DAW Software


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stevevai777
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Joined: 11/25/2011
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Hello - Does anyone use the DAW called "Reaper"? (www.reaper.fm)
I heard it's an excellent, low cost DAW that works very well.
Anyone have an opinion about it?
I'm just checking different ones out before I make a decision on a DAW.

Thanks :)

Walt
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Joined: 12/09/2012
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Yes, I really like REAPER!

Sorry I didn't notice this question earlier, but in case it still helps someone:

Yes, I've been working on REAPER for over a year now (as time permits - this is not my full time job). I'm not significantly experienced on many DAWs, but I like this better than any I've tried. I took a Pro-Tools class and about everything I saw done in that platform, I found REAPER to do better - at least in my opinion. Consider that the basic Pro-Tools now costs 10x the price of a REAPER "small business" license and Pro-Tools is still at this time limited to 32-bit processing until you get into the very expensive Pro-Tools HD version. REAPER is essentially unlimited. I like it's (highly customizable) formats and workflow better than Pro-Tools.

I initially tried Cubase and found it unintuitive in comparison to REAPER and far prefer the workflow of REAPER. On my background: most of my work before a couple of years ago was in the analog world. I found REAPER more logical of a move from the analog world to the digital - again, for my taste. I believe the license price of REAPER is still much better than that of Cubase if that matters as much to you as it does to me (although I'd still pay more for REAPER).

From a software standpoint, REAPER is written the way I would write it: It is minimalistic - not in power - it is not bloated, but rather efficient and unobtrusive. In Windows, it barely touches your registry and it is VERY portable - you can even operate it in it's full capacity from a flash drive on someone else's computer (with the hardware set up as needed for the audio interface).

BTW: I am not affiliated in any way with REAPER or Cockos - I just use it and hold a business license.

When I was making the move from the analog world to digital, I tried out or looked into several DAWs and REAPER looked to me to be the most intuitive and versatile. (Keep in mind that I also don't do video and I'm no MIDI genius - I prefer the acoustic audio world.)

I have seen blogs implying that REAPER would possibly displace Pro-Tools as the industry standard, but we'll see - a lot of competition keeps popping up.

For the unforeseeable future, I'm a REAPER believer...