Is REAPER the current best long term choice?

[liquidsound]

...
Apart from that, it is the best DAW which happens also to be ugliest, no matter what skin you apply.

really don't know what's wrong with you, but seriously.
...

Try to make it look like this on Windows... perhaps then you´ll understand what people claim about!

Themes looking great and consistent in every single DAW... just in Reaper it´s mostly impossible to make it look consistent without tons of tweaks and additional tools to do what others do out of the box...

I've got few themes, and they look identical (as much as I my exploration on my rarely used iMac attested) on PC and Mac.
If the theme is well designed AND maintained, you have not many issues. Tons of tweaks?... maybe if you have no idea what you are doing, or you didn't bother to read the (huge ) user guide.

Reaper 7 has a great Theme Adjuster to tweak most used aspects of the day-to-day workflow.

To me just the ability to run things without begging (and pay) for years of unrealized FR is worth the efforts of making the DAW adjusting to my workflow (and it's actually fun perhaps because I'm a fresh user).

"Time invested" to bring Reaper to my likes is actually an "investment" in my music production.

[xbitz]

...
Apart from that, it is the best DAW which happens also to be ugliest, no matter what skin you apply.

really don't know what's wrong with you, but seriously.
...

Try to make it look like this on Windows... perhaps then you´ll understand what people claim about!

Themes looking great and consistent in every single DAW... just in Reaper it´s mostly impossible to make it look consistent without tons of tweaks and additional tools to do what others do out of the box...

but it seems to need only two utilities https://github.com/Rectify11/Installer/releases and for the title bars https://github.com/MicaForEveryone/Mica ... e/releases and done

[l33t4e]

Some people shit on Reaper without even knowing what it really is. This is a DAW you customize to be the best DAW you ever used. If you want a ready-made cookie-cutter DAW, then there are so many others out there. I'm a new Reaper user and only got it a few days ago and I am mind blown by what it can do and how much I can customize. So much better than all the other DAWs I tried. It did not take me long at all to customize it to my liking.

Also Reaper is like Reason DAW with it's scripts and plugins, except it's "Rack Extensions" are ALL FREE!

[jethrobull]

Think I said earlier in this thread. In 15 years of using Reaper, I've never felt the need to change the look of it.
This was (to me) an added bonus of Reaper (the customisation).
It was the Price, stability and capability of Reaper, that was, and is, the deal breaker for me.
I honestly don't care what it looks like, as long as it does what I want.
Cubase 3.0 on Atari ST! Now, thems were the dayzzzz

[gauderbock]

Cubase 3.0 on Atari ST! Now, thems were the dayzzzz

Show off. This was all I could afford: https://www.muzines.co.uk/articles/gaji ... er-one/305

[mdx4ever]

And this is a reason why I still using Cubase as my main DAW.
Started with Atari ST and Steinberg Pro 24.
Now on Cubase 13 Pro and Mac

[jethrobull]

Cubase 3.0 on Atari ST! Now, thems were the dayzzzz

Show off. This was all I could afford: https://www.muzines.co.uk/articles/gaji ... er-one/305

Unfortunately it wasn't my set up

[Trancit]

I've got few themes, and they look identical (as much as I my exploration on my rarely used iMac attested) on PC and Mac.
...

So then without additional tools on Windows and dabbling around with them show me some darker themes with having i.e. the FX browser open...

Afaik on Mac I can easily switch to a dark OS theme for all windows...
That´s not possible on Windows... dark themes have bright grey FX browser etc...
This I mean with consistency... this doesn´t happen with all other DAWs because they have their own skinning for ALL windows you can use in it...
Justin decided to save some space and computing to just rely on what the OS´ have to offer for additional browsers in Reaper... silly decision!

but it seems to need only two utilities <span class="skimlinks-unlinked">https://github.com/Rectify11/Installer/releases</span> and for the title bars <span class="skimlinks-unlinked">https://github.com/MicaForEveryone/Mica ... ases</span> and done

2 utilities more and dabbling around with them (no clue how complex they are) I don´t need for FLS, Ableton, Cubase, Studio One, Bitwig...yadayadayada...

I know you love experimenting and doing weird stuff... but there are some people for whom it´s not big fun and who want to keep that extra work as little as possible...

Of course it´s not the end of the world but when we are discussing the look of Reaper it´s important to respect these points as well...
And even with having everything necessary done, Reaper is still the ugliest DAW alive... the shape of items especially when looped with these ultra deep cuts, the ugly thick automation lines, the Excel like FX container with these huge drop down menues/FX comments you cannot get rid off, these cryptic internal tools like the parameter modulations and the worst of all the look of user scripts...

Don´t get me wrong... I find it great that mnay people share their scripts they probably have made for themselves at first but man... I get eye cancer from them... Sequencer Mega baby is one of the best examples...
Anybody considering this as looking as a professional tool has imho lost his freaking mind...
Of course it´s a matter of taste if you care of these things at all or if you can happily ignore these issues but for me... I have hard times to open Reaper...

[lotus2035]

What's the name of your theme?

https://forums.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=286521

Very nice, thanks.

[liquidsound]

So then without additional tools on Windows and dabbling around with them show me some darker themes with having i.e. the FX browser open...

You don't really need to open the FX window at all and achieve the same thing (even better actually) if you use the right workflow.

That´s not possible on Windows... dark themes have bright grey FX browser etc...

Again that's not entirely true. As I have a theme (and there are many of) that has everything dark, Media browser, Routing Matrix etc. except the FX window (which I explained above you don't ever need to use) and the Options window and of course the Menus and perhaps other area I did not explored yet. So, I'm on windows 10 and my Reaper is all dark without me doing anything but using a really great theme: Reapertips.

I understand your position; it took me more than 15 years to appreciate Reaper.
You've got time...

Enjoy BWS and try not to spend the next 15 years begging for FR and end up like me... with Reaper

[Michael L]

Reaper is still the ugliest DAW alive... Anybody considering this as looking as a professional tool has lost his freaking mind.
Of course it's a matter of taste if you care of these things at all or if you can happily ignore these issues

I think people who use a daw for composing have different aesthetic needs than people who use a daw for producing or mixing.

Its like a right- vs left-brain sensibility

I will always choose an elegantly-designed but limited daw over one that clutters my mind with a cacophony of choices.

OTOH, some dive right into Reaper's sea of action macros, context menus, controls and commands, keyboard shortcuts, selections, settings, scripts, toolbars, tabs, popups, JS plugins, buttons, icons, item names, mouse modifiers and swim around happy as a fish in water.

it took me more than 15 years to appreciate Reaper.

[xbitz]

It's actually quite true, Logic still has the better design, but this is a close second, which is why I gave it another chance, and it's far more configurable. Another thing is the addition of the Reason Rack, and the Transit, so all my desires for modulation and sequencing can be met without having to dig around in Reaper


usually, the designs tend to slip on the mixer, but this one's most beautiful part is exactly that, so cheers to it.

And in Reaper 7, they finally solved the issue where the playhead would jump 2-4 pixels during movement, which was damn annoying, especially in the piano roll in version 6.

Among scripts, I no longer make the mistake of starting to look at what's available. I just install what's needed for use (ofc, it's a big help that I remember from the last round what I ended up using): a chord handler in the piano roll, a few for zooming in the arranger, and one for playing from the selected clip, and that's it ... and QuantizeTool of mpl, but that's pretty much a must

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1Qyg1Jg80s
yepp plus the playback should start from a given clip position with a mouse click that's also need scripts + for the easy groove quantization, you also need the mentioned mpl script

[liquidsound]

The sad part of all these posts “resistance to Reaper” is that I felt the same for 15+ years as well
Bad habits are hard to break

@Michael… guess why I still use MuLab?

[xbitz]

yay

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQzChTUB8gE

https://www.lkctools.com/content-navigator

[Michael L]

The sad part of all these posts “resistance to Reaper” is that I felt the same for 15+ years as well
Bad habits are hard to break

Ohhh Nooooes!
We need an Intervention!!
Residential therapy is our only hope!!!