Question for Cockos Reaper Users: Why Reaper?

Why not? Let’s elaborate a bit. I used ST’s in the 90s and had tried some sequencers back then, and eventually bought Cubase. Late 90s we all moved on to PCs, right. I mean, except yuppies in NY who got into Macs. Hehe. Then I did the logical thing and updated to Cubase for PC. Early 00s I stopped making noises until 06, not completely but almost. Personal reasons, etc… About two to three years ago, I got a newer PC with a then-big CPU and all those VSTs were looking at me with desire, or is it the other way around? Anyway, I needed a new platform for these, my old Cubase was pre-VST. So I did look for a sequencer that would fit. Tried many, demos, cracked, free/shareware for some weeks, asked people around. Many big-names sequencers users were disgusted by stability issues, including in small pro studios (and I’m not talking about cracked software there, nope). Then I found Reaper 2.x, MIDI editing inside it was poor then, but it rather quickly evolved into fully usable without being exceptional. I mean, i works but it won’t write the song for you. But I’m not after that either. Well, it’s cheap, no stupid protection, I can share it across my PCs, friends PCs (in Demo mode it works just like it would if you paid for it!!). Works with all the VSTs I use. I’m in love with many free (or cheap) VSTs I found here, even. Thank you for that.
I guess I’m the guy who’s tired of big corporate software, loves innovative cheap or free stuff, open source. Guess what, I’m using Firefox to browse here and OpenOffice for work. If it weren’t for Reaper and some VSTs I’d be on Linux right now, probably. I’m that guy.
Ok, said too much already, my autobiography is out next month on amazon. :)

Didn’t know about the poll, so didn’t vote, but Reaper is my DAW of choice too. Reasons:
1) I record a lot of audio, and Reaper is perfectly suited for the task
2) Not pattern based — so it’s not, as a friend of mine defined FLStudio, “this cool prog, which is great apart from the fact that whatever you want to compose it ends being some sort of techno” (ok, a big big smilie here…)
3) The price is unreasonably reasonable.
4) Last but not least: the attitude. Justin and his mates don’t treat you like you’re an ex-con with the utmost goal of stealing their stuff. I mean, it usually takes me the whole trial period to decide, whether to buy or not. It took 3 hours with Reaper — and not only because the software was great (and at v.2 when I bought it yet had to develop btw), but also because I felt like:”hey! These guys behind this software are real cool! This oughta be rewarded etc”. Might be just I’m over-sentimental though
5) The last last: the included FX, both JS format and Cockos VST lack flashy GUIs but are top notch quality!
6) The lastest: you get a discount for Schwa/Stillwell plugs if you buy them for Reaper only;)

1 – reaper is cheap, but still full featured.

1a – price. $500 for cubase, sonar, logic, etc is just sick. that is more than the hardware price of my pc. no software is worth that. NONE!!!

1b – no pernicious upgrade price gouging. most companies have some annual upgrade, which is usually about 33-40% of the full price. that is pure thievery.

2 – reaper is small (3mb). most other apps come on 1 to 4 dvd’s. the features race just breeds bloatware, and all those crippleware synths that come with the main app are just useless trash which i will never use anyway, mainly because there’s way better synths from other companies.

3 – no retarded protection like dongles, online authentication, or challenge/response attacked to my pc hardware profile. i hate that shit and will NEVER buy software protected by more than a serial#. too many companies try to force software as a service (microsoft’s wet dream) on customers, where there is planned/forced obsolescence of their product. i want to OWN my software and do with it as i please…. even 20 years from now.

4 – reaper is more stable. other apps crash quite a bit, and reaper runs VSTi’s more solidly than cubase. this is probably in part due to its small size and lack of extreme copyright protection schemes.

5 – support. reaper has good support, other companies have a contentious relationships with their customers. i hate the support for sonar, for example, as they take their sweet time in dishing up yet another insulting answer.

6 – bug fixes. reaper actually fixes bugs, other companies just ignore the bugs until a new version and then they fix things, but usually introduce a whole bag of new bugs.

7 – reaper runs on windoze, osx and linux. i use all 3 OS platforms and it’s great to be able to use the same sequencers everywhere. i can also make it portable using thinapp, so i can carry it around on a usb stick, retaining my settings.

- i could probably think of more things, but that’s enough for now.

I switched from Nuendo to Reaper because I like the workflow better.

There’s a freedom to that program that I haven’t found in anything else. The amount that it lets you customize for your own personal approach is really a treat for me.

They have a great forum and it’s cheap.

I’ve never been happier.

“Personally I love my FL Studio (an no, it’s not just for techno, pretty much all these tracks were done in FL Studio).”

I listened to only a few of your tracks and they all are monotonous loopers. They sound like techno slowed down, but otherwise they still have the same boring repetitive, ineptly arpeggiated death drone. I don’t see how you can distance yourself from techno because you are tied to its methods and use the same basic cliches techno uses. You are not better than techno, you are techno, the spawn of techno.

Try this: use a standard sequencer (non-looping) and use a real instrument (if you can play one) to work out at least 8 bar long sections, and compose at least 8 different sections. Use a key signature not just noodling however you want, come up with an original chord sequence, develop a melody over that and then add harmony to it. DO NOT use arpeggios, or any other techno methods. Plus to make it extra interesting use a key signature like 3/4 or 5/4. If you can do that and you really put some honest effort into it, you will abandon FL and techno because you will feel what it means to REALLY create something totally from scratch, instead of stealing from sample cd’s and using arpeggios out of key.

Creation is a process of challenging yourself and doing something you haven’t done before. With FL you are forced into your safe comfortable place where you produce the same song over and over. Sure it’s quick, but so what, it sounds quick, meaning that it sounds like not much thought went into it. Don’t forget, when you play an instrument, all notes don’t fall on a boundry like they do in FL, and that alone will make things sound different from your current songs. FL is an iron immovable train track from which there is no escape… get off the tracks and live a little. I wonder if you can.

Oh my… As it was me who thoughtlessly mntioned “FLStudio equals Techno” here… even if I was quoting someone else…
First of all, if it’s you who uses the software, not otherwise, you can always over-run any software limitations. Cause you’re human, y’know. I’ve heard jazzy swinging tracks made in FT2 and likes, so what would stop one from making non-4 to the floor tracks in more developed tracker derivatives (like FLStudio)?
Second, there’s nothing wrong with techno. Or even with what most people consider to be ‘techno’.
Odd time signatures are cool but hey — do we really want all the songs around in 11/8? I mean, I’m a King Crimson fan (among other things), but would I want to limit all the music I listen to and write myself to KC clones?
The “DO NOT use arpeggios” advice is just ridiculous, sorry. IIRC, Mozart did use arpeggios — and wrote lots of his stuff in 4/4 btw — was he a lame techno composer then?
“Use a key signature” — fine by me, but what should we say about modal jazz or Schoenberg then? “Useless noodling”, huh?

I switched to Reaper for music and effects creation for simple reasons. Freedom and power. The freedom to route stuff anywhere. The power to process, mix and edit quickly, easily and as fucked up as I like it. I mean, just the macros you can create in Reaper to customize it to serve YOUR needs is second to none.

And no limits.

I post big feature requests for Reaper, because I think it hits the ball out of the park on more things the other daws ever did. It’s the sound creation and hacking tool I always wanted, that’s easy to use as well.

It’s coolness, if you’ll excuse the 90s expression. Major awesomeness.

@ JOSEMUERTA. If You’re going to preach to others about how they should make their music, then first get your terminology sorted out.
You say: “Plus to make it extra interesting use a key signature like 3/4 or 5/4.”
Methinks that 3/4 and 5/4 are TIME signatures. Let us hear your own work soon, made the good old hard way.

the software is stable and deeep and the guys making it are incredible.never seen sumthing liek this before anywhere.mindboggingly great.

For PC and Mac 64/32bit
and you can put it on a thumb drive under 10mb

Why i like it

ReaRoute
Ok this did it for me. Finally you can route (something like rewire) Audio from one program to another using this.
ASIO driver that allows you to route audio to and from any other ASIO enabled application
ex: run reaper run ableton live in rearoute mode and get all audio data playing in live in to reaper. Or vice versa.
This process cant be done with Ableton Live using rewire.
Audio Quantization in Reaper quantize your audio
http://wiki.cockos.com/wiki/in....._in_Reaper

Monitoring FX Performance
See How Much CPU power every plugin in your session is taking up

NINJAM

A program to allow people to make real music together via the Internet.

Multichannel Track VU Meters

to visually see 2 or more tracks in the VU meter at the same time

CUSTOMIZE

Make it look like Live, Protools, Sonar, Cubase, FLstudio, Studio One or make your own Examples in the Pics

And the picture is not Protools its Reaper

AntiAlias

This Period gives you smoother Highs (high Freq)

64 bit mixing

import a song in 24 bit or 16 bit and it gets mixed in 64 bit export to whatever bit depth you want

Unlimited tracks

enough said

32/64 Bit plugins

Use either 32/64 bit plugins where you have 64 bit or 32 bit reaper

Mouse Modifiers
modify your mice to do what you want it to do
Make fades, cuts, splits, turn volumes up/down, change fade curves, move, ect all without ricking or going to your tool bar.
Almost like Protools smart tools but smarter

Rea remote
If you have two Computers and your plugins are draining your CPU use the other computer just for plugins and route them to your recording Computer.

Key Commands
You can make your own Key Commands
Or if you are coming from another Daw you can import the key commands from that Daw

Song File Size

Now I dont know if this is me but I did a song 10 tracks in 9 mono-1 Stereo 24bit in Live. Exported and is was close to 500mbs.
Did a track in reaper 36 tracks 24bit (1 stereo) (29 Mono) file size was under 400mbs (just sick)

CPU Usage

I did a test put 10 slate digital VCC on 10 tracks CPU usage was 35%
Put 15 on 15 tracks in Reaper CPU 10% (sick)

Other

* Dragging a loop in will auto sync to time
* to time stretch ctrl+Left Click Drag
* files are acidized (will loop if you stretch) automatically in Reaper
* Easy instruction Manual
* Always updating to make it better
* MPC Style quantization
* Burn Cds in reaper
* Sws Ext (Make Reaper more powerful than before) Auto color on tracks you name, etc
* Drag and drop more than one plugin at a time on a track
* Customize your vst collection
* Save preset and chains (export to give to your friends)
* super low latency
* hardware delay compensation that actually works

Need I say more

ETC