It's because prices have come down substantially and cyclical promotions are common and predictable (on a set time table).
Higher quality free synths and plug-ins have definitely made it harder to operate in that market (it's why PA, Waves, Softube, etc. are on sale more often than not), as well.
There are definitely ways to "fast track" customizing REAPER - and have been for years.musicproducerdee wrote: ↑Thu Jun 08, 2023 11:17 amYou pretty much summarized how I feel about Reaper as a DAW. Everyone keeps raving about how good it is and how you can customize it any way you want. But man, that's a lot of work, I just wanna make music, I'm not trying to fly a spaceship. And it's not like I'm not good at using applications. I learned Bitwig Studio, FL Studio, Ableton Live, Studio One, Cubase, even Reason to an extent. I have a Windows laptop and still just by looking at Logic Pro screengrabs, I can figure out how to navigate around it and how to get things done. Reaper completely throws me off for this particular reason, no matter how powerful of a DAW it is, where is the user experience?
I personally don't want to have my workflow dependent on numerous third party components that can break on updates or upgrades, though, so I've generally avoided it. I just don't like how text-heavy the GUI is, and from a design standpoint I find it somewhat abominable... but others like it (and it can look pretty good with theming - at last at surface level).
It's why I tend to prefer DAWs with decent-enough stock UI/UX/Themes that I can just use productively off the bat. There is already enough of that risk with Virtual Instruments and FX Plug-ins
I think REAPER is a bigger deal to people who would otherwise use Pro Tools, though. It is really, really good for Audio Engineers. Honestly, I still use Samplitude Pro X for Audio Editing and whenever I bring stems over from Maschine for Arranging/Mixing for similar reasons. The Audio Editing is GOAT-level and something like Cakewalk couldn't really replace it without significant productivity dippage.
For people who are looking for something like Ableton Live or Reason, REAPER isn't really going get you there. There is only so much you can do with the theming and customization before you start pushing up against the limits of that system. Some things are better off as a design goal within the software's development track.
One big issue with Cakewalk is the fact that it is Windows-only. With Macs actually being affordable, these days, it is becoming a bigger disadvantage. The Windows DAW market is actually more competitive than on macOS - particularly at the enthusiast/prosumer segments.
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