If anyone has'nt checked out Reaper yet, you NEED to. Go get it now. It's already at version 0.998. As fast as it's moving, it might be at 0.999 by tomorrow. Grab a sample project while you're there and play around with it's features. I'm a Cubase SX2/3 user so I'm especially loving Reaper's intuitive layout. I spent alot of time learning Cubase and I know it's features and layout pretty well. I've spent very little time playing around in the quickly updated versions of Reaper and I can do at least 90% of the things (audio related) that I can do in Cubase. MIDI features seem to be on the back burner until the audio features are tweaked to perfection. That's cool with me. I'd rather have a sweet multitracker to work with than a mediocre multitrack/midi sequencer. The developer, Justin Frankel seems to be taking damn near every need, wish, and bug very seriously. That's something that just does'nt happen with the big guys like Cubase, Sonar, etc. I've seen major bugs in Cubase and Sonar carry on thru multiple versions with no sign of fixes under developement.
Here's just a FEW of the cool features in Reaper I think are worth mentioning:
- Mono/Stereo button on the Master (how handy is that?) Very handy!
- Playback speed control on the Master with real time adjustment via a slider
- Mouse wheeling. Place your mouse pointer over any fader/slider and use
the mouse wheel to adjust the control +/-. Place your mouse pointer any
where in the timeline window and use the mouse to zoom in/out waveforms
- Real world audio routing. Remember how much time you spent trying to
route one track's output to another track's input in Cubase/Sonar only to
find out it was'nt possible? In Reaper, if you can think of a routing scheme
that works for you, it's possible and easy. No need to use special tracks
in just the right order as a work around.
- Incorporate your favorite audio editor. It's simple to setup and use. I think
Reaper is fine for most editing on it's own but if you feel the need, it's
there and it works. No need to jump thru firey hoops to get it working.
- Most important feature.............someone is listening to the users wishes
and bitching.........not only listening, but quickly coming up with solutions.
The Reaper forum is full of real world users that play a huge role in Reaper's
developement. Justin Frankel seems to at least consider, and in most cases
implement, any worth while idea that will improve Reaper, as long as it
does'nt involve clunking up the intuitiveness or hog up system recources.
If you're new to pc recording forget Kristal, Audacity, Pro Tools Free, blah, etc. Reaper has already passed those guys by miles and has even passed alot of the big boys in audio features. As soon as the basic midi features that I need are implemented, I think I'll be done with Cubase SX.
Btw, for those that don't know, when Reaper hits version 1.0, it will have a low cost, unobligated shareware fee. With all of Reaper's features and swift bug fixes, you'd be a fool not to contribute to it's future developemnt. All versions before version 1.0 will remain free. It was also developed by the same guy that brought us Winamp and the Gnutella network.
Here's a screen shot of Reaper running a sample project:
but i posted this in the cave yesterday and it will probably never be seen again there: