Yup reaper is now a pay type set up. I think they are on version 1.34, Justin the main coding guru of the project is on vacation for two weeks but when he is around significant upgrades happen every 1-5 days. The pricing is $40 for the home recordist and $200 if you make money using reaper. Like I say; for $40 you can just get a great mic cable. So what they are charging is very small, and compare the $200 version to Cubase's full version at 3-4 times that, again very reasonable. And there is no difference between the two versions as of now, they trust you will make the honest move if you are making money from reaper projects. And they have or will soon have the "upgrade" for $160 option if you start to make money in your studio. Its a very powerful program, bugs are getting squashed every upgrade, things are almost always added, unlimited amount of plugins on each track, each track can send and receive audio. Midi still needs work, but its coming along, but I don't use midi as of now so I wouldn't know how good it is or not. I paid the $40, if I start making money which is doubtful I will pay the extra $160. But really as far as equipment goes only my furman and berry patchbay were under $40. Oh and I didn't mention there is no expiration on evaluation, again they trust that you will pay after your 30 day trail period is up, even though nothing blows up past 30 days. Give it a whirl its free to try.