REAPER is amazing.

[do_androids_dream]

with all due respect but one bar of music is always one bar of music regardles of the musical tempo! there's no reason why there is different behavior in REAPER.

While i can agree that one bar of music will be one bar regardless of the tempo.
It doesn't necessarily apply to MIDI data.
MIDI can be also used for things other than music.
Like designing sound effects for example, or triggering external hardware (i don't mean synths), or even launching fireworks.

Now this is worthy of laughing out loud.. this is your defense of a poorly designed UI? In a music app that allows one to use midi you would expect the midi to be used to erm.. make music with expected behaviour in that regard? Not for launching fireworks..

[Mutant]

Ah yes, my comment on an aspect of a piece of software is just as funny as Python...

Because you said "random" while it is not random... i would also laugh if you said that the Sun revolves around the Earth.

It's always a bit disconcerting when someone comes out the woodwork to blindly defend something. If you're not going to take this thread seriously it would be better if you went somewhere else because it gets in the way of proper discussion.

It's always a bit disconcerting when someone comes out the woodwork to blindly attack something. If you're not going to take this thread seriously it would be better if you went somewhere else because it gets in the way of proper discussion.

[Mutant]

with all due respect but one bar of music is always one bar of music regardles of the musical tempo! there's no reason why there is different behavior in REAPER.

While i can agree that one bar of music will be one bar regardless of the tempo.
It doesn't necessarily apply to MIDI data.
MIDI can be also used for things other than music.
Like designing sound effects for example, or triggering external hardware (i don't mean synths), or even launching fireworks.

Now this is worthy of laughing out loud.. this is your defense of a poorly designed UI? In a music app that allows one to use midi you would expect the midi to be used to erm.. make music with expected behaviour in that regard? Not for launching fireworks..

He said there is no reason, i provided few possible reasons.
It is 1 setting you click in the project settings, save that project as default, you never have to click it again.
I would NOT want that setting to pollute my main window, i want it "hidden" (not really hidden) where it is now, because i almost never use it - thats good UI design, rarely used settings should be in some deeper menu.

[do_androids_dream]

This Reaper thread is like the others.

The whole thing is that the Music gets done with what you think would work for you.

No sense in argying about whose DAW is better than whose.

You're right - there is no sense in arguing. It's valid to point out flaws though for the purpose of the discussion. I've used Reaper for 8 years on maybe 1000+ tracks (my own and many clients). It's been my DAW of choice mainly for financial reasons and I've grown very used to it's strengths and weaknesses. I'm just taking this is as a chance to get a few of those weaknesses off my chest in a calm way really I'll still continue to use it - if only because a lot of it is pure muscle memory now.

[do_androids_dream]

It's always a bit disconcerting when someone comes out the woodwork to blindly attack something. If you're not going to take this thread seriously it would be better if you went somewhere else because it gets in the way of proper discussion.

Oh boy... we hooked a big one.

[Mutant]

It's always a bit disconcerting when someone comes out the woodwork to blindly attack something. If you're not going to take this thread seriously it would be better if you went somewhere else because it gets in the way of proper discussion.

Oh boy... we hooked a big one.

Do you ever go to threads about other DAWs you don't use to complain that they don't do things exactly the way your favorite DAW does ?
Or is it only REAPER that you hate with such passion ?
Right now i have some better things to do, than to search your post history for some strange patterns.

[Guenon]

Wall of text coming up, feel free to skip if subjective user stories aren't that interesting to you

One of the first things i did in REAPER was setting up a default project with all the settings i wanted, then i never had to touch these settings again.

In my opinion, this is the thing. Extremely important. Set it up the way you want, then export your settings for a rainy day , and also save a default project with all the project settings just the way you want them.

I've been reading this thread, and I've gone "huh?" several times, as the ux troubles people are listing are something I have changed once and never worried about them after the fact. And already forgot they were a nuisance in the first place.

As someone here was switching from Reaper to Studio One, I'll describe here my personal perspective that goes exactly in the opposite direction . Not looking for a debate here, just summing what I personally feel: I used Studio One Pro as my main DAW for three years, coming from a background of Live (more than a decade's worth and counting, still using it for specific production tasks and of course non-linear live triggering). Music and audio is what I do, and I don't enjoy "taking sides", I just want to use the tools that suit me best.

So, I have set up my templates for soudtrack work in both v2 and v3 of Studio One, and have gotten to know that environment very well. As has been pointed out, Studio One is potentially a lot more effortless to start working in than Reaper. The user experience is very polished and intuitive. However, and I'm not generalizing here, but subjectively describing my experiences: as I've done stuff like this for years, and I know exactly what sort of flexibility and robustness I want out of a working environment -- and I think I would have dismissed Reaper if I didn't have that experience already -- Studio One started to feel like it was forcing me to work a certain way I didn't particularly enjoy. It really is a superb DAW, but I grew more and more frustrated with the limitations in routing and template building, and so on.

After Reaper 5 came out, the feature set felt mature enough, and while continuing to work in Studio One, I spent long nights for about three weeks to recreate my templates and set everything up from scratch there. After it was all done, the total routing I had set up across project and track templates was around 800 tracks. It bears repeating, I knew exactly the workflow and routing I wanted, and wanted to see if Reaper could offer me that.

Turns out, for me the user experience is more fluid than in Studio One after three years of use. Also, I can recall folders of Kontakt instances and routings into a project very reliably and effortlessly, and I can use my mouse, keyboard and MIDI controllers exactly the way I want in the editors instead of trying to approximate the ideal workflow (for me) in some other environment. All in all, I can do most everything just once and then save it for reuse, and as I said above, this is also true for the numerous settings and whatnot. (And yeah, one of the first things I scrapped was the default GUI.)

In this sort of use, heavy Kontakt/synth sequencing with a load of tracks, my day to day working environment is now more suitable for me workflow-wise, but also clearly more efficient regarding computing resources. It's an environment where I can simply route any source anywhere, with as many sends/destinations I want for audio and midi sources alike, and even create true feedback loops, build experimental constructs in a true "your whole DAW is a big instrument" kind of way , and all of this still runs so much more efficiently than something with more limited and fixed routing schemes (Studio One, for example). From my perspective, Reaper does more with less overhead.

It's also very interesting to see that the upcoming version will have subproject support: you can have, for example, different orchestral sections and synth elements all running in their own dedicated project tabs, and these subprojects stay editable (click on the tab and go play/record/edit normally) -- and when you tab into the main project, the subproject will be rendered onto its representative audio track on the fly. Sort of like super-freeze functionality, just without freezing and unfreezing stuff inside one monolithic project.

That's my experience, and I'm glad I tried Reaper out. It has this power user audio hacker vibe that is so difficult to put a finger on, but for me it's there, and it lets me do exactly what I want to do without feeling like it's trying to actively prevent me from doing so.

[do_androids_dream]

It's always a bit disconcerting when someone comes out the woodwork to blindly attack something. If you're not going to take this thread seriously it would be better if you went somewhere else because it gets in the way of proper discussion.

Oh boy... we hooked a big one.

Do you ever go to threads about other DAWs you don't use to complain that they don't do things exactly the way your favorite DAW does ?
Or is it only REAPER that you hate with such passion ?
Right now i have some better things to do, than to search your post history for some strange patterns.

I use Reaper everyday in my work. I've used it everyday for about 8 years. I love about 90% of what the app is and does. I don't understand where you think I hate it and I also don't understand why you're taking it so personally and getting so emotional. These are complaints based on a sound understanding of the app from using it for 8 - 14 hours a day - for the last 8 years.

I find it very disturbing that someone would even search another users post history.

[do_androids_dream]

That's my experience, and I'm glad I tried Reaper out. It has this power user audio hacker vibe that is so difficult to put a finger on, but for me it's there, and it lets me do exactly what I want to do without preventing me from doing so.

That's exactly Reaper's strength and it gets a lot of love from me for that reason. I just wish there had been, at some point, a deep look at how the whole app 'flows' and connects together. Maybe with an app like this - with a certain development 'bent' - it's not really possible to streamline and refine how it operates? There's certainly been many critiques on the Reaper forum over the years with very little change of any core UI ergonomics. Things like: lack of input gain; no effects 'rack' on the tcp; very basic, lacklustre metering; docking that barely functions; docking positions that aren't remembered properly on closing and opening Reaper; poor automation handling - scaling and such; use of all sorts of interchangeable terms that mean the same thing in the actions; mouse lag; duplication of functionality everywhere; loss of 'focus' with key commands... are all things that have grown to irritate me over the years. I still appreciate all of it's benefits though - I certainly don't 'hate' it!

[trimph1]

Guenon's point(s) are spot on for me...I like the workflow, I also like the nerdy approach to the GUI and I also like the effect sets it comes with.

I also have S1v3 now and it also has features I like...as well as being solid.

The one that failed for me was Sonar's X3/platinum. Waste of time getting that to not go boomcrash!!!!

[Guenon]

I just wish there had been, at some point, a deep look at how the whole app 'flows' and connects together. Maybe with an app like this - with a certain development 'bent' - it's not really possible to streamline and refine how it operates?

Yeah, I'm interested in your critical opinion as you're clearly well versed in the application from so many years of use . What have become the pain points in the actual "flow" between different elements for you?

For me, there really hasn't been any feeling of disconnectedness between the different aspects. I use the docker only for the mixing console (at the bottom) and the media browser (on the left), and I open and close both of those with mouse thumb buttons. I find they are always remembered correctly and are fast and reliable to work with. The MIDI editor always defaults maximixed for me, and that also behaves like I'd expect.

It would be really interesting to hear what you think of the Studio One environment after a couple of years. Echoing your sentiments, it's certainly an application I don't hate (I like the most of it, and it feels reassuring I can always fall back on such a great design if things start to go wrong with Reaper for some reason).

[EvilDragon]

Mr. Android, what's your alias on Reaper forums?

[Mutant]

Mr. Android, what's your alias on Reaper forums?

Watch out ! He finds it very disturbing if it is to search his post history.

[trimph1]

Oh wow.

[fedexnman]

couldn't find any popcorn .