Reaper - What's the catch?

[jam92189]

I think its all in the settings with elastic audio. but thats kinda my point its so flexible that at times it gets in its own way. I know that latley its been having some issues with stability of 64 bit plugins

[Tricky-Loops]

REAPER is powerful in terms of routing, flexibility, customizing and it has great included effects.

What I like is that you can put audio parts in MIDI tracks (the other way around it's difficult ).

The MIDI functions are medium, but can be enhanced with some extensions (SWS) and stash stuff.

One downside: If you are searching for a good included synth to use, forget it! The only included synth is merely unusable. But I have (more than) enough VSTi synths, so I wouldn't need a REAPER synth, either.

The whole customization stuff is great, but I haven't had the time to learn all of them because my main purpose is making music, not becoming a customization prof...

But if I had Logic, I would rather change to Pro Tools or something big and not to REAPER...

[h2ogun99]

But if I had Logic, I would rather change to Pro Tools or something big and not to REAPER...

Why is that?

[Tricky-Loops]

But if I had Logic, I would rather change to Pro Tools or something big and not to REAPER...

Why is that?

Because I'm assuming that you want a more functional DAW than Logic? I've always supposed that Logic has much more features than REAPER. So if you want something better than Logic, I'd recommend Pro Tools...

[gabebrunogarza1021]

Because I'm assuming that you want a more functional DAW than Logic?

"The Enviroment" is where the advanced functional part of Logic is, the creative part is up to you.
Watch my YouTube video and you'll see what I mean.

[gabebrunogarza1021]

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

Thanks and I'm working on the video tutorials on teaching how to create those Macros as well as understand the Enviroment as well.

[chokehold]

Because I'm assuming

...and that's the big mistake.
Reaper IS more powerful, more straight-forward, easier, faster, lighter, bla bla bla.

One big downside is the customizeability... kinda takes the focus off whats important.
And the other major downside is that it doesn't have any usable synths or samplers included, like Studio One or Cubase or Logic would have.

On the other hand, if you have some synths, samplers and samples - forget Logic.
Yes, it's a 'major' DAW, but Reaper is just so much more ahead.

[Tricky-Loops]

Because I'm assuming

...and that's the big mistake.
Reaper IS more powerful, more straight-forward, easier, faster, lighter, bla bla bla.

One big downside is the customizeability... kinda takes the focus off whats important.
And the other major downside is that it doesn't have any usable synths or samplers included, like Studio One or Cubase or Logic would have.

On the other hand, if you have some synths, samplers and samples - forget Logic.
Yes, it's a 'major' DAW, but Reaper is just so much more ahead.

I love (and use) REAPER, but I've always thought that Logic must be better.

BTW, REAPER does have an usable sampler, the ReaSamplOmatic 5000. I love it not because of the (lacking) multitude of functions, but because it needs very low CPU power... For simple tasks, it does the job great...

[gabebrunogarza1021]

Yes, it's a 'major' DAW, but Reaper is just so much more ahead.

Just curious, does the Reaper have an equivalent of The Enviroment as well?

[sellyoursoul]

Reaper is a powerful daw, but it isn't so much a 'suite' like most other daws. It all depends on you, what you want, and how knowledgeable you are about the guts of effects. If you're a coder, you can even write your own in Reaper. It is getting a little bloated these days at around a 6-8 mb download (joke). I joined the Reaper forum in 2006, so I have been using it at least that long. I started out with Cubase, but Reaper's routing pulled me in, and the fast development and bug fixes was enough for me to make the switch.

Where are the holes? I would say that the biggest complaints that I see are to do with MIDI. The MIDI isn't bad, but if you are a heavy MIDI user, as in if you compose with MIDI, you might be disappointed. So, if you're looking to kick the fenders, you might start there. Then again, I have seen videos of guys full out composing orchestra type stuff in Reaper with MIDI. So maybe it is at least partially about making the most of it.

And as someone suggested, definitely do install the SWS/S&M extensions. You might have to ask a few questions here and there to figure out what is going on with that stuff, but it is worth the trouble.

I think that there isn't any catch with Reaper. Just play around with it for a while and see if it is a good fit.

[Tricky-Loops]

Yes, it's a 'major' DAW, but Reaper is just so much more ahead.

Just curious, does the Reaper have an equivalent of The Enviroment as well?

With Reascript you can run Python or Perl scripts (for example as macros) within REAPER. And with Jesusonic it's possible to program new sound effects. Furthermore, there is WALTER (which "can be used to customize the layout and appearance of the REAPER track panels, mixer panels, envelope panels, transport, and so on" - quote from the REAPER page).

I don't know if that's enough Environment, but for programmers there are much possibilities with REAPER...

But unfortunately, I'm no programmer...

[gabebrunogarza1021]

Yes, it's a 'major' DAW, but Reaper is just so much more ahead.

Just curious, does the Reaper have an equivalent of The Enviroment as well?

With Reascript you can run Python or Perl scripts (for example as macros) within REAPER. And with Jesusonic it's possible to program new sound effects. Furthermore, there is WALTER (which "can be used to customize the layout and appearance of the REAPER track panels, mixer panels, envelope panels, transport, and so on" - quote from the REAPER page).

I don't know if that's enough Environment, but for programmers there are much possibilities with REAPER...

But unfortunately, I'm no programmer...

Thanks for that update.
Reascript sounds like the Kontakt Script Language which you can do amazing stuff with.

I am a programmer so that's why The Enviroment was easy for me to pick up and finally realize Logic's full potentional without having to do real programming.

At some point I might take a look at Reaper but I know people mentioned Bidule as well.

Right now I'm just having fun with Logic.

[h2ogun99]

Reaper is a powerful daw, but it isn't so much a 'suite' like most other daws. It all depends on you, what you want, and how knowledgeable you are about the guts of effects. If you're a coder, you can even write your own in Reaper. It is getting a little bloated these days at around a 6-8 mb download (joke). I joined the Reaper forum in 2006, so I have been using it at least that long. I started out with Cubase, but Reaper's routing pulled me in, and the fast development and bug fixes was enough for me to make the switch.

Where are the holes? I would say that the biggest complaints that I see are to do with MIDI. The MIDI isn't bad, but if you are a heavy MIDI user, as in if you compose with MIDI, you might be disappointed. So, if you're looking to kick the fenders, you might start there. Then again, I have seen videos of guys full out composing orchestra type stuff in Reaper with MIDI. So maybe it is at least partially about making the most of it.

And as someone suggested, definitely do install the SWS/S&M extensions. You might have to ask a few questions here and there to figure out what is going on with that stuff, but it is worth the trouble.

I think that there isn't any catch with Reaper. Just play around with it for a while and see if it is a good fit.

Thanks for the reply!

It would be nice to have a few examples of where Reaper's midi falls short. I hear that it does, but have not read any examples as of yet.

As for the SWS, I think I will wrap my head more around Reaper for a few days before digging into it. Me little brain is absorbing as much as it can.

Thanks again.

[jancivil]

"The Enviroment" in Logic.

Is unique. outside of say Bidule there isn't anything as powerful/flexible I don't think. But if you're not using it you won't exactly miss it.

[gabebrunogarza1021]

But if you're not using it you won't exactly miss it.

I thought the same thing, until I had an idea and finally got it working using Enviroment Macros I created.

I'm actually in the process of it's equivlent as a AU Instrument (talking about my YouTube video)
Like anything else, Macro is faster but AU Instrument (Objective-C code) makes it more flexible.