Is REAPER the current best long term choice?

[jamcat]

You always seem to end with your mantra : " either make music or tweak settings."

That is a bit of a theme I suppose.
It seems to me that a lot of musicians fall into the trap of focusing too much on the tools and the process and not enough on the song and the melody. Especially round these parts.

Here's a recent Reaper video about that very thang:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGANjbiysRE

You know, what he’s talking about in the video isn’t even actually the same thing I’m talking about. It’s fine to want your recordings to sound well mixed, which I think think of as having the proper levels, a good stereo field, and good EQ and compression on your tracks.

What I’m usually talking about, actually, is something quite different. Lots of “musicians” seem to forget what being a musician is all about, and end up thinking it’s about playing with plugins, automating filters that modulate the arpeggiators that arpeggiate the modulators that modulate their filters. They use that bullshit as a substitute for writing an actual song with something approaching a melody and harmony and structure. Nobody cares what synth you used. They only care about the melody you played on it.

Even worse is spending all your time tending your plugin garden and customizing UI skins and all that, which just takes the musician one more step further away from the intended goal of making music.

[FapFilter]

so?
arming, recording and the other transport controls are working pretty much identical to any DAW i can think of atm?

[ghettosynth]

so?
arming, recording and the other transport controls are working pretty much identical to any DAW i can think of atm?

It's a red herring. Some people just can't accept that many Reaper users prefer to use Reaper and just assume that we must be spending all of our time tweaking. It's exactly the opposite for me. Reaper does things quickly and I just get to work. When I need more power, it's there. I don't really spend any time configuring/tweaking it. I spend zero time futzing about with themes, I like the default well enough. I just install and go.

[FapFilter]

i'm also using "basic Reaper" for the most part (other than having customized keyboard shortcuts to my likings, which, imo, every DAW should feature - and to give Cakewalk / Sonar some credit when it's due: the mouse customizability has been even better there, even in the old versions from 2009 and before that i was using until i switched to Reaper)
the general look is pretty fine for me too. i know enough highly sought afters DAWs that are "worse" looking to my eyes

though i had a couple of REAL trouble in some aspects when i started using it. some stuff is indeed really well "hidden" inside it. this can easily be fixed by customized keyboard commands and then it's super awesome, since it is set the way YOU want it to be.
of course it can happen that some DAWs won't click with you at all - no matter what. but when i'm now demoing Ableton, Bitwig, or FL Studio, i sometimes have the same trouble in "how the heck am i supposed to do this easy peasy thing?"
oh and i forgot about the supposedly super easy Garage Band, which i found super convoluted to use in the brief time i "had to use it" which i found way more confusing than even Reaper on my first attempts

[sQeetz]

\
oh and i forgot about the supposedly super easy Garage Band, which i found super convoluted to use in the brief time i "had to use it" which i found way more confusing than even Reaper on my first attempts

Garage Band is a clusterfuck of unusable. Might go for Reaper aswell...

[liquidsound]

You may “waste” (“invest” comes to mind) in customizing Reaper.

That “time” is well made up by the consequently faster workflow obtained by the very customization of Reaper.
Not only it’s made up but it’s there for good.

If I had to move away from Ableton and Bitwig, Reaper would be the one.

I haven’t upgraded to 6 yet. I may….

[syntonica]

No tweaking needed. Works fine out of the box. The only thing I did on mine is replace the skin, because I wanted to. Those SWS extensions are available too but not essential. You're paying well under $100 for very well maintained, pro product.

For some reason, I never cared for the SWS menus. Theres a replacement set in the stash that seems extremely tight and well organized, although I haven't explored it fully yet. Finding a good skin is still a bit of a chore, though. There's now zillions!

There's other stuff in SWS, but I've never used it. And it's a ton of stuff.

[ghettosynth]

No tweaking needed. Works fine out of the box. The only thing I did on mine is replace the skin, because I wanted to. Those SWS extensions are available too but not essential. You're paying well under $100 for very well maintained, pro product.

For some reason, I never cared for the SWS menus. Theres a replacement set in the stash that seems extremely tight and well organized, although I haven't explored it fully yet. Finding a good skin is still a bit of a chore, though. There's now zillions!

There's other stuff in SWS, but I've never used it. And it's a ton of stuff.

I didn't either. For me though, part of what what I like about Reaper is that the licensing isn't restrictive, and it's a tiny and fast install. I can install it on as many machines as I like, so it gets installed on every machine and I use it for all kinds of audio tasks that aren't related necessarily to my main music production. Since it's cross platform, including Linux, I do mean every machine.

[EdwardGivens]

It is for me.

Doesn't crash. Is easy to look at, uses standard key commands (under windows) is easy to use, has a great forum where I can find the answers I need on the rare occasion I have an issue, doesn't come with a bunch of bloatware, and was inexpensive to boot. Definitely the least troublesome DAW I've ever used and doesn't appear to be going anywhere anytime soon.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

And as of today, Reaper officially has CLAP support. The second major DAW to offer it. No polyphonic modulation yet, who knows if or when that's coming, but CLAP is now official!

[Smasha]

Another example of why I love Reaper.

I loaded Padshop 2 and used the Chemical Dreams preset.

In Cubase ,the sound faded in and out and was unresponsive on my midi kb,with notes sometimes responding and then not at all,remembner Padshop 2 is a Steinberg product that COMES with Cubase PRO lol.

I then use the exact same settings in Reaper.

Not one glitch,sound playing perfectly.

Cubase is the most buggy DAW I have ever used.

Unless I am doing something wrong?

I checked the QR controls in Cubase to make sure the attack was not set too high.

Buit still the sound would be intermittent.

Reaper blows Cubase away for stability,not even close.

[Unaspected]

And as of today, Reaper officially has CLAP support. The second major DAW to offer it. No polyphonic modulation yet, who knows if or when that's coming, but CLAP is now official!

Sweet! I knew there was a new update but hadn't checked the details. Good that I've been installing CLAP versions of various plugins in anticipation! Not that I was installing for that - there just happened to be CLAP versions included so thought I might as well install them as well.

[concealed identity]

I think the best way to put it is that workflow is part of what you pay for when you buy a DAW. Most DAWs will do everything 95% of customers want, but the biggest way they stand out from each other is how they do it. People praise Ableton or Bitwig because everything is "easier" or "makes more sense", and Studio One basically started as a way for ex-Cubase developers to make a similar application but starting from scratch without having to account for all of the legacy bloat, focusing on an intuitive workflow.

Reaper basically just throws everything in a basket, hands it to the customer, and leaves it up to them to create a workflow. They also charge significantly less money for the software. For those who love customization, this is a double positive. For those of us who would rather pay to have a piece of software with its own workflow and logic, it's a trade off. I'm in the latter group, but if I were more like the former, I would definitely consider Reaper as my DAW.

[panspOrmia]

I`ve tried them all, and for me.. nothing beats Reaper and Renoise.

IMHO, the two most well-coded daws on the planet.

[sQeetz]

I would not put Renoise and Reaper in the same boat besides them being an almost one-man-show
Reaper being well coded as it might be, design wise it's a disaster. Some people like it, noted.
I can't remember the name of the DAW which was so efficient and expensive.... but butt fuckn ugly and ... it wasn't babya Logic. Another one