Polarized opinions about Reaper

[.jon]

About to switch to Reaper...

How are the built-in effects compared to third-party effects such as Toneboosters?
I used to use Mixcraft, but its native effects were of mediocre quality in my view.

I was also surprised about the small download size
Glad they don't bundle crap with their DAW

Reaper is bundled with more useless crap than any other DAW, hundreds of piss-poor "JS" fx. The file size is small because it's all GUIless crap. The included Cockos-made effects and instruments are worthless or worse. The compressor is the only half-decent one, but there are dozens better or equally good with much better UIs.

Anyway, they don't waste much space so that's one thing they got going for them. And it's not the only DAW with poor included FX, but in 2017 we're not limited to using those so it imo shouldn't count much into the real use value of any DAW. Reaper has a rock solid bridge inbuilt so you have tons of options for freeware even.

[fluffy_little_something]

What's JS?

[elassi]

What's JS?

Reaper's own scripting language.

Btw, a nice feature of Reaper is the possibility to exclude these (or other) plugins from the FX browser view. Just right-click and deselect.

As for the plugin quality: Never used them. Being a fan of Toneboosters myself so I think you're good with using them no matter what host you use.

[fluffy_little_something]

Why would the effects be so crappy when the rest is so good?

[elassi]

There are two types of reaper-plugins (JS & VSt).

In terms of JS-plugins it's worth to know that they are sort of a user library (like with NI Reaktor). Everyone can publish a JS-plug and thus the lib is so overcrowded.

Furthermore it's up to individual judgements if the plugs are 'crap'. I for example didn't say this.

[fluffy_little_something]

I see, I don't want user content in there, I would remove or hide it all.

What about the main audio engine in terms of quality?

[elassi]

[BMoore]

I see, I don't want user content in there, I would remove or hide it all.

What about the main audio engine in terms of quality?

It's warm, crisp, full, dynamic, and analog-esque.

[fluffy_little_something]

I thought that was Mixbus

No, what I meant was, how solid it is.
Mulab has caused me some trouble, so all I am interested in now is robustness, no hiccups etc.

[braj]

The only time Reaper gives me problems is when a plugin has a crash bug, and that's on the plugin, not Reaper. Any host would crash. As long as I am not beta testing something, I'm good.

[ghettosynth]

I see, I don't want user content in there, I would remove or hide it all.

What about the main audio engine in terms of quality?

Bias is funny to me. Here is a portion of the header from one of these "user content" plugins.

// Copyright 2006, Thomas Scott Stillwell
// All rights reserved.
//

desc:Major Tom Compressor
desc:Major Tom Compressor [Stillwell]
//tags: dynamics compressor

I might be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that's this guy:

http://www.stillwellaudio.com/

Many of the JS plugins are quick and dirty efforts, certainly, many are just straightforward implementations of the RBJ cookbook filters. Not useless, but you have to know what you're looking for if you think that you need them.

There is a band splitter in there that a friend and I used to solve a problem where we wanted to apply a specific transient processor to different frequency bands in different ways. It's just a Linkwitz/Riley crossover, it works fine.

It's a set of tools that is IMO, not really that much better or worse than the similar age tools in other hosts, e.g, Cubase. Some are useful, some are meh, some are pretty sad.

It's rather unique to Reaper, however, that you can modify them easily and from within the host. Of course, not everyone has the skill set for doing something useful there.

[fluffy_little_something]

Well, I will use only my Toneboosters plugins, just to be on the safe side.

What I haven't figured out yet: how do I display the synth and the effects GUI's at the same time? When I open an effect GUI, the synth GUI disappears and vice versa

[ghettosynth]

Well, I will use only my Toneboosters plugins, just to be on the safe side.

What you use is your choice, of course, I'm just pointing out that they have a place and that your bias re: user content is just a choice that you've made to trust some devs and not others that might be based on a false understanding of their skill and experience.

The crossover trick that I pointed out is useful, it will turn any plugin, or even any chain of plugins into a multiband processor. Tonebossters doesn't have ANY midi effects afaik, so by completely ruling out the JS effects you will lose a lot of useful midi processors. They're simple enough that almost anyone could learn to modify them and create their own variants.

[elassi]

+1 for the MIDI FX.

You don't need them every day, but if so, they are there (often with just this specific function you're looking for - and only this).

[himalaya]

.... so all I am interested in now is robustness, no hiccups etc.

I jumped ship from Sonar 8.5 (years ago now) because of its very flaky audio engine. For example, Sonar would drop out during playback when I tweaked the fade envelope in a clip. I was really fed up with the way it would drop out at every opportunity.
I switched to Reaper mainly because of its rock solid performance, no hick ups, no drop outs, just great handling all over, especially with all the synth plugins, many alpha and beta builds...

Since then, I have used Reaper in very testing conditions. For example, I used it live at one massive live event with 5000 people, where I had over 56 midi channels ( several synths and samplers, some multi-timbral) all playing live. Not a single problem. Whereas, the same project wouldn't budge in Logic.

I can give you more such examples, but suffice to say, in my experience Reaper's audio engine has proven to be top notch. But, I still sometimes hate Reaper with a passion!