REAPER users in Australia

[daxliniere]

Hey guys,

I'm a producer and mix engineer who works in primarily in Samplitude. I'm looking for a REAPER expert located in Australia (preferably Sydney or Canberra) as I'm interested in giving it a good test run.

Rate to be discussed privately and exchange of services/knowledge is certainly an option.

Anyone interested should send me an email or PM.


All the best,
Dax Liniere

http://www.puzzlefactory.com.au

[jkhuri44]

pretty sure a few head on here use it...

what system do you currently run, dax?

[daxliniere]

Hi Jamil,
Thanks for your reply. I'm currently running PC with the latest version of Samplitude.

Cheers,

[jkhuri44]

meant more so, if you had any hardware/desk/convertors that can add complications to the software set up and use?

[Jason]

Hi Dax,

I use Reaper all the time. Its a great program and it just continues to get better but I'm no expert. I wouldn't think i'd be using any more than 50% of its features.

The coolest thing is I can carry the program everywhere I go installed on a usb stick with my plugins on there as well (except the ilok protected ones). Put the usb into any computer (I have a mac and PC version on the stick)and open the program straight of the stick and it works perfectly. It is great up at the school because all there computers are protected and you can't install programs but I can run stright of the stick and recorded all the files to the internal hard drive.

Hope you find someone to help you out. I think you will like Reaper. Very powerfull.

Cheers.

[Drumstruck]

Hi Dax,

+1 on everything that Jason said - if you know your way around any DAW you'll find cross-training in Reaper pretty easy. It installs in minutes - the 32 bit version runs a bit faster than the 64 bit version but, of course, doesn't address as much RAM.

It's not as pretty in the interface as PT but you can configure the skins to look good - couple of hours and you'll know all you need to about that part of Reaper. Some of the GUI screens (e.g. for plugins and configs/preferences settings etc) are a bit bland looking but it still does pretty much everything that the established DAWs do.

There are a myriad of shortcuts - the "experts" on the Reaper forum can help with any of those and the manual is pretty extensive. I'm no expert but use it fairly often (as my 2nd choice DAW after PT). The price is very good too - the trial version is the same as the full version - it just pops up a window after 30 days or so reminding you to pay the (measly) fee to purchase it.

I'd suggest you download and have a play with it ;-).

[Julian Nichols]

After years of paying for every Cubase upgrade, I gave REAPER a spin and would NEVER, in a pink fit, go back to Cubase now. I might not know too much about DAWs and specs and whatnot but it does everything I need, has quite adequate MIDI capabilities and I've just alt-tabbed out of a track I'm working on which has 49 soft synth tracks from MIDI, all with multiple effects, dongles, NI Maschine, etc. No hiccups. I've yet to find a compatability issue with it, although I'm aware a few exist.

The migration from Cubase was dead easy, REAPER makes a lot of sense and doesn't take long at all to get your head around. I just puzzle as to why it never makes the lists of DAWs when you download an effect or soft synth on a manufacturer website - they list 50 squillion DAWs, but never REAPER...

[jkhuri44]

^reaper is an honest company...

thats why. you need satan's help to make lists, etc.

[DwaneHollands]

I use Reaper but as others have said, I'm no expert. I would like to share a few things whiCh you may or may not find useful. These few things took me ages to figure out.

1. If you want to mix through outboard gear, you use ReaInsert. You load the plugin as an instance amd choose the channels out and in from your interface. Depending on your buffer setting you'll need to use its plugin compensation. (for the interface latency etc). i recommend you bypass your eq or comp or any outboard equipment when you do the ping. then engage your outboard. if you do this you will be able to do parrallel processing without that chorusy-phasey effect. i do it as a work process regardless of whether im doing parralell or not.

took me a while to discover that is the best way to work with outboard.

2. working with virtual instrument amd drawing in your modwheel/cc in the midi editor can be a little painful. it's not as fluid as i would like. i find i wrestle with it a lot. it can easily skip areas and make the adjustment coarse. i dinf im always going back and forth trying to fill in the gaps in order to make smoother transitions.

i haven't tried the ReaMidi (name? on ipad cant check right now) plugin properly, which lets you make up to 5 midi cc available to your normal automation lanes. like your volume and pan automation lanes. took me ages to figure out how to use normal automation lanes for modwheel automation etc. ive tested it quickly but havent started working with it yet.

3. takes are cool for running through multiple takes per track. Exploding all the takes to separate tracks is useful for comping. discovered that the other day. pretty cool.

4. folders are cool for grouping quickly. just create a track and shift click the other tracks drag onto the track that you want to make the group.

5. i/o icon is for signal routing , sends and receives. can create a receive from a reverb track backwards to a individual track (which is effectively creating a send from the individual track - just in reverse). handy if your reverbs are down the bottom of a large session and you want to adjust the send level of an individual track. just go to verb track (if youre already there) and adjust the receive level of that track.nice.

Anyway I really do love Reaper and Ive barely scratched the surface of reaper. hope this helps.

[daxliniere]

Hi Dwane,
Thanks a lot of your informative response. Samplitude is one of the programs with many hidden gems, but unfortunately many of them remain hidden.

I'll definitely keep those in mind.

All the best,
Dax.

[DwaneHollands]

No Probs Dax!

If I think of anything else which I think is useful, I'll post it here!

Good luck!

[DwaneHollands]

Found a great free video (intro to a purchased course on reaper) that explains how to navigate all kinds of different ways in reaper.

Seriously I should have watched this ages ago. I hate using the scroll bar. This video is the cure.

The guy has made a very easy to watch video. Great stuff!
http://www.groove3.com/str/popup_vplaye ... 5&sample=Y

[DwaneHollands]

Heaps of tutorials here! This one is a gold mine! Sweet!
http://tutorialsforreaper.com/

[jkhuri44]

if i could make a suggestion to you Dax?

a good way to learn software is to forget about the technical aspects of it...in a way...

the best way to learn anything is to get your hands dirty...download the demo....get a tune you've been mixing, and slap the stems in...and get working...as you would in samplitude...

the process of searching for things u know how to do, and learning how they're done in the new program will teach you everything you need to know.

The internet, over the last few years has really improved to the point where you can even type in specific questions, eg: "how to crossfade in reaper"...and get good answers...

i've been learning to program in Renoise, a tracking program for a good while now, and only recently "worked it out"...i think mainly from getting down and doing something practical, and not just "poking around trying to work it out"...

also, as pointed out previously, Reapers user forum is really exemplary, cant go wrong hanging out there a bit.

[Thirteen]

I have decided to go with Reaper, I am ditching Nuendo after 10 years because Steinberg have such appalling customer relations. Thought about PT as I enjoy using it but I want to get off the roundabout now that I don't record professionally any more, the big companies won't be getting any more of my money. "Engineers" are getting too attached to software crutches anyway, if all of the new plug-ins and add ons that PT, Logic, Cubase have are so fantastic, why aren't we hearing the improvement on the radio? For MIDI I bought an Akai MPC5000 specifically so that am NOT using a PC/Mac as much as possible. For me, keep it simple and about the music, so I am going to work on the MPC and Reaper and see how that goes.

[DwaneHollands]

I 'discovered' another feature which was in Protools but I couldn't figure it out in reaper. I've been thinking about a better workflow for midi orchestration when it comes to lots of parts. 5 instrument groups with 4 divisi parts per group gets a bit hard when your managing it in multiple windows. Command-Tabbing between them and comparing with two displays is painful. Also I can't just use a single track with 16 midi channels since there's about 20 instruments alone with just legato parts. Times that by 5 if you want other articulations.

Anyway I was trying to prioritise what parts I could keep in a single 16 channel midi track. "Maybe I'll keep all the legato strings so I can write violin, with viola, cello and bass legato parts together. But then I won't be able to seamlessly write other articulations. Arghh"

Anyway just before I left protools I discovered you could open multiple midi channels in one viewer. As I remember you can click on a note and it will automatically switch to that midi track and you could add notes in just that track. Anyway I finally stumbled across in reaper the option called, "Open all items in selected tracks in one editor" under the "open items in editor" contextual menu.

It's beautiful!

Just select the tracks you want to write together and select that option! I'm loving it. It means you can choose as many or as few tracks you want to write together so you have ultimate flexibility. Want to write all your Violins I and II divisi parts together quickly! easy.

I started using it on a song the other day and it seriously makes it so much more comfortable to write. You can get a birds eye view of your parts and make better decisions and experiment quicker.

So that's not a Reaper unique feature - but if you're looking at Midi composing I'm sure it will help. Oh, I also just setup that action with a keyboard shortcut "o". I select the tracks and punch "o" and I'm ready to go!

[Chris H]

Thought I would resurrect this thread to see how people have progressed with Reaper. I did my first mix the other day and liked it a lot.
What themes are people working with? The API looked great but i decided to go with Imperial. Works ok on my macbook but i have not gone very deep into it.
I decided to download the 64 bit version but it might limit my plug in choice a bit.

[audioio]

Some might be interested in this:
http://www.protoolerblog.com/2012/07/28/the-reaper-pro-tools-debate-by-kenny-gioia/

[Julian Nichols]

I am still enamoured with it. I have no desire to try anything different, it suits my workflow, and it is very optimised code.

My latest track recorded and mixed in REAPER here : http://www.revenant-cult.com

All done in REAPER except the vocal recording, which was recorded by another TRocker, with his U87 and a few other lovely old heavy things.

That track was 135 channels of soft synths and audio, most running multiple effects, all running Waves NLS (and a fair few of the soft synths were U-He DIVA, a notorious CPU hog). No glitches or lock ups, it was running smoothly.

Don't get me wrong, I'm always looking at improving my sound, but I don't think that a new DAW is high on my list of priorities. I love REAPER.

[Drumstruck]

I have no criticism of Reaper, but when PT9 came out it addressed the hardware independence problem that made me turn to Reaper initially ..... so I stopped using Reaper then.

When PT11 comes out who knows what compatibilities it will bring - may look at Reaper again ... or Samplitude ... (or a HD recorder more likely).

[Kurt]

I've recently started using Reaper as my go to DAW after using Sonar for years.

Going to Reaperx64 will not limit plug-in choice, it can run 32 and 64 bit plugins seamlessly (as does Sonar)