Didn't read thru the entire thread (but in case it hasn't been mentioned)...
ARA is coming to Reaper.
Those making extensive use of Melodyne can put Reaper back on their short-list.

Reaper is already advanced in communications, they have powerful web based interface and OSC/MIDI script based engine, in addition to direct binary API and some projects with it. I mean, unlike with Sonar, there is a strong "concurrence" to AZ Controller, which exists for years. But I have interesting ideas how to advance AZ Controller from where it is now, also its already existing strong side is "interactivity", which I do not see in other solutions.

Aha - is that where you disappeared to Jim? Makes sense. Been demo'ing Reaper again after a few years absence and holy freholi, is it looking great. I am seriously impressed...

If scook and azslow will be using REAPER as a primary DAW, I guess I'd better follow their lead.

I agree Reaper is an awesome DAW that just keeps getting better. As a RX user, I was excited to see them add spectral editing earlier this year - and now ARA! Lot's of resources available such as SWS Extensions that allow functionality like region playlists for working out arrangements. I agree the default theme isn't much to look at but there are tons of additional themes available - personally I like the Logic based themes.

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

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!

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...

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.
 

 
 

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.

the_user_formally_known_as_glennbo
Well I couldn't resist creating a NEW account here. My original one got nuked because of my singing the praises of REAPER!
 
I jumped ship and became an avid REAPER user after Sonar 5, which I beta tested for. In my most honest opinion, REAPER blows pretty much any other DAW software to pieces, and I ain't saying that so other folks will validate me buying it!
 
Some things I *LOVE* about it are:
 
Variable speed control that works just like a reel-to-reel. Slow the song down, and hit that highest note without cracking your voice or going falsetto.
 
A track is a track is a track.  There is no such thing as an instrument track or an audio track. Any track can record midi or audio, and if you want to be obtuse, you could even record both on one track. You can do crazy stuff like have multiple audio clips, all at different sample rates and bit depths, and it will let you get away with it.
 
More cool things it does outside the box are, a single track can have up to 64 audio pipelines. What that does for you is let you route the audio that you will hear, vs audio that will be used for side chain functions, or other totally bizarre stuff.
 
You can stack multiple softsynths into the FX bin and they ALL play so if you want to create a huge and complex instrument, it's a piece of CAKE.
 
The routing capabilities are farther out than you can probably think, and to lace up routing from one thing to another, you simply drag from the send of one thing to the receive of another, and again with more individual pipelines than you'll ever think of using.
 
The audio engine is probably the most efficient one on the planet, and Justin even compiles parts of it with older, non-bloated Borland C++ to achieve the least CPU hit imaginable. 
 
You can copy and paste envelopes, and the envelopes ACTUALLY WORK, unlike some other DAW software!!!
 
You can scale the entire UI up or down (every element) to sit on your screen well. I have an older net book and used to record my band playing live with it, and with it's limited screen res, I scaled REAPER down to 90%.
 
A track folder by default is also a bus, which I use extensively for grouping vocals, drums, and other things. You can put folders into other folders and create a complex hierarchies. You can also drag-drop around a folder, if you want to bypass the folder as a sub, but I can't imagine why you would want to do that.
 
In closing I will say that if you try REAPER, you are going to be intimidated, and that it has a STEEP learning curve, but that is to be expected with a piece of software that has almost infinite possibilities. Don't think that you can spend an hour or two with it, and make and educated decision about it. If you try it, I STRONGLY suggest you get on the forum and ASK questions, as well as watch some of the many videos there are for it.
 
Sorry to hear that you guys ship has abandoned you.  :-/
 
Peace
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Glennbo                      

I have to say, this sounds promising. The lack of ARA integration is a shame, but if I need to use Melodyne I can just launch the standalone version and edit the tracks in that. I am seriously considering taking the plunge and purchasing a licence for Reaper. I will definitely download the demo and give it a try. 
 

Paul P
The 60$ price tag is way below the competition's regular price.  Why ?  Put another way, if Reaper is so great and so cheap, why consider Studio 1, Cubase, etc. at all ?

Studio 1, Samplidute, etc. ... - $150. But exclude the price of all bundled with them softsynth and most FXes. Then check "education" like prices ($60 for Reaper is reduces prices). Do you still think that Reaper is "so cheap", when compared with other "core" DAWs?

There are a few reasons that REAPER is only $60.  One of them is the obvious one. They only include staple plugins, and nothing at all 3rd party. Initially I thought the included plugins were basic, because well, they *look* pretty basic, but I kept reading people raving about them in the REAPER forum, so I eventually gave them a fair evaluation. The EQ with spectrum display was the first one I really started using on a regular basis, but as time went by I found that the compressor, multi-band compressor, gate, convolution reverb and others were much higher quality than their deceptive look would have you believe.
 
A second reason that REAPER is so inexpensive is that the company Cockos who makes it, do no advertising, have no marketing department coming up with cool names for things like "Blast Off 64". The names their plugins get are lame and boring, like ReaComp and ReaEQ. Nobody got a big paycheck coming up with those names! Basically, their overhead costs are extremely low, so they can stay in business without charging more for their software.
 
I know there have been some folks on the main Sonar forum who have claimed that Cockos can do what they do because the founder, "Justin Frankel" is a sooper millionaire from back when he wrote "Winamp" and it became wildly popular, finally selling it to AOL for millions of dollars, but that really isn't the case. When Justin first had Winamp out, it was based on the very same sales model. Download it, use it, pay a very small fee to keep using it, although it won't quit working even if you don't, but will tell you that you really should pay for it. That model of fair pricing rapidly turned Winamp's modest $10 donation fee for a legit license into a $10,000 per month income for him. REAPER is based on that very same fair price model. If you are using the software in a professional environment AND grossing $20,000 or more per year, then REAPER is $250, but if you are grossing less than $20,000 per year, even if you use it in a professional environment, then you only have to pay $60 for a legit license, just like someone using it totally for their own enjoyment.
 
The last reason that REAPER is only $60 (or $250 if commercial license) is that Justin wants to get the software in as many people's hands as possible, not because he wants to make a killing in profits, but because he wants the world to have high quality software in which people can create music with. He doesn't need the money, but does have some payroll to meet with guys like Schwa, so his goal is to make REAPER sustainable, but not compromised by profit goals. He uses the software himself and sometimes posts bizarre things you can do with it, that you would never think a DAW could do, and both he and Schwa are very hands on with the forum and the general direction of REAPER.
 
The company mission statement pretty much sums it up.  https://www.cockos.com/index.php
 

kitekrazy1
I still use Winamp 2.

So do I!
 
I kept the last version made by Justin/Nullsoft before AOL got their grubby little hands on it.   <g>
 
I use it for most stereo audio file formats, and still love how I can run it docked unobtrusively as a thin bar to the top right corner of  Windows, and still have enough controls visible and clickable to run it.