Reaper

Wait, Reaper? Really?

Yep, Reaper. I'll give you the semi-condensed version, but when I switched to a digital setup in the late 90s after selling my Tascam reel to reel with matching console (for way less than they sell for now - DOH!), I tried a few other DAWs for a bit, including Pro Tools. None of them were great for me, but sice Pro Tolls was the standard, I started there, until switching to Samplitude 24/96 for a bit, which I loved - until they got bought out. Then went back to PT.

But while I am not someone who bashes Pro Tools, it just never jibed with me. I find the interface clunky and stiff. Maybe because I am on Wintel, and the PT was a "not-perfect" port of the Mac version? Interfaces are everything in software design. Any decent DAW today has 99.9% of the same features, so interface and workflow are really the key. Because Pro Tools owned the market in the early days, many people learned on it and stuck with it over the years, which frankly is a great reason to stick with PT.

Back to the point, after Samplitude got sold and I was PT-ing it up, I heard rumblings on online forums about a new DAW by the guy who wrote WinAmp. I figured, eh, I'll try it I guess, but WinAmp, really? I was skeptical; no huge company roll out, no big ads, no flashy promo. Basically a shareware product. I thought "nice toy, but no way will this be worth a damn."

But on running it, even in it's embryonic state, I instantly noticed the brilliant design of the interface. Lean, smooth, and completely customizable. Wow. It was lacking in some features at first for sure, but it was obvious they were on to something. Even though Reaper was not 'there' yet at first, they seemed to be constantly working on and improving it, so I decided to work around the limitations, and stick with it. I am very happy I did, as Reaper has matured, and now to me is far and away the best written DAW interface on the market. They do occupy a certain niche in the market, largely because they don't have flashy ads, or fat guys with awful mustaches and knit polo shirts at NAAM trying to sell you a '79 Pinto. I like this, btw.

But, there is a catch or two. Out of the box, Reaper is not particularly great. Not awful, definitely usable; but not great. The point of Reaper is, to get the most out of it you gotta do a lot of customizing and tweaking to get it exactly how you like it. I like that; someone who wants an "out of the box" solution might not. If someone who knows Reaper opened up a project on my setup, they might not even recognize it or know what to do; but that's kinda the point. I love the customized, personal setup, and Reaper offers that.

Also, they don't have a huge support team. To put it midly. There are user forums, and a few online resources, but they are not a huge megalith with operators standing by. You're kinda on your own. It's how they keep the price so reasonable. I'm comfortable with this; others may not be, and I get that.

In early versions of Reaper, syncing Reaper with a tape deck/SMPTE was very frustrating. They apparently have fixed that, but since I don't use tape anymore (very few folks do), I have no idea. Heck, syncing tape/film to a DAW has always had it's issues no matter the DAW, (slew/jitter/oh my). But in this day and age, that's largely a moot point.

I do try to keep my Pro Tools chops up, because so many studios still run it, and if I go somewhere else that has a Pro Tools rig, I can run a session just fine. DAW software in general is pretty basic stuff. Try working in 3dMax or Blender, or video editing in Davinci; makes DAW software look like a web browser. Going between them isn't all that hard, once you know where things are. But in here, I very much prefer my Reaper setup to anything else, so that's what I use.

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