Any opinions on the DAW "REAPER"?

[mr2kewl]

i've been testing the DAW "REAPER".

any opinions on it before i pull the trigger? not that it's outrageously expensive.

[thouston]

Yes, I have Reaper and really like it. I mainly used either my BR-600 or BR-1600, but wanted to learn more about PC recording.

One of brothers works for Roland, and he sent me a Edirol UA-4FX USB2 external audio capture device http://tinyurl.com/mjs6kn that comes bundled with SONAR LE. SONAR crashed on my PC, more my PC config than SONAR fault.

I had read that Reaper was less CPU hog, so I downloaded it. It worked without any problems, and also added SONAR's (Cakewalk) DX plug-ins to Reaper's plug-ins, so I brought a home user licence ($60).

There was small learning curve for me, I had never used VSTi or any other plug-ins, or used MIDI, but it didn't take me long to learn.

Still I didn't use Reaper much, because I didn't have any drum software. Reaper has RealDrums, it's MIDI based and I never could quite figure it out.
I do have a BOSS DR-5 drum machine, and I would connect it to the UA-4FX, but I couldn't insert fills easily.

Than I brought Drumcore Ver2 http://www.drumcore.com/ on closeout at Sam Ash for $79. This made recording easier, all I had to do was select a drum groove, and drag 'n drop it into Reaper

[Dmann]

Reaper is good, and very affordable. I used it for a while before they decided that the program was suddenly good enough to start charging people, in addition to Audacity (which is pretty much the same except 100% free and less included VST plugins) but ultimately decided to go with Fruity Loops Studio 9 XXL just because I found it easier to navigate and set up everything, and it comes with several other options for creating beats and grooves without having to shell out more money for additional addons, and it just works really well for me.

 The only recommendation I have is to try out a few different DAW's using the same tracks and just see how well they work with you to get the same results. There are a few out there, and they all have trial versions as far as I know. When it comes down to it though, they all do the same thing.

 Tony - I too have an DR5 hehe, that thing was the best dam drum machine of it's time,  I wrote a lot of tunes on that thing, and we even used it to play the strings section for Ozzy's "Mr. Crowley" when we used to play that in our old band. Then I bought a microBR and after using up the limited capability of the pre-made MicroBR patterns, I have since moved on to using piano roll in Fruity loops triggering my own real live wave samples. I'm actually going to take some samples of my Tama Imperialstar set here this weekend. I also was browsing the internet and went to the Ziljian website, where they have all thier cymbals online for samples, so I just recorded them all and added them to my sample library in FL Studio. Not to mention there are tons and tons of free samples out there on the internet, and also tons and tons of sample libraries you can buy too. Anyways, my point is, check out as much as you can before buying anything, there are soooo many options in this digital age.

[thouston]

I too have an DR5 hehe, that thing was the best dam drum machine of it's time..

I had it for couple of years, before I learned to compose songs on it. I had a BR-8, and would MIDI sync the DR-5 to it for drums. Than I was in New Orleans, and saw this guitarist using one with a Roland Cube. He had composed a lot of songs on it.

I than decided that I was going to figure how to compose songs, and I did, but I never used it outside of the house.

But, getting back to Reaper, I like recording with it, and I like it even better since I got a M-Audio Axiom 25 MIDI/controller http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Axiom25.html. I used it for the soft-synths tracks on PJ's Techno track

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[mr2kewl]

thanks for the input, guys.

cool cut Tony!!

lately i've been getting GAS attacks for a synth, but my shoestring budget is keeping me in line. it's really my wife that's keeping me in line. LMSAO

and... that's what's appealing about REAPER.

i’ve only been doing this for a year now, in fact i got my MBR for Christmas last year and have been using Audacity up until now, but i got a GAS attack when i looked at Acid, which looked very similar except for the $225 price tag.

[thouston]

..lately i've been getting GAS attacks for a synth, but my shoestring budget is keeping me in line.

I got the Axiom 25 for $79...Sam Ash had a $50 coupon off anything over $150, and I had a $50 gift card.

I found a Polish site that has some great VSTi soft-synths, but I can't find it now. I do have another site by Glen Stegner http://glenstegner.com/softsynths.html.

Adding VST plug-ins to Reaper is very easy, and I mapped Axiom's transport keys to Reaper.

[mr2kewl]

i would like to get a synth in the $400 price range, but that's the GAS talking.

for now i think i'll grab a license for REAPER and get my bearings around that.

my last few postings were done bouncing between Audacity and REAPER

[peterp]

I liked reaper better than the cubase le I have.
Though my trial has expired so I will have to decide to buy it or not now if I want to continue.

[mr2kewl]

mine just expired today.

i guess i'll have to submit a funding request to the C.F.O. (the wife)

LOL

[Wartime Novelty]

When the reaper trial expires you can still keep using the full version with only a 15 second nag screen at startup.

It is an absolutely great DAW i switched for sonar 7 and reaper is far more intuitive and so simple that it really helps create an even work flow and the included plugins are great.

Also now the licence only costs $40 or something as theyve discounted it and youll get the full upgrade cycle say if you got it on v3.5 youd keep getting upgrades up until v4.5

I am still to buy a licence thoughbut i will do as soon as pay day comes around especially now that theyve dropped the price further