Moving to Reaper?

[east]

I've said it before and i'll say it again, all the Cockos guys need to focus on is getting the UI and feel of Reaper right, and they'll be on to something very serious indeed. As it stands, the UI and feel of Reaper suffers from a common side effect of rapid development - feature bloat and a lack of polish.

It's all good and well to say that Reaper can do x and y and z is coming in the next build, but unless it feels good to use, people won't touch it.

A good example of this is the timeline - I doubt there are many people who would argue that the timeline in PT is one of the best around, in terms of navigation, selection, looping and so on; Reaper's doesn't even come close, and for me that's a deal-breaker.

Pro Tools will continue to suffer unless their development team very seriously opens up and allows for easy communication and testing of upcoming releases - the current beta system is utterly laughable, with beyond draconian requirements just to participate.

Hurry up Cockos (and Shan), we're getting desperate.

[jazzmandan]

Originally Posted by east

A good example of this is the timeline - I doubt there are many people who would argue that the timeline in PT is one of the best around, in terms of navigation, selection, looping and so on; Reaper's doesn't even come close, and for me that's a deal-breaker.


Hurry up Cockos (and Shan), we're getting desperate.

So you must have seen this...

http://duc.digidesign.com/showpost.p...&postcount=297

It has been a long project for Shane - and we are all waiting patiently for the final results.

[cedrorum]

I’ve got to admit reading this thread has peaked my interest in Reaper. I’m a musician, who after having 2 kids, has picked my instruments back up after 10 years and have been playing again. After talking with friends in the music business, both musicians and studio engineers, I decided to go the Mbox 2 route. I would have liked to have gone with the Mbox 2 pro or higher, but that was above my spending ceiling. I’m obviously a newby using a DAW for recording. My prior experience recording/mixing/mastering was with a Yamaha MT44D, which I loved. Sorry for the background rant, but I thought it pertinent to this post.

I’ve been very satisfied so far using Pro Tools and haven’t had many problems at all getting up to speed on it. But, I’m sure I haven’t begun to reach the point where I may encounter the “limits” I read about people on the DUC having. I’m getting the feeling that I should be at least be doing parallel learning for when I may want to use Reaper, either as my primary DAW or in tandem with Pro Tools.
Here’s my questions;

Is the raw audio quality essentially the same between PT and Reaper?

As far as extras are concerned, i.e. plugins, how do the quality of those that come with either Reaper or PTs compare to each other. I don’t have a bunch of extra cash to spend on additional plugins.

I keep reading that Reaper is not as good as PT when using MIDI. In what ways? I use MIDI for mostly tracking sounds of instruments I don’t play into songs I write.

Thanks for any input.

[AlexLakis]

Originally Posted by Shan

The DAW and high end hardware I/O will not be an investment made into Avid.

Avid makes high end hardware?

[DeyBwah]

Originally Posted by cedrorum

I’ve got to admit reading this thread has peaked my interest in Reaper. I’m a musician, who after having 2 kids, has picked my instruments back up after 10 years and have been playing again. After talking with friends in the music business, both musicians and studio engineers, I decided to go the Mbox 2 route. I would have liked to have gone with the Mbox 2 pro or higher, but that was above my spending ceiling. I’m obviously a newby using a DAW for recording. My prior experience recording/mixing/mastering was with a Yamaha MT44D, which I loved. Sorry for the background rant, but I thought it pertinent to this post.

I’ve been very satisfied so far using Pro Tools and haven’t had many problems at all getting up to speed on it. But, I’m sure I haven’t begun to reach the point where I may encounter the “limits” I read about people on the DUC having. I’m getting the feeling that I should be at least be doing parallel learning for when I may want to use Reaper, either as my primary DAW or in tandem with Pro Tools.
Here’s my questions;

Is the raw audio quality essentially the same between PT and Reaper?

As far as extras are concerned, i.e. plugins, how do the quality of those that come with either Reaper or PTs compare to each other. I don’t have a bunch of extra cash to spend on additional plugins.

I keep reading that Reaper is not as good as PT when using MIDI. In what ways? I use MIDI for mostly tracking sounds of instruments I don’t play into songs I write.

Thanks for any input.

The raw audio quality is essentially the same, although some would argue that it is better in Reaper because of its native 64-bit environment. But to answer your question, it's basically the same.

The ReaPlugs are simply amazing and in a lot of cases, more useful than DigiPlugs. Reaper also comes with over a hundred (?) JS (Jesusonic) filter/effects.

As for the MIDI limitations -- to my knowledge, Reaper isn't missing anything that would prevent you from working with MIDI. I believe, and maybe someone else could chime in with a more accurate assessment, the things missing with MIDI are workflow related.

[daeron80]

Originally Posted by cedrorum

Is the raw audio quality essentially the same between PT and Reaper?

Follow the link in the post just above yours for the definitive answer to that.

Originally Posted by cedrorum

As far as extras are concerned, i.e. plugins, how do the quality of those that come with either Reaper or PTs compare to each other. I don’t have a bunch of extra cash to spend on additional plugins.

Reaper, unlike PT, supports VSTs natively. See kvraudio for an up-to-date list of available plugins. There are thousands of free ones, some of which are quite good. There are many more really good ones that cost only a few $$. It's possible to run VSTs in PT with the $99 fxpansion VST-to-RTAS adapter. Catchy name, huh? Sadly, it hasn't been updated in forever, and wrapped VSTs don't always work like they should. Particularly, automation of parameters often doesn't work. So Reaper's native VST support is a big advantage for those looking for lots of good plugs on a budget. Not to mention that the Rea set that comes with Reaper is top-notch.

[Shan]

Originally Posted by AlexLakis

Avid makes high end hardware?

I know. Too bad the ASIO driver for HD hardware is limited to only 8 I/O.

...yet with a 002/003, the ASIO driver will access all 18 I/O.

Shane

[Shan]

Originally Posted by jazzmandan

So you must have seen this...

http://duc.digidesign.com/showpost.p...&postcount=297

Or even this!

As of yesterday, I can now do all basic editing light years faster in REAPER than Pro Tools. Video examples on this to demonstrate will be coming soon. REAPER doesn't come close, it has surpassed PT in all the basic areas and more. It's starting to get very difficult justifying staying in PT for my editing personally.

Shane

[Shan]

Originally Posted by cedrorum

Is the raw audio quality essentially the same between PT and Reaper?

Both the REAPER 32-bit & 64-bit versions have a 64-bit end-to-end audio engine. This far surpasses Pro Tools HD.

REAPER and Pro Tools with automation null out even through ReWire.

REAPER and Pro Tools will also null out using the same plug-ins, even through ReWire.

When a signal nulls, it is identical.

Be careful listening to the " corporate marketing machines". They are the source for many Internet audio myths.

As far as extras are concerned, i.e. plugins, how do the quality of those that come with either Reaper or PTs compare to each other. I don’t have a bunch of extra cash to spend on additional plugins.

The quality is related to the answer above. The stock Cockos plug-ins are all good. I would have no problem mixing an entire album with the stock REAPER plug-ins alone. There are plenty of free ones and very inexpensive ones by independent developers that compare in quality to those costing 10x as much.

I keep reading that Reaper is not as good as PT when using MIDI. In what ways? I use MIDI for mostly tracking sounds of instruments I don’t play into songs I write.

It has far more MIDI features than Pro Tools. Download the demo and see for yourself. It is a fully functional demo. If it expires mid way through a project, you can still use it. It will have a nag screen upon launch to purchase a license after it expires but will still be functional. It wont be for everyone so grab the demo first. I myself use it as an additional tool in the same way I use Reason and other ReWire apps for production.

Shane

[Mason00]

Originally Posted by Shan

Or even this!

As of yesterday, I can now do all basic editing light years faster in REAPER than Pro Tools. Video examples on this to demonstrate will be coming soon. REAPER doesn't come close, it has surpassed PT in all the basic areas and more. It's starting to get very difficult justifying staying in PT for my editing personally.

Shane

I applaud you and these Herculean Efforts to create the REAL Pro Tools. Watch out though. Avid might try and send some goons over to your neighborhood to try and slow you down.
You are truly bringing on a revolution and I give you a standing ovation for that. You are the man! And Canadian at that! Yeah!