pulled the trigger - friendly advice

[hevok]

Hi,

I started using/learning Reaper during the Covid-19 lockdown back in March with the free license that was available (great marketing move there ;-)). I was pleasantly surprised for the most part: light, versatile, extremely powerful. However, I stuck to another DAW for its user friendliness which - in my humble opinion - Reaper is lacking.

Recently I've bought a few hardware synths which gave me a headache in my main DAW as it doesn't support NRPN MIDI. I just found out that Reaper handles NRPN just fine and pulled the trigger on buying a Reaper license since that is a big deal to me.

I'm relatively new to Reaper but my advice to the developers would be: consolidate what is there in a more user friendly package. I might be wrong but I assume that many people don't need all the advanced features Reaper has and it just clutters the screen and menu's. And some features could just be better (mid/side editing a track among others, really overly complex).

I've worked with Bitwig and Studio One. Anyone who used these will know what I mean.

To be clear: I don't want Reaper to be dumbed down, I think it just might be a good idea to consolidate/streamline the bread-and-butter functionality to the front, and all the details/advanced features in the back, but still there for those who need it.

Best regards,
H.

[heda]

welcome !
you can customize all the menus and buttons to include only the functions you want.
yes I think I have seen several times requests of a REAPER configuration for newbies or educational for kids with only essential features while you learn the basics. definitely possible to do but I'm not sure if someone has already done it.

[Fergler]

A menu cleanup would be really awesome, indeed.

[domzy]

Originally Posted by heda

welcome !
you can customize all the menus and buttons to include only the functions you want.
yes I think I have seen several times requests of a REAPER configuration for newbies or educational for kids with only essential features while you learn the basics. definitely possible to do but I'm not sure if someone has already done it.

i think the problem might be deciding what are essential features?

[Dr Bob]

I've always thought that some way of presenting features/menus etc at various "use levels" would be useful and also interesting as another "selling point" for Reaper. Presenting it for example in 4 categories
e.g.
basic/novice/advanced/super-user (rm -rf ./*)?

Of course, selecting what goes in what level would be the big issue/arguing point. Once you hit a point of use where the thing you need is in the next level, you simply switch the interface to show the next level ...

Mind you, once you get into the "mindset" of Reaper - ie forget everything you used to know - it works great - main rule "always right-click" and remember it's screen context sensitive.

Finally, never forget to ask here if you are stuck ...

... and finally, finally, remember "There's no such thing as a difficult question. Only ones you don't know the answer to"!

dB

[Beat Machine]

I can relate to your predicament ...
Im still in counseling from issues that came up when I was a "noob",. (not to mention hostile users)

its been 4yrs w reaper and Im still "setting it up"

The really unfortunate thing is there are great advances done by third parties which arnt advertized or even generally know about

check out groove tool, snapshots and group folder editing
1500 actions are "consolidated" in reapack

[ivansc]

Hevok: There are already two simplified versions of Reaper offered on here, one of which has been available for a couple of years or so.

Have a look in the newbies section. Try them both and see if either version appeals.
I use the easy way. Only use the bits in Reaper that I actually need, rather than learning every arcane possibility.
Works for me.
Mostly because I now use key commands as much as, if not more than the menus.

P.S. Completely forgot to say welcome to the forums!

[Beat Machine]

check this build out,.

https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=225041

hope that helps
let us know what you think

[pipelineaudio]

Originally Posted by domzy

i think the problem might be deciding what are essential features?

times one billion

[gkurtenbach]

Originally Posted by pipelineaudio

times one billion

Yup. I was a professional user interface designer for 30 years. Many folks don't realize a large part of the perception of "easy to use" is what you are used to. So when you go to a new app, and it does not work the same as the old one, it's really frustrating. This is because it's a learning phase. So the key to understanding this is that learning is really aided when you can re-use your skills from domain to another. For example, the original poster wants Reaper to work like Studio One because he is skilled with that UI. Sure there are some basic ways of interacting with computers which if you are not consistent with will make it seem software is hard to use. But again, those basics are things we have learned into skills.

So ease of use is skill transfer. A good strategy is to provide expert users of one app a guide on how the things they are used to map into the app they are trying to learn. Again, a guide just shows you how to transfer your skills from a familiar app to the new one. I recall when I switched from Sonar to Reaper I found a write-up on how to do X in Sonar in Reaper and it was really helpful.

I used to design UI for 3D CAD apps--which are really complicated and difficult to make easy to use. We would do tons of user testing and the old joke was "let me guess, they expected it to work like PhotoShop". Jokes aside, people were just logically trying to transfer their skills in photoshop to this new domain. What was a little bit more comical was sometimes they would explain how "natural" Photoshop worked. Yeah, the playing violin seems natural once you get used to it too!

[mschnell]

Very wise words !


But - other than real experts - those who consider themselves "pro" are not inclined to take a look at any type of "guide", as they are too important to dedicate any amount of their precious time to such nonsense.

-Michael

[gkurtenbach]

Originally Posted by mschnell

Very wise words !


But - other than real experts - those who consider themselves "pro" are not inclined to take a look at any type of "guide", as they are too important to dedicate any amount of their precious time to such nonsense.

-Michael

You are right--many peoples first experience with a new app is just to try it. In the UI biz we call this "first contact". If they don't have a good first experience ("first contact" is bad) they will probably not adopt the software.

Ironically, you will see UI designers try to deal with first contact with "welcome to" interactive guides the first a user runs an app. Unfortunately, these are generally ignored. Better strategies are to make an app's functions visible, have tool tips, etc.

There's a whole science behind good UI design.

[Sarasota_FOH]

I have a portable version in which I've setup a few custom layouts (mainly for my work flow)... It's setup as evaluation copy because I'll often setup friends with it who express interest in Reaper - you'd have to enter your registration... I could put it up on file host and post link - but - I'm not sure if that's alright with Cockos or the developers of the themes used in it. That said, I'd have to wait to hear from Cockos and other senior members here before I'd consider dropping a link to it publicly.

[JamesPeters]

Originally Posted by Sarasota_FOH

I have a portable version in which I've setup a few custom layouts (mainly for my work flow)... It's setup as evaluation copy because I'll often setup friends with it who express interest in Reaper - you'd have to enter your registration... I could put it up on file host and post link - but - I'm not sure if that's alright with Cockos or the developers of the themes used in it. That said, I'd have to wait to hear from Cockos and other senior members here before I'd consider dropping a link to it publicly.

It would be much better to share your layouts (with instructions on how to add them/set them up), and not the entire Reaper program.

[Sarasota_FOH]

Originally Posted by JamesPeters

It would be much better to share your layouts (with instructions on how to add them/set them up), and not the entire Reaper program.

That's what I thought, didn't want to get into any trouble or tick off anyone...

Thanks for the input James, much appreciated.

[JamesPeters]

No problem. I hope I didn't sound condescending. Other than distribution considerations (whether it's considered ok or not, and what you'd need to do to ensure it's ok), there are many different versions of Reaper which are updating regularly including for Mac, PC, Linux, ARM. If you provide your configuration in a way it can be added to any of those (instead of just your Windows portable install that's already configured), it makes it available to everyone. Also if you're just sharing your configuration (and not any executable files) you can't be accused of potentially passing along viruses/malware/spyware, if someone has a concern about it (whether your files become infected or not).

[Sarasota_FOH]

Originally Posted by JamesPeters

No problem. I hope I didn't sound condescending. Other than distribution considerations (whether it's considered ok or not, and what you'd need to do to ensure it's ok), there are many different versions of Reaper which are updating regularly including for Mac, PC, Linux, ARM. If you provide your configuration in a way it can be added to any of those (instead of just your Windows portable install that's already configured), it makes it available to everyone. Also if you're just sharing your configuration (and not any executable files) you can't be accused of potentially passing along viruses/malware/spyware, if someone has a concern about it (whether your files become infected or not).

Oh no, not condescending at all. Those were my concerns also (distribution/re-distribution issues and any other possible liabilities).

[martifingers]

Originally Posted by gkurtenbach

Yup. I was a professional user interface designer for 30 years. Many folks don't realize a large part of the perception of "easy to use" is what you are used to. So when you go to a new app, and it does not work the same as the old one, it's really frustrating.

True words indeed. However some apps are simply not well designed - have you seen this for instance?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKx1wnXClcI

As to Reaper my first reaction (many years ago now!) was that it seemed a bit clunky but certain features made me return to it and very quickly the penny dropped at least as regards basic set-up, tracking, mixing etc. My initial reaction had been definitely premature. With the major exception of the take system (sorry people, it just doesn't seem to fit with my style of working) it's been a case of discovering new features as and when needed. Often accompanied by a feeling of appreciation.