Having used both REAPER and Pro Tools professionally, my opinion is that REAPER is not basic at all -- it has every feature I have needed in a DAW, it's easy to use (for me, at least) and performs better than Pro Tools, at a far lower cost. It is one of my favorite pieces of commercial software.
Cost is low but 3rd party ecosystem including plugins is weak. It s like notepad++ of programming editors or winamp of music players. Effective, cheap, non innovative Yet OK.
I've only used Ableton, FL and Reason, so there could be something I'm missing, but doesn't Reaper support vsts? How could the ecosystem for plugins possibly be weak?
VST/3/AU/DX, and it supports scripting your own in JS as well. Unless they're upset about not having LADSPA or Nyquist, I can't imagine what else they'd be referring to that isn't proprietary AVID garbage.
REAPER's feature set is huge, it's also one of the most customizable DAWs I've used. I know this kind of thing is pretty subjective, but even then, there is no way I could possibly call it "basic" compared to the most popular DAWs out there.
It's effective, cheap but non innovative and a me too product. I bet it won't exist in 10 years in DAW business. It's feature set is a "me too" set of everything which exists with minimal innovative features on top.
please don't misunderstand. I have no horse in this race.
I like Reaper as much as I liked WinZip , winamp or Notepad++. But I wouldn't say it's enough to keep Windows installed on a private computer.
> I bet it won't exist in 10 years in DAW business.
It's already 11 years old... [0]
> It's feature set is a "me too" set of everything which exists with minimal innovative features on top.
I don't even feel like getting into this, but it looks like the troll is winning: Parameter Modulation, unlimited nesting/grouping/takes. Dynamically create and split audio channels on one track. Mixing of MIDI and Audio in one track. Video editing support. Surround Sound and (more multichannel) mixing. Scriptable with LUA. Includes it's own DSP scripting language (Jesusonic) with hundreds of included (and source available) tools made with it. Great support for odd or rapidly changing time signatures. Rock solid latency compensation (looking at you, Ableton). Ability to undo even after saving (looking at you again, Ableton). Completely theme-able.
Reaper isn't a perfect DAW, none of them are. But it's up there with the rest and has some features others can only dream of.
> But I wouldn't say it's enough to keep Windows installed on a private computer.
Reaper is officially supported on OSX and unofficially supported on Linux. Many VSTs run fine under Wine.
I m referring to GP comment saying he keeps Windows just for Reaper and you validate my point. And I m talking about the next 10 years obviously. Reaper is a clean, neat, easy to use DAW with many features for beginner and intermediate user. It s a very well written piece of software with a fair price.
Are you really using it for professional work or have seen anyone use it? And what are some features other DAWs can dream of; the ones you counted above?
>Are you really using it for professional work or have seen anyone use it?
Checking in. My side-gig and paid hobby is live production, and Reaper has more than earned it's place in my toolbelt. I've recorded shows produced for sxsw showcases (not to mention two years touring as a FOH guy, and producing for a major political event on the east coast-guess what? I used Reaper for all of them) and made master mixes that ended up on CD's sold by national, headlining bands with Reaper.
I think you are horrendously mischaracterizing and underestimating the tool-and from reading your other comments to people providing you with substantial and verifiable feedback as to the capabilities of the software, extensibility, platform support, feature sets compared to more expensive DAWs, it appears you're doing so deliberately.
> I have used it for a long time and it's really the most basic of all the DAW alternatives.
You clearly haven't. The only possible way there's a shred of truth to this sentence is if you're referring to the included sample-sets/virtual instruments compared to other DAWs, which Reaper doesn't include many of.
When you say Reaper, you lose me. I have used it for a long time and it's really the most basic of all the DAW alternatives.