Is REAPER the current best long term choice?

[Michael L]

You must customise Reaper for each use case

that is ...completely inessential to music making and in the way majorly, a completely different hobby

It's like doing a 10000-piece puzzle
Even Kenny the Reapermaniac admits he does not understand it all

[lfm]

I meant from the perspective of "this is free, or you can spend $60 to get rid of this annoying popup" unaware that it's not actually free and you're supposed to purchase it after 60 days. I'm sure there are some innocent non english speaking souls out there that genuinely believe it's freeware with a nuisance screen.

You don't pay to get rid of a nag screen, that is not the reason.
- you pay because you use something that somebody makes a living out of

Essentially it's about growing up.
- children think, "I want so give me" in parents being infinite resource
- grownups think "I want to contribute to this" and that gives more satisfaction than just getting stuff for free

[Trensharo]

Essentially it's about growing up.
- children think, "I want so give me" in parents being infinite resource
- grownups think "I want to contribute to this" and that gives more satisfaction than just getting stuff for free

Not really.

This has always been a thing. Shareware has existed since the PC became commonplace in homes.

Even when they were used primarily by older (comparatively speaking) adults, people biased toward not paying vs. paying if given the choice. It's why the Shareware market plummeted. It does not scale well, so we were left only with the exceptions from that market continuing on.

I'm not sure the average Gen X consumer is less mature than the average Gen Z consumer. If anything, people were more responsible with their spending, which made it hard for most developers to survive in the shareware market. People scrutinized a $19 shareware purchase in 1995 far more than people do a $60 Shareware purchase in 2024.

The subscription model gets around this by lowering the relative price of entry (factoring in inflation and average market costs, etc.) to get around that psychological barrier, while profiting more [over time] by charging that same "low" price on a monthly or yearly basis. That is why Shareware basically died - barring a few exceptions - while the subscription model is seeing such huge success (and these companies often grow even during economic downturns, because there is an inherent lock-in component with subscriptions that force you to maintain them after you have work tied to those applications).

No one really gets any satisfaction from paying $60 from a piece of software for which there are numerous free alternatives. The satisfaction comes from feeling like they have paid for entry into a certain community - we are in the internet era. The market is competitive, and the users have become political as a result of that - no different than vi vs. emacs, Borland vs. Microsoft back or PC vs. Mac, WordPerfect vs. Word, Quattro Pro vs. 1-2-3, etc... Except, it's just with DAWs (and even with DAWs, this has existed since that market started to develop out).

[Smasha]

Cubase can't even assign VSTi's to their proper midi input channels.

what does that even MEAN, "proper" input channels. one supposes REAPER then read your mind on that one magically. Something is very off with your understanding of some real basics. It's like in your head there are 'ought to be' automatic assigments? We have to work in our imagination from this point. this is some bullshit though.

Love your tube channel BTW.
I'm a big Zappa fan.

[jinotsuh]

I'm a big Zappa fan.

Me to

[Smasha]

lol

[J Veronica]

I've been on Reaper for about 2 weeks, and spent most of that time customising my theme, lol. Gonna actually start a song this week.

I've been on Studio One for 8 years and lost confidence in the direction of PreSonus. Reaper is a welcome change!

[CrystalWizard]

I meant from the perspective of "this is free, or you can spend $60 to get rid of this annoying popup" unaware that it's not actually free and you're supposed to purchase it after 60 days. I'm sure there are some innocent non english speaking souls out there that genuinely believe it's freeware with a nuisance screen.

You don't pay to get rid of a nag screen, that is not the reason.
- you pay because you use something that somebody makes a living out of

Essentially it's about growing up.
- children think, "I want so give me" in parents being infinite resource
- grownups think "I want to contribute to this" and that gives more satisfaction than just getting stuff for free

I think if you replace the words "grown ups" with "mature people" that statement is true. A lot of people who are past their teens are still quite immature.
Not claiming to be mature but i like to support Cockos (and some other players that seem to align with my value system.)

On Topic: I think Reaper is a good long term bet. I agree with the previous comment that Justin Frankel has probably already put some contingency plan in effect. Likely so are some of the others DAWs like Logic and Cubase. "Best?" Who knows, this world is a tricky place, esp commerce, which has become many peoples only or main interest.

[liquidsound]

I switched from Ableton to Reaper.
Got some new themes Peace and Reapertips which is fantastic.

Already making more music than ever.

Little here and there you can customize it to your liking. No need to kill yourself all at once.

Freaking powerful DAW.

[Trancit]

I switched from Ableton to Reaper.
Got some new themes Peace and Reapertips which is fantastic.

Already making more music than ever.

Little here and there you can customize it to your liking. No need to kill yourself all at once.

Freaking powerful DAW.

No offense... just curiosity:

I might remember wrongly but weren´t you lately a huge Ableton fan??
I remember your signature "Ableton of course"
What happened?? (again out of pure interest!)

[neverbefore]

I had some midi processing ideas that were not available as a vst or in any other daw i think. I paid a reaper scripting expert to make them for me. They only work in Reaper but that's fine for me. Probably paid a little bit more than if they had been commercial vst's but not much more and these ones actually exist

[liquidsound]

I switched from Ableton to Reaper.
Got some new themes Peace and Reapertips which is fantastic.

Already making more music than ever.

Little here and there you can customize it to your liking. No need to kill yourself all at once.

Freaking powerful DAW.

No offense... just curiosity:

I might remember wrongly but weren´t you lately a huge Ableton fan??
I remember your signature "Ableton of course"
What happened?? (again out of pure interest!)

Did you try Reaper?

I have been in and out with Reaper since v3.x and it never clicked. NEVER!
Of course, I've been using Ableton forever and I preferred over Bitwig, as stated several times, after years of use.

So, after the Ableton 12 Beta and BWS 5.1, I just got turned off and gave Reaper another "go" and... WOW! I can't believe how I clicked with it like no other DAW I ever used before (a lot of them...).

I found a nice Theme, "Reapertips" (so I'm not going right now to customize the look) and I'm producing like a maniac. Literally, things are flowing.

It is an extremely powerful, stable, efficient DAW with a more-than-fair price tag.
I discovered some super tools written by talented users that I prefer to the M4L devices, for what I need of course.

I have the ability to customize Reaper as and when I like. I'm not turned off by its endless potential and when I have a time, with a good cup of coffee, I will dig into the beast.

It took me by surprise but everything in life has its own time and calling.

The guy who made the "Reapertips" theme has a YouTube channel with some excellent short video showcasing some great tools and workflows.

How I see it: I'm the goal. Not the tools, not the diet, not practices. So; I keep going.

[Trancit]

Did you try Reaper?

I have been in and out with Reaper since v3.x and it never clicked. NEVER!
Of course, I've been using Ableton forever and I preferred over Bitwig, as stated several times, after years of use.

So, after the Ableton 12 Beta and BWS 5.1, I just got turned off and gave Reaper another "go" and... WOW! I can't believe how I clicked with it like no other DAW I ever used before (a lot of them...).

I found a nice Theme, "Reapertips" (so I'm not going right now to customize the look) and I'm producing like a maniac. Literally, things are flowing.

It is an extremely powerful, stable, efficient DAW with a more-than-fair price tag.
I discovered some super tools written by talented users that I prefer to the M4L devices, for what I need of course.

I have the ability to customize Reaper as and when I like. I'm not turned off by its endless potential and when I have a time, with a good cup of coffee, I will dig into the beast.

It took me by surprise but everything in life has its own time and calling.

The guy who made the "Reapertips" theme has a YouTube channel with some excellent short video showcasing some great tools and workflows.

How I see it: I'm the goal. Not the tools, not the diet, not practices. So; I keep going.

Thx!

[Kalamata Kid]

I currently using Studio One 6.5.
I am looking a the alternatives.
Reaper is number ONE on that list.
If FLS and Mulab had ARA they too would be on the top list.

Can one save the Reaper preferences on a file?
Are there preferences files from users available that one can try out?

[liquidsound]

I currently using Studio One 6.5.
I am looking a the alternatives.
Reaper is number ONE on that list.
If FLS and Mulab had ARA they too would be on the top list.

Can one save the Reaper preferences on a file?
Are there preferences files from users available that one can try out?

You can save the Preferences file as many times as needed:
Export your own Reaper configuration by going to Preferences > General > Select "Export Configuration”

Sharing may be possible, but it may be overwhelming since it goes quite deep and in order to understand someone else's tweaks can be quite challenging.