Don’t Fear The Cockos Reaper
27May09
Cockos Reaper may be the world’s most unfortunately named digital audio workstation – but they’ve keep updating it anyway.
Here’s what’s new in Reaper 3.0:
New Features:
- Automation lanes.
- Nested track folders.
- Multiple tabbed projects.
- Multichannel (greater than stereo) media support, including MOGG.
- FX parameter controls on track and mixer control panels.
- Customize toolbar icons and actions.
- Programmable MIDI joystick/game controller support.
MIDI Improvements:
- Inline MIDI editing.
- Edit multiple MIDI items in one editor.
- Sync MIDI editor to arrange view, including looped items.
- Export project MIDI, with tempo map support.
- MIDI event filter.
- Track MIDI controls (manage bank/program changes, sysex, automate CC).
- MIDI hardware timing improvements.
- Full sysex support.
Other Significant New Features And Improvements:
- Create time- or beat-based templates including media.
- Improved REX support.
- Smoother play/stop/seek transitions.
- Soft controller takeover, including FX parameters.
- Create default FX controller assignments that act on the focused plug-in.
- New UI theme, many new graphics features and options.
- More user control of placement/appearance of graphical interface elements.
- Create knobs, envelopes, controller assignments from the last touched FX parameter.
- MIDI control of presets for any plug-in.
- Attach text and image resources to media items, place icons on tracks.
- Global automation override/bypass.
- Hide/show tracks in either arrange or mixer view.
- UAD compatibility improvements.
- All-native graphics rendering engine (better appearance and performance).
- Memory use improvements.
Cockos Reaper 3 is available now for Windows and Windows 64 and Mac OS X Intel and PPC. Cockos offers two licenses, depending on how you use it:
- $225: full commercial license.
- $60: discounted license.
If you’ve used Cockos Reaper, leave a comment with your thoughts!
Cockos Reaper 3.0 details below:
Audio Performance:
- Improved MP3 seek accuracy.
- 27.97DF timing improvements.
- Read, write, or explode media with any number of audio channels.
- Optionally preserve project PDC when monitoring.
- Seamless media item glue during playback.
- Optional tiny fade to hardware on play/stop/seek (avoid clicks).
- Option to gate (not record near-silence) while saving live audio output.
- More WAV read/write options.
- Customizable pre-roll, metronome improvements.
Arrange View / Editing:
- Optionally draw labels and buttons above media items (track info lane).
- JS support for up to 64 parameters, dynamic UI.
- Filter track visibility by name.
- Optionally display faint peaks in automation lanes.
- Control+drag for fine adjustment of volume handles and envelope points.
- When labels drawn above items, drag the label area to select item+time.
- Dynamic split detection improvements.
- Drag images onto arrange view or track control panels.
- Filter and highlight FX parameters in the envelope window.
- Automap 3.0 support.
MIDI Editing:
- Vastly improved memory performance with many MIDI items in a project.
- Editor timeline can be beats (local), beats (project), time, or synced-to-arrange.
- Switch active MIDI item in multi-item editors by clicking a note, selecting the source item in the MIDI event filter, or clicking the item in the arrange view.
- Quantize/humanize/edit note properties modelessly.
- Increased range for note velocity handle adjustment.
- Improved timing in ReWire slave mode.
- Enhanced CC meta-actions (fine-tune custom actions with a controller).
- Themeable colormaps for note velocity, channel, source item.
- Lock notes in time or pitch.
- Adjust parent item and loop length from MIDI editor.
Plug-ins:
- No glitch when looping plugins that generate sound or tails.
- Faster redraws for some VSTs.
- No glitch when automating ReaEQ band gain through +0 dB.
- Dragging FX instrument to empty track space inserts new track for the instrument.
- Improved FXP compatibility.
- Support for VSTs that send MIDI out of context.
- Improved DX automation support.
- FX parameter aliasing.
Random Stuff:
- Many theme options for drawing blend modes, marquee selection.
- Unicode (via UTF-8) filename support.
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Frankly, this isn't worth a shit. I just tried the demo and, after spending at least ten minutes trying to get it set up to communicate with my MIDI keyboard, found that it doesn't. Period. Worthless crap. As for the so-called VST support, I couldn't even get it to find my VST plugins, let alone load any of them. No, thanks. I'll stick with Acoustica Mixcraft 4.0, which blows this piece of crap away and costs $155 less.
With all due respect Gary, you are doing yourself and everyone else a disservice by say this. I have been using reaper for the last 2 years and it is the best DAW out there in my opinion.
Both in terms of audio editing and Midi. I don't know what your doing wrong but reaper will find vst's easily. i can not express highly enough how good reaper is. It is heads and shoulders above any other software I've used. everyone should download the demo and see what these guys are doing over at Cockos. they are so ahead of the game it's not funny.
Got to say, Reaper is a fun change of pace from Logic and Pro Tools which I've used for years. I can understand getting frustrated with it, as it handles a lot of tasks different than some other DAW's but if any new software is a TIME INVESTMENT.
It's great when things just turn on and do what we want, but tuning a technical tool to meet the needs of a creative process requires flexibility – not pre-programmed functionality. Reaper's Action List lets you see all sorts of key commands, even customize the keystrokes.
Beyond that it helps you build entire workflows. You can combine actions and commands in to larger macros that operate on at the touch of a button.
Example: Sure Reaper doesnt have an "export region" function as such. But if you're thoughtful about it, then it's pretty simple. Here's one custom action to accomplish exporting regions (exporting audio on just one track of a multi-track project):
1) Track: Unmute All Tracks
2) Track: Unsolo All Tracks
3) Track: Toggle Solo for Last Touched Track
4) File->Render project to disk…
I setup this action on "E" and now to do quick audio edits and export i just have to make my edits, select a region by clicking or dragging and hit E.
The Render window opens up and i choose "render time selection" and all the other tracks are already muted.
Seriously – if Reaper doesnt do something you wish it did…there's probably a way to get it done. Just have to look hard. OH and i'm still on evaluation license because i'm trying to determine if it will really work for me (they let you demo it for as long as you need).
anyway, one my writers (i'm the lead editor for AskASoundGuy.com) has some videos and other stuff about Reaper in action.
Also thought I'd add – I'm going to buy it with my next paycheck.
Frankly, from this opinion I can deduce that you couldn't find your own ass with both hands behind your back and very simple instructions.
Incidentally. If you choose File>Render and select the 'render stems' option box it will render only the selected tracks without having to mute or solo anything.
Reaper is great!!! It's a very powerfull and complete software. I love it!!!
I think if Gary spent all of 10 minutes to setting up his keyboard, that tells you how much commitment he really has in learning a new piece of software. It's clearly a comment by a troll.
Just to say reaper is fantastic. Drag and drop plug ins, vsti’s can be chained together easily, midi is great and sound quality incredible.
You need to learn it but it is the most forward thinking of all daw.
also the effects can be edited in code (jesussonic) Try out the transient plug ins. fantastic stuff. Reaper is the BEST!!!!! buy it now!
also if you got lots of plugs you can search by name and type. Stick that in your pipe steinborg!
I just went from Ableton Live to Reaper. I learned how to get around Reaper in less than 2 hours and love everything about it. After using Ableton Live for 2 years, I had to dump Live due to the fact that the quality of my final mixdown,render, whatever you want to call it,just didn't sound good (even after all the tweaks i've tried from help at the ableton forum). My final mixdown,render,whatever you want to call it using Reaper is so clean and sounds incredible.
I mapped out my Axiom 49 to Reaper, and it works like a charm.
I RECOMMEND REAPER TO ALL !!!
A whooping ten minutes ehh? Your tenacity and level of professionalism are both evident from your statement. And you're calling this software worthless crap? I own copies of Sonar Producer, Steinberg, Digital Performer and Reaper. I have Reaper installed on both a Dual Quad core MAC G5 and a Dual Quad core PC Server with old XP and it is working great on both, oh and using one of them as a master and the other one as a slave on different platforms. Reaper can see all my VSts, interfaces with all my VSTIs (Komplete, Omnisphere, MatchFive) Gigastudio 3.0 and Reason (through Rewire) simultaneously, so I don't know what your problem is dude. You should stop making statements like these just because you're techno-retarded.
Fuck the other responses I've been at it for 2 days with an axiom 25 and it won't find it. Downloaded the "new revised instructions" and nothing. If yall don't have constructive critism don't say anything. "Oh gary you do us a disservice" "technoretard" I happen to work for one of the largest computer manufacturers there is and I still can't get it and the company I work for is fairly well known for it's ease of use. Think the garden of eden.
This is how amazing Reaper is:
I am wasting my time right now just finding different blogs and forums to recommend this DAW to people, of my own free will, merely because I am so happy with it. Frankly, I don't remember ever being this satisfied with any product, ever, in my life. The people at Cockos are geniuses. It makes me sad that so few people know about this DAW, while far inferior and far more expensive products dominate the market.
I still can't figure out how a program this awesome and this loaded with features only takes 5 megs of hard drive…oh, wait. It's perfect, that's why.
In my life I have bounced between ProTools, Logic, Cubase, Ableton, ACID, and even tried the Propellerheads Record beta and not a one can even hold a candle to the unstoppable badassery that is Reaper.
I have made it my personal mission to convert every musician I know (and don't know) to this software.
Nobody listen to Gary. He's an idiot. This software is the lightest, fastest, most painless experience in history. Even my cat knows how to use this software. He got a record deal.
Every DAW software has a few to-be users who fail at the simple things (we all can't see the forrest for the trees every now and then) and start ranting about what a POS that is. The difference with Reaper is that you can ask what you're doing wrong and if you're not coming off like a super jackass, you'll get help sometimes within minutes from the best support forums in the whole wide world, in difficult cases from the developers directly. This is only one great fact about Reaper.
Besides the problem that all DAW software has to be run on a well-configured computer with selected hardware and you have to be past the "I download everything from KVR" phase, Reaper is the most tolerant, compatible and stable DAW software I know. Its routing capabilities are unsurpassed and everyone who likes sophisticated mix setups won't find anything more flexible and comfortable than this. The first impression can be pretty deceptive, Reaper has an unexpected depth if you "look under the hood" and there are always several ways to do what you want. If something is missing or wrong, there is no development team as responsive and fast as the Reaper guys, it's being developed right before your eyes and if they see fit, they might implement your feature request within days. Bugs get sometimes fixed within minutes.
The overall quality of the package is more than stunning, not only for the price and makes it hard to understand why it still has that underdog status. The company ethics and licensing policy are the most fair and awesome offer anywhere, they are not charging you for updates which turn out to be mere bugfix releases like other companies (they release major new features on minor subrevisions for free), updates are coming at least once a week most times. They don't bog your computer down with protection and iLok dongles and rely 100% on your honesty since Reaper does not have demo restrictions or stops working after 30 days.
This is hard to believe all together but true. In this light, I can understand why someone gets utterly disappointed and frustrated if Reaper turns out to be not fitting his workflow demands. Depending on your previous DAW experience, Reaper may turn out to be somewhat odd for you and there's a unlearning curve besides the learning curve (which is true for every DAW) you may have to get over first. But I don't know anyone who understood Reaper and didn't fall in love with it.
I've used Cakewalk, CoolEdit/Adobe Audition and Cubase before using Reaper. When I say "used," that means "spent at least 200 hours" on each program. I have "tried" just about everything, including the "industry standard," ProTools. Reaper is without a doubt my favorite. I have no idea if it's the "best" audio software out there, because the answer to that question depends largely on what you do. But I know that I totally agree with Dexter's comment – people who understand Reaper love it. I'm in that category.
By the way, to the first poster….I'm curious as to how his software could be "$155 less" than Reaper's asking price of $60. LOL…your math sucks as bad as your review. The "full commercial price" for Reaper is only for pro studios, as I understand it…at any rate, I doubt very seriously that the guys that developed it have ever gotten $225 for a download ever. In fact, despite its awesomeness, I'm pretty sure most people who use it regularly don't even pay the modest $60 license fee.
A lot of love and effort has gone into Reaper. No one can deny that. Reaper has a a 400 pg pdf manual with sample project files on top of that to work on. Then there’s the forums. Active, very knowledgeable, helpful people out there pulling together their knowledge to help others. I can’t tell you how many times I’m tired of buying software and left to fend for myself on how to use it or having no support base to turn to. 5 out of 5 easy.
I Have used pro tools for five years. I all so have a neko and I haven't been able to get my money out of it because of reaper. Maybe I don't understand it, so if there is a better way of doing midi production I'm still looking for it. It's not as easy as setting up an instrument track and applying my plug and not have to worry about how the ins and outs are going and spending your time trying to figure out which tracks to arm, but hey what ever works.Different strokes for different folks!
I Have used pro tools for five years. I all so have a neko and I haven't been able to get my money out of it because of reaper. Maybe I don't understand it, so if there is a better way of doing midi production I'm still looking for it. It's not as easy as setting up an instrument track and applying my plug and not have to worry about how the ins and outs are going and spending your time trying to figure out which tracks to arm, but hey what ever works.Different strokes for different folks!