Why do you like Reaper?

mwd

mwd

Power User
I started on Cakewalk in the 90's. I tried Cubase in the interim then migrated to Logic several years ago. But I notice many users love Reaper and I was wondering 'exactly' why and what it is you like about this program?

Obviously the price is very reasonable so I'm looking for reasons not so obvious.
 
For me it's the price and handling. I use it to record ideas and I tried with cubase, but it was to complicated for me as I'm not good at recording. With Reaper it's plug and play for me. USB pluged in and start recording.
 
Yep, Reaper for the price obviously and the interface seems intuitive for me...But Maybe it's because I've used it for a while now...
 
I started on cakewalk and then went to Cubase. If Cubase don't stop adding in really annoying UI things I might look elsewhere . Who am I kidding though I spent £800 quid on it so far.
I'm interested in way so many people use logic though...
 
The price.

Plus I have mine setup to basically serve as a super-fast idea capturing device. I have the key presses Shift+?, Shift+>, and shift+< bound to the "create track," "arm selected track," and "start recording" commands, respectively, so the time between firing up the program and seeing an active track recording my guitar takes maybe 5 seconds.

Also, and I'm sure all decent DAWs do this, but it's really good at organizing your files if you take the time to set it up to do that. Every session I save automatically gets its own subfolder in my "Projects" folder, and in that session's folder is the main project file and any renders I make, then all the actual audio and wave form files are contained in the "data" subfolder in that session's folder. This means that every project I do is completely modular and can be moved freely by simply dragging the main folder around, and as long as I point Reaper to the project file, it does the rest.


So basically, I'm not sure how it compares with all the other software out there but for me it's great at lightning fast idea capturing and organization for when I want to quickly relocate and revisit stuff later without much fuss.
 
Last edited:
1) Even though it's not free, the trial version never ends. And if I'll ever consider to buy it, it's not expensive.
2) It's portable and Light weight. I can carry it around in a USB stick.
3) So far, It had all the tools I need. Not once have I thought "I can't do that because Reaper limits me...".
4) I found it very intuitive and easy to use.
 
HarrySound said:
I'm interested in way so many people use logic though...
Click to expand...

For me, at the time, Sonar was having automation issues. A friend had and iMac and Garageband and loved it. I tried it and loved the workflow but GB didn't have the mixing and automation power that Logic had so we bought Logic and it's been fairly smooth sailing since. I find the loops to be both valuable and inspiring and it has a ton of plug ins that are excellent quality.
 
Since we are talking about daws.... Are any of them better in playback stability/latency/performance/etc, or is that fully dependable on asio configuration alone?
 
Reaper is fairly easy to use and has become my main DAW since Avid changed their licensing model. There are lots of ways to configure menu and workflow options so that it will behave like DAWs you might be used to using IMHO. I've finished a couple of mixing projects on Reaper and the results were much better than I expected. I'm in the process of moving my RTAS and AAX plugins to VST so I can move away from Pro Tools. As mentioned earlier in the thread, it is important to configure where you record your files and there are workflow considerations when you start to use Reaper. There are many tutorials for this though...
 
This is in the wrong forum, but I use Reaper for several reasons. I like the product, the price, and the company. The more I learned about the company's history and business model, the more I liked them and Reaper.

The code is efficient and compact. No bloat. No copy protection. And it allows for portable installation. Even standard installation is not invasive. It works flawlessly with ASIO4ALL. It keeps getting better and better. Updates are frequently posted. For the price, it can't be beat.
 
I don't like Reaper. I like Ableton. But for some more or less complex mixing and mastering, I need a more functional DAW sometimes. And among such more traditional DAWs Reaper really shines. It's cheap. It's very functional and customizable. It is very lightweight, fast and not very resource hungry. And it is easier to use than Cubase or Pro Tools.
 
Aside from the pricing, it gets updated actively (and for free), has super flexible internal routing, has been flawlessly compatible with everything I've plugged into it, and at the end of the day just works really well all the time. The stock plugs aren't half bad either (before I built up a stable I used it's parametric eq tons bc it has a visual scope built in and let you add bands as necessary on top of a low cpu hit)
 
I like it's customization, it's performance and efficiency, it's community (the forum is a godsend, much like this one) and the company's business model. It just does everything I need it to do. No point in using anything else right now.
 
For a noob like me, it's intuitive, and has a WELL ORGANIZED library of awesome tutorial videos on the Reaper website. It was also very cheap (only $60 US).
 
Pretty much what others have said.. cheap price, very customizable, powerful, works flawlessly with every plugin I've used with it, lots of tutorials on it available, and it works well. Plus the included tools are pretty decent right out the door.
 
I am fairly new to Reaper and mostly got it because the price fits how much I feel I need a DAW.

I like that it has a quite active community and that people contribute and give a lot of feedback (reminds me of something.....)

Does what it is supposed to for me and was always quite easy to work with!

Jens
 
Something to think about: you will love Reaper if you want to spend time configuring and customizing it a lot (a lot!).

For me everything didn't make sense at the begninning: the shortcuts and the behaviour were super odd, like if its default config is aimed at mouse only. The file session management was the worst ever (all the files in one place). Not to mention the takes management.

Luckily enough, you can customize everything and make it work as you seem fit. That activity takes time tho.

So, for me, Reaper is not good out of the box, expecially if you want a mouse-free, rapid, dontwannalosetheinspirationwhilerecording workflow.
 
I still don't love everything about Reaper, except the price. But, I am getting used to it. There's plenty of help available online, thankfully.

Having used Samplitude previously, that's the one I miss. A true all-in-one solution.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom