Your experience before Reaper

I started off using midi programs on the Commodore Amiga: Bars & Pipes, and MusicX and similar.

My first audio software program was Logic Audio on PC using an ISIS interface. I found it very difficult to set up, and it took me ages to get it going properly. I used that for a few years, and become reasonably fluent with it, but I never felt very comfortable with it.

I became involved in a collaborative recording project who had just started on Reaper. Logic was no longer supported on PC and had moved to Apple, so this was an opportunity to likewise move to start on Reaper.

It was a revelation. Firstly, the design of audio software had advanced considerable since my aging Logic Audio, and secondly, the programming paradigm behind Reaper was one that matched closely how I liked to think about things.
 
First recording:
Stereo cassette boom box with built in mics. Record a stereo track, pop the cassette into my stereo system player, another cassette in the boombox. Retune (the stereo system player was not quite the same speed). Record another stereo track on the boombox with the first one playing through the system speakers. Rinse and repeat. By the 4th round it was getting very muddy! Good for demoing new (original) songs for my band, though.
Next: Cakewalk. Without a good AI (Soundblaster card). Horrible latency. Very un-intuitive, I gave up after multiple attempts.
Next: Boss BR600 digital multitracker. Only 6 mono and 1 stereo tracks available on mixdown, but each had 8 'virtual' tracks, so bounce-mixing was needed many times.
Finally: Reaper!
 
How far do we go back? Early 60's I had this model Lafayette reel to reel tape recorder to record acoustic and electric guitar. Tape recorder is long gone, but I think I still have the dynamic mic that came with it.



Didn't do much for a bunch of years and had a few cassette multi track recorders, followed by a Korg D1600, and now a Tascam 2488NEO along with Reaper. Hadn't done much with software before Reaper, other than some MIDI recording programs.
 
Record a stereo track, pop the cassette into my stereo system player, another cassette in the boombox.
That's where I started, too. I had Alesis HR16 drum machine and MMT8 hardware MIDI sequencer and a small mixer, so the first track was drums and maybe synths and either bass or guitar. I really had to think about how what I was recording now would end up sounding along with all the stuff I was going to add later, and after all the generation loss. I also had to learn how to know what I was looking for, get it, and commit to it cause there was nothing to be done later.

Then I got a Fostex X18 4 track, a different mixer, and some things like a compressor and effects and some consumer graphic EQs. I would stripe track 4 for FSK sync for the drum machine and sequencer and then had 3 more tracks to record to.

Started messing with Cakewalk on Windows for Workgroups, and followed the upgrade path. Eventually dumped the hardware sequencer and drum machine and would just sync the computer via SMPTE to Cakewalk.

Cakewalk Pro Audio (v4) came out, but the machines back then made it impractical for most things. I was messing with it and SoundForge, but still doing most of my actual audio tracking and mixing in analog.

Eventually upgraded to ADAT (still synced to the computer), then two ADATs synced to each other and the computer. The mixers got bigger - a Tascam 1624 then a Soundcraft Ghost. The outboard rack grew to 7 feet tall...

Then I switched to Mac and Cubase, then Opcode Vision, and was able to do a bit more ITB production.

Then back to PC and Cubase, then Sonar, and finally the computers were able to do most of the things that I'd been wanting them to do since 1995 and I sold most of my outboard and moved to all ITB around the time I was turned on to Reaper, and I have never been as happy with these things as I am now.
 
4-track with old tapes. circa late 90s
Whatever digital standalone monstrosity my dad had in the basement. circa 2000-2004
Audacity circa 2004-2007
Reaper since then.
 
As far as home recording.. I got interested when our band began studio work, 1978 - 1982. I began my setup around 1985 with a Fostex 450 mixer; Tascam 38; two 4-chnl dbx units; TR-707 Drums; two SM-57s; Amiga 2000HD. Later, a Kawai synth and (whatever) software sequencer.

I began taking my Fostex 450 to gigs and one night it got ripped off. Then I stepped up to a Tascam 688 Midi Studio, which I kept at home. Added an RCA VHS unit for master stereo mixes along with a Harmon Kardon stereo tape unit for cassette mixes.

Then a long dry spell from 1998 - 2009, during which time I sold all my guitars and gear. I began writing and playing again in 2010 on borrowed instruments. About 18 months ago, I bought a new acoustic 6-string - a Rogue dreadnought (China) and started all over again. About 2 months ago I got Reaper, then my second new guitar - a Taylor Big Baby - along with an AT2020 mic and Tascam US-2x2 interface.

I am mainly a bass player, but I do all of my writing on 6-string acoustics. I also program drums and anything else a sequencer can handle - though I'm no pro at that, I get by.
 
Apart from the simplicity of digital, did the old stuff sound as good, or even better?

The answer to that is both yes and no.

The stuff I did on reel to reel or on 4 track cassette was technically inferior to what I could do in Logic (and later, Reaper). Additionally, the gear I had then did not have the flexibility, versatility and capacity I have now. So the answer here is 'no'.

However, the stuff that George Martin could produce using 4-track tape (and associated equipment) was (and is) better than anything I can do now.
 
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