Why REAPER Is My DAW Of Choice

For audio recording and mixing I use Cockos' REAPER. I explain why and many of REAPER's advantages in this video.

[RealHomeRecording]

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[RealHomeRecording]

Thanks for the suggestion!

You aren't the first person to bring Studio One to my attention. I recommend to everyone to try them all out. I don't believe there is a single DAW that cannot b tested prior to purchasing so definitely "test drive" them all because everyone has different preferences, workflows and systems that may or may not jive correctly with a piece of software.

[runninghoove]

Not to mention, the size of the Pro Tools installer is over 4.9 gigabytes while Reaper's installer is a whopping 7 megabytes. Talk about a micro footprint!!  Stability with a tiny footprint, Reaper still holds its own against the hideously complex behemoth of Pro Tools' proprietary bloatware.  I've wasted tens of thousands of dollars trying to keep up with Avid's Pro Tools hardware requirements nonsense.  Following a catastrophic Pro Tools crash with one of their RTAS crapware plugins during a high paying project, I finally tried Reaper based on a recommendation and never looked back.  Reaper v4.77b is a musician's dream come true.  Studios are abandoning Pro Tools in droves and switching to Reaper, which coincidentally, now dominates the competition both in ease of use, design and simplicity of workflow, and rock solid stability that's unmatched by any other DAW platform I've used yet.

[capoman]

It wasn't until after I started using Reaper a little more that I found out that Justin Frankel was the creator of Cockos and Reaper. he created Winamp, Shoutcast, and Gnutella, that had a HUGE following as well and was cutting edge. People were so proud to use Winamp, create skins and plugins, create visualizations, just a personal tie with software. So Justin has long ties in audio programming. Where else do you people SO PROUD of their software? I think it's great to see.

[dirkdigglerxxxx]

I found reaper by chance, I'm so impressed, the ease of use, lighting quick load what's really done it for me is the support via the excellent forum and the amazing PDF guide...400 pages! a demo track to experiment and learn with, further free fx, the is great stuff, this is how software should be made and the future.

[Zeroaddone]

I just started running REAPER on Mac. I do guitar instrumentals and I originate my tone entirely from VSTs so I definitely squeeze a lot of juice from my processor, and so far REAPER has worked wonderfully. Not a single crash.

[RealHomeRecording]

No problem I'm glad you found the video!

The great thing about REAPER is that nobody has to trust/believe me. You get a 30 day FULLY FUNCTIONAL trial right from the REAPER website. So if it's not for you then you'll know before plunking down the cash.

I don't make any money from Cockos, it works really well for me (I use a LOT of VST plugins and other DAWs crashed too often/slowed to a crawl). And since REAPER doesn't advertise I figure I'll help them out so they continue development.

[capoman]

Great and thorough review of Reaper. This DAW is my favorite for sure as well, for many reasons also.

I started using it at version 1. It was a cheap or free way to use asio and vst to monitor fx on guitar. So I could do amp modelling in vst instead of using an amp or fx processor. And this was when that was cutting edge.

Things I like: Midi and audio in one track, infinite routing possibilities, bundled vst and JS effects, tabbed projects, configurability everywhere...

[RealHomeRecording]

I'll drink to that!

With the amount of VST plugins I use no other program could keep up without slowing down or crashing. REAPER really is a remarkable program. That it's brought to us by the guy who coded the original WinAmp is no surprise.

Justin Frankel is OBSESSED with stability and reliability and it shows. Why other companies can't do it as well, I don't know.

[RealHomeRecording]

REAPER has a built-in equalization plug-in called ReaEQ that is very nice.

As far as changing track volume if you look on nearly all my videos where I'm using REAPER you'll see a button right above the track meters that says, "ENV". This is the Track envelope/automation button. It allows you to control a ton of things over the course of your audio timeline.

REAPER is free to try so go ahead and check it out for yourself. And be sure to download the PDF manual!

[ShredGuitarAcademy]

My experience. Started with an original MBOX, Pro Tools 6 & a PC. Never could do anything other than record a few tracks. Dumped thousands into new PCs and software upgrades up to PT 10. Was able to maybe make demos with 6 or 8 tracks tops. Spent 20 hrs troubleshooting for every 20 minutes of productivity. Got a new Macbook pro. Things got better but still disappointing. Barely could run 1 or 2 plugins w/o errors. Got Reaper 2 days ago. Life changing in every way. I can make a real record now.

[RealHomeRecording]

I rarely collaborate so it isn't really an issue. From what I've read a program called AATranslator works pretty well.

You can actually make REAPER look like Pro Tools and bind the keyboard shortcuts to be the same as Pro Tools. Do a Google search for reaper pro tools theme and a few things will pop up.

[RealHomeRecording]

In REAPER's preferences you can set multiple VST folder locations. I have all mine under Program Files/Steinberg/VSTPlugins just to keep things tidy.

[Kollabotory]

When you said bread and butter, I laughed... You used that gargling beer voice. Lol luv it! lol

[RealHomeRecording]

Haha, awesome.

Avid FINALLY addressed many of the issues I've had with Pro Tools with version 11. But too little too late...I use REAPER and that's what I will continue to use for the foreseeable future.

[dddux]

I've been with Reaper since version 0.9. The only gripe I have with it since is not having a real MONO TRACK. Everything else about it is just so great. I've been using Cubase before Reaper for like 10 years or so. Regardless if they implement the mono audio track or not, I'm too hooked, and whenever I use some other DAW, and people I work with usually use Cubase or Pro-Tools, it makes me more aware of just why I use Reaper.

[Vin]

Reaper has been my new baby for sometimes now.So far it never crashes on me.I use it for both mixing, recording & mastering .U can design it your own way, if u wanna make it look like Pro tools, Logic Pro, Cubase...etc..., It works with almost any plug-ins, cross overs, upgraded frequently...etc..The shit is full of so many friggin options!!! I'm still puzzled at why its cheap, but hey, thats to my advantage!!!

[ALulzyApprentice]

OMG! Cool Edit Pro! Taking me back to the stone age. I remember that prog. 

[turbotim]

The routing is amazing, just drag and drop and all of the sws ext. Sets it apart and its soooo stable.

[CmdrGendoIkari]

In case you didn't figure it out, you have to go to the file menu Options, Preferences, VST, point it to the folder containing your VST dll files, and click rescan. Once it's pointed to the right folder, it will automatically rescan it for new VSTs on every start up.

Even though I put mine in Reaper's default plugins folder, I still had to do that. lol