I like almost everything about Reaper. It's fast, light on resources, scriptable, can be ran portably, super customizable, etc etc. Tried using other DAW's before and always go back to Reaper. Great video
I think it should be noted that Reaper has a "higher learning curve". Yes, once you have been using Reaper for some time it definitely is the most powerful and flexible DAW out there but for many people they just want to make music without having to learn even more stuff - they simply do not have the time for that. I think that and Reaper's GUI is what puts a lot of people off from using it. I switch constantly between Studio One and Reaper - Studio One when I want to just get on with making music and Reaper when I want to continue exploring the learning curve.
I never thought of that. I don't know why, maybe because I've been around DAWs for so long. You are probably right though. There's an added element of complexity to Reaper. On the other hand, when I watch people working with Ableton, everything looks very alien to me. So maybe it depends on what is your previous experience.
@@alexanderstuartpetty485 it is simple to use but that does not mean the learning curve is steep later on. I've written scripts for it and that is not accessible to the vast majority of DAW users.
I used almost every daw, starting from cakewalk sonar, pro tools, studio one ,cubase,fl studio and finally find peace with cockos reaper...the best ever!
Same for me, including ableton and reason. Studio One was my favorite DAW until I tried Reaper.The whole time I've been trying to find a DAW I can call home and Reaper has proven to be that as a daily user for nearly 2 years.
Thank you for sharing this. After about five years of using Reaper, I've been tempted recently to return to Studio One, but what you've shown us here has helped me avoid that mistake. I'm sticking with Reaper. It has extraordinary power and flexibility.
I would like to challenge that. If you feel that a change can improve your workflow, then at least give yourself the chance to try something different. I'm happy I gave you more info, but your experience is more important than my perspective on this.
Studio One just switched to a $150 a year model to get updates, so sticking with Reaper was a good move. I'm here watching this video because I'm about to switch to Reaper from Studio One. (I used Reaper when it first came out but been YEARS since I've used it)
Cubase and studio one are just amazing daw so complete I can tell as a cubase user myself but as soon you progress you find you don't need a lot of those stock plugins, sound and instruments that came with your daw that's why reaper is a really minimalistic daw for those who been already decades in the industry and have a lot of third party licenses. Love reaper!
Started with PlayerPro in the 90s, went on with Logic and later switched to Cubase. Due to other circumstances I wasn't able to record for the past 15 years. Last month I downloaded Reaper and bought the license a week later. To me it provides the best experience - I wasn't able to create music at the same level of comfort with any other DAW I used. Reaper allows me to streamline my workflow in a way I've never thought to be possible. The most convincing fact for me was that Reaper doesn't come with tons of instruments and other stuff, but provides probably the most powerful foundation for you to make it whatever you want it to be: It lets me make my own choices of how to modify it with the exact upgrades I needed without having gigabytes of modules preinstalled that I wouldn't use.
Reaper Pros: Extremely affordable. Staggeringly customisable. Very low CPU usage. Best folder and Buss system in the game. Access to a mega-library of free JS plug-ins. Cons: Unattractive design, but (again) massively adaptable to different themes and layouts.
I started making music with FL, and after three years I decided that it was time to move on and chose reaper as a reference, and in literally an hour I had already learned everything I could do in FL, but now it has become faster and more optimized, and yet I only completed an hour of use, in general, I was not mistaken in choosing reaper
Pretty much used every daw under the sun; Reaper, Pro tools, FL, Ableton, S1, Cubase, Bitwig, Reason etc. etc. and they are all great and can help you to make any music you wanna make but the more I used other daws the more I appreciated Reaper and realized there's nothing like Reaper in the market, yeah it's not perfect just like every other daw, but it's in a league of its own. To this date, there's nothing I could do in other daw but couldn't do in Reaper but easier and faster.
The big feature for me with Studio One is the project view - when making albums, it's killer because you can setup your mastering project, and if you need to tweak anything in any of your sessions, you can easily jump into it, make your changes, and Studio One will then automatically update the mastering session. I couldn't imagine working on my band's LP without this feature, it's awesome.
@@bioburden Cool, I personally don't do a lot of mastering, but AFAIK Reaper is very popular among professional mastering engineers as well. In Reaper you can basically do the same thing as well. You can have each song projects as subprojects, and they'll be shown as single waveform in a final mastering project where you can master everything at once and still open any wave file as projects anytime and change your mix and come back to the final mastering project where the master will be automatically updated, essentially the same thing. And if you wanna have some kind of similar layout as the project page, you can setup a custom screenset in Reaper as well. There's nothing you can't do in Reaper.
Started with Reaper knew nothing about DAWs not a good move settled on Cubase because it automatically did stuff I couldn't figure out being new to DAWs. After a while I found i didn't like the way Cubase was dealing with electronic music production i was thinking about Ableton but hated the mixer, and went back to Reaper ( which I knew I would do at some point). Yeah it creates like Abelton for electronic music. Very easy sound design stuff. It sounds amazing. I use the old school white tie theme. It looks like how I want my interface to look and the mixer is perfect. Reaper really has no limits. But you have to know what a DAW is what you need and don't need. I never really used the stock programs in Cubase that much. Which was another factor. These DAWs you're paying for the extras, Cubase without the bloat would be cheaper and more useful. To me. Plus Cubase is more for live recording with added samples. Reaper,doesn't matter you can set it up to be what you want. I do house so it is geared for that. But Reaper is my DAW not changing to anything else. No need. I'll keep my Cubase for some instruments but otherwise I don't use it at all, thought I would switch between the 2 but....nah
If you like to customize Reaper is the only option. It’s a power users DAW but can (and will) be customized more and more over time and as you use it until it fits your needs nearly perfectly.
I am currently a S1 user and a small time music producer. The biggest issue I have is that the playback quality of the output through S1 never comes in the output that is rensered with the highest possible quality. I tried to contact Presonus support team and they seem to be unbothered. I think I will soon buy the Reaper license.
11 дней назад
About the price. Even if there is a new version, you are not forced to buy a new license. You can still work in the old version.
I saw a test on how different DAWs handle fades on audio items. What I remember is that Reaper was one of the best, Pro Tools too, and StudioOne was one of the worst. Who thinks about such things working in the DAW? Close to no one, I suppose. But such differences do exist. Of course, I'm not sure if StudioOne has changed anything in new versions. Also, Reaper has one of the best resampling algorithms, which comes into play when working with samples at different sample rates or rendering to a different sample rate while processing in a project sample rate. There're also tests on the web. Izotope RX is also amongs best alrorithms, if I remember it correctly.
To produce and compose I usually use FL, but I always mix and master in Reaper, unlike Studio One, Ableton and Cubase it never has problems loading the plugins, recognizing the control surfaces, no strange CPU usage with some plugins, it's easy to connect and link different parameters, I can take it with my projects, configurations and plugins on a pendrive to any studio I visit... other DAWs can barely dream of it.
@@synapticschism That reminds me of a test I did by downloading the Zonone 11, since I haven't updated it since 8 and although it sounds funny I usually use 4 and 5 because they give me the same results without excessive use of DSP, and something I noticed in the demo of 11 is that in some DAWs it uses almost twice as much CPU as in reaper, I don't understand it. I don't know if it is a problem with the Izotope developers who, like Plugin Alliance, have been releasing increasingly worse plugins or with the DAW itself.
@@xanxikawok7326 wanna hear a weird coincidence? Before going to bed yesterday I decided I'd record a video about Ozone today. I wake up and the first thing in my email is your comment. :D
@@ranajoyshil 😗... I never tried, was hard for me, outside cubase, st one, ableton and reason wich is a headache at the begining. Have you a template with macros or something?... The truth Im not an "specialist" in programing.
Reaper is the best and most lightweight DAW for someone with experience of DAWs. It's barebones UI makes it quite hard for a beginner to get their head around it. I suggest Cakewalk for a free DAW on Windows that can basically do almost everything a fully paid DAW can... And after getting comfortable, switch to Reaper. I primarily use Studio One for all the macros, folder busses and basically how intuitive and how quick and easy it makes my workflow.
where can I learn how to write custom scripts like you did? Can you share your custom JS Scripts? Or, can I purchase them??? Thank You for the awesome video.
@@synapticschismthanks so much! I used to dive into improving all macro functions in S1 and try to make it become a perfect daw. But yeah I 100% agree with you that S1 still has many limitations cause from its basic programming design structure. This reason makes S1 can customize many functions but never works perfectly. To me S1 is really close to my perfect daw. Until I meet Reaper and realize this is the answer that I have found for years!
@@synapticschismfor many years I try to find a daw that can deal with all the types of music productions. For singer-songwriters it has to be super convenient to let me write down all inspiration as fast as it can, including audio and midi part. For beat maker it needs to make the workflow such as make a drum loop pattern and sampling a sound intuitively. For EDM producer it needs a powerful piano roll and efficient multi midi instruments editing workflow for layering synths, also needs a powerful fx chain system for EDM sound design. And finally, for modern metal producer and mixing engineer, it needs an intuitive audio editing/automation/mixing processing system. I start from FL Studio like many people, then switch to Ableton, trying almost every mainstream daws and switch to S1, now I'm extremely happy that I finally find the answer I have looked for so many years. Why I can't just stay in one daw and do whatever I want to do? I really don't care about spending time on customizing reaper. Daw is just a tool, it has to make people feel easy and happy to making music, not create for bothering people and make the process become boring, annoying with a complicated operating system that fucked up your workflow, make you feels like making music is super fucking hard like you are learning computer science holy shit.
@@synapticschismanyway can you demonstrate how you customize the scripts that you show in this video? like how to install and set up the functions, and explain how to improve the workflow by using all the scripts you are using right now. your workflow really inspires me a lot. again thank you so much for sharing this pure gold.
I go back and forth between Reaper and Studio One as my linear workhorse. I love how crazy customizable every little thing in reaper is, but I also find myself getting lost in the sauce of it all pretty often. I forget hotkeys I setup to do things and then get bogged down. I like how studio one does all the important stuff very well and is much more straightforward GUI wise, but then sometimes I miss the customization. I fear i may juggle them both for awhile. Bitwig is my other main. Nothing quite touches what bitwig can do from a modulation/sound design workflow, I just dont love it for arranging and it lacks proper tools like video and ara support for media composition
I 100% understand what you say. Never tried Bitwig though, I've heard other people mentioning the same attributes you did but since those are not things I often need, I never got to consider it.
I chose Studio One because it is incredibly intuitive. I can focus on creating music rather than wading through a DAW. In Studio One I can compose music as fast as I can think almost. Also support is really good. FB group alone answers my questions in minutes in most cases. Yes there is a learning curve like any DAW but tutorials are great. They cover topics topics in small digestible chunks. Right to the point. I release 1-3 songs per week. Several over 100k plays. Just my 2 cents.
I completely understand where you are coming from and agree with how you assess Studio One and DAWs in general. I think it's important that each one of us understands what is better for our workflow.
One correction; Studio One Hybrid gives you a perpetual license after 12 months. So they at least finally figured out that people don't want to pay so much for their product.
You are not correcting me. The perpetual license doesn't include updates after you stop paying the subscription. You need to keep paying for the updates which means that my calculations are correct for the updated versions of both. I will stand corrected if Presonus changed the hybrid offer, but if it didn't, the cost for the updated versions is correct. On top of that, the offer I received and all hybrid offers overall only include one version of S1, while Reaper, at least until now, includes two main versions. In practice this translates to 4 times the cost per purchase, if you disregard the updates, which are included in Reaper for free.
I love Studio One, but it’s handling of a very powerful Ryzen 9 7950X CPU, is deplorable, like most DAWS out there. Reaper is the oNLy one that allows my CPU to work with its full compliment of juice. That is the sole reason that I stayed with Reaper after trying Studio One. S1’s workflow is incomparable. I’ve used Reaper, S1, Logic, Ableton, and others. I don’t need all of the plugins and instruments that come with certain DAWS because I simply don’t use them. I’ve got a really fun and fairly vast collection of third party VSTs and VSTi plugins, so I always go there when I’m writing and producing.
I love reaper so much. Bitwig too - I feel like between them I have a great traditional linear DAW and a more modern beat making app. They are both new kids on the block and don’t have the hang ups and old code of pro tools or ableton. However, studio one is amazing. I miss the great organisation for files, projects, mastering, presets etc. The arranging tools, lyrics, live playing - all incredible. I also don’t like the look of reaper at all and never found a third party skin that comes close to s1. Also being able to save unlimited track views / snapshots is great. Somehow reaper still feels clunky handling windows. However, I love how reaper deals with tracks. Audio/midi/vca/folder etc. it’s unparalleled and one of the main reasons I keep coming back. There is no perfect DAW and somehow I can’t help but think I will be back and forth some more 😂
Thank you. This was very interesting, but I had just looked at moving from S1 back to Reaper and found I was constrained to stick with S1. The big issue was hardware. My main devices on my desk are an NI Kontrol Mk3 keyboard and an ioStation 24c control surface. Neither of these are supported on Reaper. If you can get the Kontrol approximately working, it has a reputation of crashing. And there is no current way to use the ioStation - ReaSonus suggests it could work with the (logically identical) FaderPort 2, but I could not get it to recognise my hardware. So ... I will keep monitoring it. But unless hardware compatibility improves, Reaper won't work for me - and that's a shame.
That's a very particular problem. I never heard of DAWs having to support specific hardware, maybe because I never had any issues moving between DAWs with my control surfaces. All that stuff should work out of the box, but clearly it doesn't.
Reaper is a great DAW and the developers are very good. When people ask me what DAW they should get I always give them a few options but Reaper is always one I mention. Especially if you use Windows or you go back and forth between different operating systems like Mac and PC or even Linux, you can use Reaper which is a big plus. The cost is low and Reaper is stable. Reaper is one of the best Values in audio especially for those who may not be able to afford other DAWs but need to make music! Cheers!
Before I love using both. Studio 1 for production and recording and reaper for mixing but I had big issue with studio when I notice that my recorded sound after opening it again in a few days I would hear a out of phase like sound. It seems that the audio is corrupted or something that’s why i stopped using it.
It would be a good deal if you had support after the purchase. If I understand it correctly, with the current deal you get the perpetual license but no upgrades, updates, extra content, plugins or support if you don't keep the subscription. If that is the case the subscription is more valuable.
If you use high cpu demanding plugs like acustica audio than reaper is the best choice because it is handling multitasking process way better like other daws.
@@synapticschism I actually saw a video where this guy was showing how each DAW handles multiple CPU cores, particularly with the Apple M chips. Reaper and Cubase were the only ones that used both performance and efficiency cores in those CPUs, whereas the rest did not. So Reaper really does handle multicore processing really well.
You do not know what you do not know. I have used both Studio One and Reaper, but has ended up in Cubase/Nuendo. Many of the fuctions you describe is already part of Cubase. Depending of what you do - reaper lack a lot of musical functions like: No good pitch correction, no easy way to find a tempo of a track, no chord track etc. Seems like you write MIDI a lot, here Cubase is a lot more advanced. And it even more CPU effective for large projects then Reaper.
You make a good point (indirectly) which goes in line with something I believe: there is no best DAW overall. Each DAW is the best for each individual workflow.
@@drutgat2 any thing in particular that I could make a video about to help? I'm always collecting ideas from viewers. I'm happy to address any points in video.
@@synapticschism Many thanks for your kind offer. I will have a think, and get back to you in the next couple of days. There are so many things that I do not understand, or understand adequately, but I am trying to balance things a bit so that I spend more time recording (even with a just adequate implementation of a Reaper technique) rather than spending more time on Reaper than on song-writing and recording. Watch this space!
@@synapticschism Apologies for getting back to you a little later than I had intended. I just did some recording in Reaper - and would appreciate a video on using Takes in Reaper 7 (not that I was completely unaware of how to use them, but I did somehow manage to mess up a short guitar intro. piece I was adding to my song at the end of my session because I am not as familiar with using Takes as I had thought). I am familiar with Kenny's videos on Takes, and I also read the manual, but given how thorough and how well explained your video on why you chose Reaper vs. Studio One was, I would appreciate a fresh take (ha! ha!) on Takes in Reaper.
IM sticking to Studio One as my main DAW . I dont want to script or menu dive for little improvements all over the DAW . Nor menu dive all damn day ... The only thing that irritates me about s1 is the fact it still cant link / group plugin parameters across tracks like pro tools or Cubase does ..
@@synapticschism Right .. Its like asking whats the best car ...... You can prolly come up with a objective list of cars with the pros and cons of each .. Pro Tools would be the Model T .. LOL .
and you have to do so much configuration, download scripts and skins etc... working professionals that have to turn out results back to a label, producer, artist by the end of the work day, aren't using Reaper.
@@PlottingTheDownfall all those scripts are things you do to get your template, not for each project. You aren't doing programming each track unless you discover some new cool trick that will make you faster.
Agree with you... i have work with reaper for about ``forever``... BUt 2 years ago i have buy a Presonus io Station 24c... It suppose to be ``EASY`` flow... : NOT REALLY. And i have Studio one crash few times, and sometime intermitent weird white noise. But most important... like you says : Studio One take FOREVER TIME to just open. So, after 2 years of kinda pissed-off , i returned to REAPER. Bonus : no F**K**G 200$ a years renewal. Studio One was in downhill since they have been sold to FENDER. Now it`s more like a ``money-cow`` for them...
Like all DAWs, it has its quirks but overall, it is very strong indeed. I would love a better MIDI editor, better articulation support and some QoL stuff but I also feel that whatever improvements are made, impact the overall customization that it offers so it is a tough balance.
Hey! Studio One user here, but looking for a change. I got really curious about the script you used to edit the sample start of the VST’s. Is it dynamic or does it require template? If you add a new instance of the vst will the script automatically update its state? I can kind of achieve this feature in studio one (or any other daw) using bluecat’s remote control but it’s a PITA to setup and it requires a template already pre assigned. Thanks! Abraço!
Olá! :D There are two plugins involved. One is the instrument which behaves like any other (Kontakt in this case) so not dynamic unless you have a track template or a session template. The other is the script. This one is dynamic in the sense that as soon as you add it, it is already influencing the sample start. The issue you'll have by not having a track template, is that you won't have the instrument and the script doing the same thing. In the case of Audio Imperia stuff this is a concern because you want both to work together. However, if the only thing you need is to add a pre-delay for orchestral stuff, this plugin works as expected, you just need to dial the pre-delay you want which you can do with a mouse directly on those knobs you see in the video. Keep in mind that both the instrument and the sample start are controlled by a CC on my nanoKontrol. That's how I avoid the issue I explained above but this is specifically to use Audio Imperia's engine to its full strength. Let me know if this is confusing and I'll do a quick video explaining how everything works both for pre-delay in general and for Audio Imperia in particular.
I had to educate myself about Chunks. If I understood it correctly, no, it doesn't. The closest you have in Reaper is sub-projects but it's not close. I have considered Digital Performer in the past. What is your take on it?
@@synapticschism It's advanced and not finished at the same Time. Ei : the routing and editing is out of this world. But producing or beatmaking Can turn out to be tuff!
@@thelinkofperfectioncharity9469 I can't comment on beatmaking since it's not my thing. I find production is as accessible as any other major DAW I've tried. You can complaint about the stock plugins I guess. They do the work but I can't stand them.
@@synapticschismthe stock gate plugin is shockingly good. I dropped it on a tom track and picked the Tom setting and it cleaned them right up like nothing I’ve heard. Some gems in there.
@@phadrus I believe you, but I have a really hard time with Reaper's stock plugins. I'm very visual, things need to look good and stock plugins just don't. I know it's my problem, but it is what it is.
Too be honest, I was expecting way more than those really arbitrary and personal reasons, I find Reaper to be cold and lifeless, and far to OK with the already HORRID windows menu system, like seriously, I'm not saying I love flashy or Id be a traction or FL fanboy really at the end of the day, but Studio ones mastering process alone, once understood and used correctly, from song to project, is so much of a time saving tool than my template loading quickly, it sounds more like a hardware issue, like I though t Isaw windows 7 but I could be mistakenn. Id say get an machine upgrade my man, sorry for assuming you don't have a newer CPU, but like the difference is shocking with the new P and E core system intel is on. S1 is lightning fast on my 13th gen i5k, I make drum n Bass so I so HEAVY processing is like the norm and sometimes ridiculous levels of reverb and delay timing and it doesn't even crash unless I'm careless. And like I mean its so fast I don't even notice it lagging ever, I mean not for a split second unless I'm processing something through the bus with a known latency hit. I really don't think your reason are justified because of this, they are really honestly small unimportant things that I think fanboys get off on, but serves no purpose other than creating as discussion over whether or not your writing music or your computing knowledge is superior to others. Sharing it with the people out here in RU-vid land, not tryin to be harsh but like there was one real reason Reaper could be called better, price point, but you failed to mention that with the S1 hybrid plan, you DO own a perpetual license after a year, and the upgrade discount in the last few versions the same price as reaper, at least from 4-5 and 5-6. So like, nice content for some views but seriously not relevant at least in a wide End user context. I mean put it this way, your title is misleading, I get it its basically just an OP piece, you make it sound as if there were real issues, like my template is probably fuller than yours, and it loads in perhaps less than 5 secs , how fast do you need that to be? AND there is a key command for the arming of multiple tracks without building a macro (again where studio ones interface is the only reason I understand how to build macros because its quite intuitive), that you can map to virtually anything midi or keyboard.. Although if your loading a bunch of Kontakt libraries, that's not necessarily the DAWS fault either, and If I'm mistaken correct me, but we have come a LONG way in computing in the last 5 years and my machine 3 years ago was slow compared to mine now and it was cheaper than my 3 year old one, from scratch. And do you ever experiment with a blank template, because that's where my best ideas come from personally, and its l don't know, like a mental workout for my skills. Sorry for the long fairly negative feedback I just don't want people to not try Studio One because of your specific issues, I tried reaper for a week and hated it, it really came down to how much I actually HAD to tweak it to get it what i wanted to do, anyone who says its faster is only cause they learned how to do it and I would say the time your saving, can you really equate that to making better music? I don't think they'd have an answer. Anyways good day I respect your opinion, but for those curious about Studio one, his are just that and, so are mine. Think for yourself, be free and never stop moving towards your summit, patience is a virtue.
I wouldn't say Reaper is more stable than S1, at least not in my system. But it uses resources better, so in more stressful conditions that is likely true.
