Did KVR Scare the Reaper Peeps Away?

[koolkeys]

Wait........REAPER is still around?

[liquidsound]

I just found out today that Reaper can handle multiple Docker windows, so now I can have my FX browser always open and drag all the little darlings right onto the Mixer... gad, how I love that program. And as you can see, I also use colors for groups, really helps.

Wow!

[satYatunes]

With REAPER you can customize nearly everything! OTOH I'm not a fan of customizing a DAW for weeks just to suit my workflow. I want to start it, choose a skin or a template and make music with it...maybe I'm too impatient.

No, you are not impatient. You are doing the right thing by concentrating on making music. That's what it should be. I have been following this mantra lately and finished 3 tracks in April. Never happened before. I actually never liked Reaper before cause it has plethora of options to customize. I use to fiddle around a lot, trying new themes, changing colors, etc. etc. Not anymore, just working on the tracks and learning as it progresses.

[Tricky-Loops]

With REAPER you can customize nearly everything! OTOH I'm not a fan of customizing a DAW for weeks just to suit my workflow. I want to start it, choose a skin or a template and make music with it...maybe I'm too impatient.

No, you are not impatient. You are doing the right thing by concentrating on making music. That's what it should be. I have been following this mantra lately and finished 3 tracks in April. Never happened before. I actually never liked Reaper before cause it has plethora of options to customize. I use to fiddle around a lot, trying new themes, changing colors, etc. etc. Not anymore, just working on the tracks and learning as it progresses.

If only I could!:lol: Currently I'm more in the process of experimenting with loads of new plugins (and soundsets) that I've bought or [free plugins that I] downloaded, and to practice how to use them (and to read all the manuals & some music theory books). Maybe that's why I don't want to spend even more time for customizing REAPER to have the ultra-perfect workflow. I want to make more music finally, I haven't created any tracks for months...

[mabian]

With REAPER you can customize nearly everything! OTOH I'm not a fan of customizing a DAW for weeks just to suit my workflow. I want to start it, choose a skin or a template and make music with it...maybe I'm too impatient.

No, you are not impatient. You are doing the right thing by concentrating on making music. That's what it should be. I have been following this mantra lately and finished 3 tracks in April. Never happened before. I actually never liked Reaper before cause it has plethora of options to customize. I use to fiddle around a lot, trying new themes, changing colors, etc. etc. Not anymore, just working on the tracks and learning as it progresses.

Sorry, but I don't completely get this.

The factthat you have a bazillion options doesn't necessarily mean you have to deal with them.
REAPER can be used as it is out of the box; you can learn the application as it is OR get deep (and sometimes admittedly lost) in "the plethora".

It's all about options (pun intended )

Peace,
Mario

[Tricky-Loops]

The fact that you have a bazillion options doesn't necessarily mean you have to deal with them.
REAPER can be used as it is out of the box; you can learn the application as it is OR get deep (and sometimes admittedly lost) in "the plethora".

You know, some people *CAN GET LOST* in too much options. I think I have too much of anything: too much customization options in REAPER, too much plugins, too much samples, too much music (theory) books, too much manuals -- and TOO LESS TIME...

Now, first I have to listen to my 40,000+ drum samples to choose the right ones...or should I better use a simple 909 kick?

[aMUSEd]

With REAPER you can customize nearly everything! OTOH I'm not a fan of customizing a DAW for weeks just to suit my workflow. I want to start it, choose a skin or a template and make music with it...maybe I'm too impatient.

No, you are not impatient. You are doing the right thing by concentrating on making music. That's what it should be. I have been following this mantra lately and finished 3 tracks in April. Never happened before. I actually never liked Reaper before cause it has plethora of options to customize. I use to fiddle around a lot, trying new themes, changing colors, etc. etc. Not anymore, just working on the tracks and learning as it progresses.

Sorry, but I don't completely get this.

The factthat you have a bazillion options doesn't necessarily mean you have to deal with them.
REAPER can be used as it is out of the box; you can learn the application as it is OR get deep (and sometimes admittedly lost) in "the plethora".

It's all about options (pun intended )

Peace,
Mario

Agrred, next to Tracktion I found Reaper to be the easiest host to get into out of the box. Not least because of the great support but also it has some very neat features like searchable preferences that makes it easy to find options that other hosts hide away. It can be as simple or complex as you need it to be.

[mabian]

As I told, there are two kind of people:

1) who work better and more productively by adapting their workflow to the software as it is, or choosing the software which is more akin to their standard way of thinking/working

2) who like to have the software as much tweakable as possible in order to adapt it to them.

REAPER can be optimal for both kind of people IMO, it's just a question of mindset.
You don't like options? Ignore them, and try working with the stock configuration.

Isn't the stock configuration working for you? Ok, then look for something else.

Personally, I like REAPER philosophy and options, but after a couple months with heavy initial fiddling, I ultimately do not need to deal with options and configurations anymore.

- Mario

[koolkeys]

On one hand, the options in Reaper are great. They allow for some excellent tweaking and customization that can truly help your workflow.

However, on the other hand, they can be a curse, especially to users coming from other hosts.

It's a blessing to have hosts like Studio One, who just "get it" and provide a workflow that is optimal for many users. If a host can get it right(for me) out of the box, and I don't have to spend hours configuring it to be comfortable, then I'm much more inclined to want to fire up that host, and if I'm at a point of choosing between the two, I prefer a well-oiled slick workflow from the start. When you're working full time with clients, and you do make the dreaded decision to switch hosts, those hours can be a turnoff.

Don't get me wrong, I use Reaper and enjoy it. Studio One and Reaper make up the majority of my workflow these days, and they are the only two hosts installed on my work machine(my personal machines have more, but I still use these two the most by far). For me, I'm comfortable enough in Reaper that the options don't bother me one bit. I do find many parts of Reaper to be clunky and not ideal, but I've gotten used to it and I just don't use Reaper for those things any more.

But I can definitely understand why somebody wouldn't like those features. Sure, you don't HAVE to use them just because they are there. But Reaper, while great out of the box for many people, has many workflow and ergonomics issues and inconsistencies that can get in the way for a lot of other people. I fought with them for a long time before finally tweaking things to where I enjoyed using the program, and it generally doesn't take me a long time to pick up a new host.

Brent

[koolkeys]

As I told, there are two kind of people:

1) who work better and more productively by adapting their workflow to the software as it is, or choosing the software which is more akin to their standard way of thinking/working

2) who like to have the software as much tweakable as possible in order to adapt it to them.

REAPER can be optimal for both kind of people IMO, it's just a question of mindset.
You don't like options? Ignore them, and try working with the stock configuration.

Isn't the stock configuration working for you? Ok, then look for something else.

Personally, I like REAPER philosophy and options, but after a couple months with heavy initial fiddling, I ultimately do not need to deal with options and configurations anymore.

- Mario

Well, there is a third kind of person, one who has worked for years with a certain workflow, but for whatever reason needs or wants a change of scenery, and needs to have the easiest path possible.

Or there are those who prefer to find a host that already fits their workflow. It's not a black and white issue of whether a host conforms to you, or you conform to the host. Sometimes, the host and the user just fit together perfectly. And in that case, no options in Reaper could ever make it better.

Remember, there are certain ergonomic issues in Reaper that can't be changed. Certain behaviors, and even certain GUI elements, that don't allow changing. In these cases, it's about putting lipstick on a pig if you try to find a better theme, tweak the options, etc.

No host will fit everyone. We all know that. Reaper does a good job of trying, but there is no way that it can or will ever be able to succeed at that.

Luckily, it fits for what I do with it

[LawrenceF]

Remember, there are certain ergonomic issues in Reaper that can't be changed. Certain behaviors, and even certain GUI elements, that don't allow changing.

That's where some discussions about it seem to kinda go off the rails.

As great as it is, and it is great imo, there are some things I would like to change that I cannot change. The fact that I can change more total stuff in it (and I can change more total stuff in it) than in most anything else doesn't really change that fact that I can't change some things that I do want to change.

So the "customize it any way you want" thing doesn't really apply to me.

The reality is that every workstation kinda forces you to work how it works, or pushes you to work the way it works, at various subjective levels. It can't be any other way.

There are some UI customizations that I used (and found working value in) in Cubase SX that I cannot customize simialrly in Reaper. That's not a comparsion of overall customization capability, not a knock on either one, not a daw war comment or anything else. It's just the factual reality of their different designs.

P.S. As relates to just straight away working with the mouse though, the mouse modifiers are brilliant.

[hibidy]

I still don't like working in midi with it (even though they have put some time into midi for certain) It's nice though to work with multiple clips at once!

[Tony Ostinato]

my "feel" is that midi handling in reaper is very clean. i wouldnt be suprised if the jitter numbers are very low.

[jancivil]

I chose Cubase SX1 in 2003 on not more than than the enthusiasm of another customer in guitar center while I was shopping for 'a host'. I didn't have any experience, I hadn't spent any time on the internet really comparing information, it was 'you'll love it, it's a way of life' type of thing.

so do I wonder whether or not I'm conforming to its ways versus does it suit me naturally? No. I'm sure I could find things done better in something else and kick myself about some efficiency/workflow if I was predisposed to this, but I move forward rather. Everything has made sense, however, it's been very intuitive to me and fortunately I've had very little opportunity to read the manual, which at times has been pretty opaque for me.

that said, there is enough of people describing REAPER here to dissuade me from adopting it, even when I had an out-of-date low spec'd machine where I needed something a lot more efficient. In terms of the MIDI, I'm a MIDI composer.... There are things it won't do, which owe to a lot of things, the market targeted isn't me I reckon.

I don't mind if someone prefers very different things than I. But the thing at KVR - which seems to have been discouraged of late? - was, for one off-topic (and/or ignoring the OP) 'Switch to REAPER'. It's a way of life! And then the claims 'it does everything' just as well as you-name-it. Here in this thread was the construction 'It does everything necessary'. Which says that things I require that aren't there are just exotic, 'unnecessary'.

So people react to that. It's normal.

[satYatunes]

With REAPER you can customize nearly everything! OTOH I'm not a fan of customizing a DAW for weeks just to suit my workflow. I want to start it, choose a skin or a template and make music with it...maybe I'm too impatient.

No, you are not impatient. You are doing the right thing by concentrating on making music. That's what it should be. I have been following this mantra lately and finished 3 tracks in April. Never happened before. I actually never liked Reaper before cause it has plethora of options to customize. I use to fiddle around a lot, trying new themes, changing colors, etc. etc. Not anymore, just working on the tracks and learning as it progresses.

Sorry, but I don't completely get this.

The factthat you have a bazillion options doesn't necessarily mean you have to deal with them.
REAPER can be used as it is out of the box; you can learn the application as it is OR get deep (and sometimes admittedly lost) in "the plethora".

It's all about options (pun intended )

Peace,
Mario

You just said the same thing in different words. What I said above is I am making more music because I am not worried about the customization anymore. Using as it is, like you said out of the box. Which part did you not get? Read carefully before responding.