Can REAPER Really Do Anything Other DAWs Can Do?

[whyterabbyt]

It's for people who know a thing or 200 about computers.

Ive written Unix device drivers. It still aint for me. If I wanted my DAW to be an OS, I'd be using Emacs....

[Boone777]

Also, an explorer type menu like Studio one from where you can drag and drop in just about anything...

Media Explorer?

Not exactly. From S1's explorer you can drag and drop a plug-in or a plug-in preset or Media.

You can drag and drop plugins and media in Reaper's Explorer too (not sure about presets but in S1 that only applies to certain formats anyway)

In S1, you can even drag complete channels from other songs, including instrument, effects etc. So if you had a really cool sound in one track that you want to reuse, it's just a matter of opening it in the explorer and drag+drop.

Yeah Logic has a similar way of doing it too. In Reaper you can save track templates and load them in another project. Since you usually don't spend all day doing this it's a simple workaroud. You can have 2 instances of Reaper opened at the same time, save desired track templates and load them in the other project. Pretty fast and intuitive.

[DrFolder]

The spectral editing, spectral peaks and spectrogram views are awesome in Reaper. Being able to visually see the tonal content of an audio file directly on the track lanes and in the media browser are incredibly helpful.

[Muied Lumens]

I don't know if any other DAWs can do subprojects, but I find that an incredibly powerful feature of Reaper! Great for complex and resource hungry projects, and for not getting lost in the details if you use hundreds of files.

Better explained here: https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques ... ubprojects

[EvilDragon]

IIRC Samplitude can do that, and perhaps MuLAB also (not sure)?

In S1, you can even drag complete channels from other songs, including instrument, effects etc. So if you had a really cool sound in one track that you want to reuse, it's just a matter of opening it in the explorer and drag+drop.

That is pretty cool. In Reaper you can open multiple projects simultaneously (hell, you can even RUN multiple projects simultaneously, with synchronized transport etc.!) and copy-paste between them if you want (or use them as subprojects)... or for that particular case you mention, can use track templates.

[LawrenceF]

Reaper is great. Saying that it "can't do something" without a great script coder actually trying it first is usually a mistake.

Anyway, the funniest thing to me about these daw "can do" checklists / daw contests is that they always involve the same products, the usual suspects, and always completely overlook unique and great features in other some products that none of them have.

In that regard it's a really more an Internet popularity contest than truly a search for great or unique ideas or features. People only want what they've seen before, and they only ever look at Cubase, Logic, etc, etc, the usual suspects.

[whyterabbyt]

I don't know if any other DAWs can do subprojects

well, Tracktion, the DAW that Reaper nicked the idea from, obviously.

[LawrenceF]

Just as an observation for the DAW wars ... imo, nobody makes a better software mixer (foundationally and feature wise) than Ardour. You may not like the daw (I don't really care for it), but it's mixer is exceptional and miles ahead of just about anything else out there, functionally speaking.

While the Internet was busy arguing about who had the coolest looking piano roll, those guys were building a recording console.

I mean, there's literally nothing missing there. It even flips faders to sends. Their webpage says...

...the most flexible mixer architecture in the industry.

... and it's really not hype.

[EvilDragon]

I don't know if any other DAWs can do subprojects

well, Tracktion, the DAW that Reaper nicked the idea from, obviously.

IIRC the original feature request referred to Samplitude rather than Tracktion.

[Kalamata Kid]

The spectral editing, spectral peaks and spectrogram views are awesome in Reaper. Being able to visually see the tonal content of an audio file directly on the track lanes and in the media browser are incredibly helpful.

Had forgotten about this feature. Spectral on the track. Great!
Is there any possibility that one day editing the spectral as in Iris will be added?
Select 4 tracks and edit as if in Iris.

[Deep Purple]

It's for people who know a thing or 200 about computers.

Ive written Unix device drivers. It still aint for me. If I wanted my DAW to be an OS, I'd be using Emacs....

Same for me - I've been a C++ developer and programmed micro controllers in a past life (glad it's one that is behind me now!), but Reaper doesn't appeal to me at all. It has nothing to do with complexity, it's just visually and workflow unappealing, and either doesn't implement features I want or implements them badly.

I guess it works for some, but I figure it must be an acquired taste...

[aMUSEd]

The spectral editing, spectral peaks and spectrogram views are awesome in Reaper. Being able to visually see the tonal content of an audio file directly on the track lanes and in the media browser are incredibly helpful.

Had forgotten about this feature. Spectral on the track. Great!
Is there any possibility that one day editing the spectral as in Iris will be added?
Select 4 tracks and edit as if in Iris.

I thought it was, afaik it incorporates this

https://www.stillwellaudio.com/plugins/spectro/

but built in now

[enroe]

Haha, folks, let's get back to the thread-title: It's not about
"Do I want to use Reaper?"

Instead I read:
"Can Reaper really do anything other DAWs can do?

This title implies the question, if Reaper belongs
to the circle of "capital DAWs" which are capable of
doing everything or almost everyting. This circle
consists of the big ones:

Logic Apple, Steinberg Cubase, Cakewalk Sonar
and Studio One.

Now we can rephrase the question to:
Does Reaper belong to this circle, if we only look
at the features?

-----------------------------------------------------------------

And the answer is: "Yes - if we add all the scripts
and the SWS-Extension."

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Ergonomy and personal preferences are an entirely
different topic!

[DrFolder]

Haha, folks, let's get back to the thread-title: It's not about
"Do I want to use Reaper?"

Instead I read:
"Can Reaper really do anything other DAWs can do?

This title implies the question, if Reaper belongs
to the circle of "capital DAWs" which are capable of
doing everything or almost everyting. This circle
consists of the big ones:

Logic Apple, Steinberg Cubase, Cakewalk Sonar
and Studio One.

Now we can rephrase the question to:
Does Reaper belong to this circle, if we only look
at the features?

-----------------------------------------------------------------

And the answer is: "Yes - if we add all the scripts
and the SWS-Extension."

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Ergonomy and personal preferences are an entirely
different topic!

Absolutely I think Reaper belongs on the list, I haven't even used any extensions in it as far as I can remember. Reaper for me is the one that I like based on how I work with external gear, audio and it's the best one for vsti's for how I work so I think it certainly deserves to be on the list for me.
What the best daw is I believe is down to how you work and which one you are comfortable working with.Everyone is going to have a different opinion and experience with the tools they use. Why are any of the other Daws on that list, What's the criteria?

[DrFolder]

Haha, folks, let's get back to the thread-title: It's not about
"Do I want to use Reaper?"

Instead I read:
"Can Reaper really do anything other DAWs can do?

This title implies the question, if Reaper belongs
to the circle of "capital DAWs" which are capable of
doing everything or almost everyting. This circle
consists of the big ones:

Logic Apple, Steinberg Cubase, Cakewalk Sonar
and Studio One.

Now we can rephrase the question to:
Does Reaper belong to this circle, if we only look
at the features?

-----------------------------------------------------------------

And the answer is: "Yes - if we add all the scripts
and the SWS-Extension."

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Ergonomy and personal preferences are an entirely
different topic!

Absolutely I think Reaper belongs on the list, I haven't even used any extensions in it as far as I can remember. Reaper for me is the one that I like based on how I work with external gear, audio and it's the best one for vsti's for how I work so I think it certainly deserves to be on the list for me.
What the best daw is I believe is down to how you work and which one you are comfortable working with.Everyone is going to have a different opinion and experience with the tools they use. Why are any of the other Daws on that list? What's the criteria?