Is REAPER the current best long term choice?

[umd]

I've come to the conclusion it is. It makes more and more sense to 'go off grid' with software. I despise dependency on serials, phoning home, ilok etc. I've been using a portable Reaper install with only drag 'n drop dll freeware plugins for all my professional work for years now. I foresee the internet becoming a more and more 'hostile' place so I'm extremely glad I made this decision. Reaper is the only product capable of pro work that's not a massive pain in the arse to install, authorise, configure etc. so that's where I'll stay for good now..

Same here.

Either that, or go back to pure hardware. I mean, I am not intolerant with plugins that require activation ( and I have some that require activation, because they are really good ), but when I am counting on them to simply work and all of the sudden they require activation again for no apparent reason, that's f**ked. And if the plugin's activation system is not available anymore or the company is gone, then I am really f**ked.

[jancivil]

LMAO. But Reaper is not a pig!

it’s called a metaphor

[ghettosynth]

I've come to the conclusion it is. It makes more and more sense to 'go off grid' with software. I despise dependency on serials, phoning home, ilok etc. I've been using a portable Reaper install with only drag 'n drop dll freeware plugins for all my professional work for years now. I foresee the internet becoming a more and more 'hostile' place so I'm extremely glad I made this decision. Reaper is the only product capable of pro work that's not a massive pain in the arse to install, authorise, configure etc. so that's where I'll stay for good now..

Same here.

Either that, or go back to pure hardware. I mean, I am not intolerant with plugins that require activation ( and I have some that require activation, because they are really good ), but when I am counting on them to simply work and all of the sudden they require activation again for no apparent reason, that's f**ked. And if the plugin's activation system is not available anymore or the company is gone, then I am really f**ked.

Yea, I take his point though. There really isn't another solution that can be installed on a portable drive and moved from machine to machine.

[Artie Fichelle]

In the long term, we are all dead (Keynes). But reaper is a good choice now, because it can, provided you invest effort to learn it, allmost do anything.

[enroe]

I've come to the conclusion it is. It makes more and more sense to 'go off grid' with software. I despise dependency on serials, phoning home, ilok etc. I've been using a portable Reaper install with only drag 'n drop dll freeware plugins for all my professional work for years now. I foresee the internet becoming a more and more 'hostile' place so I'm extremely glad I made this decision. Reaper is the only product capable of pro work that's not a massive pain in the arse to install, authorise, configure etc. so that's where I'll stay for good now..

Same here.

Either that, or go back to pure hardware. I mean, I am not intolerant with plugins that require activation ( and I have some that require activation, because they are really good ), but when I am counting on them to simply work and all of the sudden they require activation again for no apparent reason, that's f**ked. And if the plugin's activation system is not available anymore or the company is gone, then I am really f**ked.

+1

Mmmm - it's interesting to see how long-time users of DAWs
come to the same conclusions.

[BONES]

In my opinion, learning and becoming comfortable in multiple DAWs is the best long term choice. Reaper being an essential one of those.

That's the dumbest thing I've read this week (although it is only Monday). Being good at production has f**k-all to do with which software you use so learning more than one DAW is a complete waste of time, time you could better spend actually making something.

[Burillo]

I've been using REAPER since like 2008, maybe even earlier, so I am a pretty long time REAPER user. I've always liked REAPER because it works a lot like what music production looks like in my mind: that is, not a direct port of "analog way of working" like Cubase/etc. do, but a "what would music production look like if I were a software engineer making it all up from scratch" kind of vibe. For a lot of things, it works great: I can do things in REAPER I can't do in other DAWs, and I'm very used to working with it, because it follows how my mind works.

However, lately, I've had a big pause in doing music, and haven't opened REAPER in a while, and when I did it again recently, I realized that I'm sooo tired of REAPER I needed a change. I felt like an idiot, because I was advocating for "freedom" and "customization" this entire time, but now I feel like all of this is just extra cognitive load - and people kept telling me that, and I didn't listen! I honestly don't know whether it's me getting old or more experienced or whatever, but my tolerance for uninspiring interfaces, kludgy workflow, and "sandbox" mentality in place of sane defaults, has really went down a lot with time.

I've installed an old copy of Studio One Artist that I had, and while it's quite different from REAPER in a huge amount of ways, I realized that Studio One is actually well thought out once you let go of a "I can do all kinds of crazy shit" mentality and go back to basics. I'll be switching to Studio One. Life is too short.

[do_androids_dream]

Same here.

Either that, or go back to pure hardware. I mean, I am not intolerant with plugins that require activation ( and I have some that require activation, because they are really good ), but when I am counting on them to simply work and all of the sudden they require activation again for no apparent reason, that's f**ked. And if the plugin's activation system is not available anymore or the company is gone, then I am really f**ked.

Happened to me with Hofa. I used to use the DDP software (but then learned the way to do it in Reaper). Recently I redownloaded the Hofa program on a whim (because it is a great, easy piece of software) - which was an ordeal just to get signed in to my account - and installed it using the download manager. Authorised it through the manager. When I open the program it throws up a message that it's not authorised and it will run in demo mode (I can't remember the exact wording). I spend a while going over everything I've done to check for user error etc. Can't find any problem so I start googling. After a while I make a mental note - no more serials, managers etc. Now, I could have gone down the route of contacting support etc. but that's just not the route I want to go down these days. I'm tired of all that! Maybe you lose patience as you get older.. Amazing that it turns out that freeware is the most reliable, dependable software which is actually the top requirement for professional work.

[lfm]

In my opinion, learning and becoming comfortable in multiple DAWs is the best long term choice. Reaper being an essential one of those.

That's the dumbest thing I've read this week (although it is only Monday). Being good at production has f**k-all to do with which software you use so learning more than one DAW is a complete waste of time, time you could better spend actually making something.

Some daws have features that might be indispensible
- Cubase, Cakewalk/Sonar support OMF import export
- StudioOne AAF, and can import Cubase track templates
- Samplitude and Reaper support EDL format

Let's say you like midi editing in Reaper the best.
- you can do midi in Reaper
- and rewire Reaper into another daw of your choice supporting rewire

Trying different daws a good approach is to never rely on stock plugins
- having all plugins 3rd party that is the same which ever daw you run
- and plugins are your major tools to get the sound you want

I think it is a very good idea to master a range of daws up to a point that you can take care of essential stuff. And having plugins 3rd party transition is minor problem.

You start with one daw and find that it does not serve you well

I left StudioOne solely due to how they have mandatory conversion of midi into automation. This is a choice in most daws otherwise.

So problem is in StudioOne that touching a synth knob that generate midi CC in the middle of a clip make the first value of that CC also the starting value of the clip itself.

I discovered this winding up leslie on a hammond take in the middle of a clip, and that "leslie on" became the starting value of the clip as well. This meant that playing back clip leslie was on from start of clip, not where the node entry was.

This is how StudioOne works, you cannot even remove a midi CC once entered a clip(unless this changed from 4.7 I ran). It's automation and once there always has a start value.

I discovered this playing a Nordlead, where the modwheel was a bit loose so when playing on keys vibration made a couple of CC#1 enter a recording, which created not wanted anomalies.

These are things you discover over time, thinking this was to be my daw. And you find showstoppers like this and have to swap.

So even thinking that one daw would do it all needs a reality check.

And for people exchanging projects between each other, or taking clients that come with some obscure daw project you can fix that, it's a good idea to master a couple of the major daws at least.

And if you only use 3rd party plugins, that is not a problem to get the sound you want with the tools you got.

The plugins make your sound, not the daw. Daw is just a holder of clips and plugins. The tools are the plugins.

[MidnightRunner]

I can do things in REAPER I can't do in other DAWs,

just wondering what kind of things are you referring to? i am thinking of switching to reaper from a large commercial DAW.

[audiojunkie]

Reaper is the Linux of DAWs.

have you tried Linux?

i recently did (for the first time actually) and it really depends on the distro.
but i have to say i'm EXTREMELY impressed by the GNOME desktop, which basically is very macOS-esque, but in most ways even better / more focused and streamlined - like some enhanced macOS rethought from the future, without most of the gimmick-crap ported over from iOS Apple is putting on macOS recently because they need to lure some more customers on annual basis as macOS has not been their main interest for ages now.
And Gnome even has WAY less ways to adjust / tinker with right out of the box. but of course you can change most, if not everything if you really want to go that route. but that stuff is completely locked away from the user unless you install additional tools, dig deep into some config files, or alter the Kernel yourself.
but of course you can still find some distro too where you actually need a computer nerd certificate to get things going at all too

It's quite a liberating feeling to be completely free from corporate influence with your DAW, isn't it? I'm glad you tried Linux! I love it!

[Burillo]

I can do things in REAPER I can't do in other DAWs,

just wondering what kind of things are you referring to? i am thinking of switching to reaper from a large commercial DAW.

mostly workflow-related stuff. here's just one example.

I want a drum track, so I create a track, and put e.g. SSD5 sampler on it. to create drum tracks, I use Jamstix 4, so I also need to add a plugin that feeds SSD5 with MIDI data. after I'm done with creating the drum track, I want to commit it to MIDI and unload Jamstix (it takes a while to load up every time, so once I'm done with drums I unload it).

In REAPER, all of that can be done on one track pretty naturally: "tracks" in REAPER carry both MIDI and Audio, and so there's completely no problem with creating a track with two VSTi's on it, and putting some FX afterwards. create a track, add Jamstix 4 to FX slot, add SSD5 to FX slot, create drum track in Jamstix, create an empty item, use "Apply MIDI FX as new take" (to bake my drum track into MIDI), unload JS4. easy-peasy. (JS4 has MIDI export but it's been buggy for me so I never use it)

In Studio One, the workflow would be slightly different, because instruments aren't just sitting in an FX slot on a track, they're sitting in an "instrument rack", so in order to have JS4 feeding SSD5, you have to connect them together. next, in order to get the drum track out of JS4, I have to bake the MIDI into a MIDI track, but in order to do that I need to do a rain dance with outputs and creating MIDI outs and then recording the MIDI performance. so, possible, but not intuitive at all - I had to read the manual for like half an hour before I figured out how to do that.

because REAPER flows so naturally, you can do a lot of things like that in REAPER, but the dark side of that is that you have to do everything manually. Instrument rack, while "limited", is actually very convenient to use, because now I don't have to track mixer/instrument tracks, Studio One just does this for me automatically. multi-out instruments are actually much more convenient to use in Studio One, because, again, in REAPER, performance and FX tracks are the same thing, so you have to manage tracks manually, have them routed correctly, hide/show ones you don't need in track/mixer view... which is flexible, but most of the time I end up doing what the "default" in Studio One is anyway.

put simply, REAPER makes it very easy to do very complex things, but is a drag to use for basic stuff, whereas Studio One makes uncommon things unnecessarily complicated, but at the benefit of having great "default" workflow for basic things.

as for things I can't do in Studio One but can do in REAPER - partial FX freeze comes to mind. REAPER offers a lot of flexibility for rendering/freezing FX and instruments, as well as undoing all of that on a whim.

[FapFilter]

@audiojunkie: i'm loving it too, but for a DAW i'm keeping it strictly Mac for now and probably for a good while to follow.
don't get me wrong... while it is of course already perfectly doable to use Linux as a DAW even completely professionally and you don't really need thousands of plugins anyway and there are of course alternatives for most things, i'd simply miss on many great things that i just like to work with - with the stuff from Klanghelm, Voxengo, or Fabfilter being the most obvious ones for me.

for everyday work though it is absolutely awesome and in my opinion the best OS i've ever used (though macOS is still super awesome too )
i'd actually never thought that Linux could be such a hassle free experience as i've always thought that it has to be some super complicated thing that only IT specialists could operate, but in fact even the installation + setup was the most straightforward one i've ever had. and that's including macOS and even iOS!

[rod_zero]

To me the simplest solution is to stick to a DAW with a simple copy protection, that can be activated offline and stick to the native devices, for this I chose Ableton Live.

What I fear about reaper is that the developer one day will get bored and abandon the project.

[FapFilter]

What I fear about reaper is that the developer one day will get bored and abandon the project.

while that of course could happen, there are no signs of such a thing yet.
and businesses quitting is happening everywhere, and this could be happening to you almost everywhere, not just with Reaper.
or Ableton and other "larger" companies might go completely subscription only.

and as long as it is running on your system, it's not really an issue either.
sure - new features are nice, but far from a necessity considering what state of possibilities most DAWs are already offering you now / or already have been doing for the last 20 years or so.