In terms of customizability, nothing comes even remotely close to Reaper. Nothing I know of that is. (Understandably for some user that's quite the curse as you need to spend time tinkering with your setup to really harness the power - also, as for generative synths you need 3rd party solutions, fortunately that's a non-issue nowadays)
This was a fun watch. I have never used a DAW other than this one, so when i saw ableton for the first time, or even other DAWs like reaper who have a way different way of doing things, i didn't understand anything. Every different program has its own learning curve and isn't understood the same way by everyone, and that's okay! Menu diving is a big part of learning these programs.
If you saw my Reaper installation, you'd be shocked again.. it's totally unrecognizable from default Reaper. The momentum killing is only at the beginning, once you learn how it works and how you can customize it, it gets blazing fast.
I know this is an old video but just stumbled in it. I'm not a producer, I use Reaper for foley for films (mostly indie no budget clients) and Reaper is the DAW that made the most sense to me for that workflow. The video subsystem runs very well and I love the fact that the tracks don;t care WHAT you put on them. Modi, stere, mono ... everyone is welcome. LOL. I also believe that the company behind Reaper is juts like one or two people? I might be worng. Also, they recently revamped the automation screen with the one billion checkboxes recently. It's much better designed now.
Recently spent about 4 months testing all the big DAWs and chose Reaper in the end. This video is spot on that it’s a steep learning curve, but oh my god is it worth it! You can make it do whatever you want to fit your flow, even if it’s not obvious how at first.
Mooved from Cubase and Logic to Reaper. Reaper just works better and more advanced.. have not encounter any limit yet.. and still so much to explore. I tried it for a month and creativity flowing in a way that was not possible even by using 3 other DAWS. But... you will have to dive and study it a little.. thanks for the video😊
i have no formal sound engineering training. im more of a home muso who has need to learn enough to get decent results using a somewhat pragmatic approach. i have previously used pro tools, cubase, garageband and ableton with the latter imho feeling like the makers were trolling. reaper was / is just easy and has great company and community support. everything is easy and intuitive albeit i dont need to access those buried options very often.
You can do everything with audio and video production possible maybe. Once you start using it you'll learn where the tools you use the most are. Not everybody needs everything this DAW offers, but if you do it's there.
I'm not a musician. I can barely play a dummed down version of Old Lang syne on my AKAI LPK25 LOL but I use it for FOLEY work for short films (mostly indie /students clients) and for that it is AMAZING for me. I edit in DaVinci Studio and Fairlight is great but I jump out of it to Reaper for anything even remotelly complicated (sound wise).
I tried version 1 in 2001. Thought the idea was great but the sound was pretty 2D for lack of a better term. Then a friend raved about version 3. Once I got that installed, I ditched my MPC hardware setup and never looked back. Had an MPC 2000, Roland JV1080, Korg X3, Kawaii K4 and E-mu Proteus 2000. It replaced all of that
That fine tuning of the tempo caught my attention. I've never used a DAW that didn't have issues syncing live analog with new digital arpeggiators. Will it allow me to do what Ableton wasn't capable of?
Reaper is my first DAW, so I didn't actually know that others are more "intuitive". I watched great videos like the REAPER Mania channel and customized my workflow exactly how I want it. After a couple of weeks, I could do everything so quickly and intuitively. It's perfect! I bought awesome plugins with the money I saved on my DAW!
I feel like reaper shines the most with sample and audio take manipulation. You saw the audio clip editing window, but it gets so much smoother when you learn basic keyboard shortcuts for pitch and stretch. On top of that, the fade in/fade out controls and sample volume controls in the UI, not the space computer menu, are really nice. Most DAWs have that now (FLS was late to the party) but reaper had that control well over a decade ago. Automations also feel really good in reaper, at least compared to FLStudio, which is what i currently use. The best thing for you on that automation parameters window is the checkbox to show last touched paramater. go into the plugin, touch a knob, go to automations and quick find that knob. Reaper really lacks on plugins, which is part of why its so cheap. There are some gems in that long list of JS plugins, but realistically, this DAW goes nowhere without 3rd party plugins and samples. Just like any DAW, it has its own workflow to learn, and for this one it involves a lot of keyboard shortcuts. I used to use primarily reaper, but after a while of doing that, every other DAW felt like it had a much faster work flow but less precision and control. I still come back to it here and there, but it does not make for a creativity-inducing workspace.
As a committed Reaper user, I think that was an excellent summary of Reaper's advantages and disadvantages, and of what the user experience (generally) feels like when you first encounter Reaper, IF you try to use it without any preparation. Nowadays, though, there are some excellent 'intro.' videos. But, great video, and summary.
the clips are the exact same look as ableton do u not think!!?? now i know that all daws have all colours But its the exact same look!!! and the exact same shade of that kaki green !!!.
Its insane to think Reason just turned 30! ive been playing around with it since Reason 1 its always great fun still use it now with the latest version :)
Not sure about the limited FX options part tho, Reaper comes with 223 JSFX and 23 ReaPlugs lol. Although the instruments part is really lacking with 1 synth, 1 sampler and 1 very bad drum machine.
@@EricLefebvrePhotography The ReaPlugs are all legacy plugins and won't likely get any substantial updates, the future of all default Reaper plugins are JSFX plugins as there are already 100s if not 1000s of community made JSFX plugins with great UI as well Like Tukan, Saike etc.
The biggest advice on using Reaper, everything Reaper can do can be found in the actions menu, just search whatever you are trying to do and right click everything.
"Reaper is the Linux of DAWs" is a sentiment I can get behind. The thing is, because it is so customizable, you need to learn it and mold it to your workflow before you can use it. I swear I watched 3 hours of tutorials and customizing videos before I knew how I wanted it to behave. You can replicate the workflows of other DAWs. And the community plugins are a major part of the Reaper experience. And there's additional modules to install before you can use those. It's crazy powerful, but the steepest learning curve of any DAW.
i like the hardware feel reason has, but they haven't given love to the DAW. first we had to wait years for VST support and now we need to buy another DAW to get the features that every daw in 2024 should have. I am sick and tired of the clucky sequencer, i am migrating to another DAW i am tired of waiting years for reason to get what the other DAWS can.
Truly shocking, and quite damning that you left out the (now) free(!!) Cakewalk Sonar X3 (now by Bandlab) - a AAA product that competed - and STILL competes - with 'the best DAWS' out there, and that is still being updated by the same programmers. Unlimited audio and midi tracks, etc etc.
This was great. I use reaper because it works for ME, but I do alot of crazy stuff with HOA, 6DoF , and ADM files. I need the deep control. The DAW fights always seemed silly to me because it’s all about preference. Was great to see someone dive in and try something new. Fun right???!🤙🤙
Hi, nice video and you are really quick with some of this stuff! Something of interest that you didn't mention is the name itself: REAPER. If you like spy films with secret organizations (Spectre, Hydra, Thrush), or a certain Brit-friendly alien time-lord (Doctor Who and his TARDIS), you'll get a kick out of this: "REAPER - (Rapid Environment for Audio Production, Engineering, and Recording) is a digital audio workstation and MIDI sequencer application created by Cockos." Think of this: TARDIS (Time and Relative Dimensions in Space) SPECTRE (Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion) I've been using Reaper for a few weeks now, and although it takes a lot to learn it, I find it the most comfortable DAW to use. But I spent plenty of time customizing it and making it look and feel good. So I now have template projects that can launch my sessions and I'm good to go with music. SPECS: Reaper 7 Windows 10 Pro 16GB Memory SSD Internal drive 2 TB SSD external drive (plug-ins take up GBs of space!) Arturia KeyLab Essential 61 MK3 There are a ton of videos on RU-vid about how to work with this DAW, and that is great! It seems that enough people care about it to make videos! So, it is easier to learn than many others simply because there is so much support for it. And Cockos has even more support on their web site and their active user forums! As for plug-ins, I think there are so many FREE plug-ins out there that there is no need for Reaper to be bloated by a plug-in that you could get anywhere else for free. When I got started on my "Studio" I went "free plug-in" crazy and got a lot of great offers, including Kontakt Player (free), Orchestra Essentials for Kontakt (FREE), many pianos, guitars, synths etc. Even a free pipe organ! There's amazing stuff out there! And, to be fair, with so many people of so many tastes jumping on board, what instrument plug-ins should Reaper decide to bundle? A Synth? A sampled instrument (like a violin)? Effects Packs? I think that it is fitting, that in a DAW based on amazing customizability, they would leave the instrument plug-in choice up to the end user. A bonus is the free "theme packs" for customizing the appearance and layout of the program. These are available from Cockos as: "REAPER Stash" I found that there is tremendous support for the DAW, and that helped me get going. As for prior experience, I have used: MOTU Digital Performer - Reaper feels a bit like this DAW. BitWig Studio Ableton Live light FL studio trial Cakewalk free I had to give up on all of these for one reason or another (i.e. Digital Performer has a terrible time with the Windows Audio driver and wants an ASIO driver instead.) So, I have had good luck with Reaper so far. But I am an old programmer, I used to run Linux Mint, and I like customizing interfaces. I'm not a producer, so no time crunches, and I can make my music -- at my leisure. This DAW is an entertainment and hobby for me, so my needs are very different from those of a producer! So that's my experience that you asked for.
