Its not a daw, a daw has digital audio workstation functionality (ins, rec, inserts, bus-aux sends, editing) daws started including midi UI for music with logic, other programs where only midi…reaper (alike dj app abelton live) does not have daw level editing automation abilities, very limited, and it has zero concept with bus -aux, these two are not features but essential to cutting it as a daw, reaper fanboys claim they dont need or use these features lol But they compare it to pro tools which is daw focused, are you guys kidding ! Absurd, even logic has flimsy editing when making nodes as it snaps all over the place and thomas who sold it to apple says v5 was way tighter, apple messed it up focusing on making logic appeal to beginners claiming their target audiance are more less iphone social media users, that is who reaper cant even get the attention of with their horrible windows 98 gui.
Kenny is great with tutorials but really bad at realizing we are learning sometimes he tends to not explain good or skip a few tiny steps that he thinks are automatic.
As far as the quantize goes. you get the best accuracy when choosing the correct grid size. If you are on 1/32, it is going to quatize accordingly even though you may not be zoomed in to show those fine lines....Its very accurate. I hope this helps.
Not only that, but you can even type a custom grid. I have a project that the grid in the midi section is 1/20. I haven't seen a daw that lets you type grids
I think that if you got in to ReaPack and scripting, you'd eliminate most of those 'drawbacks' you talk of. Cockos could have designed skins for their plugins years ago and have no doubt turned down many offers from graphical genius's because it became obvious years ago that they're making a statment that it's about sound, not pictures. I like many, have fallen for a plugin many times because it looks awesome, only to find out it's actually garbage. ReaEQ has been my go to EQ since 2009 and I wouldn't want it to look any different.....they'd spoil it if they tried.
I tried full version of reaper and…editing is bogus…pro tools is accurate both faders and editing match professional consoles unlike midi sequencer 128 based resolutions.., the reason ppl hated pro tools for years is over the lack of none daw features like midi, they mainly focused on been the daw only replacing studer tape, editing beyond razor blades with none destructive abilities etc, tracking editing mixing audio, you wanted a sequencer get studio vision pro, dp, logic (at the time) pro tools only started implementing the idea after 2004! It was useless before this..but now its ok, still an engineers perspective. What happened to the other so-called daws, your editing abilities remained exactly the same, studio one is ok, reaper has good audio resolution, but editing abilities, logic automation node snapping is flimsy., pro tools is still. I needed for critical editing.
What? Lack of Tutorials? Reaper pro users make tutorials monthly, some even weekly. I’ve never seen more tutorials for a piece of gear or software than Reaper. Your last video was helpful, this one is just odd, because its not based in reality. These items listed are preference based, not drawbacks, and don’t affect functionality at all. Wow!
Thanks for the comment. These are preferences/opinions on what Jack feels are drawbacks from his perspective. He feels there is a lack of tutorials for specific tasks in REAPER compared to other DAWs. If you watch his previous video, you can see what makes REAPER the best DAW, in his opinion, and how much he loves it! Cheers for watching 👍
I have been using Reaper for almost three years. I am not a professional musician, but I found it easier to learn and use Reaper than many other Daws. Meanwhile, I found many tutorials which helped me as a non professional to learn and use Reaper. I am sure there are many other functions in Reaper which I need to learn.
I love reaper. I have used several DAW's but Reaper seems to be my go to. I like its rock solid stability it almost never crashes and on the rare occasion it does I don't lose too much of my work. Routing is very intuitive and rendering is lightning fast. It doesn't have all the bells and whistles of some of the other DAW's which means it takes up very little real estate on your hard drive. It gets an A for stability and ease of use, no nonsence, wasting time with technical issues and if there are any there is always help at hand from the Reaper community. Reliability for me is much better than looks and Reaper is very reliable.
Have no idea why you think Reaper doesn't have enough tutorials.? On the actual Reaper page, there are loads of tutorials from absolute beginner to advanced by Kenny Gioa. All categorised? John Tidy at the Reaper Blog does what I think more technical tutorials for those who want to dive deeper. The reapack has plugins by Tukan and Reeq eq etc, that have more sophisticated interfaces, if you don't like the standard ones. All completely free? The midi editor can even be set inline by pressing the E button while using it. The lack of bloat in Reaper because it doesn't come with loads of synths etc that mostly won't get any use, is one of its strong points. It loads super quick compared to DAWs that come with those and are usually unstable because of them. There are so many fantastic freeware drum vsts and synths out there.. You can download just exactly what you want and not get lumbered with a clutter of stuff you don't use.
And don't forget the genius IDDQD channel. This guy is a real Reaper wizard. His tutorials are more advanced mostly, but they are so clever. Adam Steel from Hotpole studio's and Alejandro's Reapertips channel are very good also. I have no idea why anyone would need more tutorials.
Your quantize subdivision setting were wrong in that example so it's gonna quantize incorrectly... I've had no issues with the midi editor & quantizing once I understood what I was doing in Reaper
Just watched the video. I have just moved over to Reaper from Logic. I do like Logic, but the cost for a new Apple computer is ridiculous, so I decided to switch over to Reaper. This video doesn't put me off. it just gives me an honest opinion, which is absolutely fine. I'm not experienced in using many DAW's, but after watching many videos, I have found Reaper to the best option for me so far. Kenny and all the community have been really helpful, including this video. I think all opinions are helpful. Just my thoughts Folks
I've been using Reaper for years and years recording audio and I've pretty-much tried everything else out there as well. For me, Reaper Just works. The audio manipulation capability is stellar and the price is awesome. I will be re-purchasing my license without question as soon as I get closer to version 7 and I will continue to support this great DAW as long as they continue to upgrade it.
Everything just works, its when you need a daw with real bus-aux sends and high res automation matching your ssl or neve console that reaper, cakewalk, fruity loops, donut chugs, logic, live, cubase all lack behind pro tools at..
I'm thankful that there aren't 10 million videos just on (for instance) how to install Reaper. Having less videos can make it easier to find what you want, as the "good enough" search algo seems to get tricked sometimes.
For Midi integration ReaLearn extension is excellent! As for popularity, it is one of the main DAWs to use for Game Audio, Sampling (for Virtual Instruments) and Sound Design due to how well it handles audio, its flexibility and scripting. It is also used as an alternative to Pro Tools by a lot of mixing engineers. As for Midi worth checking out Juliansader Multi editor Tool script which can do quite a bit of transformations. Midi Quantize is no where even close to as good as Cubase sadly
1. No Instruments, Loops, Or Samples - yeah, tons of great freebies around and freedom to use whatever you already have - but I agree, there are none out of the box 2. Ugly Plugins - subjective but can agree to some extent, GUI matters for me too 3. Lesser MIDI Compatibility - I'll leave this to who has more experience than me 4. No REAPER App (Includes REAPER workaround) - It's far from being a simple workaround and it's even better than an app - you can use it also on other computers and devices that have a browser, and can be customized 5. Less REAPER Users - Maybe less "Pro" users... but still debatable - do you have official figures? 6. REAPER StigmaI - You serious? I LOL'ed, first time I hear about this 7. Lack Of Tutorials - LOL #2, what You Yube are you on? You surely browsed also the official Cockos Reaper website video section, right? Did you also see how many RUclipsrs and producers use REAPER for their videos? 8. Lacks a MIDI Drummer - Fair enough 9. Not The Best MIDI Editor (Includes demonstration) - Not amazing visually but it works for me as well 10 . Not The Best MIDI Quantize Function- I'm thinking you maybe don't know to use it properly (you have it on "use grid" default settings and of course, it's limited in this mode)
No decent editing options, automation nodes etc are back dated to 2001, the concept of bus aux is beyond anyone, tells you that we are using this app is not musician or engineer. Repaire is trying to appeal to social media wanna be musicians
@@britishboxer6875 lol, no daw! Its a PC fanboy ugly sequencer utilizing functionality of modern audio that comes with every computer mac or pc..no bus sends that make sense (pro tools, logic, cubase, studio one with on that) and audio editing is at par with live. Top ten audio editors 1-pro tools 2-logic 3-cubase 4-studio one 5-dp 6-fl studio 7-garage band 8-trackson waveform 9-adobe audition 10-bitwig’ 11-abelton live 12-reaper
There may be less video tutorials; but 9 times out of 10 if I do an internet search when I get stuck, or wonder if/how Reaper can do something, I get an answer in the Reaper forum or a youtube video... So I think the community support makes up for that.
I often think I'm the odd one in that the lack of virtual instruments, synths, etc, never bothered me. Granted, I work primarily with "real" audio, meaning tracking actual instruments, and find that REAPER is great for me. Nothing wrong with folks using virtual instruments, mind you, but I, for one, would rather pay a low one time cost for a powerful DAW and have the option of buying or obtaining free virtual instruments of my choosing as opposed to REAPER costing more but including a bunch of stuff I'd likely never use. Your mileage may vary. Oh, and I make tutorials 🥲
You really understate ReaSynth. It's basic as a brick, but also useful as brick. If you want a single sine wave (say for sub-bass), you'd better off with this tool than with monstrous VST synth like Vital or Phaseplant or Serum, you name it. And if you fire up several instances of ReaSynth on one track, you can build some pretty decent filterless patches if you wish. I make use of it at least
No Midi drummer? Since Reaper is much cheaper than other daws there is enough money left for microtonic or ezdrummer. And Megababy is a cool drum sequencer.
Thanks to Reaper and its great capacity in customicing it completely, I have a Daw with a combinación of many daws such as cubase, Protools, cakewalk, samplitude. ALL in one. ALL this drawbacks are pretty fixable if you take the time to learn how to adjust the program to your needs. You have to make it only once and then keep that configuration forever. And take it to other machines where you have reaper installed. You have to use what you are most familiar with. Not because is preety, or the standard or modern.
Thanks for the video - I found it really interesting. I sense we each have our own relationship with software, and for sure mine has changed over time. I was a dedicated Logic Pro user for about 7 years but moved to Reaper around 4 years ago. At first, I found the Reaper plug-in GUIs a bit boring and not very friendly, but over time I’ve grown to appreciate the simpler interface. Now I feel GUIs that try to emulate the visuals of real-world hardware can be a bit distracting and misleading. I try to assess the impact of plug-in settings by ear, and find it faster with a simpler, and often more logical (OK very personally subjective I agree) interface. I use a lot of Airwindows plug-ins, which have the simplest UI possible, and I find these fit perfectly into the Reaper ‘feel’ and workflow. TBH I never found much use for all the additional ‘bloat’ that you get with Logic, but that’s probably related to how I prefer to work. I really appreciate I can download and install Reaper upgrades (on Linux BTW) in a few seconds. I was surprised by the ‘lack of tutorials’ comment - I never found that to be true, I also think there is a brilliant and supportive Reaper community out there!
Nice one Nick! Thanks for watching and the excellent comment. 100% agreed that what one person sees as an issue, others won't, and visa versa. There's no right and wrong; it's just opinions. 👊
Reaper not having bloatware like other daws with their own system resource hogging vsts, loops, and sounds is a plus. I have a curated large number of vsts of my own (20+ years of) and, if you are like me Reaper is perfect. The themes I applied with all the customization options via scripts makes Reaper the best DAW by itself. You can set it up to look like whatever you desire. My Reaper does not look like windows 95 lol. It`s futuristic asf. (It may take a little while to transform the layout, menus, font, and get rid of the white borders but, it makes it your own. Way worth it for the stability and lite resources). In my experience Reaper has no flaws. You want another customizable DAW, get Studio One which is 2nd to Reaper in that aspect with it`s own vsts but, not light on resources.
It's quite interesting hearing what younger users think, because these drawbacks would not have been a thing when I began in the late 1980s, and I have moved with the times to the present day. All MIDI devices were just connected with cables and everything for the most part worked without issue. Computers were only a small part of the setup if at all, and so fancy GUI was a not a problem. Gear often came with very little in the way of pre-made music to get you started, but this was not seen as an issue as musicians were expected to create all music themselves which I think is a good thing; too much hand holding with loops etc can make people lazy or less creative, by having too much of an influence on them. I think this is a big reason why modern music is so predictable and formulaic, and why the standard of composition has been dropping over recent decades, e.g. far too much emphasis on repetition, beats etc.
Re: Quantizing MIDI. Set your grid to the note value you are actually working with. You have it set for 32nd notes. If you are using a 32nd note grid, that is going to make things much more complicated. Set it to the smallest note value you are using, but not smaller.
Wile I agree with most of the points you make, honestly, comparing a Reaper fonction to anything in Logic miss one very important point: Logic is for Mac only, while Reaper exist for Mac, Windows and Linux. That makes a big difference.
My biggest frustration with Reaper has been a lack of built-in drum machine and step sequencer. I don't necessarily agree with lack tutorials because the Reaper Mania channel by Kenny Gioia has all the tutorials (easy to follow) you can imagine plus those are official and the links of each chapter are embedded on the Reaper main page.
Update from the pops and crackle issue - ASIO 4All seems to have improved it to an extent but what I also found is that my u-he Hive plugin is a CPU hog and I'm using it alot on that project.
Megababy is over complicated for no reason the amount of time you take to map stuff between it an Reasamplomatic 5000 is really an unnecessary headache, integrated step sequencers work with ease and fast such as on Cakewalk where you just right click and view step sequencer to start edit same as FL Studio. It does not need to be over complicated for the sake of it honestly 🤞🏽
@@sirsilva7079 I honestly don't find anything about mega baby complicated and I came from Fl, if you find it complicated, here's a tut ruclips.net/video/jtNOJsAEjPE/видео.html , save everything as a template so you don't have to setup everything everytime you wanna use it. Same goes for reasamplomatic :ruclips.net/video/CkdksJGg214/видео.html , just save them up as templates.
Reaper has tons of midi control surface extensions that can make any midi controller become an interactive surface, just takes more fiddling but its extemely deep.
I have no idea what you mean by 'doesn't quantize' correctly. It quantize perfectly to the grid. The problem likely is that you aren't zoomed in enough to see the actual grid its quantizing to.
Number one reason to not care about what people think, Be a Leader not a Follower! I have PooPooed Reaper for a while, but recently decided I am finally liking it. Main reason is to many Daws are so Bogged down with Midi crap, that people who are Mix Engineers that actually can give you that LA or Nashville sound etc. could care less about Midi features.
The "Reaper stigma", is stupid. "It only costs $60...how good could it be?" Sorry...some idiot said 25 years ago that ProTools is the "industry standard" and everyone believed it. What's wrong with with a DAW that does all the same things, for a 1/10 the price...besides NOTHING. Sure, ProTools is great. But, why pay $600 if you don't have to? Or, even worse...subscription pricing. There's NOTHING wrong with Reaper, that you can't figure out a solution to. Customize it however YOU like it. A lot of other DAWs can't say that.
Hey man, sorry to say but your video was bit pointless because 1. Lack of tutorials - No, there many videos for reaper about every topic. When I was a beginner I was confused to choose which video to see. there are lots of useful videos about reaper in RUclips due to which it just took me 6 month to learn reaper 2. Less reaper users - Go to equip board and see the amount of artists!!! There are a lot!! It was inspiring that many big producers used reaper to make blockbusters song
The lack of tutorials? For me personally, on the contrary, the large number of detailed tutorials made me want to learn with Reaper. Just today I had to work on a cubase project after years. I needed to figure out a few things and searched for answers on google. With Reaper I'm used to type in a query and google will offer me hundreds of solutions, tutorials, links to discussions. Basically, it didn't happen that I didn't find an answer when I had any issue with Reaper. That's why I was surprised to find virtually no tutorial that could explain some of the details I needed to know during my Cubase work today.
Is a lack of included instruments, sounds, loops, etc. a factor? The cost difference between this at $60 and Logic, for example, at $200, means you have $140 for additional purchases... I know a bunch of synths cost a bit more than that (and Logic comes with some good tools) but there's a ton of quality inexpensive/free stuff out there. Just wondering as I'm evaluating DAWS...
New in this field too. But did purchase Reaper. Taking now months to research how all the essential recording gear is supposed to work to create music. You can't beat 60 bucks for a legitimate "whatever-you-want-to -call-it", if it's not a "DAW", per se.
You've missed the worst part of Reaper; the endless menus with the endless variety of selections. Its impossible to remember them, let alone keep up with every new version. Surly most of this could have been automated in a Reaper Lite.
When Cakewalk was abandoned by Gibson going bankrupt I spent a year trying different DAWs. Reaper was intimidating and I initially went with Studio One. However, I quickly became frustrated with its workflow and lack of features I relied on in SONAR. I returned to Reaper when they added a midi Staff notation edit view. I don't use a piano roll to edit. The biggest drawback of Reaper is that it needs to be customized to your workflow. Out of the box default settings are not ideal. There are tons of great tutorials by Kenny Gioia! I don't want Reaper loaded up with bloat ware VSTs. Cakewalk was starting to do this. Yes, the stock plugins could be visually more appealing but they do work. I slowly became more comfortable with them. Didn't think Reaper had a stigma. I hear more stories of people fleeing Pro Tools for Reaper and Studio One. If anything, Cakewalk had a bad reputation for not fixing bugs. I am much happier with Reaper and I would not go back to Cakewalk. I can use the Quantize functionality in Reaper but yes, they need to continue to improve midi capabilities.
Regarding "no app" I use TouchDaw for expression control, X/Y joysticks, etc. I'm sure it could be easily set up to control your transport, arming channels, etc.
Switched to reaper a little over a year ago from pro tools. I had been using pro tools since the original m box, but I got tired of the constant crashes, the incompatibility with new updates from os, and how slow it was. I work on anywhere from 10-20 projects a day, and reaper cut my work time down tremendously and it always works. I can’t even count how many projects I had to start over in pro tools because of it not working when I assumed it was recording. 1000+ projects in reaper and not once did I lose a recording. But I must admit, the plug ins are uninspiring, and I miss being able to share pro tools files with other users across the globe easily and opening my files from the early 2000’s easily to revisit projects.
How much of a stigma do REAPER users even have, objectively speaking? I know that FL Studio has a quite a bit stigma around it, it has a reputation of only being used by "bedroom producers", and is seen as a DAW you "graduate from" when you start to take music production more seriously. Benn Jordan, who is listed as a "Power User" of FL Studio on the official website even admits he spent years hiding the fact he uses FL Studio because people didn't think it was a professional DAW. I think the only community where FL Studio isn't looked down upon is in the hip hop scene. However, I will say a lot of hardstyle producers use FL Studio, such as Atmozfears, Regain, Demi Kanon, Devin Wild and Sub Zero Project. The song "Push Play" by Brennan Heart makes a light jab at FL with the line "Fruity Loopin' Losers" though, which is pretty funny.
Web control is better than an app because you can send anyone in your studio a web link & it will be compatible with there device plus you can customize controls for specific users. All you need is a device that can connect to your wifi & a web browser
As an alternative to MIDI quantising, (it might be slower but), you can set up a custom action where you move selected notes to the playhead. It's kind of like Logic's semi-colon shortcut. For MIDI: 1. Edit: Copy (sorry, forgot to mention this) 2. Edit: Cut 3. Edit: Paste For regions: (not even sure if this works on recent updates of REAPER, a bit quirky now) 1. Edit: Copy items 2. Edit: Cut items 3. Edit: Paste item/tracks
I think that people are put off by the colored icons above the track section. Makes it look "toyish" and non-professional. Also, when opening any VST, you not only get the plugin's gui, but a portion of screen real-estate is obscured by a large area to the left of the gui that does nothing more than display a plugin list. Maybe change that "window" to a tab above the plugin gui? It just looks really outdated, like you're using Cubase 3 or something and can't bring yourself to upgrade to a better DAW.
Just wanted to add another, not as exciting point: Scrolling tracks is very choppy (As in, vertically in the TCP/Arrange). Matters a lot in bigger sessions, and makes it hard to know how far you're scrolling.
NOTE 1: DO NOT enable "Use rc_reaper_fm". AFAIK you will want to enable that only if you want to control your Reaper instance across the internet. For local network use, just leave it unchecked. NOTE 2: You mentioned 2 use cases: 1. Remote controlling in the studio, 2. Recording "on-the-go". The web app only addresses use case #1. You are right to criticize that there is no mobile app to support use case #2, but then I don't think that is part of Cockos' vision for Reaper, at least right now. So, yeah I don't think it'll happen anytime soon. 3:15 It is an "app", albeit a "web app" but it is certainly not a "workaround". I would argue that it being a web app was a very good choice that the devs made since it can run on basically anything that has a browser and is not limited to a specific platform like iOS or Android. Since it is just a simple web server, the HTML code that gets served is in the Reaper install and so it is easily moddable to your liking (you can even opt to build your own). You can even run multiple instances of it (provided you are using a different port number each time) and run the other UI modes on each one like running the remote on one, and the lyrics view on another so you can easily switch from arming the track to the other browser tab that shows the lyrics. Overall, it is a very flexible and open feature.
I was thinking, "ok, he's missed on every single one but maybe he just doesn't know or maybe he doesn't have the SWS extensions". Then, he got to 'lack of tutorials"... What? LOL. Kenny, Reaperblog, IDDQD... You can't be serious.
Just started using reaper been using cakewalk for over a year and so far cakewalk was easier to learn plus the pro channel in cakewalk is awesome!...but I'm trying to stick with reaper because my buddy says it's better than cakewalk
The irony here is that these drawbacks are really Reaper's strong points. Hopefully this guy will create an updated video as such once he figures it out. Reaper is like The Matrix. Hiw deep do you want to go? Take the blue or the r3d pill?
You must had used it when it first came out. They have hundreds of videos on there sight alone. All them free plug-ins they got kills most of your points. Esthetic pleasing is for OCD people, reaper gets the job done and fast.This by far is the best daw for beginners in the business!
really appreciate that imfo. Purchased Reaper, teaching myself how thru utbe vids how to make music with all the essential equipment Veteran Reapers have been generous with sharing tips. Appreciated.
I agree about the lack of tutorials, I've seen a couple beat making tutorials, but they just are centered on the technical aspect of learning reaper, I don't see people making actual beats on it so I can't learn about actual workflows.
Altho I agree with most of the points, I actually like that Reaper doesn't have any extra app to control it remotely, I don't think using browser control is a workaround since I found that's probably the best implementation of remote control, You can remotely control Reaper from an android phone, iPhone, iPad, another laptop and it will adapt to screen since it's through the browser and it's very fast. If they had to make a mobile app, they had to make an app for every platform. I prefer this approach over other daws where you have to download an app just to do basic stuff, wasted storage. You can just save it as a bookmark so then you wouldn't have to set it up every time and it wouldn't be any "pain" lol. And for midi, I use chordgun and some other scripts that make using the midi editor super easy to use.
Pro Tools, being "the most used DAW", is in my opinion the biggest joke in the industry ! It seemed like it was trying to play some kind of keep-up game with some other daws from the beginning. We exhaustively demoed every available audio production software in 2001 when our studio made the upgrade from multitrack analog and digital tape. the winner "hands-down", was Samplitude 7 pro. NO-ONE else did what they did then. We had a fantastic run with our Hybrid Samplitude system till approx. 2017. It took to nearly 15 years for anyone to catch-up and then overtake what we were using, and that something my friends...was Reaper. Trust me, I know what I'm talking about.
@@TazzSmkHe's not advocating for Samplitude but rather discussing its functionality and how other daws could not match/exceed its capabilities until REAPER came along.
The video tutorial section of the cockos site is second to none. You are a "Reaper Expert" and you don't know of the hundreds of well done tutorial videos done by Kenny Gioia? Dude, wake up and check out the videos. I have turned many onto Reaper due to these videos... LB
The lack of instruments and effect plug-ins is a drawback on one hand, but on the other hand it's also a plus. If you already have a collection of instruments and effects, then using a DAW that has more (sometimes of questionable quality) isn't necessary. I don't disagree with your observation but it's a matter of perspective. Sometimes less is more. :-)
I like reaper’s spectralform view, i like reaper really. But i’ve found that bitwig come out of the box with all you need. Its more modular than ableton but it has workflow features that rival that of reaper. But reaper is definitely my second choice of daw.
AFAIK about instruments, with US $60 you get what you pay for. DAW comes with basic synths and drum plugs has additional cost. I like open nature of Reaper you can make it what you like as not everyone produces music with it. I use it for my Radio Productions/Voice over mostly. Do not be myopic in your views. Note: Using Reaper since 2006 and never had an issue getting help with Reaper Community or Kenny's Reaper mania.
when I hit quantize I get access to a way deeper menu, I dont know what I did to have it set up like that, but its as useable as quantize midi in Ableton is for me, I think you have to select something else from one of the drop downs you're presented with there, but Im not sure. Im on my phone otherwise I'd look it up for ya. if I remember I will edit this.
I tried Reaper back at the beginning of this year. I had been having DAW troubles - or so I thought. They actually turned out to be Windows problems, and all went away when the Windows issue got sorted. But that's by the wayside. The deal breaker for me was when I imported a standard MIDI file, I could find no way to assign which MIDI Out port each track was to be sent. So I had 16 MIDI channels on one MIDI Out. That was all. That's not a situation I could live with. I asked Dr. Google, and he didn't come up with anything even REMOTELY relevant. If there IS a way to assign MIDI tracks to separate MIDI Out ports (my MIDI interface has 3 MIDI Out ports, giving a total of 48 MIDI channels), and somebody knows how to do it, please, I'm all ears! I'd love to know how to do it. If David Hilowitz can use Reaper to make samples for his Kontakt and Decent Sampler instruments, then it certainly can't be all bad! It is just that one issue that's a complete deal breaker for me.
@@Mcgiver699 There is? Oh good. That would be a real bummer and a bad design flaw if it wasn't there. I haven't reinstalled Reaper since getting Windows fixed, but I still have the set-up file. Thanks.
I've went from Cakewalk to Reaper. I'm trying so hard to like this DAW, but man, confusing. Gain staging is confusing with this.......making Buses seems clumsy.......volume automation is much tougher.........just all around I'm struggling with it. I've watched a ton of videos and I still find it tough. I'm probably going to go back to Cakewalk even though it's CPU heavy. I just find it SO much easier, with a MUCH better layout. Shame.
Why is it diffecult volume you can change witch mouse wheel automation you can make LFO CAKEWALK YOU CANT!The Workflow is very faster than in Cakewalk!!Try Waveform 12 its free it has very much features!!
1 - Yeah, instruments, samples, loops and all that jazz would be awesome. 2 - That's subjective but yeah, the plugins can look like something out a Win 98 OS. Most people don't like that and can be inspiring or uninspiring depending on the person. 3 - Some stuff can be a bit painful to set up a first on Reaper but you can always save your configuration and just load it up afterwards. 4 - There's no official Reaper remote controller but there are a bunch of ways you can set it up. It would be cooler and ideal to have an official app but that's not really a limitation, more like an annoyance. 5 - I'd say that any other DAW that isn't Live, FL Studio or Logic has "less users". At least that's my perception, I don't have any data, really. I can say the Reaper community is cool tho. 6 - I wouldn't take anyone looking down on Reaper seriously, in my personal experience it's usually people that don't really know much about audio at all. Kinda similar with people that say FL Studio is a "baby" DAW. 7 - Lack of tutorials? Are you kidding? There's a bazillion of tutorials for literally anything on Reaper. If there's anything you need to do you can find at least one or two videos on REAPER Mania, Reaper Blog, IDDQD Sound, Let's Talk About Reaper or whatever. I can really agree with that one. You can state that other DAWs have more tutorials (if you consider they have a bigger userbase) but I wouldn't say there's a lack of tutorials for Reaper, honestly. 9 - If you want to set up a MIDI drummer I'd suggest you to watch some of the videos from the aforementioned channels. There's a lot of things Reaper doesn't offer natively that you can set up with JS or a combination of JS and native plugins. It's not convenient or perhaps it can be a bit "ugly" but it is completely possible. 10 - The quantize function can be pretty odd, yeah, I'm also bugged by that, I'm sure I could do something about it but I'm to lazy to figure that out honestly.
on point #4, the "Web browser interface" is "official" and it is not a "workaround"; I argue that it is even better option than any mobile app since it is a "web app" and thus is easily modded (you can edit the HTML or even build your own) by the owner of the instance it is running on. Since it is a web app, you can use any device or computer with a browser, which means no limitations in terms of platform. It can also display lyrics (via "notes" that are aligned within your tracks) and even count you down when punching in takes.
Lack of tutorials? Lol! That is one of the things that I love about using Reaper, as a new user. I originally spent a ton of $$$ on Digital Performer because my buddy uses it in his studio but there are NO tutorials on it. Reaper tutes are the best!
You´re absolut right!! I find Kenny Goia's videos very informative - I haven't seen that from other DAW providers. Here you can learn a lot about Reaper. But in general. I feel like this video has been around 1000 times. Who wants to hear the pros and cons for the 100th time? Every DAW has its focus and its own concept. That's why I find comparisons very tiring now. Certainly there are things that another DAW can do better. Everyone has a choice.
Expect for the „lack of tutorials“ I can get your points to some extent. For me the biggest drawbacks in Reaper are: 1) The smallest track height isn’t small enough. Other than using children track (which I avoid) you are forced to scroll way too much for the lack of getting tracks smaller in the TCP. Not so in Logic, S1, even PT.. 2) Reaper has a zillion options but none to NOT darken out the other tracks when using track solo. Personal thing of course but this drives me crazy. 3) Bounce in place. Is that missing? No sub project, no render, simply bouncing down a selection of tracks or items e.g. 4 guitar tracks to one mixdown WITHIN the project for a filter effect. Stil haven‘t found how to.. 4) Drag and drop FROM the media explorer is nice but why not drag and drop TO the ME like in Studio one? 5) The defaults are all wrong - as a wise man once said. That is so true! But why?? Anyways, thanks for your video!
2) Reaper has a zillion options but none to NOT darken out the other tracks when using track solo. No problem: theme tweaks→Muted/unsoloed track/item overlay mode→alpha:0 Good luck
@@futurewy Hooorray, good news. Can't really find it though. Do you mean in the action list under the theme twek/configuration window or in the options in the theme adjuster? Maybe I need to install some additional Reapack stuff, a search didn't get the result. Thanks buddy!
#1 I say they should, they say they probably won't. But who cares when you can access most any 3rd party plugin? Name a DAW with a native instrument better or as good as what you can get for paid. I decided awhile back none of the freebie drum kits would ever meet my need & I got Addictive. Best Virtual Drumkit for the money. #2 As Chris from Airwindows would say "In mix, nobody can hear your screen." Spitfire Audio's own interface design ain't the prettiest, but it's functional & I bet they beat out any orchestral instruments you're likely to get with a DAW [if at all?] Not a drawback & who cares? #3 Haven't gotten into using a MIDI controller as of yet. Have to do that one of these days. #4 SERIOUSLY? lmao What hath the TV remote control wrought X-D I've recorded in a "real" studio before and the owner [a Protools user] never bothered with stuff like that. #5 There's enough that I run into Reaper users with a YT channel all the time. Also, check the stems export function in Render. Works like a charm. #6 The "real" studio owner I worked with never had a 'tude like that. By any chance are you dealing with fellow producers who make you feel left out because you don't have what "they" got? #7 Patently absurd. See my answer to #5 #8 See my answer to #1. #9 & #10. From the responses you're getting I'm guessing you don't know how to use the MIDI editor properly. Fine, I probably don't either. But I've been able to create a Bass & Keyboard part from scratch as well as orchestration. No problems, here.
Yeah I don't exactly get the midi quantizing feature either. If you change the grid to 'measure' it will line up on the grid line, go figure. If the midi score was better developed Id use it all the time. Logic has it beat there. But I am pretty used to the piano roll, now One reason I chose Reaper was for compatability. I still use firewire, old Roland interface and an old korg workstation, and setting it up was easy, just works together well
There are less Reaper users. But community is much more active and positive than many others. And what does it mean "lack of tutorials"? Gioia only by himself provides a ton of solutions. Those are tutorials and not trash flood like "click here and double click there... oh look we muted track! like, subscribe and say thanks to our sponsor XXX"
Jack you sound so professional and you have a great voice for videos. Still, you might want to drop using the term "couple" to express more than two. Your video is so great and the reference of a couple to mean 10, doesn't fit into your professionalism. I don't mean to sound hyper critical, and you can do what you want, but using a term incorrectly, can take away from your professionalism. Thanks for the video, and the critique.
Can anyone tell me if it is possible to only get the UI of the plugins? I see the FX section is just one button instead of a box like in protools. and in addition you see a window on the left where you select the plugins.. I personally think this takes too much real estate of the monitor, you can't see much what is happening in the track view...opposed to only seing the UI
Reaper may not be the most good looking DAW. But that the price for having a lightweight DAW at an incredible price. About virtual instruments it’s true. But every producer as it’s toolbox (Kontact, orchestras, etc) including a drum kit (Adicitive,Ez,SSD5) and so on. About the support i disagree absolutely. Look at Keny Gioya Reapermania, Reaperblog and the incredible Forums. And now with version 7 some minor glitches are corrected.
Tutorials? There are at least three RUclipsr who post detailed tutorials about every imaginable feature, and . . . If needed, I can create a post on the Reaper Forum and get answers within minutes.
lack of tutorials? Did you ever watched the dedicated channels of Kenny Gioia, Jon Tidey "Let's talk about reaper" ? But apart this: you find tons of tutorials . Just use YT search engine and/or Google ... they are your friends. The same about MIDI Integration. If you don't know how things are, why should you talk about? Just to get your views? Your video is misleading information.
i mean if you work with real instruments its worth giving it a shot since the lack of built in inst plugins wont be as big of an issue also reaper handles live recording very well since the tracks can hold anything audio or midi you just creat a new track set your input and get to recording your keyboard im blind and learning reaper it works well with my yamaha keyboard i think it will work well its free to download and nothing is hidden behind the paywall give it a try if it works for you then you can make the switch
It's not all doom and gloom! Check this video for 15 reasons why REAPER is the best DAW. ruclips.net/video/LCd0Qg1F0t4/видео.html
Its not a daw, a daw has digital audio workstation functionality (ins, rec, inserts, bus-aux sends, editing) daws started including midi UI for music with logic, other programs where only midi…reaper (alike dj app abelton live) does not have daw level editing automation abilities, very limited, and it has zero concept with bus -aux, these two are not features but essential to cutting it as a daw, reaper fanboys claim they dont need or use these features lol But they compare it to pro tools which is daw focused, are you guys kidding ! Absurd, even logic has flimsy editing when making nodes as it snaps all over the place and thomas who sold it to apple says v5 was way tighter, apple messed it up focusing on making logic appeal to beginners claiming their target audiance are more less iphone social media users, that is who reaper cant even get the attention of with their horrible windows 98 gui.
“There’s a lack of tutorials”
Kenny Gioia: “Am I a joke to you?”
Hop Pole Studios: "am I joke to both of you?"
The REAPER Blog: "Am I a joke to you?"
IDDQD : "am i a joke to you?"
Reaper forum : "am i a joke to you?"
Kenny is great with tutorials but really bad at realizing we are learning sometimes he tends to not explain good or skip a few tiny steps that he thinks are automatic.
Lack of tutorials? You've got to be kidding.
As far as the quantize goes. you get the best accuracy when choosing the correct grid size. If you are on 1/32, it is going to quatize accordingly even though you may not be zoomed in to show those fine lines....Its very accurate. I hope this helps.
Not only that, but you can even type a custom grid. I have a project that the grid in the midi section is 1/20. I haven't seen a daw that lets you type grids
It cant get accurate once you reach 1/64
No instruments? YES ! PLEASE! Pay less, only for a DAW, I don ´t need a bundle.
I think that if you got in to ReaPack and scripting, you'd eliminate most of those 'drawbacks' you talk of. Cockos could have designed skins for their plugins years ago and have no doubt turned down many offers from graphical genius's because it became obvious years ago that they're making a statment that it's about sound, not pictures. I like many, have fallen for a plugin many times because it looks awesome, only to find out it's actually garbage. ReaEQ has been my go to EQ since 2009 and I wouldn't want it to look any different.....they'd spoil it if they tried.
ReaCompx is also amazing🤞🏽
I tried full version of reaper and…editing is bogus…pro tools is accurate both faders and editing match professional consoles unlike midi sequencer 128 based resolutions.., the reason ppl hated pro tools for years is over the lack of none daw features like midi, they mainly focused on been the daw only replacing studer tape, editing beyond razor blades with none destructive abilities etc, tracking editing mixing audio, you wanted a sequencer get studio vision pro, dp, logic (at the time) pro tools only started implementing the idea after 2004! It was useless before this..but now its ok, still an engineers perspective.
What happened to the other so-called daws, your editing abilities remained exactly the same, studio one is ok, reaper has good audio resolution, but editing abilities, logic automation node snapping is flimsy., pro tools is still. I needed for critical editing.
What? Lack of Tutorials? Reaper pro users make tutorials monthly, some even weekly. I’ve never seen more tutorials for a piece of gear or software than Reaper. Your last video was helpful, this one is just odd, because its not based in reality. These items listed are preference based, not drawbacks, and don’t affect functionality at all. Wow!
Thanks for the comment. These are preferences/opinions on what Jack feels are drawbacks from his perspective. He feels there is a lack of tutorials for specific tasks in REAPER compared to other DAWs. If you watch his previous video, you can see what makes REAPER the best DAW, in his opinion, and how much he loves it! Cheers for watching 👍
That’s cap. FL def gon more tutorials. Even Cubase 12 has more tutorials
@@samnene reaper for mixing
Not on RUclips though
@@samnene FL has tutorial for beat producing but not mixing.
I have been using Reaper for almost three years. I am not a professional musician, but I found it easier to learn and use Reaper than many other Daws. Meanwhile, I found many tutorials which helped me as a non professional to learn and use Reaper. I am sure there are many other functions in Reaper which I need to learn.
Cheers for watching and the comment Shah.
I love reaper. I have used several DAW's but Reaper seems to be my go to. I like its rock solid stability it almost never crashes and on the rare occasion it does I don't lose too much of my work. Routing is very intuitive and rendering is lightning fast. It doesn't have all the bells and whistles of some of the other DAW's which means it takes up very little real estate on your hard drive. It gets an A for stability and ease of use, no nonsence, wasting time with technical issues and if there are any there is always help at hand from the Reaper community. Reliability for me is much better than looks and Reaper is very reliable.
Reaper mania on RUclips has all the info you need
Have no idea why you think Reaper doesn't have enough tutorials.? On the actual Reaper page, there are loads of tutorials from absolute beginner to advanced by Kenny Gioa. All categorised?
John Tidy at the Reaper Blog does what I think more technical tutorials for those who want to dive deeper.
The reapack has plugins by Tukan and Reeq eq etc, that have more sophisticated interfaces, if you don't like the standard ones. All completely free?
The midi editor can even be set inline by pressing the E button while using it.
The lack of bloat in Reaper because it doesn't come with loads of synths etc that mostly won't get any use, is one of its strong points.
It loads super quick compared to DAWs that come with those and are usually unstable because of them.
There are so many fantastic freeware drum vsts and synths out there.. You can download just exactly what you want and not get lumbered with a clutter of stuff you don't use.
And don't forget the genius IDDQD channel. This guy is a real Reaper wizard. His tutorials are more advanced mostly, but they are so clever. Adam Steel from Hotpole studio's and Alejandro's Reapertips channel are very good also. I have no idea why anyone would need more tutorials.
Your quantize subdivision setting were wrong in that example so it's gonna quantize incorrectly... I've had no issues with the midi editor & quantizing once I understood what I was doing in Reaper
Just watched the video. I have just moved over to Reaper from Logic. I do like Logic, but the cost for a new Apple computer is ridiculous, so I decided to switch over to Reaper. This video doesn't put me off. it just gives me an honest opinion, which is absolutely fine. I'm not experienced in using many DAW's, but after watching many videos, I have found Reaper to the best option for me so far. Kenny and all the community have been really helpful, including this video. I think all opinions are helpful. Just my thoughts Folks
Thanks Barry, apprciate that.
I've been using Reaper for years and years recording audio and I've pretty-much tried everything else out there as well. For me, Reaper Just works. The audio manipulation capability is stellar and the price is awesome. I will be re-purchasing my license without question as soon as I get closer to version 7 and I will continue to support this great DAW as long as they continue to upgrade it.
Nice one Rob, thanks for the comment.
Everything just works, its when you need a daw with real bus-aux sends and high res automation matching your ssl or neve console that reaper, cakewalk, fruity loops, donut chugs, logic, live, cubase all lack behind pro tools at..
I'm thankful that there aren't 10 million videos just on (for instance) how to install Reaper. Having less videos can make it easier to find what you want, as the "good enough" search algo seems to get tricked sometimes.
I'm glad Reaper doesn't come with "extras". I consider the lack of bloat a plus.
For Midi integration ReaLearn extension is excellent!
As for popularity, it is one of the main DAWs to use for Game Audio, Sampling (for Virtual Instruments) and Sound Design due to how well it handles audio, its flexibility and scripting. It is also used as an alternative to Pro Tools by a lot of mixing engineers.
As for Midi worth checking out Juliansader Multi editor Tool script which can do quite a bit of transformations. Midi Quantize is no where even close to as good as Cubase sadly
I can ready to type up the same comment. ReaLearn is just fantastic.
1. No Instruments, Loops, Or Samples - yeah, tons of great freebies around and freedom to use whatever you already have - but I agree, there are none out of the box
2. Ugly Plugins - subjective but can agree to some extent, GUI matters for me too
3. Lesser MIDI Compatibility - I'll leave this to who has more experience than me
4. No REAPER App (Includes REAPER workaround) - It's far from being a simple workaround and it's even better than an app - you can use it also on other computers and devices that have a browser, and can be customized
5. Less REAPER Users - Maybe less "Pro" users... but still debatable - do you have official figures?
6. REAPER StigmaI - You serious? I LOL'ed, first time I hear about this
7. Lack Of Tutorials - LOL #2, what You Yube are you on? You surely browsed also the official Cockos Reaper website video section, right? Did you also see how many RUclipsrs and producers use REAPER for their videos?
8. Lacks a MIDI Drummer - Fair enough
9. Not The Best MIDI Editor (Includes demonstration) - Not amazing visually but it works for me as well
10 . Not The Best MIDI Quantize Function- I'm thinking you maybe don't know to use it properly (you have it on "use grid" default settings and of course, it's limited in this mode)
No decent editing options, automation nodes etc are back dated to 2001, the concept of bus aux is beyond anyone, tells you that we are using this app is not musician or engineer. Repaire is trying to appeal to social media wanna be musicians
@@britishboxer6875 ok
@@britishboxer6875 lol, no daw! Its a PC fanboy ugly sequencer utilizing functionality of modern audio that comes with every computer mac or pc..no bus sends that make sense (pro tools, logic, cubase, studio one with on that) and audio editing is at par with live.
Top ten audio editors
1-pro tools
2-logic
3-cubase
4-studio one
5-dp
6-fl studio
7-garage band
8-trackson waveform
9-adobe audition
10-bitwig’
11-abelton live
12-reaper
This comment section is info for beginners like me. Thx guys for communication
With ReaSynth you can make great sounds using other Reaper plugins and LFOs. Pretty cool actually, then you save your presets and FX chains
There may be less video tutorials; but 9 times out of 10 if I do an internet search when I get stuck, or wonder if/how Reaper can do something, I get an answer in the Reaper forum or a youtube video... So I think the community support makes up for that.
i remember how great that forum was back when i used reaper. Lot's of knowledge sharing and good convos too.
@@Kevinschart dont use reaper, the creative artist killer
I often think I'm the odd one in that the lack of virtual instruments, synths, etc, never bothered me. Granted, I work primarily with "real" audio, meaning tracking actual instruments, and find that REAPER is great for me.
Nothing wrong with folks using virtual instruments, mind you, but I, for one, would rather pay a low one time cost for a powerful DAW and have the option of buying or obtaining free virtual instruments of my choosing as opposed to REAPER costing more but including a bunch of stuff I'd likely never use.
Your mileage may vary.
Oh, and I make tutorials 🥲
Thanks for passing through.
@TheHomeMusicMaker passing through? Acknowledge the fact that he makes tutorials,.and Logic is Apple only and bloated
You really understate ReaSynth. It's basic as a brick, but also useful as brick. If you want a single sine wave (say for sub-bass), you'd better off with this tool than with monstrous VST synth like Vital or Phaseplant or Serum, you name it. And if you fire up several instances of ReaSynth on one track, you can build some pretty decent filterless patches if you wish. I make use of it at least
Lol you can get a single sin wav there as well. You can make that the default if that’s something you need as well. Takes 2 seconds.
@@ciaagent8419 That's exactly what I'm talking about, and I use ReaSynth in this way from time to time
As basic of an understanding of all this I have I do see your point clearly.
No Midi drummer? Since Reaper is much cheaper than other daws there is enough money left for microtonic or ezdrummer. And Megababy is a cool drum sequencer.
Thanks to Reaper and its great capacity in customicing it completely, I have a Daw with a combinación of many daws such as cubase, Protools, cakewalk, samplitude. ALL in one. ALL this drawbacks are pretty fixable if you take the time to learn how to adjust the program to your needs. You have to make it only once and then keep that configuration forever. And take it to other machines where you have reaper installed. You have to use what you are most familiar with. Not because is preety, or the standard or modern.
Thanks for the tip man, says a complete newbie!
Less users, but a very strong, passionate community.
Thanks for the video - I found it really interesting. I sense we each have our own relationship with software, and for sure mine has changed over time. I was a dedicated Logic Pro user for about 7 years but moved to Reaper around 4 years ago.
At first, I found the Reaper plug-in GUIs a bit boring and not very friendly, but over time I’ve grown to appreciate the simpler interface. Now I feel GUIs that try to emulate the visuals of real-world hardware can be a bit distracting and misleading.
I try to assess the impact of plug-in settings by ear, and find it faster with a simpler, and often more logical (OK very personally subjective I agree) interface.
I use a lot of Airwindows plug-ins, which have the simplest UI possible, and I find these fit perfectly into the Reaper ‘feel’ and workflow.
TBH I never found much use for all the additional ‘bloat’ that you get with Logic, but that’s probably related to how I prefer to work. I really appreciate I can download and install Reaper upgrades (on Linux BTW) in a few seconds.
I was surprised by the ‘lack of tutorials’ comment - I never found that to be true, I also think there is a brilliant and supportive Reaper community out there!
Nice one Nick! Thanks for watching and the excellent comment. 100% agreed that what one person sees as an issue, others won't, and visa versa. There's no right and wrong; it's just opinions. 👊
Reaper not having bloatware like other daws with their own system resource hogging vsts, loops, and sounds is a plus.
I have a curated large number of vsts of my own (20+ years of) and, if you are like me Reaper is perfect.
The themes I applied with all the customization options via scripts makes Reaper the best DAW by itself. You can set it up to look like whatever you desire. My Reaper does not look like windows 95 lol. It`s futuristic asf.
(It may take a little while to transform the layout, menus, font, and get rid of the white borders but, it makes it your own. Way worth it for the stability and lite resources).
In my experience Reaper has no flaws. You want another customizable DAW, get Studio One which is 2nd to Reaper in that aspect with it`s own vsts but, not light on resources.
Thx much for that vote of confidence.
It's quite interesting hearing what younger users think, because these drawbacks would not have been a thing when I began in the late 1980s, and I have moved with the times to the present day. All MIDI devices were just connected with cables and everything for the most part worked without issue. Computers were only a small part of the setup if at all, and so fancy GUI was a not a problem. Gear often came with very little in the way of pre-made music to get you started, but this was not seen as an issue as musicians were expected to create all music themselves which I think is a good thing; too much hand holding with loops etc can make people lazy or less creative, by having too much of an influence on them. I think this is a big reason why modern music is so predictable and formulaic, and why the standard of composition has been dropping over recent decades, e.g. far too much emphasis on repetition, beats etc.
Great point made.
Re: Quantizing MIDI. Set your grid to the note value you are actually working with. You have it set for 32nd notes. If you are using a 32nd note grid, that is going to make things much more complicated. Set it to the smallest note value you are using, but not smaller.
Nice one Jimmy. Maybe we'll do a more in-depth video on MIDI quantizing.
The quantize is the only thing that I am not a fan of, everything else I am okay with.
Wile I agree with most of the points you make, honestly, comparing a Reaper fonction to anything in Logic miss one very important point: Logic is for Mac only, while Reaper exist for Mac, Windows and Linux. That makes a big difference.
Hmmm... interesting point
My biggest frustration with Reaper has been a lack of built-in drum machine and step sequencer. I don't necessarily agree with lack tutorials because the Reaper Mania channel by Kenny Gioia has all the tutorials (easy to follow) you can imagine plus those are official and the links of each chapter are embedded on the Reaper main page.
Nice one, appreciate the comment.
Update from the pops and crackle issue - ASIO 4All seems to have improved it to an extent but what I also found is that my u-he Hive plugin is a CPU hog and I'm using it alot on that project.
Reaper comes with a step sequencer, it's called mega baby, and for drums, reasamplomatic does the job, you can try sitala as well.
Megababy is over complicated for no reason the amount of time you take to map stuff between it an Reasamplomatic 5000 is really an unnecessary headache, integrated step sequencers work with ease and fast such as on Cakewalk where you just right click and view step sequencer to start edit same as FL Studio. It does not need to be over complicated for the sake of it honestly 🤞🏽
@@sirsilva7079 I honestly don't find anything about mega baby complicated and I came from Fl, if you find it complicated, here's a tut ruclips.net/video/jtNOJsAEjPE/видео.html , save everything as a template so you don't have to setup everything everytime you wanna use it. Same goes for reasamplomatic :ruclips.net/video/CkdksJGg214/видео.html , just save them up as templates.
Reaper has tons of midi control surface extensions that can make any midi controller become an interactive surface, just takes more fiddling but its extemely deep.
I`d never had any midi hardware issues with Reaper. It accepts all my hardware and, very low on latency. I have no idea what he is talking about.
I agree. Plus almost anything can be mapped to almost any controller/knob/switch/button/key etc., etc. without any additional extensions.
Well what midis ARE you guys using with Reaper???
I have no idea what you mean by 'doesn't quantize' correctly. It quantize perfectly to the grid. The problem likely is that you aren't zoomed in enough to see the actual grid its quantizing to.
Number one reason to not care about what people think, Be a Leader not a Follower! I have PooPooed Reaper for a while, but recently decided I am finally liking it. Main reason is to many Daws are so Bogged down with Midi crap, that people who are Mix Engineers that actually can give you that LA or Nashville sound etc. could care less about Midi features.
interesting...thx!
The "Reaper stigma", is stupid. "It only costs $60...how good could it be?" Sorry...some idiot said 25 years ago that ProTools is the "industry standard" and everyone believed it. What's wrong with with a DAW that does all the same things, for a 1/10 the price...besides NOTHING. Sure, ProTools is great. But, why pay $600 if you don't have to? Or, even worse...subscription pricing. There's NOTHING wrong with Reaper, that you can't figure out a solution to. Customize it however YOU like it. A lot of other DAWs can't say that.
Hey man, sorry to say but your video was bit pointless because
1. Lack of tutorials - No, there many videos for reaper about every topic. When I was a beginner I was confused to choose which video to see. there are lots of useful videos about reaper in RUclips due to which it just took me 6 month to learn reaper
2. Less reaper users - Go to equip board and see the amount of artists!!! There are a lot!! It was inspiring that many big producers used reaper to make blockbusters song
The lack of tutorials? For me personally, on the contrary, the large number of detailed tutorials made me want to learn with Reaper. Just today I had to work on a cubase project after years. I needed to figure out a few things and searched for answers on google. With Reaper I'm used to type in a query and google will offer me hundreds of solutions, tutorials, links to discussions. Basically, it didn't happen that I didn't find an answer when I had any issue with Reaper. That's why I was surprised to find virtually no tutorial that could explain some of the details I needed to know during my Cubase work today.
You are incorrect about the lack of tutorials …look at the work of Kenny Goi
Is a lack of included instruments, sounds, loops, etc. a factor? The cost difference between this at $60 and Logic, for example, at $200, means you have $140 for additional purchases... I know a bunch of synths cost a bit more than that (and Logic comes with some good tools) but there's a ton of quality inexpensive/free stuff out there. Just wondering as I'm evaluating DAWS...
New in this field too. But did purchase Reaper. Taking now months to research how all the essential recording gear is supposed to work to create music. You can't beat 60 bucks for a legitimate "whatever-you-want-to -call-it", if it's not a "DAW", per se.
You've missed the worst part of Reaper; the endless menus with the endless variety of selections. Its impossible to remember them, let alone keep up with every new version.
Surly most of this could have been automated in a Reaper Lite.
Make some effort to learn rather than expecting to be spoon fed.............
@@JasDarcSpoon fed?
You have no clue how much time I've put into this DAW over 10 years.
I don't need your arrogance.
Have switched to reaper as my main door about 3 months ago and really appreciate your video I have many of the same drawbacks as in your video.
Nice one! Thanks for the comment.
"Lack of tutorials" Ahhhahhaa!!! Do you live on Mars?
When Cakewalk was abandoned by Gibson going bankrupt I spent a year trying different DAWs. Reaper was intimidating and I initially went with Studio One. However, I quickly became frustrated with its workflow and lack of features I relied on in SONAR.
I returned to Reaper when they added a midi Staff notation edit view. I don't use a piano roll to edit.
The biggest drawback of Reaper is that it needs to be customized to your workflow. Out of the box default settings are not ideal.
There are tons of great tutorials by Kenny Gioia!
I don't want Reaper loaded up with bloat ware VSTs. Cakewalk was starting to do this.
Yes, the stock plugins could be visually more appealing but they do work. I slowly became more comfortable with them.
Didn't think Reaper had a stigma. I hear more stories of people fleeing Pro Tools for Reaper and Studio One. If anything, Cakewalk had a bad reputation for not fixing bugs.
I am much happier with Reaper and I would not go back to Cakewalk. I can use the Quantize functionality in Reaper but yes, they need to continue to improve midi capabilities.
Thx for your valuable comment!!!
The biggest drawback is the lack of OMF/AAF import and Export. In addition, the surround, Atmos or cinematic sound capabilities are a pita!!
#7 - No tutorials?? Just two words "Kenny Gioia". His RUclips channel gets you from zero to hero.
Regarding "no app" I use TouchDaw for expression control, X/Y joysticks, etc. I'm sure it could be easily set up to control your transport, arming channels, etc.
Nice one Scott 👊
Switched to reaper a little over a year ago from pro tools. I had been using pro tools since the original m box, but I got tired of the constant crashes, the incompatibility with new updates from os, and how slow it was. I work on anywhere from 10-20 projects a day, and reaper cut my work time down tremendously and it always works. I can’t even count how many projects I had to start over in pro tools because of it not working when I assumed it was recording. 1000+ projects in reaper and not once did I lose a recording. But I must admit, the plug ins are uninspiring, and I miss being able to share pro tools files with other users across the globe easily and opening my files from the early 2000’s easily to revisit projects.
Nice one, cheers for commenting man.
How much of a stigma do REAPER users even have, objectively speaking? I know that FL Studio has a quite a bit stigma around it, it has a reputation of only being used by "bedroom producers", and is seen as a DAW you "graduate from" when you start to take music production more seriously.
Benn Jordan, who is listed as a "Power User" of FL Studio on the official website even admits he spent years hiding the fact he uses FL Studio because people didn't think it was a professional DAW.
I think the only community where FL Studio isn't looked down upon is in the hip hop scene. However, I will say a lot of hardstyle producers use FL Studio, such as Atmozfears, Regain, Demi Kanon, Devin Wild and Sub Zero Project. The song "Push Play" by Brennan Heart makes a light jab at FL with the line "Fruity Loopin' Losers" though, which is pretty funny.
Adam Steele has a video on how to control reaper with your phone.
Web control is better than an app because you can send anyone in your studio a web link & it will be compatible with there device plus you can customize controls for specific users. All you need is a device that can connect to your wifi & a web browser
As an alternative to MIDI quantising, (it might be slower but), you can set up a custom action where you move selected notes to the playhead. It's kind of like Logic's semi-colon shortcut.
For MIDI:
1. Edit: Copy (sorry, forgot to mention this)
2. Edit: Cut
3. Edit: Paste
For regions: (not even sure if this works on recent updates of REAPER, a bit quirky now)
1. Edit: Copy items
2. Edit: Cut items
3. Edit: Paste item/tracks
I'm not sure this guy is even using the SWS extension because there's multiple solutions to every single thing he listed.
@@AdderallPapi For the MIDI one, you don't necessarily need it, but yeah, the SWS extensions and reapack definitely make the experience much easier.
@@AdderallPapiamazing
I think that people are put off by the colored icons above the track section. Makes it look "toyish" and non-professional. Also, when opening any VST, you not only get the plugin's gui, but a portion of screen real-estate is obscured by a large area to the left of the gui that does nothing more than display a plugin list. Maybe change that "window" to a tab above the plugin gui? It just looks really outdated, like you're using Cubase 3 or something and can't bring yourself to upgrade to a better DAW.
If people want hand-holding and pretty colours they can stick with Garage Band.
These positive Reaper comments give me confidence that Reaper was a good choice I made.
Just wanted to add another, not as exciting point: Scrolling tracks is very choppy (As in, vertically in the TCP/Arrange). Matters a lot in bigger sessions, and makes it hard to know how far you're scrolling.
NOTE 1: DO NOT enable "Use rc_reaper_fm". AFAIK you will want to enable that only if you want to control your Reaper instance across the internet. For local network use, just leave it unchecked.
NOTE 2: You mentioned 2 use cases: 1. Remote controlling in the studio, 2. Recording "on-the-go". The web app only addresses use case #1. You are right to criticize that there is no mobile app to support use case #2, but then I don't think that is part of Cockos' vision for Reaper, at least right now. So, yeah I don't think it'll happen anytime soon.
3:15 It is an "app", albeit a "web app" but it is certainly not a "workaround". I would argue that it being a web app was a very good choice that the devs made since it can run on basically anything that has a browser and is not limited to a specific platform like iOS or Android. Since it is just a simple web server, the HTML code that gets served is in the Reaper install and so it is easily moddable to your liking (you can even opt to build your own).
You can even run multiple instances of it (provided you are using a different port number each time) and run the other UI modes on each one like running the remote on one, and the lyrics view on another so you can easily switch from arming the track to the other browser tab that shows the lyrics.
Overall, it is a very flexible and open feature.
I was thinking, "ok, he's missed on every single one but maybe he just doesn't know or maybe he doesn't have the SWS extensions". Then, he got to 'lack of tutorials"...
What? LOL. Kenny, Reaperblog, IDDQD... You can't be serious.
Just started using reaper been using cakewalk for over a year and so far cakewalk was easier to learn plus the pro channel in cakewalk is awesome!...but I'm trying to stick with reaper because my buddy says it's better than cakewalk
The core rea plugins are actually incredible tools from an audio engineering standpoint...
new to reaper. its a lot more tedious work than my old daw, mixcraft. soo much faster n easier.🍻
The irony here is that these drawbacks are really Reaper's strong points. Hopefully this guy will create an updated video as such once he figures it out.
Reaper is like The Matrix. Hiw deep do you want to go? Take the blue or the r3d pill?
I'm sorry but stigma, which is basically a snobby mobs opinion, isn't a drawback. I mean who cares?
Just an opinion man.
The only drawback I agree with your list is the number #1. Reaper works great for me.
Regarding not being able to export Stems, couldn’t you Solo certain tracks then Render?
lack of users and tutorials?? definitely not actually :D
You must had used it when it first came out. They have hundreds of videos on there sight alone. All them free plug-ins they got kills most of your points. Esthetic pleasing is for OCD people, reaper gets the job done and fast.This by far is the best daw for beginners in the business!
really appreciate that imfo. Purchased Reaper, teaching myself how thru utbe vids how to make music with all the essential equipment Veteran Reapers have been generous with sharing tips. Appreciated.
I agree about the lack of tutorials, I've seen a couple beat making tutorials, but they just are centered on the technical aspect of learning reaper, I don't see people making actual beats on it so I can't learn about actual workflows.
11. Is the Offline factor when you click the cursor outside the Reaper App..?
Altho I agree with most of the points, I actually like that Reaper doesn't have any extra app to control it remotely, I don't think using browser control is a workaround since I found that's probably the best implementation of remote control, You can remotely control Reaper from an android phone, iPhone, iPad, another laptop and it will adapt to screen since it's through the browser and it's very fast. If they had to make a mobile app, they had to make an app for every platform. I prefer this approach over other daws where you have to download an app just to do basic stuff, wasted storage. You can just save it as a bookmark so then you wouldn't have to set it up every time and it wouldn't be any "pain" lol. And for midi, I use chordgun and some other scripts that make using the midi editor super easy to use.
Thanks Xanzuls, great comment. 👍
Pro Tools, being "the most used DAW", is in my opinion the biggest joke in the industry ! It seemed like it was trying to play some kind of keep-up game with some other daws from the beginning. We exhaustively demoed every available audio production software in 2001 when our studio made the upgrade from multitrack analog and digital tape. the winner "hands-down", was Samplitude 7 pro. NO-ONE else did what they did then. We had a fantastic run with our Hybrid Samplitude system till approx. 2017. It took to nearly 15 years for anyone to catch-up and then overtake what we were using, and that something my friends...was Reaper. Trust me, I know what I'm talking about.
but Samplitude is pretty much dead now, UI stutters like crazy with their recent plugins and functionality is lacking against all other daws now
@@TazzSmkHe's not advocating for Samplitude but rather discussing its functionality and how other daws could not match/exceed its capabilities until REAPER came along.
@@cestladope Thank you.
The video tutorial section of the cockos site is second to none. You are a "Reaper Expert" and you don't know of the hundreds of well done tutorial videos done by Kenny Gioia? Dude, wake up and check out the videos. I have turned many onto Reaper due to these videos...
LB
The lack of instruments and effect plug-ins is a drawback on one hand, but on the other hand it's also a plus. If you already have a collection of instruments and effects, then using a DAW that has more (sometimes of questionable quality) isn't necessary. I don't disagree with your observation but it's a matter of perspective. Sometimes less is more. :-)
Thanks for the comment, great points.
You clearly don't know enough about reaper bud
I like reaper’s spectralform view, i like reaper really. But i’ve found that bitwig come out of the box with all you need. Its more modular than ableton but it has workflow features that rival that of reaper. But reaper is definitely my second choice of daw.
AFAIK about instruments, with US $60 you get what you pay for. DAW comes with basic synths and drum plugs has additional cost. I like open nature of Reaper you can make it what you like as not everyone produces music with it. I use it for my Radio Productions/Voice over mostly. Do not be myopic in your views.
Note: Using Reaper since 2006 and never had an issue getting help with Reaper Community or Kenny's Reaper mania.
I ❤ Reaper!
It is an amazing DAW
Why are you still on v6.49? 😆
well we dont need to run a daw on th einternet anyways
when I hit quantize I get access to a way deeper menu, I dont know what I did to have it set up like that, but its as useable as quantize midi in Ableton is for me, I think you have to select something else from one of the drop downs you're presented with there, but Im not sure. Im on my phone otherwise I'd look it up for ya. if I remember I will edit this.
Reaper is a powerhouse of Recording software
I tried Reaper back at the beginning of this year. I had been having DAW troubles - or so I thought. They actually turned out to be Windows problems, and all went away when the Windows issue got sorted. But that's by the wayside.
The deal breaker for me was when I imported a standard MIDI file, I could find no way to assign which MIDI Out port each track was to be sent. So I had 16 MIDI channels on one MIDI Out. That was all. That's not a situation I could live with. I asked Dr. Google, and he didn't come up with anything even REMOTELY relevant.
If there IS a way to assign MIDI tracks to separate MIDI Out ports (my MIDI interface has 3 MIDI Out ports, giving a total of 48 MIDI channels), and somebody knows how to do it, please, I'm all ears! I'd love to know how to do it.
If David Hilowitz can use Reaper to make samples for his Kontakt and Decent Sampler instruments, then it certainly can't be all bad! It is just that one issue that's a complete deal breaker for me.
In the lower right corner of the midi editor there's a tab where you can assign midi channels for each midi.
@@Mcgiver699 There is? Oh good. That would be a real bummer and a bad design flaw if it wasn't there. I haven't reinstalled Reaper since getting Windows fixed, but I still have the set-up file. Thanks.
@@Mcgiver699Hey thx for sharing that.
I'm sorry, but I couldn't finish the video.
1. You have couple of demo projects.
I've went from Cakewalk to Reaper. I'm trying so hard to like this DAW, but man, confusing. Gain staging is confusing with this.......making Buses seems clumsy.......volume automation is much tougher.........just all around I'm struggling with it. I've watched a ton of videos and I still find it tough. I'm probably going to go back to Cakewalk even though it's CPU heavy. I just find it SO much easier, with a MUCH better layout. Shame.
Why is it diffecult volume you can change witch mouse wheel automation you can make LFO CAKEWALK YOU CANT!The Workflow is very faster than in Cakewalk!!Try Waveform 12 its free it has very much features!!
1 - Yeah, instruments, samples, loops and all that jazz would be awesome.
2 - That's subjective but yeah, the plugins can look like something out a Win 98 OS. Most people don't like that and can be inspiring or uninspiring depending on the person.
3 - Some stuff can be a bit painful to set up a first on Reaper but you can always save your configuration and just load it up afterwards.
4 - There's no official Reaper remote controller but there are a bunch of ways you can set it up. It would be cooler and ideal to have an official app but that's not really a limitation, more like an annoyance.
5 - I'd say that any other DAW that isn't Live, FL Studio or Logic has "less users". At least that's my perception, I don't have any data, really. I can say the Reaper community is cool tho.
6 - I wouldn't take anyone looking down on Reaper seriously, in my personal experience it's usually people that don't really know much about audio at all. Kinda similar with people that say FL Studio is a "baby" DAW.
7 - Lack of tutorials? Are you kidding? There's a bazillion of tutorials for literally anything on Reaper. If there's anything you need to do you can find at least one or two videos on REAPER Mania, Reaper Blog, IDDQD Sound, Let's Talk About Reaper or whatever. I can really agree with that one. You can state that other DAWs have more tutorials (if you consider they have a bigger userbase) but I wouldn't say there's a lack of tutorials for Reaper, honestly.
9 - If you want to set up a MIDI drummer I'd suggest you to watch some of the videos from the aforementioned channels. There's a lot of things Reaper doesn't offer natively that you can set up with JS or a combination of JS and native plugins. It's not convenient or perhaps it can be a bit "ugly" but it is completely possible.
10 - The quantize function can be pretty odd, yeah, I'm also bugged by that, I'm sure I could do something about it but I'm to lazy to figure that out honestly.
Thanks Moloko, for taking the time to watch and comment. Nice one!
on point #4, the "Web browser interface" is "official" and it is not a "workaround"; I argue that it is even better option than any mobile app since it is a "web app" and thus is easily modded (you can edit the HTML or even build your own) by the owner of the instance it is running on. Since it is a web app, you can use any device or computer with a browser, which means no limitations in terms of platform.
It can also display lyrics (via "notes" that are aligned within your tracks) and even count you down when punching in takes.
Lack of tutorials? Lol! That is one of the things that I love about using Reaper, as a new user. I originally spent a ton of $$$ on Digital Performer because my buddy uses it in his studio but there are NO tutorials on it. Reaper tutes are the best!
You´re absolut right!!
I find Kenny Goia's videos very informative - I haven't seen that from other DAW providers. Here you can learn a lot about Reaper. But in general. I feel like this video has been around 1000 times. Who wants to hear the pros and cons for the 100th time? Every DAW has its focus and its own concept. That's why I find comparisons very tiring now. Certainly there are things that another DAW can do better. Everyone has a choice.
Yeah, I actually thought he was being sarcastic at first. 🤣
Not true look on the reaper websites, tutorials on all the stock plugins, you dont need any 3rd party vsts if you actually watch these tutorials
LACK OF TUTORIALS? the nerve...
I personally don’t like the midi editor or even more so the notation display which is particularly useless .
Expect for the „lack of tutorials“ I can get your points to some extent.
For me the biggest drawbacks in Reaper are:
1) The smallest track height isn’t small enough. Other than using children track (which I avoid) you are forced to scroll way too much for the lack of getting tracks smaller in the TCP. Not so in Logic, S1, even PT..
2) Reaper has a zillion options but none to NOT darken out the other tracks when using track solo.
Personal thing of course but this drives me crazy.
3) Bounce in place. Is that missing? No sub project, no render, simply bouncing down a selection of tracks or items e.g. 4 guitar tracks to one mixdown WITHIN the project for a filter effect. Stil haven‘t found how to..
4) Drag and drop FROM the media explorer is nice but why not drag and drop TO the ME like in Studio one?
5) The defaults are all wrong - as a wise man once said. That is so true! But why??
Anyways, thanks for your video!
2) Reaper has a zillion options but none to NOT darken out the other tracks when using track solo.
No problem: theme tweaks→Muted/unsoloed track/item overlay mode→alpha:0
Good luck
@@futurewy Hooorray, good news.
Can't really find it though. Do you mean in the action list under the theme twek/configuration window or in the options in the theme adjuster?
Maybe I need to install some additional Reapack stuff, a search didn't get the result.
Thanks buddy!
#1 I say they should, they say they probably won't. But who cares when you can access most any 3rd party plugin? Name a DAW with a native instrument better or as good as what you can get for paid. I decided awhile back none of the freebie drum kits would ever meet my need & I got Addictive. Best Virtual Drumkit for the money.
#2 As Chris from Airwindows would say "In mix, nobody can hear your screen." Spitfire Audio's own interface design ain't the prettiest, but it's functional & I bet they beat out any orchestral instruments you're likely to get with a DAW [if at all?] Not a drawback & who cares?
#3 Haven't gotten into using a MIDI controller as of yet. Have to do that one of these days.
#4 SERIOUSLY? lmao What hath the TV remote control wrought X-D I've recorded in a "real" studio before and the owner [a Protools user] never bothered with stuff like that.
#5 There's enough that I run into Reaper users with a YT channel all the time. Also, check the stems export function in Render. Works like a charm.
#6 The "real" studio owner I worked with never had a 'tude like that. By any chance are you dealing with fellow producers who make you feel left out because you don't have what "they" got?
#7 Patently absurd. See my answer to #5
#8 See my answer to #1.
#9 & #10. From the responses you're getting I'm guessing you don't know how to use the MIDI editor properly. Fine, I probably don't either. But I've been able to create a Bass & Keyboard part from scratch as well as orchestration. No problems, here.
Yeah I don't exactly get the midi quantizing feature either. If you change the grid to 'measure' it will line up on the grid line, go figure.
If the midi score was better developed Id use it all the time. Logic has it beat there. But I am pretty used to the piano roll, now
One reason I chose Reaper was for compatability. I still use firewire, old Roland interface and an old korg workstation, and setting it up was easy, just works together well
Nice one! Thanks for the comment dude.
There are less Reaper users. But community is much more active and positive than many others. And what does it mean "lack of tutorials"? Gioia only by himself provides a ton of solutions. Those are tutorials and not trash flood like "click here and double click there... oh look we muted track! like, subscribe and say thanks to our sponsor XXX"
Jack you sound so professional and you have a great voice for videos. Still, you might want to drop using the term "couple" to express more than two. Your video is so great and the reference of a couple to mean 10, doesn't fit into your professionalism. I don't mean to sound hyper critical, and you can do what you want, but using a term incorrectly, can take away from your professionalism. Thanks for the video, and the critique.
Can anyone tell me if it is possible to only get the UI of the plugins? I see the FX section is just one button instead of a box like in protools. and in addition you see a window on the left where you select the plugins.. I personally think this takes too much real estate of the monitor, you can't see much what is happening in the track view...opposed to only seing the UI
Reaper may not be the most good looking DAW. But that the price for having a lightweight DAW at an incredible price. About virtual instruments it’s true. But every producer as it’s toolbox (Kontact, orchestras, etc) including a drum kit (Adicitive,Ez,SSD5) and so on. About the support i disagree absolutely. Look at Keny Gioya Reapermania, Reaperblog and the incredible Forums. And now with version 7 some minor glitches are corrected.
Tutorials? There are at least three RUclipsr who post detailed tutorials about every imaginable feature, and . . . If needed, I can create a post on the Reaper Forum and get answers within minutes.
lack of tutorials? Did you ever watched the dedicated channels of Kenny Gioia, Jon Tidey "Let's talk about reaper" ? But apart this: you find tons of tutorials . Just use YT search engine and/or Google ... they are your friends. The same about MIDI Integration. If you don't know how things are, why should you talk about? Just to get your views? Your video is misleading information.
I play keyboard and sing. Been using Cakewalk. Should I switch to Reaper?
i mean if you work with real instruments its worth giving it a shot since the lack of built in inst plugins wont be as big of an issue also reaper handles live recording very well since the tracks can hold anything audio or midi you just creat a new track set your input and get to recording your keyboard im blind and learning reaper it works well with my yamaha keyboard i think it will work well its free to download and nothing is hidden behind the paywall give it a try if it works for you then you can make the switch