Now that there's a break...  I'm dl'ding the Mixcraft Pro 8 to check it out.   This is the first DAW that I'm looking at since Sonar went down.  I'd like to see any opinions and comparisons of the Mixcraft Pro 8 vs Reaper from posters.
 
I started with Acid 2.0 in the 90's and still keep a newer version of it for old Acid mixes.  Migrated to Cubase then got frustrated with the work flow in ver 4.  Got Reaper and still use it today as a backup.  Used Reason for a few years, then got Sonar.  I plan to keep using SPLAT until it dies or I find a good DAW to replace it down the road.  Thinking about Cubase 95 for now but not in a hurry, because it is a pro DAW in looks and performance. 

Soundwise,
 
The guys you mention are heavy hitters for sure. Main reason for you to consider Reaper is if it does what you need it to do. Otherwise and if not, cast it to the wind and move on in the search. The learning curve is way outside the defective model of what we think a DAW has to do, which is why some abort after an hour because it doesn't behave like ProTools.
 
Also thank you for a past tip on AmpLion as a guitar processor. Made me open up the program and realize what a powerhouse it is.
 
John

scottfa
My biggest concern is that Justin gers bored( or something worse happens) with Repear..... Am i in the same boat as i am in now with Sonar in a few months/years?

Not likely. Unlike most products, reaper did not start off trying to recoup invesrment money. Reaper was started in good financial shape. It does not have near the level of licensing fees to pay third parties as most DAWs.

the_user_formally_known_as_glennbo
My kid has a bunch of your albums and picks some of the songs out on piano.  I told him you were checking out REAPER and have been using Sonar to produce your albums.  He's a computer geek and uses both Sonar and REAPER, and has been playing around with the native Linux version of REAPER lately.   :-)

Well that's nice to hear! Where did he hear my work I wonder? I'm guessing the Broken Saints soundtrack... In which case I might even have had some contact with him over the years! Yes, much of it was done in Sonar, though the earliest stuff (Passage) was done in Cubase - like, back when it was midi-only, driving a Kurzweil K2000. Now I feel old!

subtlearts

the_user_formally_known_as_glennbo
My kid has a bunch of your albums and picks some of the songs out on piano.  I told him you were checking out REAPER and have been using Sonar to produce your albums.  He's a computer geek and uses both Sonar and REAPER, and has been playing around with the native Linux version of REAPER lately.   :-)

Well that's nice to hear! Where did he hear my work I wonder? I'm guessing the Broken Saints soundtrack... In which case I might even have had some contact with him over the years! Yes, much of it was done in Sonar, though the earliest stuff (Passage) was done in Cubase - like, back when it was midi-only, driving a Kurzweil K2000. Now I feel old!

My kid was over today and told me it was Broken Saints how he heard of you.  He is an avid gamer, so I showed him this interview with Wilbert Roget II, who uses REAPER to do orchestral compositions for movies and games, and he was pretty impressed, because he was already familiar with the music from WWII Call of Duty.
 
https://reaperblog.net/2017/11/codwwii_w_roget/
 

Everything is green in the new world, till you live there for a day...
 
https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=16432&highlight=monitor
 
Ok, it was a tradition. I like traditions. I never was in an old studio, but now I remember pressing Record on a cassette recorder to activate input monitoring... I guess there is some technical reason, but I do not believe it can not be solved.
 
I that really THE ONLY way to enable input monitoring in Reaper?
I mean simple input monitoring for MIDI... by "Record arm"+"Monitor record"+"Record: disable" ???
I am really confused now...

JohnKenn
Soundwise,
 
The guys you mention are heavy hitters for sure. Main reason for you to consider Reaper is if it does what you need it to do. Otherwise and if not, cast it to the wind and move on in the search. The learning curve is way outside the defective model of what we think a DAW has to do, which is why some abort after an hour because it doesn't behave like ProTools.

 
I do like REAPER, just don't consider it mature. I know it's very powerful, probably more so than other DAWs on the market. It just reminds me of Linux which is also very powerful and tweakable but has too many flavors to be just an efficient working environment and not a DIY kind of thing.
So my hopes are that people with expertise in both audio production and software development may help move things in the right direction.
 

 
Also thank you for a past tip on AmpLion as a guitar processor. Made me open up the program and realize what a powerhouse it is.
 
John

You are welcome, John! I discovered AmpLion by pure accident and tested it thoroughly simply out of curiosity. It has some great sounds, albeit the interface is dated and buggy. Sorry for the OT.

azslow3
Everything is green in the new world, till you live there for a day...
 
https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=16432&highlight=monitor
 
Ok, it was a tradition. I like traditions. I never was in an old studio, but now I remember pressing Record on a cassette recorder to activate input monitoring... I guess there is some technical reason, but I do not believe it can not be solved.
 
I that really THE ONLY way to enable input monitoring in Reaper?
I mean simple input monitoring for MIDI... by "Record arm"+"Monitor record"+"Record: disable" ???
I am really confused now...

Wow, I remember reading that thread almost ten years ago when it was going on!!!
 
You would only have to disable record *if* for some weird reason you hit record and didn't want it to record.
 
I just setup a 16 track orchestral template for Kontakt in REAPER, and have 16 different orchestral instruments assigned in Kontakt. When I insert that track template, and hit some keys on my midi keyboard, nothing plays until I hit record on one of the 16  tracks, at which point I am both hearing that instrument, and ready to record that instrument, and it doesn't matter if I click on something else. That track is ready to record and I know it because I can hear myself through it.
 
I remember losing perfect takes a few times with Sonar because I thought I was in record ready, when I really only had input monitoring turned on. That has NEVER happened to me in REAPER, and I actually remember thinking it was a more logical way for a DAW to work when I first started using REAPER.
 
My old 1/2" Tascam 8-Track reel-to-reel worked like that, where I had to press record on a track before I would hear any sound from my main mixer through it, so REAPER's monitoring seems completely normal to me. The mixer on top of the deck on the left was for monitoring, and had 8 direct feeds coming from the tape deck. If no track on the tape deck was in record ready, then no sound from the main mixer would be in the monitors.
 
You could play the tape regardless if any track was in record ready, and you would always hear that, but you would never hear any sound coming from the main mixer until a track was in record ready, and that's exactly how REAPER works.
 

 
 

the_user_formally_known_as_glennbo
I remember losing perfect takes a few times with Sonar because I thought I was in record ready, when I really only had input monitoring turned on. That has NEVER happened to me in REAPER, and I actually remember thinking it was a more logical way for a DAW to work when I first started using REAPER.

You can not start recording in Sonar till you arm. In Reaper you also can press play button instead of Rec and so do not record what you have thought. And there is still the case of "Arm:yes" and "Record:disable"...
 
EDIT: for clarity
 
Up to now, what I have seen in Reaper was logical, consistent and flexible. That feature at not at some points.
There is "Record Arm", "Record monitor", "Record" and "Input". Many combinations are allowed but do not have much sense for me ( "Input:None", "Record:input", "Arm:yes";  "Input:MIDI All", "Record:input (force stereo)", "Arm:yes") other are "exotic"
("Input:MIDI All", "Record:audio/midi", "Monitor:Off", "Arm:yes"). So 4 different sets of options to influence what should happened with the input and recording, many combinations of which make no sense but rather simple wish is FORBIDDEN by design. If I am allowed to "record nothing" I expect that I am also allowed to "just listen the input" without arming.
 
To make it clear. That is not a show stopper. In general I LIKE the way this part of routing is implemented in Reaper and it covers/simplify much more use cases then Sonar approach. That is why I have not noticed any inconvenience in my tests before.
 
I just do not like to see something is "Armed" if I have no intention to record. F.e. if some track(s) are for "play along", I do not want see them as "armed" nor as "auto armed".
 
I would prefer to have everything the way it is, but I would like to see. "Input monitor" IN ADDITION to what is there.
Can be:
a) just one extra "Input monitor" button, with an option of "auto on when track is selected". But yet another button/options set does not sound as a nice proposal... so
b) a possibility to switch "Record monitor" into "Input monitor" mode. I do not see any reason when both are required in parallel. Note that "Record monitor" echo much more than just the input (since it is possible to record not only the input). All other signals are enabled by default, so Parent get everything from its children, sends are working (obviously) without arming anything. So why not allow normal hardware inputs routing without arming?
 
My conclusion: current implementation assumes any external signals are for RECORDING only. My wish is to allow them for PLAYBACK as well (as is the case for all internal signals).
 

If what you are really after is the behavior like Sonar where the midi track with focus lets you monitor that track, you can achieve pretty similar functionality in REAPER.

If you multi-select a group of tracks, click one of the end tracks, then hold shift and click select the other end of the range of tracks. This will get a bunch of tracks all selected together.

Then right click any of the now selected tracks and click the option "Automatic Record-Arm When Selected". This will set all the currently selected tracks with that option.

Now just clicking on one of those tracks will turn on monitoring for it (and yes, it puts that track into Record-Arm too), and clicking on a different track with that option set, will take the current one out of Record-Arm, and put the new track that has focus into Record-Arm.

I just tried it on my 16 track Kontakt orchestral setup, and from what I remember of Sonar 5 when I was using it, the behavior seems pretty similar. Click on track with trumpets, play some keys on my midi keyboard, I hear the trumpets. Click on the track with oboe, play some keys, I hear oboe, Etc. Additionally, if I were to hit record, I am ready to record the part I am hearing, which I personally see as a good thing.