My DAW is better than yours! (Friendly DAW Wars debate)

[sixth sense]

(think i started it somehow in another thread anyways lol)

Yup

----------------

If you ever need to use Reaper with a multiple out VSTi again, there is an easy method for setting it up.

1> Create a track and then create your VSTi on it. In the VSTi, select the default number of outputs.

2> Delete the track and VSTi.

3> Right click on the area where tracks normally sit (the blank space to the left of the sequencer). Select 'Insert Virtual Instrument on New Track'.

4> Select your VSTi from the 'FX' window that displays itself. Reaper should now ask you whether you want it to automatically create multiple tracks and do the routing for you.

5> Click 'Yes'.

You should be sweet to make tunes now

I dont understand what I'm doing wrong I follow all the steps and have the tracks set up properly but I get no response from any of the tracks when I play a pad in battery only the track holding battery and the master that was created are receiving audio from battery this would be great if I could get it to work then I could just save it as a group and jam with my padkontrol add effects to each track etc.. any tips?

[abZ]

I remember back when I tried out Ableton Live. Version 6, I think.

In short: without drumracks and the sequencer update, it would be a nice live/dj thing, but that's about it.

I was so glad to get back to FPC and FL's piano roll that day.

I hear ya, I started out with version 7 and quite a few of the updates in 8 are essential.

[SunkLo]

(think i started it somehow in another thread anyways lol)

Yup

----------------

If you ever need to use Reaper with a multiple out VSTi again, there is an easy method for setting it up.

1> Create a track and then create your VSTi on it. In the VSTi, select the default number of outputs.

2> Delete the track and VSTi.

3> Right click on the area where tracks normally sit (the blank space to the left of the sequencer). Select 'Insert Virtual Instrument on New Track'.

4> Select your VSTi from the 'FX' window that displays itself. Reaper should now ask you whether you want it to automatically create multiple tracks and do the routing for you.

5> Click 'Yes'.

You should be sweet to make tunes now

Mid thread, just had to say that this is a convoluted piece of shit hack way of doing something in in fl that takes one click. Embarrassing. Why daws totally chomp the bit at multi out vsts... I don't know.

Try changing the routing afterwards though.
Reaper should only take a few clicks to do this and that's including creating a new track and selecting which instrument you want so it's actually fairly simple. In FL it would take about the same amount of clicks I'd say.

[Depone]

Right...

Downloaded Reaper again, latest build...
So for the last 4 hours I have been trying out reaper as an un-biased sorta fiddle because it looks like a nice flexible version of Logic crossed with cubase, and make a track. (using futures skin no less)
Aaaaannd I have decided for me, personally, its really flawed.

Here are my reasons.

1.
So to get my workflow quick with the program, i spent about an hour re-configuring the shortcut hotkeys, so that zoom, scroll etc would function like it would in logic. Great saved it all... and low and behold, none of these settings are like 'global' settings. for example, In logic theres only one zoom in/out command i have set up and it effects whatever window/tab is open. In reaper i had to set this for everything individually... IE search thru the poorly labelled hot-key browser until I reached the one for the arrange window, then find the one for the midi editor..... gah! gastly! horrible... There seems to be more hot-key options then words in the bible. Logic keeps it tight. it does have extensive hot-key cabablilities, but most of these simple functions like zoom and scroll are implemented into one... Simple. logical right?
and again, I set up some short cuts for my number pad to open the mixer or the arranger page etc... and these only seem to work when they want to...

2.
The docker is highly annoying. I know its trying to be a space/time saver but i actually found it quicker to just use everything in one space and flip between them with "CMD-->` "
+ The colour palet was a bitch and a half to find.

3.
Bugs bugs bugs...


Thats one thing, with reaper, you have to trawl through frikken loads of menus to hopefully find what your after. Then once you found it, you realise its not what your after. The options / preferences / windows / view panes are real illogical, and well confusing.

Right so to set up an instrument as a multiple output device, ie... separate channel in the mixer for each sampler cell output in battery, I had to tinker in a routing menu which i feel is an unnecessary step.
For some reason reaper wouldn't accept that my audio unit of battery was multiple output capable (and yes i did check the routing both on the FX window as well as the routing matrix), so I used the vst version of instead.

I loaded up Battery, told reaper that it was an 8 channel plugin (4 stereo outs). and selected my outputs in battery.
Next I loaded up two audio/input tracks in the arrange page, went into the I/O settings box and selected that they receive from battery (which was named blank for some reason and yes i did rename the channel before hand). from the appropriate outputs (1/2, 3/4 5/6 etc...). Lovely, everything was working... I saved my setup and continued to work on some drum patterns. Took a while to get used to the different style of editing there with midi as the same key commands dont apply, and didn't work half the time.
So i got going on a nice loop, and all of a sudden... No audio... Nothing. it just stopped. Midi was still being sent to battery, I literally didn't touch a thing and it just stopped. I saved my battery kit and tried to figue out what went wrong and why...
I could not for the life of me find a solution, so i deleted the tracks (saving the midi mind) and started from scratch... Audio worked again.

I noticed that whilst looping a 2 bar phrase, it was repeating notes that were not present. Like it somehow added an extra kick straight after one when it returned back to the start of the loop. I checked that there were no overlapping midi notes... nope none.. when i turned loop play mode off, it stopped. but came back once i looped again.

And then the trusty old audio dropout happened again... without me actually touching a thing. I had my back turned to the computer getting a glass of water... then stopped. So i gave up...


This was ment to literally be an unbiased view of reaper. I was really waiting to give it praise because of futures been banging on about it like a fat kid to cake. And some things did perform well, like packing tracks into folders, a mixer similar (if not too similar to logic ) and other things like viewing the midi piano roll like a drum step editor with those triangles instead of notes. That was a nice touch... But really it felt like it just didn't want to work for me...

Sorry Pat (futures untold) but it feels like its still in its beta stage, and feels kinda 'plastic' using it. worrying if every move might break it...

[abZ]

Right...

Downloaded Reaper again, latest build...
So for the last 4 hours I have been trying out reaper as an un-biased sorta fiddle because it looks like a nice flexible version of Logic crossed with cubase, and make a track. (using futures skin no less)
Aaaaannd I have decided for me, personally, its really flawed.

Here are my reasons.

1.
So to get my workflow quick with the program, i spent about an hour re-configuring the shortcut hotkeys, so that zoom, scroll etc would function like it would in logic. Great saved it all... and low and behold, none of these settings are like 'global' settings. for example, In logic theres only one zoom in/out command i have set up and it effects whatever window/tab is open. In reaper i had to set this for everything individually... IE search thru the poorly labelled hot-key browser until I reached the one for the arrange window, then find the one for the midi editor..... gah! gastly! horrible... There seems to be more hot-key options then words in the bible. Logic keeps it tight. it does have extensive hot-key cabablilities, but most of these simple functions like zoom and scroll are implemented into one... Simple. logical right?
and again, I set up some short cuts for my number pad to open the mixer or the arranger page etc... and these only seem to work when they want to...

2.
The docker is highly annoying. I know its trying to be a space/time saver but i actually found it quicker to just use everything in one space and flip between them with "CMD-->` "
+ The colour palet was a bitch and a half to find.

3.
Bugs bugs bugs...


Thats one thing, with reaper, you have to trawl through frikken loads of menus to hopefully find what your after. Then once you found it, you realise its not what your after. The options / preferences / windows / view panes are real illogical, and well confusing.

Right so to set up an instrument as a multiple output device, ie... separate channel in the mixer for each sampler cell output in battery, I had to tinker in a routing menu which i feel is an unnecessary step.
For some reason reaper wouldn't accept that my audio unit of battery was multiple output capable (and yes i did check the routing both on the FX window as well as the routing matrix), so I used the vst version of instead.

I loaded up Battery, told reaper that it was an 8 channel plugin (4 stereo outs). and selected my outputs in battery.
Next I loaded up two audio/input tracks in the arrange page, went into the I/O settings box and selected that they receive from battery (which was named blank for some reason and yes i did rename the channel before hand). from the appropriate outputs (1/2, 3/4 5/6 etc...). Lovely, everything was working... I saved my setup and continued to work on some drum patterns. Took a while to get used to the different style of editing there with midi as the same key commands dont apply, and didn't work half the time.
So i got going on a nice loop, and all of a sudden... No audio... Nothing. it just stopped. Midi was still being sent to battery, I literally didn't touch a thing and it just stopped. I saved my battery kit and tried to figue out what went wrong and why...
I could not for the life of me find a solution, so i deleted the tracks (saving the midi mind) and started from scratch... Audio worked again.

I noticed that whilst looping a 2 bar phrase, it was repeating notes that were not present. Like it somehow added an extra kick straight after one when it returned back to the start of the loop. I checked that there were no overlapping midi notes... nope none.. when i turned loop play mode off, it stopped. but came back once i looped again.

And then the trusty old audio dropout happened again... without me actually touching a thing. I had my back turned to the computer getting a glass of water... then stopped. So i gave up...


This was ment to literally be an unbiased view of reaper. I was really waiting to give it praise because of futures been banging on about it like a fat kid to cake. And some things did perform well, like packing tracks into folders, a mixer similar (if not too similar to logic ) and other things like viewing the midi piano roll like a drum step editor with those triangles instead of notes. That was a nice touch... But really it felt like it just didn't want to work for me...

Sorry Pat (futures untold) but it feels like its still in its beta stage, and feels kinda 'plastic' using it. worrying if every move might break it...

Eh that sounds awful and it has been out for quite a few years innit? Not good. I feel some excuses coming tho

[Depone]

Right...

Downloaded Reaper again, latest build...
So for the last 4 hours I have been trying out reaper as an un-biased sorta fiddle because it looks like a nice flexible version of Logic crossed with cubase, and make a track. (using futures skin no less)
Aaaaannd I have decided for me, personally, its really flawed.

Here are my reasons.

1.
So to get my workflow quick with the program, i spent about an hour re-configuring the shortcut hotkeys, so that zoom, scroll etc would function like it would in logic. Great saved it all... and low and behold, none of these settings are like 'global' settings. for example, In logic theres only one zoom in/out command i have set up and it effects whatever window/tab is open. In reaper i had to set this for everything individually... IE search thru the poorly labelled hot-key browser until I reached the one for the arrange window, then find the one for the midi editor..... gah! gastly! horrible... There seems to be more hot-key options then words in the bible. Logic keeps it tight. it does have extensive hot-key cabablilities, but most of these simple functions like zoom and scroll are implemented into one... Simple. logical right?
and again, I set up some short cuts for my number pad to open the mixer or the arranger page etc... and these only seem to work when they want to...

2.
The docker is highly annoying. I know its trying to be a space/time saver but i actually found it quicker to just use everything in one space and flip between them with "CMD-->` "
+ The colour palet was a bitch and a half to find.

3.
Bugs bugs bugs...


Thats one thing, with reaper, you have to trawl through frikken loads of menus to hopefully find what your after. Then once you found it, you realise its not what your after. The options / preferences / windows / view panes are real illogical, and well confusing.

Right so to set up an instrument as a multiple output device, ie... separate channel in the mixer for each sampler cell output in battery, I had to tinker in a routing menu which i feel is an unnecessary step.
For some reason reaper wouldn't accept that my audio unit of battery was multiple output capable (and yes i did check the routing both on the FX window as well as the routing matrix), so I used the vst version of instead.

I loaded up Battery, told reaper that it was an 8 channel plugin (4 stereo outs). and selected my outputs in battery.
Next I loaded up two audio/input tracks in the arrange page, went into the I/O settings box and selected that they receive from battery (which was named blank for some reason and yes i did rename the channel before hand). from the appropriate outputs (1/2, 3/4 5/6 etc...). Lovely, everything was working... I saved my setup and continued to work on some drum patterns. Took a while to get used to the different style of editing there with midi as the same key commands dont apply, and didn't work half the time.
So i got going on a nice loop, and all of a sudden... No audio... Nothing. it just stopped. Midi was still being sent to battery, I literally didn't touch a thing and it just stopped. I saved my battery kit and tried to figue out what went wrong and why...
I could not for the life of me find a solution, so i deleted the tracks (saving the midi mind) and started from scratch... Audio worked again.

I noticed that whilst looping a 2 bar phrase, it was repeating notes that were not present. Like it somehow added an extra kick straight after one when it returned back to the start of the loop. I checked that there were no overlapping midi notes... nope none.. when i turned loop play mode off, it stopped. but came back once i looped again.

And then the trusty old audio dropout happened again... without me actually touching a thing. I had my back turned to the computer getting a glass of water... then stopped. So i gave up...


This was ment to literally be an unbiased view of reaper. I was really waiting to give it praise because of futures been banging on about it like a fat kid to cake. And some things did perform well, like packing tracks into folders, a mixer similar (if not too similar to logic ) and other things like viewing the midi piano roll like a drum step editor with those triangles instead of notes. That was a nice touch... But really it felt like it just didn't want to work for me...

Sorry Pat (futures untold) but it feels like its still in its beta stage, and feels kinda 'plastic' using it. worrying if every move might break it...

Eh that sounds awful and it has been out for quite a few years innit? Not good. I feel some excuses coming tho

Having said all this, audio, just straight up drag n drop .wav's onto the sequencer is painless, and the fades tool cloned from logic is a nice touch. Watch out for the mixer channels also, i had to set mine without any 'display offset' this makes the faders vol levels read out in like a non linear fashion (Accelerating towards the top) and displays the audio a lot louder than it should be on a regular db scale.

[abZ]

Right...

Downloaded Reaper again, latest build...
So for the last 4 hours I have been trying out reaper as an un-biased sorta fiddle because it looks like a nice flexible version of Logic crossed with cubase, and make a track. (using futures skin no less)
Aaaaannd I have decided for me, personally, its really flawed.

Here are my reasons.

1.
So to get my workflow quick with the program, i spent about an hour re-configuring the shortcut hotkeys, so that zoom, scroll etc would function like it would in logic. Great saved it all... and low and behold, none of these settings are like 'global' settings. for example, In logic theres only one zoom in/out command i have set up and it effects whatever window/tab is open. In reaper i had to set this for everything individually... IE search thru the poorly labelled hot-key browser until I reached the one for the arrange window, then find the one for the midi editor..... gah! gastly! horrible... There seems to be more hot-key options then words in the bible. Logic keeps it tight. it does have extensive hot-key cabablilities, but most of these simple functions like zoom and scroll are implemented into one... Simple. logical right?
and again, I set up some short cuts for my number pad to open the mixer or the arranger page etc... and these only seem to work when they want to...

2.
The docker is highly annoying. I know its trying to be a space/time saver but i actually found it quicker to just use everything in one space and flip between them with "CMD-->` "
+ The colour palet was a bitch and a half to find.

3.
Bugs bugs bugs...


Thats one thing, with reaper, you have to trawl through frikken loads of menus to hopefully find what your after. Then once you found it, you realise its not what your after. The options / preferences / windows / view panes are real illogical, and well confusing.

Right so to set up an instrument as a multiple output device, ie... separate channel in the mixer for each sampler cell output in battery, I had to tinker in a routing menu which i feel is an unnecessary step.
For some reason reaper wouldn't accept that my audio unit of battery was multiple output capable (and yes i did check the routing both on the FX window as well as the routing matrix), so I used the vst version of instead.

I loaded up Battery, told reaper that it was an 8 channel plugin (4 stereo outs). and selected my outputs in battery.
Next I loaded up two audio/input tracks in the arrange page, went into the I/O settings box and selected that they receive from battery (which was named blank for some reason and yes i did rename the channel before hand). from the appropriate outputs (1/2, 3/4 5/6 etc...). Lovely, everything was working... I saved my setup and continued to work on some drum patterns. Took a while to get used to the different style of editing there with midi as the same key commands dont apply, and didn't work half the time.
So i got going on a nice loop, and all of a sudden... No audio... Nothing. it just stopped. Midi was still being sent to battery, I literally didn't touch a thing and it just stopped. I saved my battery kit and tried to figue out what went wrong and why...
I could not for the life of me find a solution, so i deleted the tracks (saving the midi mind) and started from scratch... Audio worked again.

I noticed that whilst looping a 2 bar phrase, it was repeating notes that were not present. Like it somehow added an extra kick straight after one when it returned back to the start of the loop. I checked that there were no overlapping midi notes... nope none.. when i turned loop play mode off, it stopped. but came back once i looped again.

And then the trusty old audio dropout happened again... without me actually touching a thing. I had my back turned to the computer getting a glass of water... then stopped. So i gave up...


This was ment to literally be an unbiased view of reaper. I was really waiting to give it praise because of futures been banging on about it like a fat kid to cake. And some things did perform well, like packing tracks into folders, a mixer similar (if not too similar to logic ) and other things like viewing the midi piano roll like a drum step editor with those triangles instead of notes. That was a nice touch... But really it felt like it just didn't want to work for me...

Sorry Pat (futures untold) but it feels like its still in its beta stage, and feels kinda 'plastic' using it. worrying if every move might break it...

Eh that sounds awful and it has been out for quite a few years innit? Not good. I feel some excuses coming tho

Having said all this, audio, just straight up drag n drop .wav's onto the sequencer is painless, and the fades tool cloned from logic is a nice touch. Watch out for the mixer channels also, i had to set mine without any 'display offset' this makes the faders vol levels read out in like a non linear fashion (Accelerating towards the top) and displays the audio a lot louder than it should be on a regular db scale.

Yeah Ableton is all drag and drop like that, everything should be like that imo

[truekimbo2]

I use fl. I've tried reason and abelton. reason was too graphically distracting for me. no vsts = fail.

abelton seemed pretty good, but again visually the stuff taking up the largest amount of screen space was stuff that wasn't relevant to what i was doing at any given time.

i don't know if i'm dumb or something, but FL seems pretty much infitely powerful. That being said i've been using it 6 years and only in the past 2 years have i been figuring out how to actually do the shit i want to do. I'm entirely self taught, i don't read tutorials or whatever. I don't really have enough experience with other DAWS, but because of all the options FL can get pretty fucking complicated and esoteric... unless you don't really care about tweaking.

some things i still hate about it are manually tweaking automations and note timing nuances.

i've used it 6 years, and still haven't figured out a good way to play melodies or make beats using a keyboard. THE FUCK IS JUST RECORDS ENDLESSLY, LOOP THE FUCKING PATTERN AND LET ME CHOOSE DIFFERENT TAKES. GARAGE BAND HAS THAT FEATURE YOU MOTHER FUCKERS. YOU KNOW HOW HARD IT IS TO MANUALLY TWEAK EACH NOTE DOWN To 32nds.

for EQing and effects processing, FL is bangin though. The routing and general layout of effects and eq make total sense, and i get lost in the seas of tiny parameter adjustments.

[wayoftheworld]

stop yelling

[narcissus]

pffft..

if you don't recognize ableton's interface, engine, and plugs as fucking brilliant, that's okay... you just haven't spent enough time with it. you'll get there. true enlightenment is about the journey.

[dreadheaded]

(think i started it somehow in another thread anyways lol)

Yup

----------------

If you ever need to use Reaper with a multiple out VSTi again, there is an easy method for setting it up.

1> Create a track and then create your VSTi on it. In the VSTi, select the default number of outputs.

2> Delete the track and VSTi.

3> Right click on the area where tracks normally sit (the blank space to the left of the sequencer). Select 'Insert Virtual Instrument on New Track'.

4> Select your VSTi from the 'FX' window that displays itself. Reaper should now ask you whether you want it to automatically create multiple tracks and do the routing for you.

5> Click 'Yes'.

You should be sweet to make tunes now

Mid thread, just had to say that this is a convoluted piece of shit hack way of doing something in in fl that takes one click. Embarrassing. Why daws totally chomp the bit at multi out vsts... I don't know.

again its a one click ting in cubase!!

[nowaysj]

Why are people calling logic pretty? I think it looks professional.

Its simple, clear and a monotone grey/black... far from all this 'pretty boy' smack talk going around.

ha ha ha, jokes



Ableton could provide this level of functionality in a 2 inch by 4 inch square. But keep thinking brushed metal pixels make you a professional.

[nowaysj]

again its a one click ting in cubase!!

Bullshit, the way cubase handles multiout vst's is embarrassing. This from the grandfather of vst. Embarrassing.

[dreadheaded]

again its a one click ting in cubase!!

Bullshit, the way cubase handles multiout vst's is embarrassing. This from the grandfather of vst. Embarrassing.

not if you know how to use it

i just press f11 then select a VST so i dont really know what you are refering too

[nowaysj]

sequencing the mutlivst

[dreadheaded]

i just use midi tracks i like how it works

[futures_untold]

Right...

Downloaded Reaper again, latest build...
So for the last 4 hours I have been trying out reaper as an un-biased sorta fiddle because it looks like a nice flexible version of Logic crossed with cubase, and make a track. (using futures skin no less)
Aaaaannd I have decided for me, personally, its really flawed.

Here are my reasons.

1.
So to get my workflow quick with the program, i spent about an hour re-configuring the shortcut hotkeys, so that zoom, scroll etc would function like it would in logic. Great saved it all... and low and behold, none of these settings are like 'global' settings. for example, In logic theres only one zoom in/out command i have set up and it effects whatever window/tab is open. In reaper i had to set this for everything individually... IE search thru the poorly labelled hot-key browser until I reached the one for the arrange window, then find the one for the midi editor..... gah! gastly! horrible... There seems to be more hot-key options then words in the bible. Logic keeps it tight. it does have extensive hot-key cabablilities, but most of these simple functions like zoom and scroll are implemented into one... Simple. logical right?
and again, I set up some short cuts for my number pad to open the mixer or the arranger page etc... and these only seem to work when they want to...

2.
The docker is highly annoying. I know its trying to be a space/time saver but i actually found it quicker to just use everything in one space and flip between them with "CMD-->` "
+ The colour palet was a bitch and a half to find.

3.
Bugs bugs bugs...


Thats one thing, with reaper, you have to trawl through frikken loads of menus to hopefully find what your after. Then once you found it, you realise its not what your after. The options / preferences / windows / view panes are real illogical, and well confusing.

Right so to set up an instrument as a multiple output device, ie... separate channel in the mixer for each sampler cell output in battery, I had to tinker in a routing menu which i feel is an unnecessary step.
For some reason reaper wouldn't accept that my audio unit of battery was multiple output capable (and yes i did check the routing both on the FX window as well as the routing matrix), so I used the vst version of instead.

I loaded up Battery, told reaper that it was an 8 channel plugin (4 stereo outs). and selected my outputs in battery.
Next I loaded up two audio/input tracks in the arrange page, went into the I/O settings box and selected that they receive from battery (which was named blank for some reason and yes i did rename the channel before hand). from the appropriate outputs (1/2, 3/4 5/6 etc...). Lovely, everything was working... I saved my setup and continued to work on some drum patterns. Took a while to get used to the different style of editing there with midi as the same key commands dont apply, and didn't work half the time.
So i got going on a nice loop, and all of a sudden... No audio... Nothing. it just stopped. Midi was still being sent to battery, I literally didn't touch a thing and it just stopped. I saved my battery kit and tried to figue out what went wrong and why...
I could not for the life of me find a solution, so i deleted the tracks (saving the midi mind) and started from scratch... Audio worked again.

I noticed that whilst looping a 2 bar phrase, it was repeating notes that were not present. Like it somehow added an extra kick straight after one when it returned back to the start of the loop. I checked that there were no overlapping midi notes... nope none.. when i turned loop play mode off, it stopped. but came back once i looped again.

And then the trusty old audio dropout happened again... without me actually touching a thing. I had my back turned to the computer getting a glass of water... then stopped. So i gave up...


This was ment to literally be an unbiased view of reaper. I was really waiting to give it praise because of futures been banging on about it like a fat kid to cake. And some things did perform well, like packing tracks into folders, a mixer similar (if not too similar to logic ) and other things like viewing the midi piano roll like a drum step editor with those triangles instead of notes. That was a nice touch... But really it felt like it just didn't want to work for me...

Sorry Pat (futures untold) but it feels like its still in its beta stage, and feels kinda 'plastic' using it. worrying if every move might break it...

Thanks for taking the time to review Reaper for us. Nice review!

I don't know why audio would drop out or why the AU version of Battery wouldn't be recognised. You've also described some odd behaviour with the looping and duplicate midi notes that I've not personally experienced on my setup.

Sounds like you've spotted some valid improvements too, in the form of universal zooming behaviour/controls and pimping the options menu to be simpler to understand. I guess the balistics of the VU meters is a personal preference, and you've taught me something I didn't know about the program (amongst many thing haha).

All in all, coming from an avid Logic user, it seems you see the potential. You've sung some of its praises too, despite feeling that it is currently a beta.

You can download it for yourself to see what all the fuss is about from http://www.reaper.fm/download.php



Patrick

[narcissus]

Why are people calling logic pretty? I think it looks professional.

Its simple, clear and a monotone grey/black... far from all this 'pretty boy' smack talk going around.

ha ha ha, jokes



Ableton could provide this level of functionality in a 2 inch by 4 inch square. But keep thinking brushed metal pixels make you a professional.

shit looks like an xbox game

[Depone]

Right...

Downloaded Reaper again, latest build...
So for the last 4 hours I have been trying out reaper as an un-biased sorta fiddle because it looks like a nice flexible version of Logic crossed with cubase, and make a track. (using futures skin no less)
Aaaaannd I have decided for me, personally, its really flawed.

Here are my reasons.

1.
So to get my workflow quick with the program, i spent about an hour re-configuring the shortcut hotkeys, so that zoom, scroll etc would function like it would in logic. Great saved it all... and low and behold, none of these settings are like 'global' settings. for example, In logic theres only one zoom in/out command i have set up and it effects whatever window/tab is open. In reaper i had to set this for everything individually... IE search thru the poorly labelled hot-key browser until I reached the one for the arrange window, then find the one for the midi editor..... gah! gastly! horrible... There seems to be more hot-key options then words in the bible. Logic keeps it tight. it does have extensive hot-key cabablilities, but most of these simple functions like zoom and scroll are implemented into one... Simple. logical right?
and again, I set up some short cuts for my number pad to open the mixer or the arranger page etc... and these only seem to work when they want to...

2.
The docker is highly annoying. I know its trying to be a space/time saver but i actually found it quicker to just use everything in one space and flip between them with "CMD-->` "
+ The colour palet was a bitch and a half to find.

3.
Bugs bugs bugs...


Thats one thing, with reaper, you have to trawl through frikken loads of menus to hopefully find what your after. Then once you found it, you realise its not what your after. The options / preferences / windows / view panes are real illogical, and well confusing.

Right so to set up an instrument as a multiple output device, ie... separate channel in the mixer for each sampler cell output in battery, I had to tinker in a routing menu which i feel is an unnecessary step.
For some reason reaper wouldn't accept that my audio unit of battery was multiple output capable (and yes i did check the routing both on the FX window as well as the routing matrix), so I used the vst version of instead.

I loaded up Battery, told reaper that it was an 8 channel plugin (4 stereo outs). and selected my outputs in battery.
Next I loaded up two audio/input tracks in the arrange page, went into the I/O settings box and selected that they receive from battery (which was named blank for some reason and yes i did rename the channel before hand). from the appropriate outputs (1/2, 3/4 5/6 etc...). Lovely, everything was working... I saved my setup and continued to work on some drum patterns. Took a while to get used to the different style of editing there with midi as the same key commands dont apply, and didn't work half the time.
So i got going on a nice loop, and all of a sudden... No audio... Nothing. it just stopped. Midi was still being sent to battery, I literally didn't touch a thing and it just stopped. I saved my battery kit and tried to figue out what went wrong and why...
I could not for the life of me find a solution, so i deleted the tracks (saving the midi mind) and started from scratch... Audio worked again.

I noticed that whilst looping a 2 bar phrase, it was repeating notes that were not present. Like it somehow added an extra kick straight after one when it returned back to the start of the loop. I checked that there were no overlapping midi notes... nope none.. when i turned loop play mode off, it stopped. but came back once i looped again.

And then the trusty old audio dropout happened again... without me actually touching a thing. I had my back turned to the computer getting a glass of water... then stopped. So i gave up...


This was ment to literally be an unbiased view of reaper. I was really waiting to give it praise because of futures been banging on about it like a fat kid to cake. And some things did perform well, like packing tracks into folders, a mixer similar (if not too similar to logic ) and other things like viewing the midi piano roll like a drum step editor with those triangles instead of notes. That was a nice touch... But really it felt like it just didn't want to work for me...

Sorry Pat (futures untold) but it feels like its still in its beta stage, and feels kinda 'plastic' using it. worrying if every move might break it...

Thanks for taking the time to review Reaper for us. Nice review!

I don't know why audio would drop out or why the AU version of Battery wouldn't be recognised. You've also described some odd behaviour with the looping and duplicate midi notes that I've not personally experienced on my setup.

Sounds like you've spotted some valid improvements too, in the form of universal zooming behaviour/controls and pimping the options menu to be simpler to understand. I guess the balistics of the VU meters is a personal preference, and you've taught me something I didn't know about the program (amongst many thing haha).

All in all, coming from an avid Logic user, it seems you see the potential. You've sung some of its praises too, despite feeling that it is currently a beta.

You can download it for yourself to see what all the fuss is about from http://www.reaper.fm/download.php



Patrick

Yep. i was really rooting for it to work well, but i had so many mishaps i had to lay it down.
Unfortunate really, but i spent 4 hours until 4am without anything to show but this long post

[Moxxiedubstep]

took me 30 minutes not to like reaper. that post just solidified everything. glad i didnt spend 4 hours on it xD

after getting a full version of Max for live, im considering switching back to ableton from Cubase =x