Reaper....all other multi-track software is a rip!

[danny.guitar]

Sonar and other "more professional" applications cost more because it costs more to make (a team of software developers + licensing for any 3rd party controls/libraries used).

Reaper, AFAIK only has one developer, who is working on his own time. Obviously the cost of development isn't going to be nearly as much, because I think he wrote everything from scratch himself.

I write software too and I can't imagine how hard, and how much work it would take to make a DAW, especially in C++. Especially one that works bug free on most computers and recording hardware.

And who really cares about the GUI. And just so you know, the controls in the GUI (buttons, faders, peak meters, waveform display) are not standard Windows controls, meaning he made those from scratch too which alone is very time consuming.

If I made Reaper I'd sure as hell be charging a lot more than $40!

Just thought I'd add my 2¢

 

[Hard2Hear]

And who really cares about the GUI.

Are you serious? So you use a 13" monocrome crt to record on? Come on, if you do this for a living spending 12+ hours a day looking at something and interacting with it, its VERY important.

 

[pipelineaudio]

A lot of us Vegas types LOVE the REAPER GUI

Others have made some pretty cool ones as well, not my cup of tea, but:

 

[danny.guitar]

Are you serious? So you use a 13" monocrome crt to record on? Come on, if you do this for a living spending 12+ hours a day looking at something and interacting with it, its VERY important.

I use a 17" viewable. If it were 13" I'd consider getting a new monitor.

And the GUI is not nearly half as important as the features. You can also customize the colors of the Reaper GUI.

I have to agree with Pipeline, I actually like the Reaper GUI. Very clean and simple, and looks like most other Windows XP apps.

Just to let you know, I wrote a custom command button (like the buttons you see in most windows apps) and it took over 2,000 lines of code. And that's Visual Basic. Not nearly as hard as C++.

 

[beezelbubba]

Man, the more I fuck around with Reaper, the more I like it.Poking around the forum I learned how to trigger midi from wav. using Reatuner(I think that's what it's called, I don't have it open at the moment.)That is huge to me.I'm sure I could have done that in another program, but I discovered it in Reaper.
I've used NTrack for years and don't have a real need to switch, but I must admit it is just fun and inspiring to mess around with a new program.

 

[IronFlippy]

Just to let you know, I wrote a custom command button (like the buttons you see in most windows apps) and it took over 2,000 lines of code. And that's Visual Basic. Not nearly as hard as C++.

The guy made Winamp and invented Gnutella. I think he has a ton of tricks up his sleeves. VB isn't as low level a language as c++, so I'm sure there was some working around the limitations of it that you had to do to create one from scratch. Just curious, how do you know that they aren't standard Windows controls (I'm not a programmer anymore, dropped it after my first year when we learned the basic and advanced principles of CS)? It seems like something easier done in a low level language, but I don't know for certain.

 

[danny.guitar]

The guy made Winamp and invented Gnutella. I think he has a ton of tricks up his sleeves. VB isn't as low level a language as c++, so I'm sure there was some working around the limitations of it that you had to do to create one from scratch. Just curious, how do you know that they aren't standard Windows controls (I'm not a programmer anymore, dropped it after my first year when we learned the basic and advanced principles of CS)? It seems like something easier done in a low level language, but I don't know for certain.

They're not standard windows controls because there are no MFC/Microsoft classes (objects) made for those controls. He either wrote them from scratch or found controls made by other people.

It's not really any harder or easier to make controls in C++ it just takes more time, because it's a lower-level language. In VB, most of the lower-level stuff is already done for you. It's an RAD (Rapid Access Development) language, meant to make not-so-large-scale applications quickly without all the hassle of lower-level stuff.