Anyone else using Reaper recording software?

Jim Cohen · Post by **Jim Cohen** » 12 Jan 2008 9:04 pm

I recently downloaded and started using the free trial version of Reaper and I am very impressed with it indeed. It seems terrifically powerful. I don't have too much to compare it with, except for having used Audacity, which I find to be too basic and lacking some very important functions, but also having watched over my studio engineer's shoulder while recording all of my CDs, when he was using ProTools and Logic. Reaper seems more in their league than in Audacity's (though I'm sure ProTools and Logic can do more still).

Anyway, if anyone else is using Reaper and would like to share tips, I'd love to hear from you.

Thanks,
J'beaux

Bent Romnes · Post by **Bent Romnes** » 13 Jan 2008 3:41 pm

Hi Jim, I downloaded both and after looking at the first screen and reading some of the documentation, I settled for Audacity. Maybe I was too quick in my judgment, but it seemed that Reaper had a bunch of unnecessary junk on the start screen...stuff that looked like it was geared towards adolescents.
Like I said, maybe I pre-judged...

I haven't tried Audacity yet either, but I figured that this program would be good enough for a beginner. It seems that Aud has more stuff than I would be able to learn...no?

Jim Cohen · Post by **Jim Cohen** » 13 Jan 2008 4:15 pm

One thing that frustrated me about Audacity, unless I just never found where the function is hidden, is that it did not seem possible to slide a phrase slightly left or right when editing. You had to slide the entire track. You could not divide tracks up into segments and move each segment separately. This is easy to do in Reaper (as in ProTools, etc.) and saves a huge amount of time. If you find that function in Audacity, please let me know.

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 13 Jan 2008 5:03 pm

Jim, with Audacity you can hightlight part of a phrase, duplicate it (onto a new track) and then slide that section anywhere you want it. You can also delete part of a section or silence part of a section, etc.

Jim Cohen · Post by **Jim Cohen** » 13 Jan 2008 5:14 pm

Thanks, Doug, yes, I do know that there is a 'work-around' on Audacity, where you can duplicate the track, silence portions, slide one of the (entire) tracks, etc. but it's much less elegant than simply snipping a section of an existing track and nudging it to the right or left, without multiplying the number of tracks every time you need to do this.

If you've been using Audacity, I encourage you to try Reaper. It's like night and day. And it's free until and unless you're ready to pay $50 for it (but the demo is full-function, with no limitations or time limit).

Michael McGee · Post by **Michael McGee** » 13 Jan 2008 7:42 pm

Jim, I've been using it for quite some time. I think it is some extremely well written code. Each to his own - it all ends up being about work flow and what makes sense to the individual. I used Sony's Vegas for many years because it fit my workflow. Reaper is Vegas (the audio part of Vegas) on steroids.

Stay tuned into the Reaper forum. There are some tremendous people on there ready to share some great tips and tricks.

Bill Terry · Post by **Bill Terry** » 14 Jan 2008 7:27 am

I've been using Reaper a few months, nothing heavy duty, but I use it for EZDrummer since my Paris system doesn't support MIDI particularly well. I like it enough so far that I may pay for it..

Like Michael, I'm also impressed with the quality of the SW, haven't found any bugs, and this guy seems to update it on a regular basis with bug fixes and enhancements.

Thumbs up from me so far.

Jim Cohen · Post by **Jim Cohen** » 14 Jan 2008 7:52 am

Yes, I may pay for it too, as it has saved me a lot of time in the studio with the clock running.

Steinar Gregertsen · Post by **Steinar Gregertsen** » 14 Jan 2008 9:50 am

I downloaded it yesterday, never heard of it before reading this thread (I use Nuendo in my studio). Installed it on my office PC, looks pretty impressive, I'll use it for editing wav and mp3 files for the web.

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 14 Jan 2008 8:23 pm

Jim, thanks for posting this. I'll download Reaper and give it a try in the next couple of days.