If you had to stick to one DAW, which one would it be?

[Michael L]

it lives in its own world.

Very insightful, that Reaper's many uniquenesses are a 'world' that users need to 'live inside'.
It suggests that people have strong feelings about Reaper because you don't use Reaper, you join its world and become a member.
Over time, you are welcomed as an high-status 'insider' while others are lower-status 'outsiders'.

[syntonica]

Reaper's only real issue is that the defaults--GUI and menus--are awful. They should be more standardized to be like the other DAWs so it's more comfortable for newcomers. That, and the blindingly ugly popup windows.

[Trancit]

Reaper's only real issue is that the defaults--GUI and menus--are awful. They should be more standardized to be like the other DAWs so it's more comfortable for newcomers. That, and the blindingly ugly popup windows.

I could name you at least a 1000 other things where I personally think Reaper fails completely and is far behind the competition...
But you are right with that... Reaper is on top of it´s (for me and my needs) shortcomings one of the most ugliest things I had to use sometimes in my life...

But that´s why there is choice... different people ...different taste/needs...

It would be just nice, if there wouldn´t come so many "Reaperneers" out of their corners always wanting to lecture the rest of the world what a genius piece of software it would be...
Many Bitwig fans come close ( or better "came close" in the past years...was less then) to this behaviour but the Reaperneers are still king...

[writheuk]

My REAPER DAW is f*ckin beautiful. Whatsmore, EVERY plugin I use (maybe 500) is just TWO mouse clicks away (ie 0.5 seconds) from being inserted onto a track. No scrolling, no dragging, no menus, no typing in search boxes. You guys don't know what you're waffling about. Gotta laugh at all these ignorant chumps who've hardly used it saying how crap it is.

[jens]

EVERY plugin I use is just 2 TWO clicks away (ie 0.5 seconds) from being put on a track.

Did you know that youi can also insert your favourite plugins/chains via shortcut? Quite cool!

(not that this makes Reaper less of a convoluted mess in my eyes - but hey, your mileage may vary)

Gotta laugh at all these ignorant chumps who've hardly used it saying how crap it is.

Well, I wouldn't word it like this (saying it's crap), but the critics certainly have quite some valid points, so calling them ignorant is imo the pot calling the kettle black.

[VitaminD]

Things like just opening the VSTi GUI

Click the FX button on a track, this will open the fx window (which includes instruments).
Double click on the instrument listed to open it's GUI.
There is another way IE you can have each instrument and effects (if any) displayed (a named button) on the track itself whick can be clicked on akin to having efects displayed on a mixer channel. But I'll just stick to basics.

Unintutive. Instruments aren't FX. But I see now Reaper lumps the two together as Inserts. Looks kludgy too with that generic Windows box surrounding the plugin GUI. You can float the GUI, but you have to select it every time you want that? The fact that you have to 'just stick to the basics' tells me it's overcomplicated.. again the Linux of DAWS. It seems to do a lot though if you're a power user.

or selecting tracks to make a bus

1. Create a track. This will be the bus track.
2. Select the tracks you want to send to the bus. You can select the first track, hold shift and select the last track to cover both and any tracks between (where applicable). The tracks selected remain highlighted.
While holding shift, hover the mouse over the routing button of the last track that's part of the selection, left click- drag to any spot of the bus track (you'll see a cable jack icon as you drag).
Done.
The bus track routing window automatically opens showing it has received the selected tracks.

That's not intuitive to me either. And it seems to default the bus output in Parallel which is incorrect behavior.

With Cubase its just shift clicking the tracks you want (for the bus) then right clicking on an empty space and selecting send to Group. Done. Cubase auto creates the bus track and the correct routing for you.

I'm sure some click with REAPER better, but my brain doesn't brain it well.

[writheuk]

EVERY plugin I use is just 2 TWO clicks away (ie 0.5 seconds) from being put on a track.

Did you know that youi can also insert your favourite plugins/chains via shortcut?

That's what I used to do. But now I have a button on the top toolbar (the blue star) which when pressed opens up a massive toolbar with all my most-used plugins listed in grid fashion. Click on one of them and they're immediately inserted into the selected track. So 2 clicks, that's it...
The thing is it takes a bit of time setting up but once you're done there's no looking back. And selecting which plugins to put in there helps wheedle out all those in your FX Browser that are no longer of much use to you.

Screenshot 2026-01-07 150633.png

[Trancit]

EVERY plugin I use is just 2 TWO clicks away (ie 0.5 seconds) from being put on a track.

Did you know that youi can also insert your favourite plugins/chains via shortcut? Quite cool!

(not that this makes Reaper less of a convoluted mess in my eyes - but hey, your mileage may vary)

...

Years after Studio One had implemented this... so no credits to Cockos... just a copy cat!

[Trancit]

My REAPER DAW is f*ckin beautiful. ...

No, it isn´t at all...the looks of the PR Editor alone are a bad joke... another proof how damn ugly Reaper actually is... but don´t worry Picasso had the same weird way of looking at things... so you are in good company!

[ghettosynth]

If you don't understand Reaper, this video might help.

[jens]

EVERY plugin I use is just 2 TWO clicks away (ie 0.5 seconds) from being put on a track.

Did you know that youi can also insert your favourite plugins/chains via shortcut?

That's what I used to do. But now I have a button on the top toolbar (the blue star) which when pressed opens up a massive toolbar with all my most-used plugins listed in grid fashion. Click on one of them and they're immediately inserted into the selected track. So 2 clicks, that's it...
The thing is it takes a bit of time setting up but once you're done there's no looking back. And selecting which plugins to put in there helps wheedle out all those in your FX Browser that are no longer of much use to you.



Screenshot 2026-01-07 150633.png

*ouch*

That's a brilliant example of how much workflow-requirements/-preferences may differ from person to person. Honestly, this looks like torture to me. I'd much much rather just type in the name of the plugin I want to use and be done with it.

[writheuk]

Picasso had the same weird way of looking at things...

You sound like the kind of guy who's got 3 flying ducks on his bathroom wall... (and thinks it's art.)

[seafire]

Who's to say it isn't

[enCiphered]

Agree. And Picasso probably had questionable bathroom décor too. Didn’t stop it being art..
If three flying ducks make you pause for half a second, they’re doing more than beige tiles ever did.

[DCrown]

My REAPER DAW is f*ckin beautiful. ...

No, it isn´t at all...the looks of the PR Editor alone are a bad joke... another proof how damn ugly Reaper actually is... but don´t worry Picasso had the same weird way of looking at things... so you are in good company!

Best looking daw and you can make it look how you want to, hundreds of different options.
Well, it's not just the look btw.
Have just noticed Reaper got the most votes even here, but don't really care, even if Pro Tools got 90% of votes, I would use Reaper.