Reaper Gets Deeper

[billybk1]

Well, to be fair, the whole thing is pretty much painless and take a whole of 20 seconds to do, including download time. On a yearly basis, I probably spend much less time on upgrading and tweaking Reaper than for other software I own.

No way, point taken.

To me it's not a matter of time needed to do the weekly update. It's more about rendering a vendors risk my one prematurely.
But in the end, I don't have to - it's always me who's weak.


Cheers,
LiteOn

I have probably used/abused/updated REAPER as much if not more than anyone over the last three years. I have installed hundreds of updates during this time and have never had an issue. Now sure, an update may introduce a new bug, but the cool thing about REAPER (unlike any other major DAW's that I know of), is how easy it is to revert to a prior update. Simply re-run any previous installer over the top of an existing version and bingo bango you are back to where you were and it only takes a few seconds to do an update. REAPER is totally self contained (Justin created the code from the ground up) as it never writes to the registry or relies on any Windows components nor does it use any extraneous copy protection crap in order to run. You can even run REAPER totally off of a thumb drive on virtually any computer.

You could say I have logged more than a few hours on REAPER!

[billybk1]

But to be clear, I like the Reaper concept (offer & price scheme especially) but just don't agree that a more public development process is a better thing or sign of anything per se.


Cheers,
LiteOn

FYI, there is always on going and very active public beta (and sometimes even alpha) testing done on all REAPER builds at the public LOL site before they even reach the official release version that is ultimately posted on the website. I download those all the time as well just to get the latest scoop on new features & bug fixes and offer any personal insights or feature requests on the REAPER beta forums.


EDIT: You can easily & freely download the latest beta builds just ask/look for the proper link @ the REAPER forums. Justin has asked that the link not be posted on public forums though.

[LiteOn]

Now sure, an update may introduce a new bug, but the cool thing about REAPER (unlike any other major DAW's that I know of), is how easy it is to revert to a prior update. Simply re-run any previous installer over the top of an existing version and bingo bango you are back to where you were and it only takes a few seconds to do an update. REAPER is totally self contained (Justin created the code from the ground up) as it never writes to the registry or relies on any Windows components nor does it use any extraneous copy protection crap in order to run. You can even run REAPER totally off of a thumb drive on virtually any computer.

Indeed, that's a major pro!

As I said, I like the basic philosophy and notion of reaper and its developers.


Cheers,
LiteOn

[sockofgold]

Come on, guys. Where are the nerds? It's version 3.14, and nobody has made a pi reference? What gives???

(I guess the title on the download page says "rounding things out," so at least that's a start.)

[EvilDragon]

There's bunch of PI references on the Reaper forums

[blueman]

Reaper has great features at a very attractive price but...what's the deal with the cryptic user interface? Honestly, it's several years behind what others are doing now. The user interface is flat and uninspiring to use (yes, even with the 3.x "improvements") I'm surprised more people don't make issue of the UI?

[Arkadey]

Reaper has great features at a very attractive price but...what's the deal with the cryptic user interface? Honestly, it's several years behind what others are doing now. The user interface is flat and uninspiring to use (yes, even with the 3.x "improvements") I'm surprised more people don't make issue of the UI?

that's what i like SAWStudio for. They've always been 3 steps ahead of the game.

[blueman]

that's what i like SAWStudio for. They've always been 3 steps ahead of the game.

ok, ok...point taken!

[concealed identity]

Reaper has great features at a very attractive price but...what's the deal with the cryptic user interface? Honestly, it's several years behind what others are doing now. The user interface is flat and uninspiring to use (yes, even with the 3.x "improvements") I'm surprised more people don't make issue of the UI?

I agree, it's pretty much what kept me from going with Reaper instead of Cubase. The UI just doesn't click with me at all, and I found it a chore to do even simple things.

The beauty of Reaper is that apparently all of that is customizable, more so than any other DAW, so you can basically customize it to exactly how you want it to work. My problem is that 1) that takes a lot of time and dedication, and 2) I don't know how exactly I want it to work yet. So I think it's more for people who know a DAW or two in and out and want something different...the "advanced user," basically. In my case, I was switching from Reason to a VST-based DAW and had only really used Cubase and Ableton a little bit (years ago), and so Reaper was a lot more frustrating for me.

I'll definitely be keeping an eye on it though...I have a feeling I'll be using it eventually, although it may take me a couple of years

[NAS]

But to be clear, I like the Reaper concept (offer & price scheme especially) but just don't agree that a more public development process is a better thing or sign of anything per se.


Cheers,
LiteOn

FYI, there is always on going and very active public beta (and sometimes even alpha) testing done on all REAPER builds at the public LOL site before they even reach the official release version that is ultimately posted on the website. I download those all the time as well just to get the latest scoop on new features & bug fixes and offer any personal insights or feature requests on the REAPER beta forums.

You may want to remove that link from your post
There are some rules at that site that ask you not to link to it

NAS

[shogger]

Perhaps they got it so wrong to start with that they have a lot to correct?

i vote that one.

Funny. I rather wait a week for important bug fixes than a few months. To each their own.

Shogger

[shogger]

Reaper has great features at a very attractive price but...what's the deal with the cryptic user interface? Honestly, it's several years behind what others are doing now. The user interface is flat and uninspiring to use (yes, even with the 3.x "improvements") I'm surprised more people don't make issue of the UI?

that's what i like SAWStudio for. They've always been 3 steps ahead of the game.

At first I thought you are pulling up one of the worst user made Reaper skins. And now that I found out that you're talking about something else I miss your smilies. UIs are soooooo subjective.

Shogger

[aMUSEd]

But to be clear, I like the Reaper concept (offer & price scheme especially) but just don't agree that a more public development process is a better thing or sign of anything per se.


Cheers,
LiteOn

FYI, there is always on going and very active public beta (and sometimes even alpha) testing done on all REAPER builds at the public LOL site before they even reach the official release version that is ultimately posted on the website. I download those all the time as well just to get the latest scoop on new features & bug fixes and offer any personal insights or feature requests on the REAPER beta forums.

You may want to remove that link from your post
There are some rules at that site that ask you not to link to it

NAS

Yeah - which also goes to show that the beta side of things is not entirely public - at least it's tucked away from the main site and official releases to ensure that if people do want test builds they make an active choice to do so and that there is a clear distinction between finished releases (which are not every week) and beta's which may be weekly or even several times in a week. So the public is not being recruited in a constant cycle of beta builds, they are just for those that choose them (as with u-he stuff, which also works very well)

[aMUSEd]

Reaper has great features at a very attractive price but...what's the deal with the cryptic user interface? Honestly, it's several years behind what others are doing now. The user interface is flat and uninspiring to use (yes, even with the 3.x "improvements") I'm surprised more people don't make issue of the UI?

I agree, it's pretty much what kept me from going with Reaper instead of Cubase. The UI just doesn't click with me at all, and I found it a chore to do even simple things.

The beauty of Reaper is that apparently all of that is customizable, more so than any other DAW, so you can basically customize it to exactly how you want it to work. My problem is that 1) that takes a lot of time and dedication, and 2) I don't know how exactly I want it to work yet. So I think it's more for people who know a DAW or two in and out and want something different...the "advanced user," basically. In my case, I was switching from Reason to a VST-based DAW and had only really used Cubase and Ableton a little bit (years ago), and so Reaper was a lot more frustrating for me.

To be fair I don't think it's that bad. I came to Reaper from Tracktion and so was one of the main critics of the ergonomics but I have to say many of my FR's were met ages ago and now with the customisable menus I have it trimmed down to how I want it pretty much. It's not as friendly as Tracktion but nothing else is either, but it's certainly no harder than Sonar (which I also have) and in fact I found it easier to get into than Sonar (particularly in terms of VST handling which I hate in Sonar) and the interface is also less cluttered. Either way it's not rocket science - if a comparatively non technical person like me can get into it I'd say anyone can.

Perhaps now a few people have got into editing down menu's etc a version could have a "simple" and "advanced" interface (like Alchemy)

[chokehold]

Umm... who said that every updated release of Reaper HAS to be a bugfix release? When you get yourself one of the usual sequencers, install it and find out there's a feature missing - d'you call that a bug? ... I'd call it a missing feature. And I don't know about you, but I'd rather stick with Reaper and wait a week or two when I find I need some functionality that others appreciate as well than sticking to an annoying piece of software that didn't behave as or work the way you expected it to ... and no matter how hard you shout your head off for this new feature, probably having to wait another half a year until they release a new version with that feature in it - and probably having to pay for it...
Anyway, my point is: with software from other manufacturers, you pay for a product that says it offers a certain functionality now, and get bugfixes later on that coax the piece of shhoftware into basically doing what you paid for in the first place.
With Reaper, you pay for a piece of software that offers a certain functionality now, and get not only bugfixes to coax it into working as it was intended to - but also getting maybe unexpected (but never the less welcome!!) improvements and refinements on already "working" features, and in addition to that you also get to use features you didn't even pay for to work with...

Also, please refrain from always blaming the tool. In most cases it's the guy unable to handle the tool that causes all the trouble, rather than the tool itself.
If it b*ggers yer that much that your piece of software you maybe didn't even purchase tries to always offer you the most functionality and keep you ahead or at least level with the other "major" sequencers - just uncheck "automatic updates" in the preferences and manually install the newest version whenever you feel like it.

Yup.
Turn it off.
it's that easy.
Mindboggling.