Reaper. I haven't found anything I can't do with it. Plus, it has the added benefit of a MASSIVE library of "How To" videos that are free on their website. Extremely powerful software at a bargain price WITH full explanation videos of pretty much every aspect? Why would someone NOT use it?
Hi Warren and Glenn! I use Reaper as it pretty much does what I ask it to do and the community around it is so helpful. I've used it pretty much every day for the last nine years or so and I'm still learning new stuff with it.
Logic X. I love all the great free instruments that come with it. On another note, I’ve seen the recent news about the fires in CA and sincerely hope that you, your family and friends are far out of harm’s way. Take care!
Maybe have a talk with John from the Reaper Blog or Kenny Gioia instead. They will definitely show you some neat features, that will make any Pro Tools user envious!
Some unique Reaper features which I love: 1) Every plug-in, third-party or not, will have a wet/dry knob. You can see it at the top right when Glenn opens a plug-in. 2) You can set the SWS extension to auto-colour tracks based on their name. E.g. I like my bass tracks purple, so if i import or rename a track with the term "bass" in it, it turns purple. 3) You can change and makeup a shortcut for literally any feature in Reaper. 4) every track has a phase inverse button. 5) the master track has a mono button. 6) you can automate the width of a track instead of just the panning. So you could make the guitar bus slightly narrower in the verses. 7) Ctrl and Z will undo ANY move you make in Reaper, e.g. a plug-in parameter change, adding a plugin, deleting a track, etc. 8) When you create a track, you dont have to specify whether it's mono/stereo/midi etc. It automatically knows based on the media it's given. 9) the playrate fader is actually quite handy for editing in detail, and also makes any track hilarious. You could also lower the playrate to play a really fast guitar part and then speed it back up to normal. 10) dynamic split editing and render queues!!!! It's also worth noting you don't have to have the mixer panel show up on the bottom of the track panel like Glenn was demonstrating. I have mine set to open a separate window when I press 'M' like Pro Tools.
I've used every major DAW, some extensively. When I switched to Reaper a couple years ago, I never looked back. I tell Reaper how I want IT to behave, rather than it telling me how it must be done...
OK Glen you really undersold your DAW.... 1. You can load Reaper into a USB and use in any computer 2. Import audio files and autocolor based on keywords 3. Drag and drop routing 4. Screensets to save screen realestate depending on process. You can have just your mixer fullscreen without seeing your edit window 5. ReaEQ can add as many bands as you want 6. Themes. If you are a Protools user you can create a theme that looks like protools and you can import key commands to behave like Protools(stash) 7. Group commands. You can group commands for laborious processes and link it to a key command. Similar to batch commander from Steven Slate
The problem with trying to "sell" Reaper is that there are literally hundreds of features like this, which makes it difficult to pick the ones to highlight in a short video. The sales pitch will depend on which features the person making the pitch relies on most.
@@holygoat Thaty and the Fact that many Reaper users do not know half the features they talk about are standard in Logic, Cubase, Studio, PT or whatever. How is Surround Sound and Ambio?
@@willb3698 Cubase was the most unstable DAW I've ever used. Crashed constantly for me. Was particular bad with VST operation, which is ironic because Steinberg owns the VST name. Decide to abanon it because there was a stupid authorization process. So wasn't worth trying to use a product that hardly worked. Wasted over $100 on Cubase. Bought Reaper for $60. Can't speak for Logic. But does it have its own scripting language? Does any other DAW? Reaper has great Music Notation capabilities as well, and does have Surround and Ambio functions. They have many functions which almost nobody would need. The editing in Cubase is clunky as hell. Dragging and dropping files and change start and end points is a chore in itself. Just a joke. I have tried almost every DAW compatible with Windows and nothing comes close to being as intuitive and customizable (for me at least). Studio One just made no sense at all to me. I like FL Studios and Ableton, but just for goofing around and such -- usually run them in Reaper and use their sounds and such. Tried the free Pro Tools but it was just so cumbersome and seemed unintuitive. Couldn't get into it.
Erick...that's interesting about Cubase. I have been using it since the 90's when it was maybe the only available PC DAW and I don't know that I've experienced the crash thing like that. I'm not saying you didn't just from another's experience. My thing, and why I have stuck with it, is I really have zero patience to learn another prog all over again...I can get in and get out and have been using it so long there's nothing I am unable to do, but that's partly me being lazy and partly because it doesn't leave me wanting...I love how I can work with midi drums and it's essentially a drum machine vs say pro tools where that feature is non existent. Maybe I should dig into other things, but that learning curve thing is a drag
So true! And it's so comfortabel to do a whole album (record, mix and master) in one single project without any problems to the performance or anything. Absolutely georgeous DAW!😍😍
I've had more, but it wasn't reapers fault. My heat sink was going out so the computer it's self would crash while using cpu intensive plugins, but that's how I learned about the autosave feature, saved me so many times.
I've been using reaper for over a year, almost daily, and it only just crashed on me for perhaps the first time today but I think it was Melodyne's fault. Didn't save so I lost about 15 min of work. Compare that to Ableton which seemed to crash at least once per project.
In reaper, a track is a track is a track. A single track can handle mono, stereo audio as well as midi. It can do everything that any other daw can do but faster. It supports 32 bit plugins on a 64 bit machine. Can easily freeze tracks. Editing can done in so many ways. You got stretch markers etc. Also reaper is fast. You got a mono button on your mixer. Dont need to load another plugin on your submix to do that. And a lot more. Reaper simply mops the floor with every other daw as far as mixing is concerned.
Reaper user here. I purchased my first Reaper license for v2.x in June 2008 for $50. I purchased the upgrade to v4.x for $59.50 in August 2011. My license is good until v6, which Cockos seem to keep procrastinating for some reason. So summing it all up, I got over 11 years of free updates (incl. some major features like ARA2, notation editor, VST3, etc.) all for less than $110. That's about the same as the pathetic Cubase Elements would cost - for roughly 1 year of use with about 2 updates, before the new version with probably some minor new features requires being paid for again. Although this financial aspect is not THE most important argument pro Reaper, it does pose an EXTREME advantage over most other host softare. The economy of it aside, let's not forget that I as a customer got more than 11 years of continued development, support and new features out of it so far, which is quite some time. Enough time for other developers to fold up and quit. Reaper is developed by a small team around Justin Frankel, the guy who originally wrote WinAmp and later sold it to AOL, for apparently millions over millions. In other words: he doesn't have to do it. He could just lean back and live quite comfortably off his money, pretty certain of that. And yet he crazes on tirelessly to make Reaper better and better and better, for 14 public years now. I struggle to even suspect that any other host developmer would put any comparable amount of dedication and love into their product. It fills me with confidence that he and his team will keep Reaper alive for many years to come, without ever having to start going down the fatal rabbit hole of bundles and sales and paid upgrades and support plans and investors and and and...
Hey everyone! A few people have mentioned me in the comments- thanks all. We do tutorials about Reaper from the basics that are available on our channel, check them out. -Adam
I'm about to do that right now! I'm really looking forward to it. Been using it for years now, but go through gaps without it, so refreshers are nice. Plus, even with Kenny's great video library, I alway look forward to seeing what kinds of inventive and novel uses other people find for REAPER's unlimited combination of creative tools. You just got a new sub!
Starting out ten or so years ago, i spent a good amount of time in FL, Pro Tools and Cubase. Switched to Reaper about a year ago and i'm *never* going back. Super intuitive and easy on the CPU.
Reaper user for almost 10 years. My favorite things about reaper. 1. Affordability 2. It can pretty much do anything you need. 3. Great support. Excellent forum with dedicated people who really want to help you. 4. Frequent updates with bug fixes and all. 5. Videos by Kenny Gioia. You can know nothing and by watching his RU-vid videos, get to a place of proficiency quickly.
Agreed on all points. Another thing I love about it is that I never, ever, ever have any reservation about installing an update. I used to hang on to the old versions just in case something got broken, but NOT ONCE has an update ruined anything. Just minor improvements and the occasional leap, like ARA2 support and notation, that other vendors save for version upgrades. There aren't many apps about which that can be said.
Reaper: - was written by Justin Frankel, he wrote Winamp too (street cred) - It's fast, very lightweight, supports portable installs - has full plugin support - Everything is customizable... everything - With the extensions you can script any action or series of actions for re-use - Save any track or bus as a template to re-use over and over and over - Save plugin chains as templates too - Priced for the 'hobbyist' but it's a professional level tool. I love Reaper because once you're setup how you like, it becomes a streamlined high efficiency workspace.
Glen's reaction "oh really?" to finding out that you can't Ctrl Z to undo basic things like moving FX around in PT was exactly my reaction when I found out the same thing. In fact IMO one of the best features of Reaper is that you can CTRL Z (or Apple Z on Mac) absolutely every little action so there is zero chance of inadvertently making an irreversible mistake.
And having said that the best thing about Pro Tools is that you have fixed FX slots. It may seem trivial but when having big complex projects being able to arrange it so that you know exactly what FX are on FX slot 1, 2 , 3 etc is very useful for workflow purposes.... wish Reaper would adopt this.
Produce Like A Pro yea I do use both systems but my default is Reaper but I do with we could get the best of both worlds, Reaper’s tweakability and some of the quality of life features of Pro Tools. I often find myself missing a certain feature from the other DAW when I am working. Actually I really like how Pro Tools looks, Reaper is definitely lacking in that department and Pro Tools has a very polished look to it which many other daws don’t have. I actually made my Reaper look like Pro Tools by using a custom skin and even used the Pro Tools splash screen hahaha
I've been a corporate software developer for decades and Reaper's development philosophy is NOT corporate. Ironically though Reaper creator Justin Frankel made millions selling some of his companies to AOL before he started his Cockos company. Every corporation I've worked for is disproportionately influenced by their largest customers and often end up with a chaotic set of features driven by many competing interests. Reaper focuses on core development and let's users (or companies) make their own particular features through scripting against the exposed Reaper APIs. Larger companies like Ubisoft are using Reaper now but I doubt big companies will influence Reaper's direction. Reaper doesn't need to change because big companies have developers who can customize Reaper as needed. Its customizability is a strength, not a weakness.
Reaper was my first DAW and the thing I really liked was the incredibly complete collection of video tutorials. Very good for the less intuitive aspects of the software.
My biggest pros in no particular order: 1. Changes in pre FX volume automation and clip gain changes the waveform in the timeline. 2. With spectral peaks Reaper colour codes the waveform, making it easy to distinguish peaks with a strong pitch vs bleed or noise. Makes tom editing a dream, or finding applause in a live recording when you´re looking at hours of unedited material. 3. Any track can be a bus or aux, midi, audio or multi channel. Want midi and audio on the same track?; sure. Want a multi channel aux send?; sure. Want to send midi in an aux?; sure. 4. Auto crossfade as default. 5. As long as you use VST, you can open any Reaper project in any operating system. Con: Not the most intuitive midi editing.
REAPER JUST WORKS!!!! Been on it for almost a year now and never went back. I was moving back and forth between Pro Tools and Studio One for all my mixing sessions. It has never crashed on me and I don’t think there’s any DAW that’s as stable as REAPER in my opinion. I customized it to function like Pro Tools and that saved my life, all the key commands etc. Great video by the way!
Heya COG, you set up all of the shortcuts to match those in Pro Tools and it worked ok? If I could get rid of PT I'd be really happy, but the shortcuts are what's stopping me from throwing it in the rubbish.
That seems to be the unanimous decision. I don't think I've ever heard someone say, "I used REAPER and decided (x DAW) was better." I do still use Logic if I need a temporary drum track or something, but I can't get out of it fast enough!
What I love about Reaper, besides the fact that a simple workflow is possible and I can work quickly, is that if I have a question about anything, there is a huge Reaper community to help, as well as scores of technical videos on the Reaper Blog.
My favorite features, if I had to pick 3: 1. Region Render Matrix - export any predefined selection of any mix or any track with fx baked in - essential for editing live recordings that have to sync up with video and you inevitably have to export multiple times. I can deliver tracks for audio and Audio 4 video all with one export. This is by far the biggest reason I left PT. 2. Custom Actions - I have custom actions written for the things I do most often such as inserting some of my favorite plugins. I can just select the track I want the plugin on and then hit the hot key to insert that plugin on that track. It doesn’t make a huge difference until you need to insert the same plugin on 20 tracks, because then it’ll save you 10 minutes. But that’s just one example. You can make reaper any sequence of actions to whatever parameters you have defined. 3. FX, Anywhere. It’s great to be able to insert plugins on the input, on the track, on individual clips, or open the audio in a subproject and do more cpu-intensive processing (tuning 10 vocals, for example)and then have reaper automatically export the audio back into the original session on the same track.
All among my favs, too. You just reminded me how much I love the layered freezing of tracks, too. I just discovered that a few months ago. When you have limited CPU resources like I do, it's so great to be able to freeze tracks at various states and unfreeze them only to the point where you want to make adjustments. I love that!
Hey Glenn and Warren! Thanks for the great video! My recording career path evolved from bouncing consumer cassette tapes back and forth to build tracks. Then I got a Fostex four-track cassette, next I used 4/8/16/24 reel to reel machines, ADAT, ProTools, and finally Reaper. Reaper is my primary DAW, but I'll jump into Logic Pro X or ProTools on rare occasions when I have to. For me, Reaper just works. It offers a level of optimization and customization that allows my clients and I to create in a workflow that we are comfortable with, without the stress of session lock-ups, freezes, and crashes. Admittedly, one of my guilty pleasures of using Reaper is watching the reaction of music creators proficient in other DAWs. "No way," "How the heck did you do that," "That would take half an hour to do in my DAW" are comments I often hear. Horses for courses, as they say. Learn the schnizzle out of the DAW that you have and make great music! I'm not slamming other DAWs, but based on our client and artist feedback, Reaper provides us a creative environment that can make other "established" or "premier" recording facilities seem clunky, cumbersome, or inefficient. - chaz
I love Reaper!!! It's affordability allowed me to start recording so I'll stay loyal forever. I also can't stand when I hear others feeling they're being forced to upgrade their pro tools.
Love optional updates. I never like updating during a project just in case some new bug happens. (happened once, lost use of all my x86 plugins, but the next update fixed it because the devs take stuff like that seriously)
Things that make Reaper my Daw of choice: It's just 11mb, No Security at all, Tabs, Projects within Projects, Track Templates, Being able to record 12 tracks of drums on a single 12 channel track to make choosing takes and editing easier, Action List, Custom Actions, Custom Menus, Custom Tool Bars, Regions, Routing, Customization and it works everywhere and with anything.
Hey guys, there's a video on the "reaper mania" channel called "multi channel recording on Reaper" that explains how to record drums this way. That channel is really great explaining how you can take advantage of Reaper
Reaper user here, I think it's amazing. One of the things not mentioned is the jsfx system, where you can customize or even write your own plugins for audio or MIDI, or even video! The fact people can use it forever, as after the demo period, there is just a dismissable popup, but lets you keep on using it, yet many many people gladly pay says a lot about how much it is loved.
I've used pretty much every DAW out there and the #1 reason I stuck with Reaper is because it can't be beat when it comes to comping takes. Amazing really. And I also definitely recommend Kenny Gioia. He is the master of Reaper. His tutorials are second to none. If you really want to do and in depth review of this DAW interview Kenny.
I use Reaper and the fact that I can flip phase on any send is the best thing about it (and the price for a license). Dan Worrall (he has his own RU-vid channel, and he's done some fabulous stuff) really makes use of some Reaper features and sometimes really thinks out-of-the-box, not to mention he very critically and objectively reviews plugins, so much so that the reaper developers updated one of their stock plugins based on one of his videos. Can wholeheartedly recommend his channel.
Yep, Dan Worrall, the David Attenborough of plugin reviews, he knows his onions for sure. I first found out about him through the TDR site, where his video's take the tdr plugins through their paces. Flipping excellent stuff !
In the 5 years I've used Reaper for my Voice Over business I've only had 2 crashes. This DAW is the BEST I've ever used without question. I even use it to export HD videos for clients that request Time Aligned VOs for their Commercial Projects. The built-in Video Viewer/Editor is a very overlooked function!
I started using REAPER for voice over, too, and loved it so much I got back into audio production after years of being out of the music biz. It blew my mind after having worked in Cubase, Pro Fools, Logic, et al. and made the whole thing amazingly fun again.
I’ve been using Reaper for two years and I love it. It’s free/cheap and extremely lightweight. Installs in under a minute. Work flow is awesome, quick and the UI is easy to use. Great effects that come with it as well
CUSTOMIZATION in reaper is just gold: assigning shortcuts, creating toolbars, changing it visualy, screen sets/ layouts, it has got so much funcionality, everyone can change this daw to their needs. TUTORIALS, holy shit they do those the best, their great, right on their site, easy to understand, easy to follow ONE TYPE OF TRACK you just adding a new track and that's it, drop midi, audio, treat it like buss, whatever and finally PRICE its 60 bucks for a lifetime, you cant even compare it to anything
Reaper has changed the game for me...it brought a fully functioning daw complete with absolutely workable plug-ins to a price point anyone can afford...its also very easy to learn and intuitive to use. I've used pro tools and had to fight it to get it to do what I want...reaper just does it.
Going to echo another comment. there are no special tracks, a buss is just a track, a folder is a track, etc. This makes the primitives really easy to grasp. The routing is so much clearer than anything else I’ve used.
True (about easy routing). Just click and drag the routing icon on a track, and drop it on another track to create a send, or drop it on an open plugin window to send to the plugin's sidechain input. There's also a routing window for each track showing all its sends and receives.
One thing I rarely seen mentioned is that REAPER does video as well as audio - great for putting together music videos or podcasts. Warren - would love to see an interview with Kenny Gioia (REAPER Mania) talking about REAPER.
Personally, I still use a separate video editor. It's cool that it has that function, but it isn't as powerful or as user friendly as it's audio imo. But knowing the development team it will get much better in future updates.
I've recently learned about Kenny Gioia and have purchased some of his tutorials on Groove3. He does use Reaper quite a lot and has some equally good things to say about it.
Hello Warren and Glenn and anybody reading these comments. Todd Greenwood here from Saskatchewan Canada. You wanted to hear from people who use reaper so here it goes. I started using Tascam four tracks in the early 80s and burnt through three of them over the next two decades. They were great, miss working in that format as it was such a limited art form. In the late 90s I moved to vs1680 and got quite proficient, even helping out Roland's tec support when they were 'wrong' about how the machine actually worked. 2005 I went back to work in the oilpatch full time to put my kids through college and all but stopped recording and performing. Through that time from 05 to present I kept my music room in operation but that became mostly just personal practice space, light bit of personal recording (garageband) while working oilpatch (raping mother earth 60 to 80 hours a week doesn't leave a lot of brain power for fine art like recording) So now it's 2020 and I'm 20 years older, not working near as hard at 57 yo, a bit creekier and a with lot less neroplastisity I've fired up my old studio and started looking at new DAWs. Over the years I have dabbled at different DAWs but never got very deep into any of them. Garageband seemed to do me well till about a mounth ago when I felt I had some hours in the day where I could learn something more professional and was considering Logic when I stumbled across Reaper and started reading revues. Downloaded it second week in December. I'm almost through all the tutorials I can find and I'm quite happy with what I'm able to do with Reaper. What I've found out is, DAWs have come along way since 2005. I remember well the frustration in about 2005 trying to learn Protools or Cubas and the limited resources at the time. It was just too much and I found that these DAWs could not do a lot of the things I wanted them to do. Plus midi latency was just terrible on their trial versions and the learning curve was just too discouraging for someone who worked a job full time. At that time, if I wanted to get anything done, I simply went back to the vs1680 and got it done in a platform that never crashed. Now I have time to study reaper. Looks good so far. The ability to put midi drums on separate audio channels is a fucking dream. Plus my studies over the last four weeks have given me a big understanding of all DAWs and that's thanks to all the Reaper tutorials that are so accessible to an oil patch grunt such as myself. (I have to watch things three and four times to get stuff to sink in) So yeah, Reaper. Running on a shitty little mac mini. Experimenting every day. Mackie mixer interface going in, classic yamaha MC802 coming out via headphone jack on the mini. No crashes so far. Wish me luck. Sincerely Todd Greenwood
LOVE the fact that you can control the Reaper from your phone or tablet. I use this all of the time when tracking drums. Makes it so easy to start recording without having to run into the control room and then rushing back to the drum throne before the music starts. Although I did get a lot of exercise before discovering this feature! And yes I can count to four.
Glenn Fricker!! Love that guy!! always learn a lot from him on his channel :D I'm a reaper user for a long time after trying a lot of DAW's and what I like the most is that it is pretty intuitive, you wanna tweak the metronome? right click the icon, wanna edit manually whithout snapping to the grid? hit alt + s (s for snap) and a bunch of little things that are really easy to remember. If there's no way the program has an specific task you want to do, then customizing a set of actions like an script is easy and posible and saves you a lot of time (specially when editing), organization is a blast with reaper and there's a bunch of actions in pro-tools that reaper can do as well such as time stretching and it does it even more flawless. If you don't know how to do specific things that you miss in other DAW's then there is a terrific online community that solves your problems pretty quick. That's my reason to fell in love with reaper Thanks for the videos as always Warren!!
I’m an everyday Reaper user and what I absolutely love about it that wasn’t mentioned in this video is (among others I name below) the extremely time saving render automation. Render queues + naming wildcards alone save me roughly an hour each and every day.... not to mention all the other fantastic possibilities coming with SWS like auto-coloring tracks (auto assign predefined colors and icons to tracks based on their names) etc. I can even write my own macros to have every sequence of commands or functions I wish at a keystroke. Think of the possibilities that gives you and then... compare it to Pro Tools’s stiff and limited interface. And on top of that: I can export my config to a few mb sized file or... make a self-contained, portable (running from a flash drive without installing!) version of Reaper with all my configs and tweaks or even... all my plugins (except the ones that need libraries or have some fancy-schmancy proprietary copy protection system) ! I can now go to any studio with my own DAW on a usb stick without the need of installing a single thing!....How cool is that?
Reaper really is the best. I've tried most DAWs, and I like ProTools and Logic, but reaper hits that sweet spot. Fast to work with, easy to tailor to your needs/wants, great compatilibity with things, good stability (crashes perhaps twice per year?), and so on.
Folders, fx per clip, monitor fx, phase button, spectral editing (life changer) integrated playback speed and pitching per clip or master, unrivalled warp algorithm and stretch workflow, more flexible automatic split and quantize, media agnostic tracks (multichannel, mono, stereo, audio, midi, aux, multiple takes can all exist in the same track), playhead move when clicking timeline, time select auto punch, unrivalled stability and weight, obvious hot keys like ctrl m for mixer. M for marker. S for split. Great mouse modifiers for everything. Ctrl drag middle for copy. Shift drag middle for slip. Alt drag edge for stretch, ctrl drag on automation for pencil, ctrl shift pull on automation to bring a whole section. Ctrl shift drag in midi velocity window to automate velocity changes. Shift clicking inserts to bypass, alt clicking to delete, Automatic sheet music generator. Countless top tier plugins with no latency and no hit to cpu, your mums toaster can run more instances of reaeq than you've used in your entire career. Crazy routing system with hardware and software, remote controllable by a Web interface on the lan, musicians can control their own headphone mixes this way too, video editing and rendering, stem renders with automatic sorting and naming by region, real-time resampling while mixing and editing, can record to and edit any type of audio file, subprojects, project tabs, templates for anything you could imagine, routing matrix, region matrix, the way the metronome functions, the way to create a programmed click track, tempo mapping including gradients, the automatic fades, selectable fade shapes, parameter modulation, side chain any plugin, wet/dry any plugin, mid side any plugin, band split any plugin, audio to midi, inbuilt auto tune, 64 bit float point for virtually unlimited headroom, customisable skin, themes and scripts, THE ACTION LIST, undo anything including plugin adjustments, unlimited undo history, option to save undo history to project, compatibility with Linux, can run vst 1 2 3 32 64 js and au all on one track, lasooing, tidy interface where everything unimportant is in a right click menu and everything important is on the basic and sparse interface, detachable and dock able Windows like the mixer and piano roll, unlimited sends returns and fx per track, unlimited tracks, most optimisation of any daw, more flexible grouping, not only just folders but vca, bussing, auxing and grouping all with their own pile of options, the customisability overall, the low price, and the crazy community of tutors and scripters.
I’ve been a Reaper nut for years, I absolutely love that program. I came up on Cubase which I still like....and I learned Protools because I had to but Reaper Crushes almost every program with updates coming sometimes 4 or 5 times per month..
GLENN!!!!! Quit staring at the camera when Warren is talking its weirding me out! lol Stop! you did it again lol I think you're looking into my soul lol. Awesome video I was curious about Reaper and how it compares to other DAW's thank you.
Thats was alright with Glenn. Worse is it when does that play guitar and stare right into camera, while it look like they masturbate. Sorry, but thats how it look like with does guitar players, they even make face staring straight into camera showing their 5 minutts jam. Its really a disturbing behavior.
It's been a little while since I used Reaper but a few things I absolutely love about it are: 1. There are separate buttons for Stop and Pause 2. Undo and Redo functions affect every move you make, from track volume and pans to plugin parameters. 3. Phase invert button is right there in front of you 4. Love how the FX chain looks 5. Working on Reaper without requiring to have the mixer window ever open is actually possible. 6. The stock mixing plugins are great (especially ReaEQ and ReaVerberate) 7. Editing functions are AMAZING
1. Almost free 2. Runs every plugin 3. Panning options 4. Plays nearly every file type 5. Multi-channel ease 6. Extremely customizable 7. Unlimited auxes 8. Lightweight 9. Stable 10. Flexible routing 11. Great community 12. Frequent free updates 13. Great recording options for audio and MIDI 14. VCAs that make sense 15. Multiple ways to view and manage groups, routing, etc. 16. Glenn uses it (should be #1) 17. Doesn't tell me how to work - open-ended 18. Built-in audio overload protection 19. Kenny Gioia 20. Nerdy as hell - The Thinkingman's DAW
I am an ABSOLUTE BEGINNER and a computer dummy to boot.....what I LOVE about Reaper is that it is intuitive. I often do things without reading up on it.
My top Reaper Features : 1- Midi and Audio on the same track so I can render parts of a VSTi and work with both without doubling my track count. (One track to rule them all) 2- The infinite Actions, Scripts and Cycle Actions lets you do everything with a hotkey. Endless possibilities with an Elgato Streamdeck. 3- No Dongle and portable installs lets you run it of a thumb drive. 4- It's 12mb 5- Mouse Modifiers lets you set precisely how you want you mouse clicks and drags to behave. 6- Search bars for Action and Preferences (Actions now supports synonymes) 7- Video Editing Features with render settings that lets you render in different formats like H264. 8- Hotkey recallable track presets that remember hardware routing (as opposed to Cubase) 9- Define a new track default with plugins that will work even when tracks are created by dragging media into the session. I have Softube's Console 1 on all tracks and I never need to add the plugin manually. 10- Company's philosophy and respect for it's users. A payed version covers you for 2 whole versions which is at least 3-5 years for Reaper. Roughly 15 to 20 free maintenance updates per year. More than 1 per month. Access to beta builds. I've use ARA features years before it went to Cubase. 11- Last but not least, the community. I've never seen a more active and helping community than Reaper's. If you need help with anything, write in the forums and you'll have answers within 48 hours. There's always a way with Reaper.
My fave part of reaper is that it isn't a beast on your computer. Loads itself, the audio and plugs super fast. You don't need a monster computer to use it. I used protools for 15 years prior. Not to mention the affordability of reaper itself and VST world. Reaper + built in plugs + free vst + $15 a month slate suite and you are good to go for anything. Also the online reaper community is really good.
Reaper is an amazing piece of software. Custom toolbar setups, overall flexibility and the ability to run from a thumb drive are just a few of the things that make it my DAW of choice. I’ve run it on all kinds of machines with limited specs and it’s incredibly solid. Well worth taking the time to dive into its very comprehensive features.
I was a Cakewalk Sonar user from the early 2000's until I got Reaper this past June, and I love it. It has increased my productivity immensely and my mixes have improved hugely as a result. I'm still learning all the ins and outs possible with it on a daily basis, which I enjoy very much, and I'm consistently astounded by ease of use benefits it provides, as well as the clarity my mixes achieve while doing so. I liken it to this comparison: Reaper is to past DAW systems what DAW systems are compared to tape systems. I remember the days of multi-track tape recording work and everything that went into it. All the extra steps and thinking ahead that you had to go through to get a quality finished product. Editing was a nightmare between overdubbing, re-recording tracks, and razor-blading sections of tape. Then came the DAW with its non-destructive editing. But now, Reaper has taken that to a whole new level of functionality and versatility. It's an awesome thing and I'm so happy to have it. And $60! Amazing!
Two of my favorite things about reaper is that I can go back and get to previous versions say if I start to have issues of some kind . I am on version 5.97 and have had maybe one or two crashes in the last year , still believe it was due to a bad plugin. ok next I can ise old 32 bit stuff and it bridges automatically . lastly my reaper theme resembles pro tools wich is a huge plus. Awesome video guys I will be sharing to my reaper FB group page
Here are a few reasons I love Reaper: 1. It is a small app, which means it is fast to download and install. 2. If you go somewhere and need to record, but don't have your own computer, you can download Reaper onto any computer and start working right away. 3.The SWS scripts save me a lot of time, especially when it comes to setting up a session. I have scripts that apply my colours and icons to specific tracks automatically. 4. I love that the tracks are just a blank slate, which you have to define as either a MIDI track or audio track. It saves a lot of time compared to my previous DAW, which required me to choose specific types of tracks. 5. Never had a compatibility issue with any plugins. They all work.
Been using Reaper since before I had anything more than two channels of built-in computer hardware. Fun fact-- Reaper was designed by the makers of Winamp (anybody remember Winamp MP3 player? Kicking the Llama's ass?). One thing that wasn't mentioned here (at least, I didn't catch it, if it was) is that Reaper comes with many, many useful stock plugins. If you're on a budget, this really makes the $60 price an even better bargain!
Not the makers of Winamp, but the singular maker, who then sold it to Aol for a huge amount. There he wrote the gnutella file sharing protocol on aol’s time, and told them how bad their software was, until they “politely” asked him to leave... then he started on reaper. It is a fun story, you are correct there. I’ve used it since before version 1, and have moved to logic recently for creation but still love reaper in tracking sessions, very easy to manage a live band session workflow. It’s cool that it’s getting more recognition here.
@@mrufino1 I remember stumbling upon that history while digging into Reaper back in the early release days. I was fascinated by the story and I had forgotten about the Gnutella part. I did remember reading that AOL had acquired Winamp. I had been using Winamp for awhile as my default media player. Loved the look and feel of the player. It had nothing to do with why I started using Reaper, though. Pure coincidence for me.
One thing that never gets mentioned is the pre-open feature on ReaGate. This is such an incredibly useful thing, and I've never seen it in any other gate. I love FabFilter Pro-G, as I do all of their plugins, but not even they have a pre-open. This is so important for catching the first bit of things like a snare hit. When using other gates, I have to set up a muted track that is pushed forward a few milliseconds as a side chain trigger for the snare (or whatever) track in order to make sure that first little part of the hit doesn't get cut off. Leave it to Cockos to put something that is missing from every other plugin into a stock plugin. My one gripe with their plugins is the EQ. It crimps down as it approaches Nyquist, which makes it unusable for any HF EQing. Other than that, all those little JSFX and the ReaPlugs are great-especially the gate.
To summarize what others have written here, what made me pick Reaper over other DAWs is how _logical_ it all feels, at least if you know what you want to do with your sound. A track is a track, anything applied to it is an FX (including the built-in ones), the mouse and keyboard shortcuts are intuitive, it's very organized. In few words, it all works as you'd naturally expect it to. Also, although that wasn't discussed in the video, it's by far the fastest DAW I've tried.
Reaper is also a killer alternative to Ableton as well for live shows. The "smooth seek" function mixed with markers, regions, and marker commands means that you can map any section of any song in your setlist to a key/midi note to be instantly recalled. And the best thing.... you can command it to go at any time and you can force it to seek only after it reaches the end of the section your in. Want to do the chorus again in a live set, map it to a drum pad or midi button. Need the track to stop after a certain point, put a marker with an action code in it and you can force it to stop playback and skip to the beginning of the next song. Reaper is a beautiful, under-appreciated piece of software. It doesn't hold your hand and it won't tell you about all it's features, but it hides some insane functionality.
I really like reaper because you can dial in your plugins and save that track as a template, then quickly load it into another session. This saves a lot of time and it has my sound right where I want it.
This is sooooo embarrassingly great, indeed. Just make your own templates for everything and make your workflow incredibly fast! Love the templates! d= :)
Came from Pro Tools to Reaper 9 years ago - never looked back. Some great features: 1) small footprint and incredibly cheap 2) routing is so flexible and intuitive 3) midi roll bar, with sound cues, destroys P.T.'s 4) custom session templates and custom track (and FX) templates save hours of time. Have a common channel strip... Or tracks you are constantly creating (i.e. bgv stack with mix bus, ambience bus, etc.) Save them all as a template. Now youre just two clicks away from commonly used setups. 5) pre FX volume automation is the BEST and easiest way to make direct adjustments to track's gain of any DAW 6) multiple session tabs (for referencing mixes, copy and pasting tracks, items, etc across) 7) Rendering queue!!! Stems, time selection, etc. Is much more extensive and flexible than most DAW's rendering options 8) and the best: custom action list - make your own hotkey to do whatever you want it to do.
Not to mention the sws extensions. Such as custom colors and/or icons automatically applied to a track when you name it (i.e. "EG" always is brown). This doesn't even touch the flexibility of regions, marker cues.... I could go on and on. Reaper is vastly better than PT. It's downsides is the aesthetic and menus can be cumbersome.
I’ve been a PT guy since the mid 90’s and love it. However, I rarely mix in PT anymore and have given that job to Harrison Mixbus. I have and use Reaper for project swaps with friends who use Reaper only.
Yes I was a sonar Cakewalk user for many years then I stopped doing studio work. And started back up again with a small budget. A friend of mine told me about reaper and it was very intuitive very versatile. I'm using some focusrite mic prees. I have a few purchase plugins amp simulators and such as well as what comes with the focusrite mic prees. I'm recording straightforward rock and roll and Americana style. And since I come from the analog world. Theaters in rotary knobs reaper seems very intuitive. Thanks for the positive words for reaper. I'll check out your reaper tutorials
Saving an FX chain (any number of plugins with their settings) to a file was a big deal for me. Also there is a thing called SubProjects, which is hella useful for saving CPU.
One other big thing with Reaper, especially for the amateur/semi-pro is it's $60 and that's it. All future updates are free and no yearly fee or anything else.
Just a few reasons Reaper is a joy to use. 1: A track is a track in Reaper. (Can be used as a buss or instrument track or audio) 2: Auto crossfades makes editing a breeze. 3: Drag and drop routing. 4: Reaper a fast with a small resource footprint. 5: Individual item FX. 6: Drag and drop FX chains. I struggle to use other DAWs because I find them clunky in comparison. Especially Pro Tools.
I used Sonar and Pro Tools. Now I use Reaper. Loads faster, crashes less, is simpler to use for me, and seems to do everything I can imagine. The best thing about Reaper for me though are the tutorial videos on the Reaper site done by Kenny Gioia . Those are excellent, no make that super excellent. You not only learn how to use Reaper but you also learn a ton about mixing techniques with those videos.
I am a fairly low end user, and have been using Reaper for about 2 years, came from Logic and Protools, I haven't found a single thing that Reaper can't do, and only go back into Logic for the drummer, and Protools to realise why I couldn't live with it. A Reaper update is 17Mb, which extracts to 60Mb and takes seconds to update, last time I tried to do a PT update it was a 2 gig dl. I cancelled my subscription shortly after.
Haha! That's EXACTLY what I do. Logic is my drum machine when I need a temp track until I get a real drummer, and Pro Tools is just around (the free version now) to remind me why I won't use anything that requires iLok and make me grateful for REAPER. I have to admit that the drummers in Logic have gotten so good that sometimes it's just not worth bringing in a kit, miking it and the room, and getting a live track unless it's a really good drummer. Logic almost sounds human if you give it enough feel. Gotta hand it to Apple for that, but I'm outta there as fast as possible!
AVID/Digidesign is a dinosaur that should be forgotten. I can't understand why are they still around. Clever propaganda... like nazis. They must have Goebels' son doing the propaganda thing. :))
The things I like about Reaper is that a track can be mono/ stereo/ audio/ midi/ video/ folder/ buss/ etc etc. Any track can be sent to any other track or tracks ( Great for mixing spill etc). You can put a time adjustment delay on any track/ group/ buss/ folder for mixing z axis placement and the adjustment delay moves things forward in time with a negative setting. The folders are great for mixing. I'm sure many other DAWS have these but I'm not sure they work the same way. It's very small and runs on Mac, PC and there's even a Linux build. A lot of keyboard players use it live for running multiple virtual keyboards on a tablet with 3 or 4 controller keyboards. Muted keyboards use no resources. These are just a few of the many, many things that I love about Reaper.
OH MY GOD!!!!! A conversion of my most favorite engineers!!! Thank you and do more. Warren Love you and have a fabulous day, and Glenn F_ You, I'm soo happy you got together and loved the Reaper explanation, I'm a PT 11 user and am looking for another program, I stopped using Digital Performer 6 years ago. Thanks
Reaper is the only DAW I know. It was used on a laptop to record a live gig I was playing and the tracks were given to me on a USB, I downloaded Reaper which began my steep learning curve. 6 years later, my own home studio and I have grown with Reaper which has also grown with me. I have barely scratched the surface of Reapers power and potential but recently my first mixes, 4 songs which I played drums, bass and produced were mastered even with the limited experience I have in this realm. I have no other equipment ie a mixing desk or racks of equipment so Reaper and in the box is it for me.
>drag drop FX Whoa! I had no idea I could do that in reaper! I'm so glad I click on this vid because adding the same fx to multiple tracks was something I found very tedious about reaper.
Starting with Cubase and use it for years, switching to Studio One and Ableton because Cubase was to limited and slow and crashing all the time, then finally to Reaper and till now I never looking back. Quite a learning curve but you will not regret.
I would love to see Warren use Reaper. i think he would like it a lot. Many users of Pro Tools have left it to go to Reaper. it is insanely customizable to how ever you like your work flow to be. It is also very stable. I rarely ever have any crash issues at all running many tracks with lots of plugins. I know that ProTools is like a standard in the music industry but really i don't think it matters anymore. Reaper is very cheap that anyone can get it. In fact the trial does not expire and is the full program. What is also cool about it is that you can install Reaper on a USB stick and put it in any computer and run Reaper off of it. So it makes it easy to take your work to another studio that does not even have Reaper installed on it. Also I like the remote feature built into it where you can log into it with your phone and control many things from it. So for example if you are recording yourself in another room say like an acoustic guitar or drums, you can arm tracks and start recording instead of being at your computer. Try it, I think you will be pleasantly surprised.
I like Cubase 10, been using Steinberg since the old Atari days. Cubase 10 leaves you wandering through a labyrinth you never get tired of. Every day a new adventure begins...
My favorites features: 1) Any track can be stereo, mono, MIDI, video, bus, aux, folder, or all at once. 2) Any audio item can be loaded into a built in spectral editor, which is like magic. 3) Effects can be applied to inputs, tracks, and individual items, and a special monitor effects group that is automatically bypassed on render. 4) Project tabs let you open multiple projects at once and lets you switch between them instantly. 5) You can set up portable installs that run entirely from a flash drive on any computer. Take Reaper with all your settings wherever you go! 6) There's a built in effects programming language that doesn't require a compile process. I'm a programmer with no DSP experience or plugin development experience, and I've built useful simple effects in an hour or two. 7) Routing is incredibly flexible. As mentioned above, something can be any combination of Aux, Bus, and Folder at the same time. Whatever suits your mental model for routing, Reaper handles it. 8) The mix knob on every effect! What a great feature. 9) This certainly isn't unique, but the MIDI learn system for mapping MIDI CC messages to plugin parameters is basic but really easy to use. I can map a plugin to a simple bank of knobs (like the Akai LPD8) in a couple minutes and save it forever. Having hands-on control of a parametric EQ or compressor with a $50 hardware unit is a game changer when it comes to mixing with your ears instead of your eyes.
You can learn something new in Reaper everytime you use it, community is amazing as well. Glenn kinda touched on it, but you really do have an absurd amount of customization available. I didn't know about that Imperial theme with the dual monitor setup, I will most certainly check that out!
@@officialWWM The standard Reaper theme splits to multi monitor no problem. I have tracking on top screen, mixer on bottom screen (for my setup). Right click on the mixer section, a menu pops up, there will be a tick next to "dock mixer in docker". Left click to remove the tick, and the mixer section becomes it's own floating window. drag and drop that window to the other screen. Enjoy ;0)
The best thing about Reaper is the customization. It even has a script language where you can write your own plugins and little helper tools. Macros for example; controlling multiple variables with one single fader is a popular thing with power users. This works with pretty much every plugin and you can control multiple plugins with one macro fader. That opens up very powerful options for automation. In combination with the SWS extensions you can create your own workflow from the ground up and you can automate a lot of repetitive tasks.
now that's some interesting video to see, I'd almost tell Warren you look intrigued there :D let me share some "less-mainstream" points about Reaper (I'm not a sound engineer, but I build studios and do support for broadcast and education too): 1) Reaper is rock-solid reliable - without any third-party plugins, as pure recording rig, Reaper is the most reliable piece of software to get right now, regardless of using it on PC, Mac or even Linux now - friends have been using for literally 24/7 operations like 32-64 channel orchestra festivals recordings, and it just works, even with relatively weak hardware; crashes with Reaper are solely caused by plugins or advanced editing stuff, which may not go along together, at least that's our experience 2) size/portability - Reaper installer is so small (less than 20 MB compared to around 2000 MB ProTools) so it can be downloaded "on the go" via mediocre 3G mobile connection and be ready to go, but on top of that it's possible to make fully functional usb portable version (incl. license) to carry around when hosting various events, seminars etc.. 3) pricing model - apart from Reaper being really cheap, great thing especially for education or various testing procedures is, 60-day demo is fully functional, and even after those 60 days it remains fully functional (with just a friendly 5-second timeout reminder to purchase it) which is an absolute godsend dealbreaker for various "non-profit" schools and workshops 4) "open" settings management - Reaper stores all settings in files, not registry like most Windows software, and not encrypted in any way like most commercial softwares - therefore it's really easy to migrate settings, or troubleshoot problems by opening config files in some generic notepad app and just fix things on the fly (compared to PT Prefs which is a third-party utility to manage/trash/backup/restore ProTools settings, which themselves are not readable by user to fix manually) 5) as you mentioned in the end of video the track/stem export, it's now a very recent feature Reaper can also export those stems WITH the plugins applied, including all the sidechain/bus routing, automation etc.., it's a nice thing to have 6) Reaper can also record on multiple HDDs simultaneously - this is just another serious feature for critical recording applications (provided system itself is realiable to handle that of course) 7) custom themes are more of an eyecandy stuff or crazy layout changeover kind of thing, but as Glenn mentioned it can be helpful to ease up DAW use - my personal favourite is "Inquasar Dark Matter v.1.0" which is VERY easy on eyes offering plenty contrast, but also retains default Reaper layout, so it doesn't "interfere" with most of tutorial videos which makes it very practical to use when learning things
Reaper user for the last 5 years. Excellent daw, very customisable, very stable, great compatibility with all kinds of plugins, great CPU efficiency. I mostly use Acustica plugins which are very cpu hungy and Reaper is the best daw I have worked with that works so well with them. Doesn't come with soundsets, instruments, loops, etc, but the Rea plugins are very good and they get the job done if you don't have third party premium plugins.
The absolute best Reaper-only feature is called Spectral Peaks. This colors the waveform based on the frequency. This was, you can see if a vocal is out of tune, or a guitar note is off, or if youre strip-silencing toms, the hi tom transient will be purple, the snare will be orange, floor tom is blue etc... so when you have bleed between tracks, you can tell immediately which is which and you can edit at warp speed.
one of the best things about reaper for me is all tracks can be anything ie track, buss, fx, you don't have to chose a specific kind of channel to use.
You guys are the best! In north Spain (the Basque Country) people MOSTLY use Cubase. As a live artist I'm used to Ableton Live, but in this new pandemic-era project with brazilian musicians (which use Reaper with all their traditional originality and creativity), I'm starting to understand it, learn how to properly squeeze the best of it and use it. I love Glenn Fricker's approach to it- a true realistic educator. Kudos for both of you, always inspiring and motivating. I myself am a drummer, and although I got a pretty good experience as a recording artist (early generation of Brazilian Metal in the 80's), I am not that prolific RECORDING my own stuff, so you two guys are a constant source of education and enlightment. Cheers and thanks!
I have been a Reaper user for around 10 years. I can make anything from recording to midi composing and sequencing, and of course mix easily both environments. I create all my music there with no problems. I recommend it to my beginner friends always and I really like how easy it is to use it and access all its features. The community is incredible and you don't have to spend lots of money to have a professional DAW. I really love it!!!
