Reaper anyone?

[Bong Twang Ping]

I'm looking to get into doing some multi track recording but have a limited budget. I've been reading a lot of good things about the Cockos Reaper DAW. It is very reasonably priced and looks to be a match for Pro Tools, Sonar, Cubase et al.

Does anyone here have any experience?

Thanks,
Bong

[Hookani]

Reaper is good. Alot of DAW for not much cost. You are supposed buy it but the trial never really expires, you just get a nag screen on start up. I bought it just because it really is worth the money.

Ho'okani

[Bong Twang Ping]

Thanks for your input Ho'okani, I really like the mindset of the people behind Reaper, and that they trust people to do the right thing because they know they're giving a great product at a great price. It seems that there is a big community of users behind them for that reason, that appeals to me to.

Anyone else?

Bong.

[Sounds_Perfect]

Originally Posted by Bong Twang Ping

I'm looking to get into doing some multi track recording but have a limited budget. I've been reading a lot of good things about the Cockos Reaper DAW. It is very reasonably priced and looks to be a match for Pro Tools, Sonar, Cubase et al.

Does anyone here have any experience?

Thanks,
Bong

Reaper has an ease of useability that is similar to Mackie Tracktion.
Think of Reaper as the Anti-Cubase.
Whereas in Cubase, if you've used it, youve noticed that nothing is "right there", u have to tell it to do EVERYTHING, ....and this is not the case with Reaper.

And example.

In Reaper, if you want to render a track, you just hit "Render", and the software AUTOMATICIALLY locates the beginning and ending points for you and renders the track to the designated area.
Try that with Cubase.

So, if you like your Daws to provide a lot of features , yet you are not interested in increased steps to get the job done, then Reaper is worth a look.

[dleuen]

I'll give another +1 to Reaper. In addition to what others have said, it has great documentation and an excellent support forum.

[ronmac]

I can't imagine you will get more value for money than with Reaper.

I have been using it in trial mode long enough to become familiar with its features, and just recently purchased a personal/small business license ($60). It integrates very easily with Adobe Audition (just double click on any open track in Reaper and it opens AA in Edit mode and loads the file).

I used it last night for the first time doing a live club recording of a folk duo and it worked flawlessly. It uses so few resources and is very tightly coded. A full working copy can be operated from a USB thumb drive.

[dmoss74]

another vote for reaper. it takes a little more time to get used to it, once you are used to cubase, but it works very well for my needs. i don't do a ton of midi stuff, and if the big boys have an edge, it's probably there, but for $60.00 it's freaking fantastic, and they are always updating/making it better.

[Bong Twang Ping]

Originally Posted by Sounds_Perfect

In Reaper, if you want to render a track, you just hit "Render", and the software AUTOMATICIALLY locates the beginning and ending points for you and renders the track to the designated area.
Try that with Cubase.

So, if you like your Daws to provide a lot of features , yet you are not interested in increased steps to get the job done, then Reaper is worth a look.

Originally Posted by dleuen

I'll give another +1 to Reaper. In addition to what others have said, it has great documentation and an excellent support forum.

Originally Posted by dmoss74

another vote for reaper. it takes a little more time to get used to it, once you are used to cubase, but it works very well for my needs. i don't do a ton of midi stuff, and if the big boys have an edge, it's probably there, but for $60.00 it's freaking fantastic, and they are always updating/making it better.

Originally Posted by ronmac

I can't imagine you will get more value for money than with Reaper.
A full working copy can be operated from a USB thumb drive.

Well Reaper is sounding like a better and better proposition!

Am I to understand that it can be installed on and run from a flashdrive? It doesn't need to be installed on the PC?

Thanks for all the input everyone

Bong.

[ronmac]

Originally Posted by Bong Twang Ping

Well Reaper is sounding like a better and better proposition!

Am I to understand that it can be installed on and run from a flashdrive? It doesn't need to be installed on the PC?

Thanks for all the input everyone

Bong.

Yes, indeed. This is how the manual describes the operation:

1.15Running REAPER on a Flash Drive
You can install REAPER on a USB flash device, or other external drive. This ensures, for example, that if you are going to be away from home or your normal workplace, you can take your USB Stick (or whatever portable device you may have) with you, plug it in on any PC, and away you go.
Before you can install REAPER on a flash drive, it must first be installed on your hard drive. When you then install REAPER to an external device in this way, all your settings, preferences etc are also migrated.
Example
1.Insert your external device into an available USB port on your PC. If necessary use Windows Explorer to note its drive letter. This will depend of course on what hard drives, DVD burners, etc you have already installed.
2.Click on the Windows Start button, then All Programs, then REAPER, then Install REAPER to USB Key or Removable Media.
3.This causes the following window to be displayed:
4.Type the drive letter followed by a colon (for example, E and press Enter.
5.Wait while the various files are copied. There are a lot of files and this might take quite a few minutes (see tip below).
6.When the process is complete, you will see a message displayed “Press any key to continue…”. Press the space bar (or any other key) and the process will be complete.
Note that this process will not copy your VST or DirectX plug-ins to the Flash Drive. You will need to manually copy and install any of these that you may require.
Tip: You can speed this process up considerably if before commencing this installation you first remove from your C:\Program Files\REAPER\Color Themes folder those color schemes that you do not use. You can always later reinstall REAPER to your hard drive to restore these.
To Run REAPER from the Flash Drive
1.Install the Flash drive in a USB 2.0 port on the computer.
2.Open Windows Explorer and display the REAPER folder of your Flash Drive.
3.Double click on reaper.exe

[valleyguy]

I'm a long-time n-track user, another VERY reasonably priced recording software program. I have not updated to newer versions, however, and the users on the n-track forum seem to have been moving to Reaper.

Give it a go, you can't go wrong, but also look into n-track, whcih is about $60 also.

[anton]

I like Reaper alot, i used it more when i was on a Windows machine. Now that i am on Mac i have been playing with Logic, which i like too. I wonder when Reaper for Mac will be out of beta.


Anton

[220volt]

All of my youtube videos are with Reaper. i would not use anything else for now.

[Ryan Alexander]

I have been working with it for a few days and have found it a lot more intuitive than Garageband or Logic. It was highly recommended by a coworker, but I didn't download the trial until I got quite frustrated trying to figure out how to flip the phase of a track in GB and Logic. Very happy indeed to find Reaper just has a toggle right in the track window. I was like

Definitely purchasing the license!

[MortonPI]

I've been using REAPER for ages now - and it is by far my favorite. Some things I really like about it:

• You can scan for plugins during a session, and in multiple directories (don't know if Cubase can do this now - I haven't used it since I switched to REAPER). Same with MIDI devices - none of that restarting nonsense.

• The routing system (sends/receives) is extremely flexible, and it makes sense too!

Well worth the money, even if you end up using it as nothing more than a VSTi host.

Good Luck,
Morton

[ScottAllyn]

Reaper is really nice! It appears to be a pretty powerful DAW these days and the interface is clean and simple:

http://www.scottallyn.com/images/reaper.jpg

The Windows and Mac versions seem to be in sync and project files are compatible between the two, which is quite handy. If only it had a built-in Spectrum Editor...