Reaper updated to 5.1

JohnKenn
 
Still runs rings around Sonar if you are a keyboard player, 
 

JohnKenn
 
Still runs rings around Sonar if you are a keyboard player,

JohnKenn
Well,
 
5.1 was short lived. 5.11 pre is on the books with new fixes.

JohnKenn
Kenny,
 
Thanks for calling me on this. Should be more responsible and back up idle claims with facts. Here’s my opinion. Also, like Bob said, it has been a good year for Sonar. It has been a good year for Reaper. Our tools are really getting good.
 
For audio processing, I can’t see any advantage in either program as far as plugging in and recording. It’s a tossup except maybe Reaper is a bit cleaner in the management of plugs and in the simpler consolidation of the track layout. The GUI is irritating to some, me included. There is the option of using the ver 4 interface which works well. There are a ton of elegant skins (and some not so elegant). Care has to be taken choosing a skin because some functions may be missing in the user created group.
 
The two big turnoffs to Reaper are the complexity or at times hidden nature of some of the functions, but these can be set to control keys (once you find the function...).
 
Biggest mindset shift is the lack of a midi or an audio track. This goes against all convention and just seems too heathen at first glance. Here is where the strength lies however.
 
The unisex track design did not come about clean at first and it caused brick wall failures in certain applications. These problems were only slowly worked out for years across several versions until it is in an efficient, solid working state at present.
 
An example of keyboard setup:
 
Double click to add a track. Choose the input, midi or audio. This defines what the track is working with, not the identity of the track itself. Because you have only one volume slider on a track, this controls the output. Note that in a dedicated midi or audio design, the function of the track volume may or may not work depending on whether the vsti responds to midi CC data, thus in Sonar we see that sometimes the track volume and pan modulates these functions and sometimes not, thus having to resort to the separate audio slider. This is not the fault of Sonar, but the loose protocols for vsti creation.
 
You got a track and want to add a synth. Drag it in, say a piano. You want reverb on the piano, drag it in. Then you want to have strings on top of the piano. Drag it in. Add some horns and a bass. Drag them in. Everything in series. Add final effects. The Reaper intensity knob for each synth added is the volume control for a synth and the wet/dry balance for an effect. Very handy.
 
Lax vst protocol also does not require midi thru, and since Reaper’s synth chains are in series, one synth can block the midi flow. Thus a routing option to parallel the data stream from the input so all synths play. It takes less than a minute to set up rich and complex sounds not requiring templates and cloning multiple tracks. There are advantages to multiple cloned tracks, but the Reaper model allows you to get to the task and have almost everything accomplished on a single track with a single volume control, very quickly.
 
Demo version is free without limitations. Keyboard players should download the program and experiment. After overcoming the initial mindset that the approach is just plain wrong, significant advantages quickly become apparent. Like said, Sonar and Reaper can communicate via Rewire tapping into the strengths of each. There are very few projects I can't accomplish with this setup.
 
John