reaper4 Explained. One screen had his tuts; the other had an evaluation of Reaper. I was willing to spend the $20 for the tuts to give Reaper a genuine fair shot.

I've been working with different DAWs since the early 2000's. I started about the time I joined KVR. Logic is where I landed and have been for a few years.

I'm not going to get into all the features I love in Reaper, yet there's a bit of concern that my enthusiasm for Reaper might overshadow some key things that I might be missing, if I do indeed make the jump from Logic.

For those who know both DAWs well, are there any key features that Logic has that I might find myself stumbling on, and missing in Reaper down the road? Any deal breakers? - This would not include the obvious plugins that come with Logic.

There's a good fear that this has already been covered in other threads, yet I wanted to also share my enthusiasm based on a genuine effort to understand what all of the hype is about. I now understand.

Thank you!

L

it involves selling your soul.

And the first rule of Reaper Club is your dont talk about Reaper Club. On KVR.

What are you wanting out of it? It's always seems more recording focused to me at least, but you get a month (legitemately) to test it.

What are you hoping for from the change, BTW? presumably you can work side by side for a bit, esp as its cheap as chips.

Well, I have a love/hate relationship with Logic. The reason I took a hard look at is was based on a thread on another forum where PT users (some are engineers at studios) and Logic users were discussing their switch. Admittedly, I'm a lurker there, and KVR is me home, so I didn't want to pose this question there.

I didn't start these tutorials thinking I was going to make a switch. I did however do it out of fairness as I had no idea what to do once I opened the software. Little things first stood out. You can have a 32bit plug stay on the screen and not vanish every time you click on something else (running in 64bit), for one. FX on clips. Workflow is impressive and the right-click options are also nice and extensive. Customization and the action scripts (wonderful for my Wacom tablet). The workflow with automation seemed easier... etc. etc.

I thought that somewhere in testing it I will hit an "oh, crap" moment and realize it is not capable of something key. Asking that question here might save me some time, or ease my concern.

I was not aware of the Reaper Club... haha. Sorry if I crossed a line.

I never really got on with it as I couldn't be bothered with the cusmomisation needed to be able to find things. People have commented on the MIDI being a bit limited but lots of people swear by it. I imagine you'll only find out about things that don't work for you through the trial though, and the Groove3 tuts are meant to be good so you've a head start. Have you got the sws extensions installed? everyone recommeneds them...

I am not aware of the sws extensions. Let me look into that. Thanks for the chat!

You obviously haven't touched "The Enviroment" at all in Logic.

It's not just a thing to help you connect things together.
Turns out that you can create generative music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXd2Ncp357o
or
http://www.youtube.com/DigiMixStudios and look for "Creating Generative Music with Logic 9"

I'm currently working on video tutorials regarding what I did with this video.

Notice how I use an existing MIDI file and with several Logic Enviroment Macros I created, that was able to generate a new musical pattern/song/idea.

Now that's just one MIDI file, I could replace the MIDI file and keep the same setup and see what other music it creates.
No additional 3rd party software, it's only Enviroment Macros that are being used.

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

I use Reaper x64 Win as my primary DAW. The biggest catch is its configurability/flexibility which I see as both a blessing and a curse.

1. The workflow might take a while to get used to. Because there are so many hooks and macros you might have to spend considerable time really making it comfortable. But once you do it's great.

2. It has a large number of config options in an attempt to appease a wide range of requests. This means you have to read and learn about a fairly large number of config options and what they do.

3. There is no default channel strip effect list. You have to either buy your own effects or learn/use the ones included with Reaper. While not much to look at the effects included are decent but also take time to learn. You're going to have to do more learning and exploring here to find the right set of plugins you want to use on each track and on your master bus.

If you're just looking for the cheapest DAW and don't want to make your own environment you might have better luck with an LE version of Cubase or Studio One. However, if the idea of configurability and customization really appeal to you then Reaper offers this in spades. Don't just buy Reaper because it's $40-$50 cheaper than an entry-level DAW that has a workflow you prefer.

I use reaper for mixing and recording. its a great DAW for that. and it really seems to be the main focus. but people do use it for other stuff.

If you use Reaper make sure you get a good theme with lots of tool bar buttons - that's where its at!

+1 for keeping Logic while you learn Reaper .

I agree. I have scores of projects that I don't plan on bringing into Reaper. My next number one hit song (hehehe) I'll do in Reaper to see how it works.

You are correct. Really nice vid. I passed this along to my bandmate. This could be useful. Thank you.

i dont try to customise reaper much its where alot of people just get caught up in

Reaper has a ton of features and customization - but you have to be willing to put the time in to do the customization (and it can take quite a bit of time). The one thing I didn't see in Reaper was elastic audio / flextime. Reaper has dynamic splits and timestretch, but it isn't the same thing or workflow.

I wish Reaper didn't freeze on my Mac - would've liked to give it a proper go. No solution from Cockos so far. Logic, PT10, S1v2, Ableton Live, and Cubase 6.5 have all worked on the same machine.