Is REAPER the current best long term choice?

[3lu5iv3]

for people looking for a better UI for Reaper try this theme called VGS.
it looks awesome. https://stash.reaper.fm/theme/2199/VGS.zip

[jinotsuh]

[Unaspected]

for people looking for a better UI for Reaper try this theme called VGS.
it looks awesome. https://stash.reaper.fm/theme/2199/VGS.zip

Either highly subjective or piss take.

This post broke me.

[GaryG]

for people looking for a better UI for Reaper try this theme called VGS.
it looks awesome. https://stash.reaper.fm/theme/2199/VGS.zip

If you really want a Live/Excel style GUI then I think rLive is much nicer.

https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php ... ight=rlive

[Tj Shredder]

for people looking for a better UI for Reaper try this theme called VGS.
it looks awesome. https://stash.reaper.fm/theme/2199/VGS.zip

If you really want a Live/Excel style GUI then I think rLive is much nicer.

https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php ... ight=rlive

Wanted to comment „much worse than Live“. Yours is as bad as Live… Which shows how subjective these themes are. If you are used to a certain brand you can make Reaper look like it, and even listen to the same short cuts. And as the community is huge, its likely you find a variant somebody already did the hard part of the work.
I work in Bitwig, and could make Reaper look like Bitwig, but not act like Bitwig that easy. But I would use Reaper anyway just for the tasks Bitwig isn‘t made for. Multichannel/Ambisonics support for example…
I suspect, if its about long term use, and not about features, Reaper is a god choice. More so if the feature set fits your needs… I would always set inspiration as highest priority on my list, then features, then how much development I expect for the future, then price…

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

Let's not turn this thread into the "here's my favorite Reaper theme" thread. We already had a thread for that recently.

Regarding the GUI, I too wish they overhauled the look of Reaper to stop relying on the operating system to draw menus and windows. They've been knocking out some big feature requests lately so my hope is that soon there will be no more worlds left to conquer [by that I mean major feature requests] and a GUI overhaul will eventually get worked on. Maybe for Reaper 7 in a few years. Also note: the issue is primarily on Windows. On Mac, the menus and preferences are still a little cluttered, but Reaper looks much better with the right theme and dark mode enabled in the OS. This is because Apple has updated the look of their OS drawn objects over the years, whereas Windows has developed a few different ways to draw Windows and never settled on one, so the legacy options remain unchanged.

[Unaspected]

Reaper is a god choice.

Deity DAW. 'nuff said.

[GaryG]

This is because Apple has updated the look of their OS drawn objects over the years, whereas Windows has developed a few different ways to draw Windows and never settled on one, so the legacy options remain unchanged.

This is a good point. Reaper looks a little better on Win 11 (rounded corners etc) but still using those old buttons etc, slave to the OS.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

This is because Apple has updated the look of their OS drawn objects over the years, whereas Windows has developed a few different ways to draw Windows and never settled on one, so the legacy options remain unchanged.

This is a good point. Reaper looks a little better on Win 11 (rounded corners etc) but still using those old buttons etc, slave to the OS.

Yeah, if you build the new Windows universal apps (whatever that entails), then your application will use Windows more modern style. But in Microsoft's quest to never fix things that aren't broke (which is admirable in its own way) they didn't design the OS to just say, "hey, let me modernize the look of these old applications by redrawing the windows and buttons using the modern style."

But most DAWs aren't relying on the OS at all and just use their own elements. I think the Reaper devs have always kind of viewed that as a waste of time and not something they're really interested in moving to, but I still remain optimistic it could happen some day. I know themers would certainly appreciate having access to change the entire look of Reaper, users would love it, and they're running out of room on some of Preferences windows. But probably just wishful thinking on my part...

[Michael L]

I would always set inspiration as highest priority on my list, then features, then how much development I expect for the future, then price…

[vitocorleone123]

A: Not necessarily.

[jonljacobi]

It's not the look or themes for me, it's the antiquated dialogs. Fantastic features though. Personally, I've never gotten inspiration from a DAW. Just some are nicer to work in than others.

[Danilo Villanova]

Once you get past the annoyances and you make your toolbars, shortcuts, etc. and settle on a set of good extensions, you simply can't go back. There's always a new way to make your workflow faster.

Also, there's a bunch of things that simple work better and/or are better implemented in REAPER than basically anything else, like routing, rendering stems, auto-naming files, VST signal (MIDI fx, VSTi, VST fx, all one after the other as fx on he track), loading times, etc.

[Michael L]

reaper does well for people whose workflows are similar for each project type
those people can create efficient portable installs that work for each project type

it is much less suitable for people whose workflows are different for each project
those people will go nuts trying to find and understand each new action they need

[3lu5iv3]

LMAO. But Reaper is not a pig!