Reaper DAW

[Lee Gillespie]

Has any one had experience with the Reaper DAW.
Been using cakewalk Guitar Tracks Pro 3 for years and wonder if Reaper is a better DAW Lee

[Michael McGee]

Lee, in my humble opinion, it is some of the finest software ever coded for recording.

However, software has to match the way a person thinks about the recording process... in other words... your workflow.

Different programmers approach workflow differently in coding their software. For me, Reaper seems to know what I need to do before I even know I need to do it. But for others, it won't 'feel' right.

I can also say that the team at Reaper is among the most responsive in the business about 1) fixing bugs once they are discovered, and 2) adding features that their users are asking for.

Here's the best part... download it for FREE and use it for FREE. It is not crippled in any way. If you like it, then PAY FOR IT. If you don't, uninstall it and move on. They use the HONOR system as a marketing tool - something I really admire.

And yes, I bought it.

[Tim McCutchen]

Mike, what audio interface works well with Reaper? Hope everything is going well for you.

[Tony Prior]

Reaper is a fine product and supports many various interfaces.

Remember this though, although it is a free download they are asking for a $40 fee if you decide to keep it and use it for NON commercial use and a $200 Fee if you are using it for Commercial activities. ( making money with your tracks) .

It's not free,only the initial download is free and you are on your honor system to pay for it.

The big difference here is programs like PRO TOOLS, you can download it and use it for 30 days free but after that you must pay to keep it. It expires and stops working.

Honor system....


I'm guessing the users here paid the $40 or the $200 ? I only paid $149 for full blown Pro Tools 8 when PT 9 came out. I am a commercial user.

[Patrick Janka]

Reaper is the best. No contest.

[Greg Cutshaw]

I've used Reaper on all my recording projects over the past 2 years. I record the tracks to a Zoom R24 and then port them to Reaper for editing, mastering, additional effects and final convert to mp3 from wav. I have the R24 in my music room with my amps and guitars and my computer in another area with all my TV's and other hobbies. Makes sense for me to split the job and lets each device do what it excels at. This method also avoids any issues of PC recording latency and glitches as all recorded tracks are done with the R24. Reaper runs super fast and glitch free even on a low end PC with 2 GB of memory.


My Reaper/Zoom page


Greg

[Tony Prior]

Reaper is the best. No contest.

no contest ?

The thing about DAW's is that each of us use them differently and our purposes and end goals vary.

What may be perfect for Patrick above may not be perfect for another user. Greg above also produces fine tracks and obviously has his process down. I also suspect that he would do the exact same thing on any DAW, be it Sonar or Pro-Tools etc...

I happen to use Pro-Tools as I work in studios that use Pro-Tools so I am on a consistent platform plus I get to watch and learn from fine engineers as they perform the magic. I also have 2 or 3 local friends on the same platform and we talk often, we talk the same language. We share and learn.

Reaper is a fine platform, easy to use easy to work with, I did use it for a month or two. and came away with that conclusion. But I must say, going to Pro Tools added a few things that are NOT in Reaper or Sonar of which I have two versions running...This may or may not be important for the engineering side of things.

Is Pro-Tools or Sonar the best hands down ? I dunno...I doubt it...but I know Pro-Tools gave me some tools that Sonar doesn't have and Reaper didn't have either. I paid $149 for a full PT8 package and License. I run on an old XP with 4 meg ram, no issues, it will run on 2 meg but if you have add-on packages the extra ram is helpful for resources. I did have crashes and lock-ups with Sonar,( same PC + ram_) I have not had one crash with PT8 in the 2 years I have been running.

I should add that the XP PC I use is not used for anything other than the DAW, no mail, no internet, no MS programs.


Also remember , Reaper is not free..you are supposed to pay for it..$40 non commercial, $200 commercial.

t

[Jack Stoner]

There are many recording programs available. Everyone has their favorite that they use or the program that they would like to have.

Go on the www.gearslutz.com forum as it's a good place to look over comments about the various recording programs since it is not one product specific.

I have Sonar (X1 Producer) and it does what I want. I've downloaded and played around with Reaper but that's all. I also had a 30 day version of PT8 and if I didn't already have Sonar and the high price of PT's I would have it since they have now opened their DAW to other hardware.

[Bob Russell]

I've been using Reaper on a Mac Mini (older one, 1.83 gHz Core Duo) on evaluation for about a week now, and I'm very impressed. No crashes or weirdnesses so far. It comes with a dizzying array of plug-ins. Track setup and audio routing are very easy to understand. It has worked flawlessly with my Digidesign MBox. The evaluation period lasts a month with full functionality, but I already know I want this one!