Blatent plug for REAPER!

[MDV]

Highly recommended. I'm officially a Reaper convert.

Tried cubase sx3 - liked it bar that the controls are irritating and the EQ sucks. Moved to vista premium 64, which SX3 doesnt work on so I had to change.

Tried sonar 7 producer - Powerfull software, no doubt. Very capable stuff. But its like they went out of thier way to make it as un-intuitive and non-user-friendly as possible. I have the manual (yes its a liscenced copy) and an additional guide book and tutorials, and it took me days to get to the level of familiarity and capability with this that took an hour in reaper with no assistance whatsoever.

Its powerfull, feature-loaded, very simple to setup bussing for your soundcard, load VSTs, VSTis and FX, a piece of piss to use, cheap as chips (if you choose to pay for it, which I will) and it has rendered 100s of pounds worth of liscenced DAW unused.

That its cheap doesnt factor into it - its the best I've used, full stop.

Anyone else got any experience with it? Any hints, tricks and tips? Other cool free or very cheap audio software?

[sgmypod]

is a great DAW just used to cubase..may have to try it again

[_tom_]

Yeah I love it, I dont see why people use anything else at home. It's just so easy to use, everything is where you want it. I've tried Sonar, Pro Tools and Cubase and they all feel shite to me.

On the subject of Pro Tools, why is it the industry standard? Its so $%&#ing horrible and awkward to use..

[MDV]

I recall you recommended it to me ages ago, tom, so thanks! (I was aware of it but didnt really take it seriously, prefering the reassurance of blowing money on one of the big names - you'd think I'd have learned that lesson by now!!).

That was when I first downloaded it, but I didnt get round to actually getting my teeth into it till recently, and what a difference it makes! Its the only DAW I've used (there are a couple more in the list - Audition 1 and 2, cubase 4 (very briefly), older versions of sonar) that I havent had to wrestle with at all. Its what a DAW should be - something that gets the job done, has all the tools you need, doesnt get in the way and isnt a chore to deal with so that you can get on with the music!

Oh, and its got an absurdly small footprint. Very small install, ram and CPU usage. Should run well on weak machines and should be pretty much unstoppable on something powerfull.

[_tom_]

I do have a few issues with it crashing on startup occasionally, I dont really know why. Could be Vista but then again it did it on my shite old xp laptop as well.. It seems to get fixed when you update though so maybe its just old versions not properly working with Vista still?

[MDV]

Stable on vista for me. So far. We'll see long term.

[Denim n Leather]

I've used, and continue to use, Pro Tools, SONAR, and Cubase; never had any issues a help file could not sort out. Reaper does sound interesting, though. Glad you like it!!

MDV, what are you using as an I/O?

[Stevepage]

Is it possible to create midi drum tracks with reaper?

I have Guitartracks pro 3 and you can only string together samples. I'd like something to be a bit more in depth where I can make my own beats and change things etc.

[MDV]

Ben, I'm using an RME fireface 800.

Steve - yes. I have DFH superior 2 running in it, and a quick glance around google reveals pretty much all the rest of toontracks line work in it too. I havent paid any attention to BFD or other drum sequencers since I got Sup2 (cos its awesome), so I dont know about those.

[Denim n Leather]

Ben, I'm using an RME fireface 800.

Awesome; looks like a powerful machine.

[Transcend]

I was also feeling this way about reaper till i tried audition 3 as i loved 1.5

Audition 3 just feels a lot cleaner and even easier to use (yes it is possible)

The only thing i ever jump into reaper for now is using superior 2 as i made a multi out template for it and cant be bothered doing it in audition as i have one that works perfectly fine.

[MDV]

Ben, I'm using an RME fireface 800.

Awesome; looks like a powerful machine.

Its a beast!

Transcend, interesting, very interesting. I may have to try that too! (Though not too soon - after a bit more use of it not only do I not find Reaper a chore, as I have all previous DAWs I've used, but I LIKE using it, its enjoyable. It just pleases me that whatever I want can be done so easily. Its well-thoughtoutness makes me smile :D)

[_tom_]

Is it possible to create midi drum tracks with reaper?

I have Guitartracks pro 3 and you can only string together samples. I'd like something to be a bit more in depth where I can make my own beats and change things etc.

Yeah you can do it in Reaper, I use EZDrummer in it with no problems. Well there is one, that it wont save my drum kit presets but I dont know if thats a Reaper problem, or EZDrummer..

Has anyone tried the OSX version? I'm sort of thinking of trying a hackintosh install because I quite like OSX but refuse to pay the extra just for apple hardware.

[silentrage]

Sounds interesting.
I'm suck with Sonar 7 as it's the only 1 I found that works with Windows XP 64, and even then some VSTs won't work, like all the waves stuff and certain TC works ones.
does Reaper work with this particular OS?

[_tom_]

Theres a 64 bit beta - http://www.reaper.fm/download.php#beta