Who uses Reaper? Good?
Hey Everyone,
Who uses Reaper here? Can anyone give me some good/bad points?
I’m considering it as an alternative to Ableton Live. I really like Live, but theres no way I can afford it right now. I’ve heard good things about Reaper, but can you guys give me a better picture of it?
I don’t really use the session view in live, so no loss there. What I’m more concerned about is the lack of instruments/a drum rack..
It’s pretty good and has a full feature-set that makes it comparable to many other DAW’s. Personally, I feel like because it’s such a doppleganger of a DAW, that nothing really stands out about it - like it doesn’t really do anything special. Where with Live, it’s very modular and mappable, and it has session view. Cubase has outstanding MIDI capabilities and hardware compatibility. Logic… I don’t know… it’s made by Apple?
That’s not to take away everything that’s good about it though. It’s lightweight, very stable, and can do just about everything that any other DAW can do. Oh yeah, the non-commercial license is $60. You can’t beat that.
I’ve used reaper as a recording DAW for a little while now. Never had any problems with it. I do most of my production in Renoise and on hardware, and then use Reaper to record and multitrack.
I wouldn’t compare it to Live, though. Live’s a performance instrument you can use as a DAW, Reaper’s a DAW that… um… is a DAW. 
Thats the thing though
So far I don’t use live in its performance potential. I just like the way it works as a DAW.
I see. Well, Reaper’s workflow is very very different from Live. I never liked Live much as a production tool, aside from its super easy-to-use MIDI implementation.
Reaper works more like older, non-loop-based multitrack recording software, like I remember Cubase being (Haven’t used anything other than Renoise and hardware for a couple of years now).
Reaper conveniently has a free nagware demo version, and it’s worth trying out! I originally used it to sync to renoise in its pre-rewire days to record longer files, like vocal parts. It’s been consistently evolving ever since, to the point where it’s my primary recording DAW. I ditched my 24-channel Tascam desk and just do my multitracking between Reaper and my FireStudio Project. Easy Peasy!
The main point I was getting at was, Live is Live. People that like Live’s workflow will likely be displeased with anything else, as it’s a pretty unique environment. But, like I said, I haven’t used Reaper for very long in anything other than a tertiary role, but it’s fast becoming a staple of my recording chores!
I am currently trying out the Reaper demo. Its definitely not as quick as live, and I miss being able to drag and drop instruments and presets.
Then again, live is 300 dollars more. Which is a huge incentive for me to get to know Reaper better.
I use reaper for personal pleasure only. No commercial use. I do collaborate with friends around the world and I have a small studio at my home where musicians come now and again. But all for fun.
Give it some time. It also took me a while to get used to, but now I mix and master all my tracks in Reaper. Never used it as a sequencer though. I export all my stems out of Reason into reaper and mix it there. The difference it makes to the final sound is unbelievable. The Reason mastering suite is a wishy washy mess compared to the crispness achieved by doing it this way.
I also took some getting used to, but now mixing and mastering all my songs in Reaper. Never used as a sequencer. I can export all my bar of reason to Reaper and mix there. Collaborate with friends around the world and I have a small home studio, where musicians come from time to time.
I use reaper for personal pleasure only.no commercial use.I do collaborate with friends around the world and I have a small studio at my home where musicians come now and again.But all for fun!I use it almost exclusively now.Took a couple of days to get into it,but I find it so much faster with amazing routing options. Real small and gets some decent latency.
hmmm 
apparently we have a number of people here who use reaper for personal pleasure, with no commercial intent, at the same time collaborating with friends from all over the world, all in a small studio at their homes where musicians come from time to time, now and again that is.
it’s decent software, but spamming will have the opposite effect of what you intended.
I’m currently trying out the Reaper demo. Its definitely not as quick as live, and I miss being able to drag and drop instruments and presents.
I use to use Reaper but now I use Ableton, I find Ableton sooooooo much easier