Polarized opinions about Reaper

[Romantique Tp]

You are obviously aware of how ridiculous your statement is, but you keep defending it nonetheless wasting time and any self respect.

[ghettosynth]

Hey, Windows XP was also very stable, and look where we are now.

I get that you're joking and trying to dig at Reaper. I've even related Reaper to the SAW of 2030 myself. I'm not convinced that it can evolve in a dramatic way without Justin changing some aspects of his business or development style.

I think that for a lot of us though, that's a big so what? We're just making the argument that Reaper is more stable as a result of those things.

That said, I don't think that XP was very stable TBH. Windows Server 2016 (Windows 10 without all of the consumer crap) is hands down the most stable and consistent Windows that I've ever used. To compare XP to Reaper is to make a comparison on a very surface level.

[ghettosynth]

from what i see, a lot of people go away from cubase and work in reaper now.

So I still use both. I'm glad that Cubase is reasonably stable now. I much prefer mixing in Cubase, I really like the new paned environment with the mix and plugin windows in the lower pane. I'm a fan of the arrangement track and I really like using that with Rapid Composer.

But when none of that matters, or when other features come to the forefront of my user experience, then I prefer Reaper (to Cubase).

I also use Live and Reason, they have their own strengths and weaknesses also. Both crash regularly and it's not just about plugins, although with Reason it largely is.

[lolilol1975]

Reaper has a reputation of extreme stability, I doubt it comes from the imagination of its users. I am the first to tell if something is unstable and generally it doesn't stay long on my HD.

Reaper has a self feedback loop of you guys telling yourselves how stable it is. You accept your own isolated, untested and anecdotal evidence, while shunning any other.

Again, no. It's not just MY experience, it's the experience of other people as well. For instance, I sometimes watch on Twitch a musician who does live concerts with everything controlled by Reaper, not only the music that he live produces on it, but also the lightings and even 10 cameras (https://www.twitch.tv/sceneofaction/videos/all). He does EVERYTHING himself. And that's also what he says. He used to work on ProTools for almost 15 years, he switched to Studio One for a year, and now is on Reaper. And that's also what he says.

[BMoore]

People say this, but what does it mean? I don't customize anything in Reaper that's notable. I have a few options set differently than the default but nothing to write home about. I have some custom default projects that are different on different machines, but that's not really unique either, I do the same thing in all of my hosts.

I really don't get what people are talking about when they criticize the U/I and workflow beyond the mid-2000s-ish look of the thing. I don't like the weird icons, I think that they could hire someone to do a better job with their graphic design elements. Some things are in a bit of a weird place, like controlling how midi routes through a chain of plugins, but, with other hosts you don't even have some of that kind of control.

What exactly is it that slows people down? I'm asking honestly here, I really don't get what the challenge is?

Can't be that difficult to understand.

Just a few examples of customizations:
Grid spacing, grid colors, mouse click/drag behavior in track view and piano roll, shortcuts, buttons, how you want a channel/fader to look like, arrangements of where you want your tracks/master/media browser/mixer to be, etc. etc.

All depending on taste, or if you're working with mostly audio, midi, video, live, mouse only, etc.

[DrFolder]

People say this, but what does it mean? I don't customize anything in Reaper that's notable. I have a few options set differently than the default but nothing to write home about. I have some custom default projects that are different on different machines, but that's not really unique either, I do the same thing in all of my hosts.

I really don't get what people are talking about when they criticize the U/I and workflow beyond the mid-2000s-ish look of the thing. I don't like the weird icons, I think that they could hire someone to do a better job with their graphic design elements. Some things are in a bit of a weird place, like controlling how midi routes through a chain of plugins, but, with other hosts you don't even have some of that kind of control.

What exactly is it that slows people down? I'm asking honestly here, I really don't get what the challenge is?

Can't be that difficult to understand.

Just a few examples of customizations:
Grid spacing, grid colors, mouse click/drag behavior in track view and piano roll, shortcuts, buttons, how you want a channel/fader to look like, arrangements of where you want your tracks/master/media browser/mixer to be, etc. etc.

All depending on taste, or if you're working with mostly audio, midi, video, live, mouse only, etc.

Isn't this why people like Reaper, so they can do all that if needed? Other daws are more or less as is and can't be customised (you can change the fader knob color in Cubase though).

[No_Use]

Windows Server 2016 (Windows 10 without all of the consumer crap) is hands down the most stable and consistent Windows that I've ever used.

Thanks for the mention. I'll look into that when I'm about to switch to 10 (currently still on 8.1).

[ghettosynth]

Windows Server 2016 (Windows 10 without all of the consumer crap) is hands down the most stable and consistent Windows that I've ever used.

Thanks for the mention. I'll look into that when I'm about to switch to 10 (currently still on 8.1).

Keep in mind that it's a bit of work to get it configured at first. You have to stop/remove a bunch of services, setup some new features etc. It's not the kind of thing that someone who expects plug and play should do.

That said, once configured, it runs fantastically and doesn't feel any different from Windows 10 other than it's less bloated and doesn't annoy me anywhere near as much.

[jancivil]

Reaper has a reputation of extreme stability, I doubt it comes from the imagination of its users. I am the first to tell if something is unstable and generally it doesn't stay long on my HD.

Reaper has a self feedback loop of you guys telling yourselves how stable it is. You accept your own isolated, untested and anecdotal evidence, while shunning any other.

Again, no. It's not just MY experience, it's the experience of other people as well. For instance, I sometimes watch on Twitch a musician who [...] And that's also what he says.

So this makes any other experience just vanish.

Google: anecdotal

It was offered that it isn't the same on Mac. I said its LAN Ethernet thing, which I decided to check one day after all the 'just use REAPER' re VE Pro questions and it never worked. It was the very definition of totally unstable, it crashed REAPER every time instantly. I was using LAN Ethernet for 99% of plugins, every day all day so it won't likely have been my system.
So, you know, there are different systems and different modi operandi that do not vanish because it works splendidly for this and another person.

And here's the polarization factor: one cannot assert anything other than the pro-REAPER disposition or it will be fought for. That's all.
After all it's Festivus season. For the rest of us. Cheers.

[SJ_Digriz]

I run Win 10 Pro, stock with fast cycle beta distribution. No problems. No need to do anything to it to make it stable for DAWs. I think many peoples wounds are self inflicted.

[donkey tugger]

It's ok.

[braj]

I run Win 10 Pro, stock with fast cycle beta distribution. No problems. No need to do anything to it to make it stable for DAWs. I think many peoples wounds are self inflicted.

Yep, besides changing the power settings, which isn't an arcane thing to do, I did nothing with Win 10 as well.

[woggle]

Reaper has always been quite stable for me. This has varied from time to time . I have been having problems with Reaper hanging for a while, but never used to much. A ways back there were problems with Kontakt that quite a few experienced. As jancivil mentioned, and many others have mentioned the user base has some very defensive characters and this obviously annoys a lot of people. Which is a shame as there are also many helpful users. One bad apple and all that

[lolilol1975]

Reaper has a reputation of extreme stability, I doubt it comes from the imagination of its users. I am the first to tell if something is unstable and generally it doesn't stay long on my HD.

Reaper has a self feedback loop of you guys telling yourselves how stable it is. You accept your own isolated, untested and anecdotal evidence, while shunning any other.

Again, no. It's not just MY experience, it's the experience of other people as well. For instance, I sometimes watch on Twitch a musician who [...] And that's also what he says.

So this makes any other experience just vanish.

Google: anecdotal

It was offered that it isn't the same on Mac. I said its LAN Ethernet thing, which I decided to check one day after all the 'just use REAPER' re VE Pro questions and it never worked. It was the very definition of totally unstable, it crashed REAPER every time instantly. I was using LAN Ethernet for 99% of plugins, every day all day so it won't likely have been my system.
So, you know, there are different systems and different modi operandi that do not vanish because it works splendidly for this and another person.

And here's the polarization factor: one cannot assert anything other than the pro-REAPER disposition or it will be fought for. That's all.
After all it's Festivus season. For the rest of us. Cheers.

I guess when almost everyone accross diverse languages/countries says it's stable and only a couple of people on KVR say it isn't, the anecdotal evidence applies more to this last group.

[braj]

Fast and stable seem to be acknowledged even by people that hate Reaper. Bad GUI seems to be a more reliable anecdotal concensus, but few seem to say "unstable" especially vs the crash fest that are a few other DAWs.