som_c
First thank you NOIZE /Bobby and all for this kind very informative and much needed post.
 
I so badly needed this pointer as I am totally devastated being a Sonar Platinum User who invested a "fortune" from his very meagre amount of earning to buy most of the Cakewalk Products with a hope to earn some extra money from his home studio to meet up the ever increasing medical expenditure. Unfortunately everything ended in smoke. 
 
I am giving Reaper a try. I found this very stable, light weight and highly customizable alternative to Sonar.  
 
Could you kindly suggest how to substitute the premium Pro Channel modules of Sonar ( viz. Concrete Limiter, Console Emulator, Some compressors, the Flyout Eq)? Is there any free Reaper compatible alternative of those, especially the "concrete limiter"? 
 
Regards,
Som
 

Your welcome, I just hope I explained things right. 
 
I'm not sure about a concrete limiter. 
 
Something you can look into, if you haven't already done so, check out the JS plugins, ADD FX and you'll see the "JS" folder with the JS Plugins in it. You can do a TON of stuff with those, although you can download ton's of JS effects from the Reaper Resource page here also : https://stash.reaper.fm/tag/JS-Effects
 
If you are wondering how to install those effects in Reaper here's a link with a Video that shows you how : https://reaperblog.net/2016/02/how-to-install-js-plugins/
 
Not sure about finding alternatives. This may interest you, although I haven't tried it. Code Red Free
http://www.shatteredglassaudio.com/product.php?id=106
 
Pretty good site to find some free vst's is Vst4Free, they have a lot of different ones there.
http://www.vst4free.com/
 
Reaper comes with ReaComp. The Sonitus plugins from Sonar Platinum seem to work fine in Reaper. Not all the Sonitus plugins from Sonar in Reaper show up in the DX folder, some like the Sonitus Gate are listed in the VST category even though on the name it says Sonitusfx Gate (DX). 
 
Something to keep in mind, you can create FX chains easily in Reaper. This tells you how to do that here - 
https://www.audiorecording.me/reaper-fx-chain-tutorial-for-beginners.html
 
If you haven't setup screen sets yet you should checkout this video that shows you how. The reason I mention that is you mentioned the flyout EQ in Sonar Plat. If you create a mix view and add an EQ to the FX bin, you can click on it and it will pop up, but it wont fly out like in Sonar Platinum. 
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dzz3uXI1b2E
 
The way the (x86) plugins load for me were irritating with the extra menu, what I did to get rid of that was select "ADD FX", select "ALL Plugins", and down at the bottom where it says FILTER type in (x86) , this way it will show you all the 32 bit plugins, simply click on one of the FX and press CTRL + A to select all "Not sure about Mac keys", and then while all those (x86) plugins are selected right click and select Run as embedded bridge UI, it tells you out beside it (May not work with all plugins, less crash resilient). So far I haven't had any problems with my (x86) plugins, but I don't use many of them. 
 
Make sure you clear where you typed in FILTER (x86) or none of the other FX will show up until you do. I made that mistake myself. 
 
You should check out this thread about unlocking the AAS VSTI's from Sonar Platinum and the other thread about getting the unlock codes from Overloud for their TH3 Cakewalk Addition, Breverb 2 Cakewalk Edition, ReMatrix Cakewalk edition. I got my codes for those today and followed the instructions and they work fine in Reaper. the 
 
 https://www.overloud.com/news/overloud-welcomes-cakewalk-customers
 
http://forum.cakewalk.com/AAS-Unlocking-SonarTied-Plugins-m3703420.aspx
 
 
I have absolutely nothing to do with Reaper at all, my plan is to continue to use Sonar but have Reaper ready if I need it. The thing is though, I just record my own music and am not a professional. I'm just trying to post some things that might make it easier on others who are thinking about using Reaper. 
 
Happy Holidays!
 
Bobby
 

Serious_Noize!
...
On the "MASTER" bus track you created select "ROUTE" and make sure "MASTER SEND" is checked.
 
After doing that go back to your Folder track and select "ROUTE" and uncheck "MASTER SEND".
 
Next step is to go to both the Child tracks in the folder and select "ROUTE" and make sure that "Parent SEND" is "UNCHECKED".
 
After doing this while still in "ROUTE" select "ADD NEW SEND" and have the child tracks send to the "MASTER BUS" you created earlier. Do that for all the Child tracks you wanted routed through the Bus you created. 
...

Just to avoid someone else read that and think "omg, that is boring...". Fast way (like 5sec) to do this sequence (for any number of tracks in the folder):
1) press "Alt+R" or select  "View/Routing matrix"
2) Click+drag in the first column (with "F"s) throw all child tracks, to disable the send to parent
3) Click+drag in the column with "MASTER" track throw all child tracks, to add sends from all of them
Note: for some reason, "click dragging" is not work for removing these sends... but "Undo" works fine in case you have "painted" on wrong place

Hi, fellas!
 
I recently wrote an article about my experience with the transition from Sonar to Reaper. Also, I shared my config and the theme. As it seems to me, I managed to significantly bring Reaper closer to Sonar - I added many key functions and familiar hotkeys/mouse modifiers/navigations.

There is one BUT. I'm sorry, but the article is completely in Russian, but you can use services like google translate.
http://rmmedia.ru/threads/130181/#post-2183317

Regards, Max

Serious_Noize!

som_c
Is there any free Reaper compatible alternative of those, especially the "concrete limiter"? 

 
I'm not sure about a concrete limiter. 

 
If Concrete Limiter is what it sounds like by it's name, a "BRICKWALL" limiter, then one of the absolute best ones I've found is the totally free "W1", which is a Waves "L1" clone. I use the crap out of the W1 in my projects.
 
http://www.yohng.com/software/w1limit.html
 
A 3rd party comparison of the W1 and L1.
 
http://redfaux.typepad.com/the_redfaux_transmission/2010/01/is-the-free-yohng-w1-limiter-really-a-waves-l1-clone.html
 

cool
There is one BUT. I'm sorry, but the article is completely in Russian, but you can use services like google translate.
http://rmmedia.ru/threads/130181/#post-2183317

Nice explanatiton and mod of theme.
But I have decided to stay in the default theme, at least for the beginning... to not be lost

azslow3

Serious_Noize!
...
On the "MASTER" bus track you created select "ROUTE" and make sure "MASTER SEND" is checked.
 
After doing that go back to your Folder track and select "ROUTE" and uncheck "MASTER SEND".
 
Next step is to go to both the Child tracks in the folder and select "ROUTE" and make sure that "Parent SEND" is "UNCHECKED".
 
After doing this while still in "ROUTE" select "ADD NEW SEND" and have the child tracks send to the "MASTER BUS" you created earlier. Do that for all the Child tracks you wanted routed through the Bus you created. 
...

Just to avoid someone else read that and think "omg, that is boring...". Fast way (like 5sec) to do this sequence (for any number of tracks in the folder):
1) press "Alt+R" or select  "View/Routing matrix"
2) Click+drag in the first column (with "F"s) throw all child tracks, to disable the send to parent
3) Click+drag in the column with "MASTER" track throw all child tracks, to add sends from all of them
Note: for some reason, "click dragging" is not work for removing these sends... but "Undo" works fine in case you have "painted" on wrong place

Thanks for the information. I'm no expert on Reaper by no means, I completely forgot about the Routing Matrix option, I'm relearning some of this stuff myself. So what you shared really simplified things for me. 
I hope others share tips here, that's the whole purpose of this thread, to help anyone who's trying to switch from Sonar to Reaper. 
 
Here's a good video on using the Routing Matrix with examples for anyone interested : 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFAW1bjMvds
 
Thanks again! 
 
Bobby
 
 
 
  
 
 
 

the_user_formally_known_as_glennbo

Serious_Noize!

som_c
Is there any free Reaper compatible alternative of those, especially the "concrete limiter"? 

 
I'm not sure about a concrete limiter. 

 
If Concrete Limiter is what it sounds like by it's name, a "BRICKWALL" limiter, then one of the absolute best ones I've found is the totally free "W1", which is a Waves "L1" clone. I use the crap out of the W1 in my projects.
 
http://www.yohng.com/software/w1limit.html
 
A 3rd party comparison of the W1 and L1.
 
http://redfaux.typepad.com/the_redfaux_transmission/2010/01/is-the-free-yohng-w1-limiter-really-a-waves-l1-clone.html
 

I wasn't sure about the Concrete name myself, my first thought was "Brick wall" but I'm no pro and haven't used much in the way of limiters. Although recently I started using Sonar's Adaptive Limiter and liked it for the few things I tried it on.
 
I've piddled with this FREE VST called LoudMax, it seems to work pretty good depending on your needs. 
https://loudmax.blogspot.com/
 
Here's a video review of LoudMax. 
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KN5oUzEZsks
 
 
 

It's not Melodyne, but you can tune vocals in reaper with it's built in ReaTune. That being said, Melodyne Essentials for those of you who have Sonar Platinum will work in Reaper, it just doesn't have the ARA. 
 
Although, ARA is coming soon to Reaper, how soon I have no idea. Here's the announcement for that thread :
https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=200297
 
As for tuning vocals using Reapers ReaTune, here's how you do that. Make no mistake, it can do a whole lot, not just for vocals either, but it isn't as easy to use as Melodyne for pitch correction, but it does work great. 
 
Here's a video on using it : 
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCb313W6yf0
 

If you don't already know about it, THIS GOES FOR ANY DAW. 
 
For those of you who used the BT Stereo Imager in Sonar, you know by now the BT plugins wont work in any other daw.
 
Well, Here's honestly a better free alternative to that plug in that you can get now from Izotope. It's Izotope Stereo Imager and it works great!
 
https://www.izotope.com/en/products/master-and-deliver/ozone/ozone-imager.html
 

Reaper is becoming an interesting option. Thanks for all the info!
 
The Melodyne topic is definitely one point of interest. So if you don't have Melodyne, you'll need to buy it or will there be a release of Reaper that includes it I wonder.


How do you guys find Reaper for editing normal wav files compared to Sonar?
Thanks.