Hey Beep,I couldn't work out Reaper 4[at ALL!],when it was first released,your certainly not alone on that  one man!
Bob


Edit
I too asked Danny D. about Cubase a little while ago,man he gives the best answers!

I do eventually plan to learn Reaper,just because only knowing one Daw,could be limiting oneself.but whoa I did not have a single clue.....third try luckier I hope, Cheers

  Hiya, Bob. How ya' been? Good to know it wasn't just me. Hopefully they are still allowing the full version to be downloaded for demo so I can really poke around at it for a while first. Not that $60 is a huge expenditure but obviously if it just isn't gonna be the right fit I'd rather put that in the wishlist jar. I'm curious what the "pro" perspective on Reaper is these days as far as respectability in the industry. Again one of the reasons Cubase is appealing to me is that name recognition. All that seems silly to me as a long time "starving" artist who just wants crap that works but I would like to be able to play with the big boys without getting shut out due to some of the prejudices out there in regards to the DAW one uses. I'm just glad people have started realizing that there are other acceptable/respectable options other than Pro Tools. I've never even used it but from everything I've read, the cost, the limitations and the attitude of both the company and it's blind followers really makes me want to avoid it at all costs. 10 years ago and even more recently than that it seemed you couldn't even get your foot in the door without it. I don't wish the company any particular ill will but it sure is nice to finally see them having to deal with some competition. I figure they'll either become a better company for it or fold.  

Anyway, good to see you, Bob. Cheers.

Beepster

Hope some of this helps. :)

Right on, Danny. Perhaps I should start thinking Reaper for now if it's as stable as you say it is and save myself some cash. I like the idea of Reaper but I guess I have somehow adopted the silly attitude of "you get what you pay for" even though I of all people, being the stingy bleepstard I am, should know better. I had the demo installed breifly before I picked up Sonar but I couldn't for the life of me figure it out... however that before I had even built my system and hadn't started learning all about the way modern DAWs do stuff. I'm sure it would be much easier now that I've cut my teeth a bit with Sonar.

Hi Beepster,

The Big R is rock solid. I've already recorded 4 songs in it. Not a single hiccup, glitch, crash, snaggle ... nothing. I had a VST crash once, it reset it, without even closing the program, restarted it, and I kept on working, in a matter of seconds. I'm even using some of the VST's that come with Sonar, and I don't know if it's the 'placebo' effect, but I swear they work better. IE ... PX-64 has this problem where you have to have your input from the track set relatively high before modules in it will kick in. That doesn't happen in The Big R. VX-64 ... I don't see the problem with the Delay setting the time to 1 Second after re-opening a project. To me, there is a night and day difference in the way Guitar Rig 4 sounds. It's less harsh, more 'realistic' sounding.

The main thing you have to remember about it is, there are no buses. Which is actually kind of nice. You add a track, and it's either a bus or a track, depending on how you decide to work with it.

The one thing I miss most in it is there is no Step Sequencer like Sonar. Man I love that thing in Sonar. I can make the cheesiest of drum samples sound real with it. PRV works great. There was '0' learning curve in it for me.

As much as I love The Big R though, I still keep coming back to Sonar. It's a comfort/familiarity thing. I've been using Cakewalk software for so many years that it's just hard to not use it. But ... The Big R sure is nice man. Throw Session Drummer 3 in it, Guitar Rig 4, Sonitus, all the 64 Series VST's ... and Melda's Free suite of VST's ... you're set.

And don't forget about Theme's. You can create your own or download them and make it look almost any way you want.

Bub...that is the one thing I love about Reaper...the themes. 

...but I also love X2....AAARRRAGGGH!!!

The main thing you have to remember about it is, there are no buses. Which is actually kind of nice. You add a track, and it's either a bus or a track, depending on how you decide to work with it.

Wait... what? How does that work? I've been using busses extensively these days and that would be a major loss considering all the layering I do. Hmm... I'll have to look into that.

Now about the VST/effects/synths... I'm curious, how many of Sonar's effects/synths crossover to Reaper? I know obviously the PC (which would be a major loss for me as I use it a LOT especially for compression and tube sat) is out but what about the other stuff?

And I've seen people mention using rewire to get Reaper inside of Sonar (or maybe I just dreamed that... lol). That would be kind of cool to get at the PC modules but it seems to me that might cause a LOT of glitches. Have you tried anything like that yet?

Cheers, Bub.

I tend to agree with Danny.

The staff view works for me, as does the rest of X2a.

Having built my own workstations since 1987, I often wonder about brand name boxes.  I pick and choose my products very carefully.  That does not happen in a pre built box, no matter the name.  My experience with Sonar (before that Pro Audio for DOS then Pro Audio for Windows) is that one part can make a big difference in performance.

I just built my newest box with a 4Ghz Quad chip and 32 Gb ram.  I think back to my only computer I purchased (IBM AT with 528Kb ram and a brand new 286 chip in 1985) and what I paid.

The software was DOS and we were lucky to get anything that worked.

And I'm surprised SD3 works in Reaper. I thought that was hardcoded into Sonar. As far as "themes" I've never really paid much attention to that stuff. If I can see what's on the screen and it doesn't look like a total pile of barf I'm cool with whatever is being displayed. Maybe I'll get more particular about that kind of thing as I go along but I haven't changed a single anything in Sonar. I don't even bother with Icons... although I may start as some of my track names tend to get too long to view.

FCCfirstclass

I pick and choose my products very carefully.  That does not happen in a pre built box, no matter the name.

You need to take another look in to that ...

That's one of the #1 reasons to buy a pre built box from a place like HP or Dell. A lot of times the internal components are custom made to be compatible so they don't have issues.

If you buy a 'bundle' of parts from places like Newegg ... then yes, I agree ... there's absolutely no testing and you are taking your chances. But I wouldn't hesitate to buy an off the shelf box from HP or Dell, especially now days with processing power being what it is.

I played with the staff view a bit and found it to be buggy as many people on here have mentioned but more importantly for my purposes (teaching, transcribing for guitar) it just doesn't cut it. It's too cumbersome, limited and just doesn't look the way I want. I also can't for the life of me figure out what the heck they were thinking when they designed the chord diagram boxes. It's like they're a bad acid trip. The fretboard view is cool but WAY different than how I would have implemented it and it's essentially useless as far as conveying a map of the neck for keys, chords etc. I've been doing all that in MS notpad because I have yet to find something that gives me the options I want. Even Guitar Pro doesn't allow me to convey things properly and I find it to be a bit of a bear to work with. It also screwed me up the trying to plot out modes based on standard theory. It was forcing a double flat on me when it should have been a natural and would let me fix it. Ruined a whole days work. I don't like programs that FORCE decisions like that on me... especially when they are totally wrong. I've been meaning to check out Finale Notepad to see if that will cover some of my needs. Can't afford the really high end stuff right now and frankly I'd rather write my own program if I can ever learn how to code.

Alright... now I'm just blathering. Sorry for the threadjack. 

Beepster

The main thing you have to remember about it is, there are no buses. Which is actually kind of nice. You add a track, and it's either a bus or a track, depending on how you decide to work with it.

Wait... what? How does that work? I've been using busses extensively these days and that would be a major loss considering all the layering I do. Hmm... I'll have to look into that.

You can route any track anywhere. So you can label something as 'Guitar Bus', and route your tracks to it. Sonar won't allow you to route a track to a track. 

Now about the VST/effects/synths... I'm curious, how many of Sonar's effects/synths crossover to Reaper? I know obviously the PC (which would be a major loss for me as I use it a LOT especially for compression and tube sat) is out but what about the other stuff?

Most of them. That weird VC64 dual compressor thingy doesn't work. None of the new ones work, Breverb, TH2. If you bought the full versions I'm sure they would, but the Lite ones that come with Sonar don't. True-Piano's doesn't work, but you can always load Sound Center or Dim Pro and use one of it's piano's. Pentagon, Z3ta, TTS-1, Rapture, Dim Pro ... all work. I love Pentagon. I was messing with it last night.

And I've seen people mention using rewire to get Reaper inside of Sonar (or maybe I just dreamed that... lol). That would be kind of cool to get at the PC modules but it seems to me that might cause a LOT of glitches. Have you tried anything like that yet?

I haven't figured out that ReWire thing yet, but I imagine I don't need it if I've gotten by without it for so many years. :)

I'm getting a little uncomfortable talking about this to be honest. I feel like I'm persuading people to go to The Big R, and that's not the case. I love, but I love Sonar too. If I could get a fully functional DAW with Sonar on it, I wouldn't even consider anything else. Right now, The Big R is fully functional.

Keep in mind, yeah, you'll lose V-vocal, but Melda Free comes with an excellent pitch correction ... free. I accidentally set it to give that digital (what do they call it T-Pain) effect on an old country song the other night and I LOVED it. It just works on everything.