Cockos Reaper Review

[Jodee Bouman]

Lastyear I've been sequencing in Studio One, FL Studio 21, Serato Studio, Mixcraft, Cubase 13, etc...nothing comes close to the quality of tools and sequencing that comes with Reaper version 7, a beast of a DAW, among the top 3 on the market almost on par with Pro-tools and Logic X, with the lack of quality virtual synthesizers...and put a few hours playing at the beginning and you will see how impressive is REAPER .

Greatest strength of this program:

Singular experience across 2 affordable price tiers, evaluation and 3 operating systems

(everyone has the same set of features no matter the OS or level of investment).

Performance and GUI consistency are at the forefront. It feels very much like a fully professional DAW. Combines functionality patterns from Cubase, Logic, Pro Tools, Cakewalk. Has its own feel, yet feels familiar.

Reaper is a really great DAW, especially for a couple of thing where it is better than its competition. For recording/tracking of audio and editing of audio it is the best and extremly fast and efficient when you learn the workflow. The program also has a really small footprint, can be customised and is very flexible. The fact that all channels can be routed to everywhere and receive anything is great. Very very powerful, but might not be super easy for beginners.

Some of the stock plugs are pretty good and a lot of functionality can be added if you dig a bit deeper, but they will be pretty basic right out of the box. So beginners might find them a bit underwhelming.

PS: I now use Reaper mainly for tracking when I have recording-sessions with bands and artists, and when I do audio-editing. Production I now do mostly in Bitwig, but I have done a lot of production earlier in Reaper.

With the Imperial White Tie theme and the comprehensive suite of ReaPlugins, Reaper is a fully fledged industry standard DAW without limits. The learning curve is not steep but with so many useful features and regular updates, the gradual slope continues to climb as desired. The subprojects feature is a must have for any CPU intense, massively layered tracks and effects for more complex sound design, soundtrack and professional audio work.

FX Chain: there is no ability to make parallel connections between fx and synths inside a single track, this make it really messy when trying to make impressive racks or even simple parallel chains...

REAPER is a great DAW. It did take a bit of learning coming from Pro Tools, but any DAW will do that. I have Pro Tools, Studio One, Ableton Live, Mixbus, MPC Beats and REAPER. I keep coming back to REAPER because it is quick and flexible. I can do almost anything I can dream up in REAPER. I'll use my other DAWs to kick start creativity sometimes, but generally come back to REAPER to finish it off. I bought a license back in version 3 and am using v5.99 as my license ran out after two major updates (I will renew my update license eventually). They still have all the older versions available for download too.

If you are seeking a good MIDI DAW for virtual instruments, forget about it. Reaper sucks for that. Just simply looping on the grid is a nightmare. If you just need a recording DAW that is super flexible in other ways, it's more than up to the task.

It is a huge surprise. I still use Ableton Live notably for Max for Live extensions but I was fed up by the weight and CPU ressources and the weak evolution of it comparing to its price. Notably MassiveX and Live or Maschine and Live on my MacBook Pro Core i5 RAM 8Go is very bad: CPU ressources are too high and the computer becomes too much warm.

The workflow of Reaper -after a little adaptation- is very nice and flexible. The sound is perfect, the design very nice to use and it never crashes either on my PC desktop and on my MacBook. The relation price-quality is just incredible with constant improvements.

The power of this software comparing to its weight and ressources consomption is just amazing! And the ability to melt Live with Reaper (Rearoute on PC, Soundflower on Mac, IAC on Mac for midi) allows to use the best of each environnement.

Working in MIDI is great, its easy to add or change notes, changing velocity, position and length, named keys great for drum samplers, MIDI cc data envelopes, including pitchbend, its like automation just for the MIDI data, something I've always wanted, its finally here, and its perfect.

Super fast audio handling, splits, glue, render, audio clip effects in real time, not rendering with effects no no, its real time on the clip as if inserted on the inserts on a track, and its automatable. Clips are repeatable just by dragging it, its looped, not just cloned to unique clips, changes operate through out the clip loop. Super easy fade in and out slope curves and easy crossfades.

Automation is very powerful, you can toggle automation for the last touched parameter, all automation points can be turned into an automation clip that you can copy-paste all over and even on other parameters over other plugins on different tracks, no limits.

The mixer is very pleasant to work with, inserting effects is fast and its super easy to clone effects just by dragging them onto another channel, and removing then just requires alt+click, bypass is shift+click. Version 6 introduced embedded effects, so you can see minified versions of the compressor or eq f.ex. not nothing i use no matter which DAW, but it works fine. Also minor things like ctrl+clicking the peak indicator digits resets all digits on all channels, solo defeat, grouping, VCA and multiple layout types just makes it the best mixer on the market i think.

Last positive thing i wanna mention is the performance, its ridiculously efficient, super low CPU usage, super fast load on both program and projects, and it sounds just as good as all the other majors, especially with the new samplerate conversation engine introduced in version 6.

Negative things, well there's not much, one thing I'm missing is auto track colouring, but it can be archived by installing SWS which is a free Reaper extension. Actually, if i find that I'm missing something, its most likely already there in Reaper, just open the Actions window and search for it, and maybe assign a shortcut for it, or maybe design a macro including multiple actions, again, Reaper is quite limitless.

Contains a scripting engine that allows you to write your own VSTs for both audio and MIDI data in several different languages, even a quite simple one that anyone can learn by just modifying one of the huge amounts of pre-shipped scripts. I've actually even written a driver for a Novation LaunchControl XL, since its default reaper integration wasn't what I wanted it to be.

Drawback: Not all DAW and keyboard controllers have dedicated settings for Reaper, but many newer ones do, and may even be shipped with overlays so you know exactly what each button does in the context of Reaper. I've heard some old-timers complain about it being hard to get into, but I - who haven't been working with other DAWs before and hence wasn't biased from the Big DAWs workflows - found it very easy to work with.

You can also create your own plugins, or transform the excellent Fabfilter Pro-Q 2 into a sidechain dynamic EQ with REAPER's integrated and easily applicable functions (parameter modulations). You can create anything like a custom multiband compressor with your favorite single band compressors... Most flexible ..endless..routing features I've ever seen. Coming from Cubase pro 9.5...

Extra high quality Sample Rate Conversion. FX chains presets stored easily and recalling on tracks or idividual items. Very efficient track freezing to save CPU and still be able to recall the previous settings by unfreezing.

After Henry da Vandal AKA Gibson bought out Cakewalk, I knew that it was time to get out of Dodge...

I had been a Cakewalk user since the stone age and a Sonar Pro user since it's inception and I knew the program pretty well and I thought that they really got it all together with the X3e Pro x64 update...

So I have started using REAPER 5 and I love it !

The install is minuscule, it loads faster than a speeding bullet and it is very well coded...

The workflow is extremely fast and it has never crashed or given me any grief...

Of course there is a learning curve, but like anything, if you log in the hours and check out the manual and the menus, it's not that painful...

Step by step and it all makes a little more sense...

Also, the tutorials that Kenny Gioia did are really great...very informative...Take a bow Kenny G :)

One of the things I have noticed through changing DAWS and adopting a slightly different workflow, is that I am using a lot less plugins and the sound is more "open" as a result of this...

I used to use the channel strips in Sonar X3e Pro extensively and they sounded great, but by using less effects in REAPER I feel that the results are much better...

It really does reinforce that the quality of the sound at the source is vital...

Anyway, I am happy to be using REAPER and it's great that Justin has this project on his menu..He made mega miilions out of Winamp and is blessed to be able to now spend his time pursing his passions..

That's a very cool thing...

REAPER is one of those passions and we are fortunate to be able to enjoy the fruits of his labour...

5 Stars for REAPER :)

I bought Reaper around five or six years ago. I'm not going to go through the features list as Cockos (www.reaper.fm) can do it better than I can. What is important though is that after Logic was sold to Mac, and I didn't want to buy a Mac (not just because I didn't like them - but because Mac were forcing people to migrate to a system I just did not prefer), I had to find another DAW.

Reaper back then was an insider tip and after comparing other free or lower priced DAWs, Reaper beat them all. I tested it until I bought it. Guys, for the little money you pay, you get a fully fledged DAW. This is not to say that Cockos should increase the price - on the contrary. The price was what initially attracted me to it (apart from the specs). It works! After transferring all of my songs from Logic to Reaper, I have never looked back.

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